London to Brighton Bike Ride

Sunday saw Tom and I (and a couple of friends) complete the London to Brighton bike ride in aid of the British Heart Foundation. This was my second time on the UKs largest bike event, and it was Tom’s first. We caught the train up to Waterloo, then rode the three or four miles to the start on Clapham Common. The weather was perfect for cycling, not too hot, not windy and the atmosphere was pretty friendly.

The riders were a real mix of hard core cyclists for whom the 54 mile trek to Brighton was just a warm up, through to charity riders for whom it would be a real challenge. With so many cyclists, the going is always a little slow. However, this year was pretty bad. We ran in to at least 5 spots (mostly hills) where we had to get off and walk as people were queuing up the hill. The event organisers would have done well to have put marshals at the bottom of these hills reminding people walking to keep left and give room to those who wanted to ride up. These delays served to slow the pace down for everybody and that was a good thing as it meant people being forced to take breaks, giving the less well prepared a chance of making the finish.

I saw a few more accidents than last year – only one looked serious though – and there were plenty of people in fancy dress or on unusual machines. I particularly admired the unicyclist, the couple on the back to back tandem, and the people on roller blades!

Once again I managed to conquer Ditchling Beacon, where from the top riders can catch their first glimpse of the sea. And by popular demand, I did of course wear the full bright-orange lycra of the Euskaltel Euskadi cycle team, which drew quite a lot of comments. Maybe not for the right reasons though !!!!

We all made it safely to Brighton - a great achievement for Tom who isn’t a regular cyclist. All in all, a good day out and I was able to raise over £200 in support of the BHF thanks to all those people who sponsored me.

I’m now preparing for the London to Southend bike ride on 19 July, but I intend to ride to the start and then ride home afterwards, which will make it a round trip of about 100 miles. Wish me luck! And if you want to join me, let me know.

Sorrento

Just come back from a week in Sorrento on the Amalfi Coast. This was my first trip there. It’s quite a place – not as big as I expected – but very friendly. The holiday got off to an awful start when we queued 4 hours to check in with Thomson Airways. Their computer systems were down right across the country. Everyone was very patient – very British in fact – but I find it astonishing that a company the size of Thomson has no resilience or back up in their systems . As a result we didn’t arrive at our hotel until around midnight – long after the restaurant had closed. However, the hotel had kindly prepared a cold room service meal for our arrival, which was both very thoughtful, and very good. The hotel was the Hilton Sorrento Palace and whilst it was very nice and in a terrific, commanding spot high up the cliff on the outskirts of town, it was very American (glass and concrete) and really didn’t blend in with the style of the local architecture.

I have high standards when it comes to hotels, so it is disappointing to report that the hotel restaurant ran out of two out of three main courses on Sunday night – and it then took an hour to serve the remaining main course. Other than that, the service was excellent. There were no English speaking channels on the in-room tv except CNN and Bloomberg and internet access was incredibly expensive – 17 Euro per day for wif-fi or 35 cents a minute in the business centre. When will these places learn that these services are becoming an increasingly important part of the regular traveller’s requirement?

We experienced a couple of rainy (but warm) days, which gave us plenty of scope to people watch. What is it about Canadians and fashion sense? Other than that, we did a lot of lying in the sun, reading (Bill Bryson’s ‘The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid), and generally relaxing. We did a tour of the stunning coast line, but unfortunately didn’t manage to get to Pompeii. That will be next time.

Coming back, I was very amused by the check in procedures at Naples. We were left waiting on the coach for 90 minutes outside the airport and only allowed in shortly before our flight was due to depart. All of which meant we marched straight through check in, security, passport control and straight onto the flight. No time for shopping. These days, when airports depend up tourists spending, it was odd we were not offered the opportunity to get rid of our few remaining Euros! Their loss.

All in all, I'd recommend Sorrento if you want a friendly resort, with plenty of historical sites and good weather. Just bear in mind it will take well over an hour from Naples airport on a very busy road - and that's without hold ups.

Great Kent Bike Ride

I spent a terrific few hours this morning completing the Great Kent Bike Ride in aid of the Canterbury Oast Trust. It was a beautiful morning when I left home, but by the time I got the start line in Ashford it was overcast and had been raining quite heavily. This meant the roads were wet (very wet in places) - normally not a problem, but yesterday I removed the knackered mudguards on my bike following the promise of good weather. So, for the first hour I suffered a lot of spray, however, it was warm and there was no wind to speak of - making the cycling much easier.

I opted for the longer 60 miles route, which was mostly on very quite Kent country roads, through villages with great names such as Shadoxhurst and Wittersham. The sun duly came out, making the ride very pleasant indeed. With only one real hill to test riders, stunning scenery, a friendly atmosphere and not an insane number of riders, this is definitely on the calendar for next year.

You can find the details of my route and time here.