On Sunday a group of us met up in London to ride 100km as part of Rapha's Women's 100 challenge. The challenge was to encourage women to ride 100km in a single ride all on the same day and thousands of women took part with 1,716 participants on Strava alone.
It was going to be an early start so as I woke at 6am on Sunday morning I checked the event page and saw photos from complete rides already from women in the Southern Hemisphere. It was fantastic to see groups of women coming together all around the world. But I had to get on and do our ride so after getting a cup of coffee and bowl of porridge down I set off to meet a friend then down to the meet-point.
The roads were lovely and empty on the way to Dulwich Park, where we were meeting, although I noticed a haze of pollution in shafts of light coming through the trees in the early morning sun. Made me realise how polluted London is and how it'd be nice to get out and get some fresh air. Soon though we were at the meeting point, applying more suncream and heading off on our route, planned by Hannah who'd actually recced the ride the weekend before; well above the call of duty!
Heading out of London we joined the country roads forming part of the Dulwich Paragon club route, stopping at the southerly point near Titsey Hill to look back at London in the early morning sun. A snack and back on the road heading east we enjoyed a long descent until we stopped at a small town for some more water; it was already getting very hot! We continued on to our lunch stop in West Malling where I enjoyed probably the nicest iced black coffee I've ever had—although this could be something to do with the heat we were slogging through.
Back on the road after lunch we headed through Aylesford we carried on to Detling and on to the Pilgrim's Way with quite a few good climb sections on the way! Although we were still making good progress we had a brief stop at The Black Horse Inn in Thurnham. This turned out to be a really good idea as I laid in the shade on the cool concrete for a while and let my body cool down a bit. I was starting to feel like I was suffering from the heat (I'm better in the cold) so it was good to be able to cool down. In fact while riding it was so hot that I was often pouring water from my bidon down the back of my neck to cool down. It was bliss, I tell you!
After a short break we continued on towards the coast and made really good progress on some beautiful roads, skirting wafting fields of corn and through green tunnels formed by trees leaning over to touch each other over the single-lane road. Soon we were in Kent's fruit growing area and other than getting bitten by a yapping farm dog (though it just bit my shoe) it was a beautiful ride towards our final destination. The last 30 or so kiliometers I was just dreaming of a large portion of chips from a chippie when we got there but occasionally my attention would be drawn to the most beautiful smell of strawberries, hanging in the air, thick and sweet. It's such a shame, I thought, that drivers don't smell this.
Soon enough the roadsides started to get a bit more dune-like and sandy and suddenly we reached the sea wall and could see the sea! A quick photo and we pressed on to Whitstable where we arrived, pushing our bicycles across the pebbly beach to sit down and enjoy the beautiful setting.
A quick trip to the high street and I had my chips and mushy peas.
Enjoying a drink on the beach we chatted until it was time to catch our train back, slightly pink from the sun, tired and really happy.
- Total moving time: 5:26:47
- Distance: 124.0km
- Climbed: 1,074m
