The Beacon Message Board

Well what a grand day out that was...weather was just perfect for a closed-road blast through London, and the cats and dogs team represented Beacon in fine fashion.

The numbers: the official times for both Beacon teams was 4:43:51 or so, which is over 21mph including stops, so we can claim an honourable draw, and my calculations mean that we finished 33rd and 34th out of 380 team entries, well within the top 10%

The non-numbers: warm, safe ride and great company for the whole weekend, from a filling Italian meal on the Saturday night in salubrious Mile End, cycling up Box Hill in the big ring, to chilling out in Green Park for an hour after the ride. Thanks to all the cats and dogs for putting up with my nagging emails and big thanks to Alistair for driving down and the 17 cans of diet coke stashed in every orifice of his car.

I hope other Beacon guys and gals enjoyed their day equally...post your highlights here.

Once again, I recommend this ride next year if you haven't done it before or even if you have, entries for 2016 open next Monday 10th August!

WorcsPhil wrote: and my calculations mean that we finished 33rd and 34th out of 380 team entries, well within the top 10%

Not good enough. Do better next time.

Congratulations, everybody.

I saw one other Beacon member, I shouted hello but he might have thought me a bit odd as I wasn't in club colours. Managed to raise around £900 for The Alzheimer's Society and rattled round in 4:49:19. I was pretty chuffed with that as was suffering from cramps for the last 30 miles.

Well done all Beacon participants, some impressive times there.

I was pleased to do it in good weather and get the full route. Box Hill is magnificent with great views. But I was in the massive traffic jam on Leith Hill lost an hour or so and we then had to walk it under police supervision. A rider ahead had a heart attack alas. Air Ambulance came but he couldn't be revived.

Cats and Dogs times were amazing. My time wasn't even 100 in 8 standard. Looks a bit better on Strava with an average of 16.1

I saw at least 3 other riders down with ambulances in attendance. Much as I enjoyed the closed roads I think I'll stick to Audaxes in future.

Also had a good time on the Free Cycle on Saturday closed roads in central London visiting CTC volunteers and their Dr Bike stands.

A grand day out...highlights for me were cycling through London on traffic free roads and the support along the route - fantastic! The weather helped of course and there was a real 'festival' atmosphere at the finish zone in Green Park.

I was cycling in Beacon colours, but wasn't aware of anyone who gave me a shout out (except from the side of the road to the 'Italian Man' ) - sorry if it was me Colin...my overall time was 5:01:46 (started at 07:39). I did see Omar on the route and rode with him on and off for sections between Newlands Corner and Box Hill.

Phil - is there a way of sorting the results, or did you manually calculate the team positions?? Thanks for sorting the restaurant...was good to meet up with everyone on Saturday.

Hi Matt, good to see you on Saturday...As for my team position estimate, I did do it manually, but eventually someone cleverer than me prepares a sortable EXCEL version of the results...and here it is:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... =516851539

analyse to your heart's content.