Randonax 2024 - Dave Morrison Excels!

Leader of West London Cycling, Dave Morrison always finds really interesting routes. For his Randonax on 26 September, he really excelled himself! I’d ridden in the general area but kept saying to myself “Never ridden that lane before, must include it in one of my routes”. The 70 km section from Wing, round to the north of Milton Keynes and then south to Winslow was a real gem: thank you, Dave!

This ride was organised under British Cycling, the national governing body. I paid my entry fee to British Cycling and also a smaller fee to Audax to ride it as a DIY event. I should add that you don’t need to be a member of British Cycling to enter; they just facilitate the organisation. I’m a member of Audax but not British Cycling.

An Early Start

I’ve ridden so many 200 km routes that I really ought to be able to take them in my stride. Nevertheless I am often a bit nervous when I am tackling a new route. This year (Audax year from 1 November 2023 to 31 October 2024) I’m aiming to repeat last year’s achievement of the Randonneur 10,000 award for riding 10,000 km in rides of at least 200 km. The weather was not kind early in 2024 and I’m just slightly behind with my schedule. I was watching a video from the Collective Escape this morning with Lael Wilcox discussing whether time was running out for round the world record attempts because of the threats of war and climate change; for me in mid to late 70s, time may be running out for different reasons. I really needed to complete this ride, my 40th 200 km ride of the year.

On the journey from home to the start I spotted a small group of women riders ahead, wearing what I took to be modest Muslim clothing. I caught up with them at the start in St Martin’s Church Hall, Ruislip. It was their first 200 km ride and they remarked that most of the climbing was in the first half. I assured them that the final climb over the Chilterns was not long or particularly difficult; in fact, I have to congratulate Dave on finding an easy route back for us along Rocky Lane just past Wendover, welcome at around 160 km.

An early start from St Martin's Church Hall

There were very few riders when I arrived. At the finish Dave told me that there were about 90 entries for the 200 km route, with 75 starting. I set off before the official start time as I was doing this ride as an Audax DIY where all that mattered to me was completing the route as planned.

Pitstone Cafe - Bad Mistake

The first control was at the Curiositea Rooms in the Memorial Hall at Pitstone. I think I was expecting to see the Pitstone windmill to alert me to the control and I stupidly missed it. It was not for another 5 or 6 km that I realised that I had not stopped to get my brevet card stamped. I decided not to go back because I really did not want to do the extra distance and getting the card stamped would not affect my completing the Audax DIY.

This was inconsiderate of me. As Dave pointed out at the finish, his two family helpers had a bit of a discussion with him when they could not mark me off as having checked in. They jointly decided that I could look after myself. I really should have sent Dave a text. If you find yourself in the same situation, do let the organiser know!

Mentmore

I always enjoy the gentle climb past Mentmore Park to the Stag pub and village, where it’s a left turn to follow the route. Dave had warned us that the surface here is very poor. That’s an understatement! Buckinghamshire is a large county with many roads; the Council’s solution to some of the worst is simply to erect a warning sign.

What I did notice was that there were several sections of really smooth tarmac which made for relatively fast, easy cycling. These were a welcome change from broken tarmac and the “heavy” sections of top dressing left for vehicles to compress, leaving stones on the edges of the road as a hazard for cyclists.

First of Many Beautiful Villages

Another 10 km of gentle riding took us to Soulbury, the first of many beautiful villages. I stopped to take a photo of the Church but could equally have taken several photos of cottages.

Newport Pagnell

Mention Newport Pagnell and I think of the motorway services, opened in 1959. That’s unfair partly because the services are a bit further on at Little Linford and also because I’d be ignoring the bridge over the River Great Ouse just before the town. It has a small but well preserved Toll House and a view across meadows to the backs of houses that on a fine day reminds me of the French countryside.

From the bridge opposite the Toll House.jpg

And on to Wolverton

Somewhere near Haversham (between Newport Pagnell and Wolverton) I met up briefly with another rider who told me that his riding buddy had suffered bad cramp and had taken a train back to London. “Just a hundred to go into the wind on my own”, he remarked as he rode off ahead of me. The wind had been in our favour on the first half of the ride but we now faced a head wind although not for the entire journey as the journey was not in a straight line.

The route passed Wolverton station and turned right to pass the handsome Old Bath House and Community Centre.

Old Wolverton Bath House and Community Centre

The photo just shows the far end of a long building which was very clearly part of the old railway infrastructure. The Old Bath House was built by the London and North Western Railway Company as a public bath house for the railway works and the town in 1890. Most of the local houses were built without bathrooms and a tin bath in front of the fire was the norm. I know from my own family history that for some people this persisted until shortly after the Second World War: what different times we live in.

Climbing Back over the Chilterns

I’d had a busy week before this ride and had not studied the route carefully. The routes I know back across the Chilterns are quite steep and I really wasn’t looking forward to a long hard climb as the day became warmer.

We joined the Lower Icknield Way (B489) just over 1 km north of the London Road at Aston Clinton. Having somewhat painful memories of my first attempts to ride along the Upper Icknield Way and through Wendover Woods to ascend the Chilterns, I was relieved when we turned to go through Weston Turville on to Wendover. There was a short section on the A 413 through HS2 works before we turned left on to Rocky Lane to climb past more HS2 works to ascend Chesham Lane. This was steep in places but not long; anyone who found it too hard at that stage of the ride could get off and walk because the climb was not long. Walking just uses different muscles: no harm, no shame.

Thanks, Dave. I will use Rocky Lane in future in preference to some of the other routes.

Back to Ruislip

My Garmin 1030 Plus showed 224 m elevation at the top of Rocky Lane. Ruislip lies at about 40 m elevation. OK, it’s not all downhill obviously but there’s more down than up. I finished in just over ten and a half hours. Slow but fast enough to ensure that there was plenty of food left. I sat at a table next to Alex Gold, the Ealing Bike Mechanic whom I value for his meticulous approach to looking after my bike mechanical needs. “We passed you a couple of times”, he said. “I thought I saw a flash of orange”, referring to my jersey. He’s young and strong. Let’s hope ageing is kind to him.

There were two groups of Muslim women, Dave told me. The younger women completed in good time; they were certainly riding faster than I was when I saw them riding on the West End Road up to the A40. The others finished valiantly in the dark. Good to see greater diversity in the cycling community. It’s hard for some groups; Rapha has recently released a collection of clothing specifically for Muslim women. Of course, Rapha is not the cheapest. As Dave once said to me, you only buy Rapha if it’s in a sale.

Finishing the Audax DIY

“if you didn’t go into Newport Pagnell Services, you would be short of 200 km”, said Dave. I told him that the route I had submitted to Audax had another 4 km on the end to ensure that I definitely had ridden 200 km. This section was on the way home, so no hardship.

Home, I downloaded the route from Garmin Connect, checked it against the route I had submitted and sent it to Andy Yates at Audax. He validated it and I now have 40 200 km rides completed since 1 Nov 2023. Just 10 more before the end of October to get my second Audax Randonneur 10,000 award. With determination, it’s possible. While it’s never too late, I’d advise anyone who wants the award to start a little earlier in life than I did.

But it’s never too late!