Sorry this is a bit later than normal. Flickr was broken at the
weekend so I couldn't upload any pictures of the ride.

===

RIDE REPORT
Tour Of Britain 09/09/07

Six riders met at the libray for the Tour of Britain Prologue being
held in Crystal Palace park.

Support races started at around 09:00, but the main prologue wasn't
due to start till 15:00.

We headed off in the opposite direction to the route we usually take
to Crystal Palace, with our first stop of the day at the Horniman
museum for breakfast.

The group rode up onto Streatham Common and then headed towards
Dulwich. The leader was trying to avoid Crystal Palace park and took
the group up a private road anticipating there
being access onto Low Cross Wood Lane. After a few minutes of looking
about! He found the path. A sign would of been helpful. I get the
impression the locals don't like to advertise the path
being there. Low Cross Wood Lane is a beautiful but steep path that
leads you onto Crescent Wood Road. Once through the Victorian kissing
gate we admired the lovely old lodges along there.

The sun was shining brightly when we got to the Horniman museum and we
sat outside at a table on the lawn. Another bonus was that the cafe
was deserted! As well as grabbing breakfast, some of the group got
some take away for the park.

When we left the museum we doubled back on ourselves and once opposite
Crescent Wood Road we cut through Sydenham Hill Estate to the
beautiful Sydenham Wells Park.

From the park it was a very short ride to Crystal Palace Park itself.
We entered the park at the
entrance very near to the concert bowl. Part of the cycle track was
right by the entrance, and as we crossed over it to get into the
centre of the park the group were given hats by the sponsors.

It appears that the sponsors anticipated a bigger turnout as by the
end of the day just about everyone had about three hats each!

The group headed off to find the dinosaurs. On the way one of our
group bumped into his friends from Lewisham cyclists. Cycling is not
allowed on the path around the dinosaurs which was just as well seeing
that the leader had been riding on a flat rear tyre for the last mile
or so!
The dinosaurs looked as though they needed a bit of tlc, but if you've
never been to see them before are still worth a visit.

The group then headed off to the main start /finish straight directly
in front of the remains of the
Crystal Palace. We watched most of the London GP, which was won by
Malcom Elliot.
Directly behind us was a mountain bike stunt team, which did a couple
of shows through the afternoon. The day belonged to Britains very own
Mark Cavendish from T-Mobile.

Those guys who got T-Mobile hats at the Tour de France Prologue should
keep hold of them now that South Londons very own, Bradley Wiggins has
signed for them for 2008!

15 Miles. Out for 7.5 hours. No pix of this ride.
Report by Ross

===

CTC LONG COUNTRY LANES RIDE

No reports back but quite a few PHC riders on the ride. In fact, we
out-numbered the CTC riders! Have a look at the pix on Flickr at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pollardshillcyclists/sets/72157601962068803
or
http://tinyurl.com/27hu9t

===

LONDON FREEWHEEL

As the amount of people signed up nears 30,000, we may need some help
with getting our ride to Clapham as London Cycling Campaign are
directing people towards us. If you're going, can let let me know. I
want to get an idea of numbers and who's going to be there. Just hit
reply to this email.

===

NEXT WEEK

The theme of next week's ride is the 30th Anniversary of the death of
Marc Bolan, the 70s pop star. However, if you don't like T-Rex or have
never heard of him, it's not a problem as this is a nice simple ride
up the Wandle to the Thames and cutting across to Barnes. We will
visit the Bolan memorial and it promises to be quite busy there but
afterwards we'll decamp to a pub near the ponds on Barnes Common.
Don't expect the leader to be an expert on Marc Bolan - there'll be no
speeches or trivia. However, if there are any Bolan experts out there,
feel free to share that with those interested! 9:30 at the library.
Details on the website.

Mark
PHC Co-ordinator
07711 688189

http://www.pollardshillcyclists.org.uk