Sorry about the slight delay this week in getting the email out.
Here's Jill's report of Sunday's ride and some info about next week.

===

RIDE REPORT
Marc Bolan Memorial Ride 16/09/07

16 cyclists (12 women / 4 men) were at Pollards Hill for the Marc
Bolan ride. We set off for the Wandle Trail via Figges Marsh, making
good time for a mid morning break at Wimbledon Park, where another
cyclist joined us. That made 5 men!

We rode back onto the Wandle Trail through King George's park and
along to Wandsworth linking up with the Thames Path on the way to
Putney. There's a good cut-through to Barnes which meant we arrived at
the Sun pub before 12 noon. Instead of going straight in, we rode to
the Marc Bolan memorial where about 20 people were already gathered.
It's on a busy road so parking the bikes in the road at the bottom of
the steps, leading to Marc's statue and plaque, proved the safest
option.

We then went back to the Sun pub for lunch. Advice: be careful about
choice of food e.g. thumbs up for 'chicken caesar salad' but thumbs
down for 'sausages and mash' - the mash being very 'lumpy'. Also be
careful about the 'vegetarian sausages' (yuck!) and lumpy mash with
?Meat gravy!

After lunch, we crossed Barnes common using a path that passed the
cricket club and then went alongside the railway line to Rocks Lane.
Here, the leader made a right turn too soon to cross over the South
Circular - so instead of going up quiet but unsurfaced Putney Park
Lane we went up Roehampton Lane and then re-joined the cycle route
across Putney Heath to Wimbledon Common.

On the common, the recent dry weather meant the official cycle path
was very dry, stony and dusty ('horrible', "oh no" - 2 comments) - so
we diverted off onto a "No Cycling" path - keeping virtually on the
grass and then rejoining the main road to go down Wimbledon Hill to
drop off 2 riders at the Station - but they had already left the ride!

Those of us left decided to make for Morden Hall Park for tea; the
customer comment card, given out at the National Trust café, received
the comment 'too expensive here'. Still, Morden Hall Park looked
lovely and we had a decent break whilst the 2nd puncture of the day
was repaired. Let's hear it for our regular puncture repairer who
always helps with these things!

The ride home followed the Cycle quest route before riders started to
disperse. Out for 7 hours - 28 miles. No pix so far but instead, there
are some of Marc Bolan on the BBC website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6988837.stm

Note: Marc Bolan was a pop star in the 70s. For details on his death:
http://tinyurl.com/nixl

===

FREEWHEEL

Next weekend's Hovis Freewheel event is 'sold out'. Over 38000 people
have registered to take part in the first ever London cycling event
that allows ordinary people to ride on traffic-free streets. If you
didn't register, don't despair - no one will stop you joining in the
fun.

If it all goes to plan, perhaps London will soon be able to rival the
weekly Ciclovia in Bogota, Columbia. Whilst that also started as 7
miles of closed streets, it has now grown to 70 miles of traffic-free
roads for cyclists, skateboarders, roller bladers and pedestrians.
Read about it here:

http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/06/06/ciclovia-bogota

or see a map of the closed streets to give you an idea of the scale here:

http://tinyurl.com/2koqz4

Our plan is to leave the library at 9:30am and ride to the Clapham
Common 'hub' for a morning stop. We will then make our own way to St
James Park to ride the closed roads. That should mean we get to enjoy
the route before the masses descend. After a lap of the circuit, we'll
reconvene in St James Park to check out the cycling festival and find
some lunch. Then we'll ride back via Clapham Common.

If you haven't already let me know that you're going, please do drop
me a line by hitting reply to this mail. It will help with the
organisation.

Mark
PHC Co-ordinator
07711 688189

http://www.pollardshillcyclists.org.uk