Today was supposed to be the first day that I cycle all the way home. However due to a planned strike on all tube lines over the next 2 days I decided to postpone that till next week and instead cycle from and to Waterloo for the next 2 days.
Sam suggested a different route to Tower Bridge. This avoids all the uncomfortable cobbles on the other route and is about half a mile shorter I think. There is one point on this route where you have to cycle up a very steep path to a bridge over a road tunnel entrance. Sam had said that I would probably have to walk up so of course I was determined to cycle up!
I was changing down to my lowest ratio and was really pushing on the pedals at the same time when my chain broke! Not a good situation to be in!
I looked up the nearest Evans Cycles (thanks to my G1 which I am now writing this with on the train) which was back at Canary Wharf! I had already cycled a mile so had to walk all the way back.
Evans were very good and fixed the chain for nothing (as I would expect as the bike is only a few weeks old). It had not actually broken nut had just come apart if you see what I mean.
When the bike was fixed I set off again at about 5:00. This meant that I would not be able to take the bike home on the train with me which I don't like but so be it. The ride went pretty well. The new route is mostly cycle lanes to Tower Bridge. They are much better than cobbles but still surprisingly bumpy. Tower Bridge was really busy but thankfully there were a load of other cyclists waiting at the lights who I could follow. I was pretty pleased that I could keep up with the other cyclists and traffic at over 13 MPH up and over the bridge.
On that side of the bridge it's difficult to stop to go down the steps onto the Thames path so I cycled straight on then right onto Tooley street. This meant that I got over the bridge with no steps at all which was a definite bonus! I was able to re-join the Thames path fairly quickly.
There were still a lot of pedestrians about but not nearly as many as last week as the weather isn't quite as sunny. I'll have to start looking at other routes from Tower bridge to Waterloo to avoid this bit.
I felt really good cycling today, I do really enjoy it. My legs are starting to feel much stronger. On the flat I am now getting up to 4th gear and managing 14 - 15 MPH. I think I'm secretly going to enjoy cycling into work tomorrow when the strike is on thinking of everyone else struggling in on a hellish journey, don't tell anyone I told you though ;)
My route today is here. It did take me longer than before but there were a few stops where I had to look at the map to see where I was going. I’ll have to see how long this takes tomorrow when I know which way I am going.
Figures below are estimated as my computer wasn’t working for the first half mile of the journey.
Time: 40:00 Average: 9.5 Max: 17.1 Distance: 5.4 kCal: 96.7
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