Healthy Ride Report, 1 Feb 2020

Forecast of grey morning proved quite wrong – most of the time the sun was out. Relatively mild, too, but a strong wind made it feel nearly like February. 13 riders set off from Dulwich Park (a 14th joined later) and rode up Turney Road and along Rosendale Rd. At the South Circular did a 2 stage right turn. At this junction there are road marking for such a turn. Left this busy road after 150m and cut through to Norwood Rd. Here no right turn was marked, but we did one just the same. Some riders were a bit puzzled by these 2-stage turns and feel they it would help if they were clearly signed. Will try to find time to put some info about this manouevre on the Healthyrider site. But I hope some riders will find, like me, that it is a safe way of making a right turn in situations where traffic is heavy and the junction has space.

From Norwood Rd turned into Leigham Vale, then across to Valley Rd and bingo were at Streatham Common. Did not take the path down to the west corner of the Common as it is narrow and the option to move on to the grass to avoid pedestrians was not available as the ground was very soft. All the riders managed the marked upward slope and we arrived at the Cafe at 10.45. So everyone was rewarded with a 15 miute coffee break.

Rode on up the Common to the crossing to Leigham Court Rd, then a back street route down to Norwood Park. Crossed to the Skatepark then turned right on to the path that runs steeply down towards Gypsy Rd. Paused near the top of this path as the views were impressive. You get the entire sweep from east of Canary Warf nearly to Vauxhall. Visibility was good. There are also views between the trees of Dawsons Heights and, of course, the Crystal Palace mast.

From Gipsy Rd along to the Paxton Roundabout and down Alleyn Park. At the South Circular used the bicycle path on the south side and the crossing to College Rd. This route usually works well and avoids the tricky right turn into Gallery Rd. By bad luck, though, something up the road must have just finished as we met many small children and their parents and pushchairs which rather slowed progress. Nevertheless, we were well ahead of time so peddled past Dulwich Park and round to the Herne Hill Velodrome for a look at the action. As usual the velodrom was a busy place with loads of riders on the track endlessly lapping. As someone said, makes you quite dizzy watching! There were the usual small children learning to ride in the central area and the mountain bikers out the back. As often happens, one of the track club coaches came over and chatted to us and explained some of the action (and pointed out that they do beginners sessions all the time for a very modest fee).

Eventually back into Dulwich Park. The sun was still out and we were all a bit healthier. Route at http://tiny.cc/lw508y, .gpx file below.

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