Pedal Power

I have been enjoying the cycling. What was it I said about the lovely weather?? Of course I knew at the time – shouldn’t have tempted fate like that. It was probably all down to me that the Indian Premier League chose South Africa instead – weather too unreliable in England? Er, yes. Anyway after a week of early spring loveliness, we had gale-force winds last week! Now it's "changeable" (read, "windy"). I am remembering what I used to hate about cycling in Oxford – wind. All those wind tunnels between the colleges. Well, this time I cycle over one common, where the wind does occasionally literally knock you sideways, and through one park where enormous whooshing plane trees seem to create their own supplementary wind microclimate. But it’s all good for the fitness, I tell myself.

Since I was last cycling - early last summer - they have finally resurfaced the cycle path across Clapham Common, which makes life a lot easier! There are a few other roads I have to go along which are still riddled (what a good word that is, and under-used!) with pot-holes - as I am juddering along over them I always think "I must write to the Council about this", and then always forget by the time I've turned the corner.

I had forgotten how enormous the cars are now. This was the main difference I noted with Oxford, when I started cycling in London - the cars were all bigger. I don't just think it was being in The Big Smoke - when I was in Oxford, SUVs hadn't been invented, and a bloody good thing too. "Chelsea tractors" they're called - well, they have them in Clapham too! (I think some of them actually are tractors!) There is absolutely no reason that I can see to drive one of these gigantic cars in London - apart, that is, from an ostentatious display of wealth. They take up so much room, that it can't make your life any easier if you drive one of these - how hard must it be to find a parking space? My biggest gripe with them is that they are too wide to leave you any passing space, and their drivers always seem to want to play 'chicken' with cyclists - driving right down the centre of the road (to leave enough space between them and the parked cars on either side).

Still, some good moments – I'd forgotten that when I turn the corner onto Silverthorne Road, when I am at the highest point of my cycle, I can see on the dome of my museum on the horizon: that's always a pretty nice moment, knowing that I'll be cycling to the horizon. Also, coming up on Holy Trinity Church on Clapham Common the other day – scene of that fateful marriage in Atonement (and what a good book that was!) – just as the bells were tolling at the end of Mass… Today someone was flying a kite on the Common – a pretty big one, and he was standing on a little wheeled trolley, and it was pulling him back and forth across the grass! I thought he might take off! The blossom is out everywhere, and in Battersea Park they have been fertilising, so there is quite a pungent but somehow really refreshing smell of manure!

This evening I have mapped my ride with the aptly-named mapmyride.com – though I had once worked out a general route with the Transport for London journey planner, I was curious to know how far I actually cycle to work, now that I’ve refined my route. It’s just over 6 miles, one way! 12 miles a day – not bad! If you’re interested, you should be able to get to the route map I created by clicking the button below.



It's not the fastest way I could go - because of not being the world's most confident cyclist just yet, I decided to mainly go through parks and residential roads, though there are a few busy (and occasionally slightly hairy) moments. I tried a few different routes when I started cycling and this turned out to be the nicest one. I like watching the world go by, as I go by - you notice little things like the social and geographic divide between Clapham and Brixton, through such things as the grocery delivery vans you pass along the way - Tescos in Brixton (who deliver weekly to us as well!), Ocado in Clapham - of course!!