Dunwich Dynamo

Location: London Fields East Side, London, UK

A night ride like this was never going to be easy. I woke up at the usual time on Saturday, had a fairly relaxing morning of preparation, and set off for London shortly after 1pm. It was a bit tiring heading into a cross-headwind, but I arrived at London Fields in Hackney around 21:15 with a bottle-ful of water and a few snacks left. There were hardly any riders around by then, so I set straight off and filled my thermos flask with tea at a friendly cafe a few miles in.

It took a few miles before I was steadily catching and passing many riders, but from around 20 miles onwards it was an almost constant stream - and I never lost sight of a tail-light. There were a few pubs along the route that were absolutely heaving with cyclists, but I kept rolling on. I did stop a couple of times - at around 40 miles when I'd run out of water, and at around 95 miles when I'd run out of coffee. It was amazing how many folks had set up refreshment stands, and this certainly took the stress out of getting dehydrated or hungry.

The weather was particularly kind; we had a nice tailwind the whole way, the full moon was bright in a clear sky, and temperatures only dropped to around 8 degrees; chilly but not cold. I was ok in fingerless mitts, regular cycling shorts, baselayer, jersey and gilet. I had a rain jacket just in case it did rain or get too cold, but only used it when I got to the beach and covered it over my legs whilst I dozed for around an hour.

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