To Waterloo Bridge! …on Friday evening for a completely random gathering of like-minded cycling folk, who all individually had the idea of a celebratory bicycle ride around our city to start the weekend.
Fancy that.
Back in the day and the February Critical Mass was often the most brutal. The January New Year enthusiasm had dwindled, leaving the coldest, darkest Mass of the year an endurance. Numbers often failed to reach three figures.
But woh!
February 2016, and the Waterloo Bridge huddle on Friday evening was HUGE.
Police officers always make a fool of themselves when they try and estimate these numbers. And so I’m not even going to try and attempt this.
Never mind the length, feel the love, etc.
Ooh.
That feels VERY nice.
The Mass started to slowly snake its way past the BFI, and then a surprise left hand turn towards along Upper Ground and out towards Blackfriars.
A bit of a hold up took place at what has historically been a bloody dangerous bridge for cyclists. The roadworks for the *ahem* segregated cycle lane led to a bottleneck at Blackfriars.
Whoops.
And then it was the old Farringdon work commute for me, up past the Liberty of Saffron Hill, past the old Graun building, and then back down once again along Gray’s Inn Road.
It felt like a memorial ride for previous employment posts that I have loved, and lost.
But this was no time for the woes of the working week. It was a Friday evening, and Critical Mass was in the mood for some fun.
I’m not entirely sure why, but this was one of the most GRIN inducing rides that I have enjoyed in a long time.
It may have had something to do with the bloke on a bike with a bong.
But that wasn’t for me.
Nope.
Possibly it was the BONKERS Mass sound system that many of us attached ourselves to having crossed the Millennium Bridge, and circled the Tate Modern for a few laps.
Yeah, yeah - the usual techno bollocks was doing the rounds. But then out of nowhere came a young fella on a sit up and beg bicycle, blasting out Come on Eileen.
Oh joy!
A very Critical Mass like mash up then took place, with a nearby sound system firing up Janet Kay and some Lover’s Rock.
When in Rome / South London, etc.
Riding my bicycle, #Dexys on the sound system, the aroma of the Old Father at Blackfriars. I am feeling rather giddy #CriticalMass Ldn
— Jason_Cobb (@Jason_Cobb) February 26, 2016
The combination of the JOYS of pedal power, Dexy’s and the stench coming out of the banks of the Old Father, all led to me feeling slightly giddy for the remainder of the ride.
Or maybe that was just the effect of the bicycle bong boy?
We headed back across to Waterloo, and crossed the river once again, through St. Clement Danes and on to St Giles.
The West End was an odd mix of late night shops packing up for the evening, and the Friday night party crowd coming out to play.
Whose streets? Our streets, etc. Um, yeah #CriticalMass Ldn pic.twitter.com/4mB2RrEltr
— Jason_Cobb (@Jason_Cobb) February 26, 2016
The traditional Critical Mass battle cry took place at Oxford Circus. Thankfully we didn’t linger for too long. It was too bloody cold to stand around all evening.
We ended up at Tyburn for some gallows humour at Marble Arch. The Mass stocked up at the nearby Sainsbury’s.
My man with the BONKERS sound system has blissfully played out his setlist of Bryan Adams, Toto and even Abba. I took this as my cue to head back to South London.
I was still GRINNING, and a little surprised to see that a loop of 27km has been completed in total.
Still we ride.