And so after the working party last weekend in SE24, early Saturday morning and we were ready to roll out for another season of outdoor track cycling at Herne Hill Velo.
Chapeau!
I’ve got big plans for this season: to try and finish it. It’s a hell of a long stretch from the Ides of March, all the way through until the autumnal days of October.
In-between there will no doubt be days when the weather gets the better of us, and with larger plans looming elsewhere come the end of summer, best to make hay ‘n all that.
If you have told the fine folk at VCL three weeks ago that we would be rolling out in rotation on Saturday morning, you would have been suspected of having taken a particularly bad knock to the head without wearing a bicycle helmet.
But woh – where did that cold snap go? Bright blue South London skies awaited my arrival at Herne Hill. The track looked splendid following the spring clean last week.
I really think the new racing schedule is going to work well this season. 9-10 am for the juniors removes the novices from bunching with the kids, as well as keeping the track clear for the intermediates only at 10am.
Ah yes, the intermediates. This is the banding of which I’m supposed to belong in. Technically a veteran, but still hanging on to hopes of Herne Hill glory.
Shortly after 10am, I cleated my ride, and rolled out nervously around the first bank. It was like I had never been away. The first breakaway group got my heart rate up. By the second and I could feel the blood pumping through every vein in my body. This is what it’s all about. It’s got to be better than the weekly supermarket shop on a Saturday morning.
Holding back the novice riders until after the intermediates, also allows VCL to experiment with the schedule. Bumps and Lumps was a new discipline for me, and one which I found rather hairy.
You follow the lead rider in a single string, as a route up and down is weaved all the way around the historic Herne Hill track. The thinking is to improve your awareness and handling abilities. The reality for me was that I almost ended up with a bump and a lump.
Rotation finished the first session of the season – a ride of stamina as the pace picks up with each lap. This was more like it, although I bonked as the pelaton broke away for a sprint finish.
But it’s early days down in SE24. I’ve got seven months in which to refine my track riding skills. There is much work to do.
It’s surprising how smooth the transition from road racing to the track is. You soon remember the small things, such as the idiosyncratic track hand signals, or the need to stick with the pack, else suffer the fate of bonking alone on the banks.
Come midday, and I de-cleated and hit the shakes. From my shoulders down to my fingernails, my arm and hands were in freefall. The cycle back to Sunny Stockwell on the Moulton had a fair share of bumps and lumps along the way.
A decent day of work down at Herne Hill velodrome on Saturday. With the new track season optimistically scheduled to role out of SE24 next weekend, there was no shortage of tasks for the VCL working party to complete this weekend.
The main focus of course was upon the track. An outdoor velo is essentially a very large garden, with a rather steep concrete path running around it. Nature doesn’t respect track etiquette, and so our first job was to trim the overgrowing grass around the inner track.
Teamwork was the key here. We completed a circuit of the velo in probably about the same time my aching frame will manage once bike bound next weekend.
A quick tea break, and next up was the clearing of the Herne Hill leaves. The wonderful autumnal Ride of the Falling Leaves rolls out at Herne Hill, and it seems that the leaves from five months ago have remained all around the track.
I cleared three wheelbarrow loads, and started off our very own Herne Hill compost patch. Cycling and green fingers – it’s got a future.
But it wasn’t all about having a track ready to ride ahead of le grand roll out – you need bikes to ride as well. My mechanical skills probably weren’t quite up to scratch, but it was good to see a dedicated team of grease monkeys servicing the fleet of VCL owned track bikes.
Sadly there has been a break in at Herne Hill over the winter months. Sixteen club owned track bikes were stolen. Four of these were later recovered in a front garden at Burbage Road, suggesting that the bike thief scum took off with more than they could transport.
The wonderful people of VCL have invested in a new fleet of Fuji’s. These look pristine, and rather tempting to take out for a spin next weekend. Each bike had to be fully serviced, and then pumped up to 160 PSI max for that feel of complete track control.
And so shortly after lunchtime on Saturday, the VCL working party was complete. I’m very excited about the news season. It will probably be our last summer in South London before the Great Escape, and so I’m hopeful of making the most of Herne Hill.
A question mark hangs over the running of the track. The mysterious Dulwich Estate is now operating a yearly rolling lease with British Cycling, which in turn, leases out le velo to VCL.
With no long term control of the facility, British Cycling and VCL are unable to raise funds and invest in the much needed improvement of the infrastructure.
The fear is that the Dulwich Estate is happy to see Herne Hill deteriorate to such an extent that it becomes unsafe. Cycling is then moved out, and the leafy suburbs of Dulwich are prime for further property development.
Never underestimate the passion of a cyclist though. The working party on Saturday demonstrated the collective spirit within the South London cycling community. We will work together and promote cycling in South London, irrespective of the opposition.
The new VCL track calendar has seen some slight tweaks for this season. The early Saturday morning 9am – 10am session has been put aside for the kids; adults roll out at the slightly earlier time of 10am, and then novices can be inducted at midday.
Do come down to SE24 and experience track racing. It’s the purest form of cycling, and VCL is an incredibly friendly, welcoming and supportive club. Plus don’t forget the highlight of the Herne Hill calendar – the Good Friday meet on April 2nd.
The first cyclo cross of the new decade down at Herne Hill proved to be the perfect head clearer. Not that I was in need of a head clearer.
An early start some eighteen hours earlier meant that my personal high spirits had peaked sometime in the early hours of 2010. Which is why I didn’t race (plus the fact that I am a total girl when it comes to getting my bikes dirty.)
It’s truly wonderful that cyclo cross seems to have found a natural home down in SE24. Being an outdoor track, le velo is only available to race for eight months of the year. With the a sizable grass banked perimeter bordering Burbage Road, plus a little creativity cutting through the centre of the track, a first class cyclo cross course is now in operation for the winter months.
The New Year’s Day roll out was more of a social event than a serious fixture in the season. The big boys are racing around like mucky pups next week, and so Friday was the ideal warm up event ahead of the serious racing.
We arrived in time to see the start of the Madison. It’s an event that I don’t understand, the riders probably don’t understand, the race officials perhaps don’t understand and no doubt Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish still don’t entirely understand understand either.
The basic premise is for teams of two riders to take it in turns at putting the laps in. This partnership was perfect for father and sons, couples, and even brothers and sisters, to all get a dirty backside on the New Year Bank Holiday.
Ah yes, the mud: I’m told that it’s all part of the attraction of the discipline. I was reduced to putting a scented hankie over my nose when a cyclo cross kid wheeled his mud machine past my freshly polished Moulton.
The Herne Hill course soon started to cut up. With little mudguard action in place, the laundry bill looked expensive. No worries – riders could pick up a lycra bargain at the bonkers bicycling jumble sale, being staged at le velo car park. These too are also becoming firm favourites in the Herne Hill calendar.
As tradition dictates, the dawn of a New Year is a time to look ahead. The cyclo cross was a great place to catch up on all the VCL gossip, as the track enters the new year, still fenced in by the pathetic political manoeuvrings of both Southwark Council and the mysterious Dulwich Estate.
Tessa Jowell? She said that? Blimey. Kate Tally Hoey did what? Seriously? And as for Boris? Cripes (although we all knew that, anyway.)
With an athletic pairing taking the chequered flag in a time just under an hour, I was somewhat tempted to take part in cyclo cross. Twenty-four hours later, and following a rather muddy road race with the lovely Dulwich Paragon, and I felt that I wasn’t really missing out much on the brown pants lycra action.
Cyclo cross it seems is the new triathlon, which we all know is the new marathon. It’s the boom discipline within cycling, and it’s not hard to see why. Athletic ability doesn’t give you much advantage; nerves and technical handling are all important.
Legend has it that to be a bona fide @BrockwellLido Icicle, you have to swim in the waters of Lake Brockwell for 365 days of a calendar year, and on one of those days, forge a path for your fellow bathers by breaking the ice with your bare hands.
The urban myth became reality at midday on the winter solstice around the icy waters of SE24. Fresh water swimming enthusiasts gathering for the thirdannual midwinter swim were greeted by a glacier pool more suited to curling than front crawl.
The initiation of the old Brockwell Icicles Swimming Club was in serious doubt for a short while. What would it take to cancel the event, I asked the lovely Jeremy, Fusion’s man on the ground. “Ice so thick that we can’t break it,” came the reply.
A bit of Brockwell improvisation later, and the hidden talent of a stepladder as an icebreaker soon paved the way for the fools and the folly that followed.
Brockwell was bloody cold on those sad, final days of the summer season (yeah, right…) back at the end of October. The onset of the winter chill has seen the water temperature hover around freezing point. What were those crazy ladies thinking of, when they turned up to Brockwell Park with nothing but their bikinis?
I came prepared for the endurance. A wetsuit and a bright pink day glow swimming hat – if I got into trouble having hit an iceberg, I wanted to make sure that at least my head was still visible.
A pre-swim briefing and a consent form signed (alcohol in the past twenty-four hours? Not me, Sir…) and it was time to get stripped off. By this stage and my body and mind was already in another dimension. This is one of the highlights of the year for me. I couldn’t wait to re-enter the water of what has been my official summer home for the past fifteen years.
Much like those balmy (and slightly tepid) summer days, you’ve overcome the main mental obstacle by simply turning up. Once you are by the waters edge, then yep – yer gonna swim – or even splash and splutter around like a big girl wearing a skimpy bikini.
I launched myself into a frantic front crawl. My body had no reaction. My mind experienced a head rush that no comparison with illegal substances combined with carnal pleasure could possibly compare to. Now wouldn’t have been a good time to experiment with illegal substances and carnal pleasures.
It was when I made it to the centre of the pool that I first started to panic. My path was blocked by huge chunks of ice that had survived the earlier stepladder purge. I was isolated, with solid and not liquid around me.
Eeek.
With a pair of goggles to protect my eyelids from freezing over, I dived down deep below the beautiful blue waters of Lake Brockwell, and found a gap within the ice in which to emerge. Still no reaction from my torso, but I was grinning with a smile as wide as the gap in the ice itself.
I wanted more, but by now, my body was physically incapable of continued movement. My toes were starting to lock, and I could feel the sensation rapidly moving upwards. Time to get out, time for some TLC @TheLidoCafe.
Cripes – that felt absolutely fantastic. I could cycle away from SE24, take on board as many illegal substances, and indulge in all the carnal pleasures fit for a King, knowing that I had achieved something with my day; I had achieved something with my week and even with my year. Anything is possible now.
We swim outdoors because we can. It’s as simple as that. So can you. Why be held hostage inside a soulless, sweaty indoor environment? The heated (sort of) lido at London Fields is open all year, and is a good place to start. Tooting and the lovely South London Swimming Club should be your next progression.
This is not a loner, isolated individual activity either. Sure, you do the swim for yourself, but the sense of community around Brockwell continues to grow. These are the people I spend half my year with, and so meeting up during the winter months to catch up on all the gossip has got to be worth the ice experience in itself.
With a donation made to the nearby Wheels for Wellbeing charity (recently the victim of a shocking arson attack,) all that was then left for me was to pick up my Brockwell Icicles badge, designed by a number of local artists and commissioned specifically for the midwinter swim.
The Brockwell Icicles initiation is now firmly established on the calendar of lido events. Hitting gold / ice with a genuine frozen pool experience added to the ocassion. Four months and counting before the Best Day of the Year in South London…
It was said in jest, and with some amount of smug, self-interest. But as Tuttle continues to find a new permanent home, there is some justification for staging a weekly geeky meet up South of the river at everyone’s favourite cafe by the water.
I’m in no way suggesting that Tuttle should set up shop permanently by the waters of Lake Brockwell. The group is far too big for both the space, and the location. Any central Tuttle gathering needs to remain just that. Slipping out of the office for a cappuccino at the ICA on a Friday can be excused; trekking down to deepest South London and aresing about by the lido, probably wouldn’t go down too well with the boss.
But I do think that South London could support a weekly social media offline discussion. Transition Town Brixton has used the online tools to help roll out the Brixton £; the mighty Urban75 and its ever growing community is based South of the river, as are some of the best bloggers in the capital.
All of this is just thinking out aloud. Tuttle seems to just happen, but I appreciate that @LloydDavis has more or less it made it a full time going concern. Preparation behind the scenes is immense to facilitate the weekly conversation.
But if enough people are thinking along similar lines to me, then maybe we should make a move?
A few obvious questions need to be answered before Brockwell Lido Tuttle comes into being:
Would we be welcome? Um – best ask @theLidoCafe.
When should Lido Tuttle take place? Weekly? Monthly?
Would the @theLidoCafe WIFI support the demand? Haven’t pushed it to full capacity yet.
Would there be sufficient interest South of the river? Seek and you shall find. You can only criticise someone who has actually tried something.
Would the South London public transport network support the venue? Probably not. The Lido is a pain to get to via public transport. We’d be looking at walking or cycling, which would definitely limit the reach of the Tuttle crowd.
I think I’ll wait and see what direction, both geographically, and in terms of group dynamics, that the Tuttle crowd decides upon over the next week or so. I’m personally in favour of a North / South / East / West gathering, either in rotation, or as stand-alone sessions. A coming together of the clan, once a month, would also help this to work.
The South will rise – and drink coffee, and talk about online and offline networking, and enjoy the view form the lovely lido cafe – again…
Halloween, and a young man’s thoughts turn towards the witching hour down at Herne Hill. Events conspired for the fragrant mrs onionbagblogger and I to head south bound to SE24, for an afternoon and evening of freakish fun, in what can often be the forgotten corner of South London.
First up was the inaugural Herne Hill Expo [pdf] The rather fanciful name may be out of character for an area not usually known for its self-promotion. The geographical positioning of being trapped between the borders of Lambeth and Southwark makes Herne Hill something of an ostracised hermit within the local area.
Improving the local environment and putting in place tangible benefits for the community, is often at the whim of the rival political parties that divide and govern Herne Hill. It may not be quite an iron fist, but Lambeth Labour and the LibDems of Southwark don’t make for the best of bedfellows. Caught in the middle of course are the constituents.
The idea behind the Expo is to make a start at transforming this image. At its most crude level, the afternoon was seen as an opportunity for service providers (@lambeth_council) to engage with the electorate on a non-political platform. Good intentions, but how do you entice the locals out into the street for an afternoon of meet ‘n greet with some local politicians?
A visible campaign has built up around Herne Hill over recent weeks, spreading the message of The Expo. At the centre of this message has been the transformation of the Herne Hill tunnel from a dimly lit p*** alley at the side of the railway station, to become a public work of art that stimulates debate and awareness.
A couple of local artists have created a wordscape design, running from one end of the tunnel to the other. This has served as a stimulus for the main event on Saturday afternoon, the Herne Hill Hunt.
Organisers of The Expo identified early on that an activity had to be in place in order to get people to come out and participate. With much of Herne Hill being hidden, the treasure hunt was the perfect vehicle for letting people know that there’s much more to the area than being a political boundary borough.
My Treasure Hunting companion and I approached our Herne Hill afternoon rather late in the day, with the skies already beginning to bruise over SE24. The magnificent sight of a young couple cycling on a tandem, decked out in tweed and with a trail of tin cans and a Just Married sign on their back, convinced us that yep, there is much more to Herne Hill than simply traffic congestion.
We kept with the two wheels theme, and with the aid of an iPhone and a little help from following a young mother and child around on a bike, more or less managed to keep on course with the various checkpoints.
Our lack of Herne Hill knowledge was no hindrance – this was the whole point of the Hunt, to try and learn something new about the area. The clues were clever (‘look for a noble emporium‘ – Noble’s newsagents of course,) and in the time frame of just over an hour, we had traversed the triangle taking in Denmark Hill, Herne Hill and Half Moon Lane.
A brief stop off back at Expo HQ to hand in the forms, and then we headed across the Dulwich Road to the lovely @thelidocafe. Much like the Herne Hill Hunt, our timing wasn’t great. Too late for lunch, an hour or so early for the Halloween menu [pdf] put together by chef.
No worries, the Lido Cafe are an accommodating crowd; a delightful chorizo sausage served with fries, plus buttermilk squash ravioli for the lady, all washed down with some red wine and we were ready for stage three of the Herne Hill Halloween experience.
I was tempted to see if I could sneak out around the back the lido cafe for a cheeky, moonlit Halloween dip. But that would just be irresponsible, not to mention bloody freezing.
The final leg of the Herne Hill Halloween experience was le velo for the Muddy Hell cyclocross event. Cycling past Herne Hill station, and en route we noticed that The Expo party was in full swing. Well, it would be rude not to offer some support, wouldn’t it?
A salsa band was brightening up a rather damp evening in a corner of South London, pulling in a sizable crowd as well. The ingenious Indian Eye restaurant opposite was staging a projection of local images in the window. The lovely @mayoroflambeth was doing his civic thing, and local businesses had very kindly donated ample food servings and a steady supply of mulled wine. We stayed at the station for possibly slightly longer than was polite, enjoying the company, and the generous rounds of mulled wine.
And then finally, finally, sometime slightly before 7pm and we were velo bound. Cycling along Burbage Road and the shock was of all the Halloween activity. Things get slightly scary back at the SW8 base, but Sunny Stockwell this most certainly wasn’t. It seemed that every other house was decked out in Halloween decorations. The level of dedication was easily on par with the more traditional Christmas celebrations.
We dodged some trick or treaters, and then rolled up for Muddy Hell, the Halloween cylocross event at le velo, proudly staged by VCL and Rollapalooza.
Much like Herne Hill and South London earlier in the afternoon, cyclocross is often the Cinderella of cycling in SE24. Track riding rules, and rightfully so. But VCL also boasts a thriving junior cyclocross club.
There was a series of racers for juniors, women, men and vets. I think I fall somewhere in the sub-vet section, and so wisely left my set of wheels firmly locked up in the VCL club lock up.
Racing under lights added to the atmosphere. Most riders had made the effort with a Halloween meets lycra style of racing kit. This was matched with the crossover of messenger meets serious sportive competitors. Adding to the ambience was a DJ and a roller racing set up. If it hadn’t been for that fourth (or was it fifth?) mulled wine outside Herne Hill station, I would have been tempted to have a spin on the rollers myself.
The cyclocross course itself was something of a killer. Circumnavigating the perimeter of the track, and then crossing into the centre and with a huge ten-foot drop at one stage, I don’t think it was designed for my track bike. A bunny-hopping VCL rider played to the crowd, delighting the beer tent boys as he jumped over the hurdle after every lap.
The coming together of VCL and Rollapolooza shows what can be achieved from two quite diverse groups. The common theme is of course cycling – how each organisation goes about getting there are quite different. Herne Hill simply provided the perfect setting for a meeting of the clans.
And so some eight hours after setting off for the forgotten terrains of Herne Hill, we arrived back in Sunny Stockwell after an afternoon and evening of treasure hunting, poolside dining and floodlit cyclocross. I’ll have to remember not to forget about Hill Herne more often.
At least that’s what it said on p.74 on the recently published A Really Useful Guide to Services by @lambeth_council:
“In Lambeth there are four leisure centres, a community sports centre, and the Brockwell Lido. All accept the Lambeth REAL Plus card, giving generous discounts at all times.”
It’s complete twaddle of course. You need to take out membership with GLL for indoor swimming, and then a second separate membership with Fusion for the lido.
The infrastructure and freehold may be owned by @lambeth_council, but you have to pay twice for the public service. Plus please overlook the fact that the Lambeth REAL Plus card even uses the image of the lido as the main picture. You won’t gain entry flashing your REAL Plus card around the lido reception.
Having a unified membership scheme, allowing users to access the Lambeth GLL managed indoor pools and the Fusion managed lido, has been an issue that I have campaigned for since Lambeth Council first decided to pimp out leisure facilities to two different contractors.
It’s a question that I tire of asking at GLL user forums (next one 19th November, Clap’ham Leisure Centre) and at the BLU AGM. It seems that the poor Council leisure flunkey tires of answering the question, more than I tire of asking it. So I shall continue to ask it.
Initially I was told it was a “turnstile issue.” The swipe card used by the two separate leisure operators wasn’t compatible.
Ah, I see.
Upon my second time of asking, I was given the reply that the lido comes under Parks management, and not leisure.
Righty ho…
And then finally, at the BLU AGM earlier this month, the Council leisure flunkey confirmed that @lambeth_council couldn’t afford to operate a unified membership scheme; money is coming in from both GLL and Fusion – why pass on the benefits to the Council Tax payers?
That’s what happens when you decide to pimp out a public service to two rival organisations. The profit remains in house (although to be fair, Fusion are rather lovely) and the Council is freed from the day-to-day management of what can be a problematic service to provide.
Am I being victimised? Ha! Not really. The oldies are being ripped off by @lambeth_council as well. Free swimming for the over 60’s in Lambeth pools triumphs the Council’s website. That’s all pools apart from the lido.
I’m tempted to take along p.74 of the recently published A Really Useful Guide to Services by @lambeth_council to the final, final lido swim of the season on Saturday morning and make an arse of myself. But then it’s @lambeth_council that has got the problem (and the profits,) not me. Plus I’ll say it again – Fusion are really rather lovely.
Meanwhile GLL are trying. There’s the Swim London initiative, a scheme that for the same £26 monthly fee I pay to swim in Lambeth indoor pools, I can buy into a membership package that lets me swim in all GLL managed pools across London.
Wonderful! Where do I sign up? And, ah… lookey here. GLL also manage the lovely London Fields Lido up at Hackney. So now we have the truly absurd situation where if I take out membership to swim indoors at Lambeth owned pools, I’m excluded from swimming outdoors at the Lambeth owned lido, but I can swim outdoors at a lido owned by Hackney Council.
Bonkers. I need to take a cold shower. There are plenty of those at Clap’ham right now.
Alex Bigham: Well this is generally an interesting and thought out blogpost, though a little harsh to say all that we do @labourstockwell is post fear of crime videos on national issues – we...
