A crowd of about 600 riders left the southbank at 1930. The weather was dry which was a relief compared to the complete soaking from the previous month. This is a decent turnout for a November ride.
The ride headed towards the Old Kent Road junction with Dunton Road, where a locally named (but not confirmed in the media) male cyclist G—- had been killed the previous Friday morning.
On the way, as corkers were stopping traffic from driving into the Mass at the foot of the Bricklayers Arms flyover down ramp, there was an incident where one impatient driver went around the car in front. A corker (off his bike) tried to stop him but the motorist looked like he was going to ram the corker standing in the road. The corker was forced to jump onto the bonnet of the car, forced with either the choice of possibly damaging the car or having his legs broken. The motorist then emerged from the car and stole the corker’s helmet cam. The police were called and attended, took details and then left.
The ride had split in two, as the rear half stopped and waited to deal with the motorist incident. But the front half was stopped and waiting a few hundred metres up the road, so the ride eventually recombined.
A white ghost bike was unveiled and sprayed at the junction with Dunton Road where the cyclist was killed.
The ride then moved off towards Greenwich, but in New Cross / Deptford the ride was brought to a halt with a complete deadlock of traffic in all directions. Conway contractors usually start work on roads at 9pm and with the delays on the OKR, this meant the Mass could not really go any further east without either stopping and starting, or filtering through traffic, neither of which riders wanted to do.
After regrouping at the square in front of Deptford Library, the ride then headed back towards central via Lower Road, Jamaica Road, and Tooley Street. The ride then crossed London Bridge and headed west through the City, passing by St Pauls and the High Court, eventually finishing up at the new-ish pedestrianised square at the entrance to Somerset House on the Strand.
