Critical Mass has no leaders and no one is entitled to make any announcement on its behalf. If there ever is any, the correct response to such an announcement would be for people to ignore it and make up their own minds.
We loved the London Critical Mass ride. It’s definitely one for every cyclists calendar!
We left from Waterloo and went around the city. It was great!
If you want a better report, posts yours to londoncriticalmass@riseup.net or to the list http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/cm-london
The December ride (on Friday 31st) set off less late than often in recent times – probably 7.15ish?
There seemed to be 100 or so participants – better than it often is in December, though of course the mild weather will have helped; but the fact that it was New Year’s Eve probably had the opposite effect.
We went straight across Upper Ground and up the ramp – then not even once round the roundabout.
We were quickly straight south to Elephant & Castle, and on down past Kennington tube station, left after Oval station, veering right towards Brixton; but turned right just before the railway bridge – ending up at Stockwell tube, then turning back north again. (My less-than-total familiarity with Sarf London led me to get my Brixton right turns temporarily confused; I was initially convinced we would end up at Clapham Common, not Stockwell.)
Then we went past Oval tube for the second time, and – boringly – back the way we’d come earlier. But at Elephant we took a right down Wally Road. When we got near to Camberwell Green, the mass seemed to have split up, but there was communication, and we returned north and met up with some others – so returned to being more of a mass than a straggle.
Then on (back!) to E&C for the third time, up past Borough, and over London Bridge. A wiggle, and up Bishopsgate, and on past Liverpool Street station. It was about 9pm by then I guess. I hoped for a left turn sometime after that, but wasn’t near enough to the front to try to influence the direction; and since it didn’t turn there, I split off from the ride and headed west, needing to be back in the centre before long.
So – any further reports? Where did it end up?
Some general points this month:
I found the loudest of the sound systems to be so loud as to be rather overbearing and oppressive.
Also, there was a pretty steady fast pace. It’s fine not to dawdle too much, but it felt a bit the other extreme, and so the ride got very spread out at times. This, combined with the sound system, made it difficult to talk to other people – so it wasn’t a very “friendly” ride in the way that some are.
There was some good pro-active corking – so thanks to the people who got into that.
Albert