In Search of Hills (again)...

So with the guys at Felt Epix flaunting it in my face, and getting out for two hill rides in the last week, I had a roll up to North London to whip up some "hills". I thought I might also get to smash some trails in Hamstead Heath too, but some fat cop kindly informed me that I couldn't ride in Hamstead Heath. Thanks Plod. So I rode through some cool little villages (sorry, no photos- I took my camera with the intention of getting batteries for it but it didn't happen...) and around to the entrance for Parliament Hill (which I walked up, thanks).

The veiw of London from Parliament Hill (thanks Wikipedia!).

I thought I might get an offroad fix in Regents Park (the best I could hope for is the equivalent of riding a bike across a footy oval...). Looking back on it, a ride across a flat section of grass would have been nice because officer Plod's cousin- Sargent Fatso- told me I was not to ride through Regents Park. Yay. Two great expanses of public land in London "for Londoners" but you can't ride through them. Now I know how George Michael feels: you can't do anything in London parks...

My last hope; as it was 4pm and starting to get dark, was Hyde Park. I thought 'surely I could ride through a park that big without being seen'. Nup. 10 metres through the gate and two cops yell, in a rather impolite fashion, that cycling is not allowed in Hyde Park. Of course it's not. These two were obviously not friends of the first two cops. Fighting crime first, manners second.


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So basically, having only done 25kms, and my Garmin freezing twice, I gave up. I had a laugh the protesters near the Israeli Embassy, nearly got doored by some prick in an ugly AMG, and headed for home quickly before karma knocked me off my bike. I could easily whinge about it all but smashing those hills near Hamstead made it all so worthwhile.