South Riding 5: Sutton to Coulsdon

When I lived in Sutton my parents were still in Coulsdon so I am familiar with this route. It was a straightforward ride apart from waitingt an age to turn right at a T junction into Wallington High Street. There must be some psychological data about how long we can wait at junctions before we begin to get antsy. With me if there are continuous lines of traffic on both sides then I will settle back and wait but if the traffic comes in clumps with the gap one side being cancelled out by traffic the other, I begin to worry that I will never get out and there are gaps I have missed. At that point I repeat to myself: "there always is a gap". Nobody has ever got stuck at a traffic junction for the rest of their lives but is amazing how long short amounts of time can seem when held up in traffic.

Other than that there is not much to say about cycling through South London suburban streets. It is pleasant enough but not visually stimulating. However I wasn't worried about visual stimulation. I was starting to feel a bit hot and tired and needing a café stop.

Coulsdon itself was a surprise because I expected it to be relatively unchanged, apart from a few shop fascias. Suburban, commuter towns, full of houses from the 30s, tend to be fairly static with well maintained houses, quiet roads and a main street of medium sized supermarkets, smaller shops and cafes. Coulsdon is like that except its main street was the A23 and this has partly defined its character – a bit of a bottleneck with rows of traffic. But now there is a new bypass and the centre of town is unnaturally quiet.

This picture is a little unfair in illustrating the emptiness of the town centre with the site of a demolished building because it should be temporary. But I think it has looked like this for a few years as Aldi have been planning a supermarket since 2005, so something has gone wrong. It used to be the Red Lion, a large pub building that had previously been a coaching inn. It was visually the most arresting building in the town centre and now it is just a gaping hole. You don't know how important the look of these buildings are to a sense of place until they are gone.

They have tried to make it look more pleasant with new paving, flowers and seats but it is neither one thing nor another. To me it just feels a little dead. It is also a pity that no sooner does the council lay some decorative paving than a utility company digs up part of it and the repair is hideously inadequate.

However I was not really too bothered. The only thing on my mind was Café Nero and an ice cold fruit booster, with a pastry. As I stretched out my legs and relaxed in a comfy chair I conducted a mental check: legs tired, bum tender, left hand sore (where it rested on the handlebar), and head far too hot. Conclusion I needed a rest. How nice it would be to stop for the day; but no chance – the bed and breakfast was still about 18 miles away

There was a copy of the Times to read with an article about Tim Don (can’t link to it because of the pay wall). In it he said he cycled 300km and ran 100km each week. Hmm – put my little escapade in perspective. He also said he got through 25 pairs of trainers a year. That seems a bit excessive – they must do a very low mileage before being changed.

The example of so much mileage put my tiredness in perspective and it didn't take too long to put soft thoughts in their place, buckle up and get on.