I need to get my blogging mojo back.  I’ve missed it! It’s been weeks and weeks since I’ve written, and I have so many blog posts in my head to share.  I’ve spent the last 6 weeks focused on a busy work contract – but the go-live date is finally here and I can get back to some semblance of life balance!

So I’m going to ease back in gently with a quick post to share something lovely that we did today.  We took part in the RideLondon FreeCycle event – an eight mile circuit of some of London’s most beautiful sites on completely closed roads.  I’ve always wanted to have a go, but this is the first year where our little family are all confident cyclists.

As someone who now cycle commutes across London, the idea of roads without buses, taxis and cars was super appealing – and it was as wonderful as I imagined.  It was such a pleasure cycling along familiar routes in the sunshine with my family at a gentle pace, surrounded by other families happily doing the same.  There were literally tens of thousands of people riding the course during the day!  We cycled along the river, around Green Park and Buckingham Palace, down the Mall to Trafalgar Square, along the Strand and Aldwych and around Lincoln’s Inn Fields – you can see the full route here.

We only snapped a few photos as we didn’t want to stop.  Here are Matt and Sophie making their way over Waterloo Bridge together:

And Alex checking out the city views:

My favourite part was cycling around Buckingham Palace and along the Mall.  Having watched the Olympic Road Race and the Tour de France speed along here, it was so special doing the same. Here’s Alex on the right heading towards Admiralty Arch:

And a dreadful picture – but my highlight of the day.  Sophie and I had the Mall to ourselves (because of a pedestrian crossing pause behind us) and we got to speed along together under the finish line arch, just like Mark Cavendish and the other pro cyclists will in tomorrow’s RideLondon races!  So much fun!

We even managed to grab a selfie in front of Buckingham Palace together.  My cycling family – I’m so proud!

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I’ll definitely be back next year and hope to explore more of the peripheral cycling activities along with riding the empty roads again.  Hope to see you there!