I attended my inaugural Critical Mass ride this Friday, and to my pleasant surprise I enjoyed it tremendously. It is great being able to roam the capital’s streets without the normal paranoid attitude one has to maintain while cycling with regards to other forms of traffic, and the experience was especially complimented by the balmy summer evening we had. The sound systems that traveled along provided great accompaniment, and created a nice carnival atmosphere throughout.

On this occasion, we rode about 28km. The route took us from Waterloo to Holborn via Aldwych, on to Lamb’s Conduit Street and Gray’s Inn Road and back across Holborn to Tottenham Court Road, where we veered off for a detour via the West End: down Charing Cross Road to Trafalgar Square, across to Cockspur Street and right onto Regent Street, where we had a little street party at Piccadilly Circus: traffic was barely moving, so we stood in the dusk under the big billboards’ lighting, lifting bikes in salute to the pumping music and just celebrating freedom of the road. Tourists were crowding around and lapping it up!

Then, about four laps around Soho Square, before going back up Charing Cross / Tottenham Court Road, past Goodge Street and Warren Street stations, where we waited some time for the Mass to collect itself again. We took some side roads along Regent’s Park, and took Parkway past Camden Town station, ending up in St. Pancras Way, past Euston, and ultimately Eversholt Street becoming Southampton Row. Passing Holborn for the third time, we continued past Aldwych and went down the Strand, got tangled up at Trafalgar Square until some people decided we need to visit Parliament. So down Whitehall we went, and waited at Bridge Street for everyone to catch up. By this time, all the sound systems were turned down (silly SOCPA law!), and we proceeded to circle Parliament Square quite a few times.

Out of the blue we were joined by a bunch of rollerbladers doing the same, which made for a merry end to the evening’s festivities. Apparently some of the cyclists decided to join the rollerbladers, and went off in the direction of Marble Arch until who knows what time..

I’ll definitely try to make the following Masses, weather, good health and self-discipline permitting!