You are welcome to join us for the road training sessions that take place every Tuesday for an hour around the Inner Circle of Regents Park. The group meets at York Bridge at 6.30pm, or after 6.30pm you can find us by cycling anti-clockwise round the Inner Circle. When we’re finished we usually have a tea and a chat at the Tennis Club House.

This is a training ride and introduction to group riding, it is NOT a race. For safety and to enable everyone to benefit from the training, all riders must keep to the following ground rules:
1. The general format is 20 minutes of group riding at a steady pace, followed by 20 minutes at a medium pace, 15 mins at a fast pace and a 5 min cool down. This will also depend on the traffic in the inner circle.
2. You MUST wear a helmet when riding and during winter ensure you have lights on your bike.
3. Experienced members must be prepared to abandon if traffic conditions are too dangerous.
4. Guests and invited riders must introduce themselves to someone wearing London Phoenix kit.


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A great day out at round three of the Imperial Winter Series in sunny Hillingdon, with 7 LP riders (Tom, Jonathan, Jean Paul, Nigel, Robert, Guy and myself, Ken) battling our way through a pacy 4th Cat race. The 48 strong field lacked the nervous jitters of round one, and the overall tempo was significantly higher.

Two non-LP riders managed to break free a third of the way through the race and went on to claim an inspired win, while the rest of us hustled our way to the finish line. A post xmas party Robert was the leading LP rider on the day with a great seventh place, with the rest of us close behind but out of the points.

There were a few close shaves during the final stages of the race but the only faller of the day was Guy, who dramatically toppled onto an innocent bystander at Southall Station…

In stark contrast to the previous week’s glorious sunshine, Matthew Harper, Ken Iino, Andy Nash and myself (Tom Bishop) braved the torrential rain and driving wind at Hog Hill on 13th December. With a much smaller field of 30 compared to the previous week at Hillingdon, we fancied our chances of a top ten finish. Unfortunately Andy was defeated by logistics and was unable to start, but gained valuable insight into the tactics of the race in difficult conditions.

We soon realised that the rain had bought out the hard core riders, and the blistering pace up the two hills (we were going clockwise round the circuit) soon started to fragment the group. Around 10 riders including Matt were able to hold this pace at the start, with myself and Ken finding ourselves left in a second group. I was determined not to give up at this stage as I knew that some of the riders in the breakaway group would not be able to sustain the pace that the front runners were setting.

The atrocious conditions aside, the middle portion of the race passed without incident. Unlike the burgeoning peleton at Hillingdon, my focus was more on riding efficiently and sustaining a pace rather than jostling for position and dodging swerving riders. I also realised that crit racing was a completely different discipline to sportive riding – 40 minutes of going all out on a hilly track is nothing like slogging it out for 6 hours in the South Downs. At this point the lagging group changed again, with Ken and a couple of others sliding off the back, and the acquisition of riders who couldn’t hack the pace of the leading group.

With five laps to go I started to weigh up my tactics for the finish – although we were down on the leading group there was still pride to fight for. In a couple of the turns I felt that I was faster than the four riders I was with, and I was able to maintain more momentum on the key climb to the start/finish line.

As the last lap came up I found myself at the head of group, but did little to up the pace. In the lead up to the first climb I let the others take the front, and as they got out of the saddle for the hill I sat up and hauled myself past them.

This meant I had a free run into the last bend and climb to the chequered flag, which I took with my heart pounding after sprinting up the hill. It turned out that I had finished tenth, which was good enough to get my first point for my license. Matt had finished a fantastic ninth having held the hectic pace of the leading group, and Ken successfully outlasted many of the starting field who were crippled by the pace. The only task left was to get into some dry clothes, drink a large amount of tea and chat about the day’s racing.

Four London Phoenix riders battled in the first of the Imperial Winter Series Cat 4 races at the chilly but sunny Hillingdon circuit in West London. Nigel Barton-White, Ken Iino, Paul Wixon and myself (Tom Bishop) lined up with another 80 riders, and rolled off the line at quite a relaxed pace.

At first we had little trouble staying at the head of the pack – the safest place to be with such a large and inexperienced field. On lap three Paul decided to take a shot at a lone break and he was able to stay away for a several laps before eventually being hauled in. A couple of riders in support and he could well have stayed out for the duration.

However, just after Paul was caught the first crash took place, bringing down 3 or 4 riders in the middle of the pack, and requiring Paul to experiment with some off road riding. Having lost touch with the pack he was destined to spend the rest of the race in a gritty solo battle.

Meanwhile the remaining three London Phoenix riders continued to jostle for position at the head of the field, and avoid further collisions. I soon began to realise the importance of taking a wheel, but not overlapping it. I also found it much faster to maintain speed on the outside of the corners rather than battle for the inside line and use the brakes.

In the final 5 laps the pace began to wind up, with the pack hitting 30mph down the back straight. It was clear that the race would finish with a sprint, and as we rounded the circuit for the last time I was able to get on the wheel of another rider. I had the legs to go past my tow and was catching more riders as they faded up the hill, but before I could launch my final assault two riders in front of me nearly collided, and had to take evasive action to finish in one piece, but still with the leading riders.

Video evidence proved that in fact I was eleventh, which was very pleasing [and a great result – ed] for my first race outing. As we munched on cake, slurped down tea and admired the injuries of the fallers after the race, I think the overall feeling was that the day’s efforts had been rewarding and enjoyable.