Club Run Sat 11 Dec 2010

[Keith]

[quote="Antloony"]Might join you Paul.

[Antloony]

Keith, judging by how you said your legs were hurting on the way back I think I made the right decision.

[LeeS]

Having been in company of the 19’s for most of the year I thought I‘d try my hand in the training group mainly on the basis that most of the riders had winter bikes and I assumed the pace would be slower but also Rob W said he felt out of sorts so I might have a chance of keeping up. Needless to say the winter bikes don’t make a blind bit of difference to the pace and Rob was bullsh*tting .
By the time Merstham passed by in blur I was foaming at the mouth and my bowels were starting to loosen. As luck would have it Dan got a puncture which everybody stopped for and the rest was quite welcome by me.
Ben suggested he and I move on and the group can catch us up which they duly did a mile or so outside Redhill. Again. hanging on to the back wheel of somebody would ,in my book, have been an achievement somewhere akin to climbing Everest in a jockstrap and jackboots but inevitably the pace was too quick and the gap opened at an alarming rate. Just as I thought the Devil could not fart a more putrid smell in my face anymore the Gods smiled down because there was Dan at the side of the road with another puncture .

The three of us continued down the A23 with Ben doing some turns on the front but Dan doing most of the towing.

Eventually collapsed in through my front door and laid on the floor for ten minutes before Mrs S decided to ask me if I was ok which is a worry because as far as I’m concerned I was within a nats cock of having a stroke.

Good ride . Might do it again.

[Keith]

[Jon C C on a Bianchi]

[quote="LeeS"]

Good ride . Might do it again.

[Jon C C on a Bianchi]

Considering the rubbish weather this really was a bonus ride that i didn't think would happen a couple of days ago. About 50 hardy agreeables turned up at CSS. 5 degrees - actually quite warm - and no ice!!

I rode out with the 17s - a big group - it just grew and grew - we left with 12 and by Reigate we had 16! we split at the common and Nick W and the shadow took a faster group. Amy and I were then left with the steady group - Sam, Robbie, Mikel, Brian, Lindsay, and Alan. Uneventful - apart from a mad driver who gave a completely unnecessary long blast from her horn as she passed - but otherwise a steady ride in good company. Got in at 16 mphs all safe and sound. A bit slow but we did take it easy. Coffe, cake and a chat and home.

Well, not quite. Some how despite the group having Amy and me we'd managed to leave two of our riders out there in darkest surrey! OOPS!!! Alan got to the cafe just as we were leaving to say that he'd been dropped and he came across Mikel two miles or so back down the road who'd punctured and they couldn't get the tyre back on the rim.

to be continued...

[Antloony]

Well done Lee. I don't think people realise how hard the training group go, its quite a jump up from the 19's and can be a shock to the system so well done for diving in there and giving it a go. It does get easier after the first 20 times.

Great write up as well.

Enjoyed my ride today in the19's, lanes were fine with very little in the way of ice, roads were very dirty though. It actually felt warm out there today.

[Andrew G]

Great write up Lee, very funny .

Just Richard joined me for the MTB ride this morning, thanks I had a very enjoyable ride.

With mountain biking I'm more of a hard packed, grit and gravel, dusty trails kind of guy rather than a mud plugger. Well dusty trails were about the only thing we didn't have today but it was great fun. We had a bit of everything else.

With the snow melt some of the trails were boggy and demanded hard powering to get over/through them, others were hard surface bumpy ice with a slick covering which needed commitment to skim over, others were hard but wet packed mud, and some still had some of the white stuff to ride through. A great day to test and hone your bike skills and handling.

A testing and demanding ride but a good hard ride, including especially for Richard a forced dismount with a tree across a trail that involved a bike lift and clamber over a couple of trunks. This meant a draggy climb from a standing start in a boggy snowy section but we both gave it a bit of a dig and rode out of and through it.

Towards the end by Jackass Lane just before a trail section before the final Spring Park section Richard noticed his front tyre was a bit odd. On examination the bead was broken and the wall fraying, basically the front tyre was knackered. A low pressure careful inflation and a ride back on the road for the final bit instead but this went belly up when about half a mile down the road the tyre pulled off and catastrophic failure. Oh well a long walk home for Richard then, well no as a short walk to Coney Hall and the very nice Martin Green (no relation) at Young's Cycles and he sorted us a budget tyre for a tenner. Result and a much quicker trip home for Mr. Munday.

Arrived home covered in mud with a very speckled face , before a trip to Croydon to take my poor Mum (a Social member and good marshaller) shopping as she slipped on some ice last week and broke her arm. Christmas dinner will come courtesy of my brother and I, it won't be a patch on one of hers but should be up to scratch and will be nice to give her a day off.

Glad the lanes turned out okay for people as where we were there was still quite a lot of hard packed slippery snow on the road which would have been a nightmare on a road bike.

[LeeS]

[quote="Antloony"]I don't think people realise how hard the training group go, its quite a jump up from the 19's

[Keith]

[quote="LeeS"]
Also the TG go flying off towards Horsham and pick up a pace along the dual carriageway which the usual club run route doesn't prepare you for in any way.

[Sylv]

I caught the bus back from Merstham

[img]http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:U2SSO9EhDbccyM:[/img][img]http://nimbuzzmod.hexat.com/images/Laie_cyclist.gif[/img]

[quote="Andrew G"]Arrived home covered in mud with a very speckled face

[Antloony]

Yeah good move Sylv. If you'd have got any closer to that bus you'd have needed your oyster card.

[Amy]

Forgot - saw Mr Munnery just before Merstham

[Paul H]

Lee - you make it sound so bad.

We have all been there. If you keep trying every week, I can guarantee you will get there in the end.