Phew!! What a ride - just over 111 miles - and completely knackered!
'Led' the 17s but didn't feel particularly strong all day (note to self - things not to do on a Friday night before a captain's coastal - 3 mile run, 1 bottle of cabernet sauvignon, and several cans of carling). After taking the group on a tour of Redhill to pick up my forgotten water bottle
(hope you all enjoyed the water feature BTW
) we headed up Redstone Hill - the first climb of the day - and we were soon strung out all over the place. Fairly obvious we were a very mixed ability group (that's teacher speak) with some of the faster guys not really wanting to wait so we organically split without even saying goodbye! Still at least we were left with a very Agreeable bunch
Robyn, Ron, Peter, Julie, Lucy, JP and me. (not really sure where Lindsey and Alan got to).
Julie punctured just outside Copthorne and we had the mother of all battles trying to remove the tyre!
45 minutes, two broken tyre irons, and one broken finger later we were on the road again. Another delay at Turner's Hill Julie went off to get her tyre pumped up by a nice man but they couldn't get the pump nozzle on her short valve as her wheel had wide rims. Eventually after 30 minutes of faffing we were Brighton bound
Got to the top of a very foggy/misty Ditchling Beacon and finally reached the Regency about 12.45. A nice relaxed lunch - excellent plate of seaford pasta and an expresso and - we were on our way - about 2.00 and way behind schedule.
Home via Seaford - with Phil, Tim, Ron, Lucy, Martin, George, Wayne, Mark, Alan, Del, JP, Marcus, JohnCz, and JohnS - and 5 miles into an incessant headwind - but it wasn't long before we were cycling north with the wind at our backs. Another puncture - this time Marcus - but a nice quick repair only delayed us by 15 minutes or so. Eventually the sun came out, we lost JohnCz and Tim (all on? yes! but they weren't
), then Alan (all on? yes! he wasn't), then Del (just going for a pee and never seen again
),perhaps we need race radios? then JohnS bailed out for the train. We were down to 10 or was it 11? Five VCs and the captain and we could organise a p*ss up in a brewery!!
Anyway, got to Nonnas just after 6.00 - I was shattered - stomach cramps - feeling a bit sick but still room for latte and coffee and walnut cake, oh and some bloke slapped my arse as I was riding up the Merstham drag!! we'll I hope he got a thrill out of it! I did
Home by 7.15. All in all another great day out - thanks to everyone who made it so
Let's do it again next month
Just to confirm, do we go rain/hail or shine? 
I assume so, just want to double check! 
... really tired, but well worth it.....thanks to everyone who turned up and the good vibe throughout! Look forward to the next one 