Club Run Feedback 11/03

[Alex P]

After the prestigious event - Brass Monkey being held on the doorstep of Coulsdon South I was expecting a very meagre turnout for the club run as I arrived at the Italian cafe for the now compulsory Latte. I was pleasently surprised as I turned up at the station with 30-40 people waiting to get off with 7 new faces in the group, including a Pole and a Malaysian. We split into two groups, a steady 18mph and an unsteady 17mph with all the new faces proving to be strong riders. A puncture mid way along split the group but we eventually managed to regroup at Charlwood for the usual banter.

The Polish chap (Andrew) proved to be very strong (as he glided up the hills past me) even though he only had a rusty Raleigh, rusty chrome rims, down tube shifters and what looked like 8 gears in total - we need to get him racing.

Another puncture just outside the cafe split the group again and the group I was in had a gentle ride with the only drama of somebody breaking their chain - the first one I have come across on a club run.

All in all another great club run I thought to myself as I sipped my second Latte of the day with Sean at the Italian Cafe in Coulsdon.

[Alan M]

The so called steady 18 split into several groups, one of which did a very tidy through and off most of the way with an early season run on the dual carriageway, featureing a clockwise rotation which seemed to work well for a smaller group. We had a 20.4 average but the sprint lacked any real edge!

The way back included the loss of Geraldine along the way due to a broken chain (I must remeber to practise chain repair) and somjeone had left her purse back at the cafe?? Otherwise, it was without incident and there was a fairly swift lead out up the Merstham drag and an even stronger push along the flat and into Coulsden. It wasn't quite brass monkeys but I put on 53 miles of riding and this mormning's bath and a momentary thought of Eastaway was as much as I could manage. Maybe I'll go to the gym later!

[Alex P]

Sean and I saw Geraldine ride past the Cafe at Coulsdon about 5 minutes after we got there so it looks like the boys at 'Kwik-fit' managed to sort her out.