A great ride in lovely sunny weather and nice company. That'll be the Agreeable's CR then
Calls for the B training group went out. Shall I shan't shall I shan't I? Will there be a 20mph? No? Oh, bugger it then. Off we go.
Shadow was leading. Nice and easy start due to the temporary traffic lights just by the station and a couple of red lights up to Merstham which split the group. We had about 12 people with us, all looking tasty I may say. I had no idea what the last three weeks of riding (suffering ) in the Alps and on the Victor Ludorum would do to the fast leg speed, I hadn't done any attack-type riding or intervals for 4 weeks. Oh well, if I got dropped at least I would have tried.
A couple of pops on the hills, and although I was near the back on these, I managed to power over the crest and catch up pretty well. A sprint from Alan made me shout out 'well, after him then' so we all latched on and had a little dig.
There were a few more digs up the hills, but my little effort off the front down the long hill after the Star Pub brought no chasing. I can't be that much of a threat then, eh! I'd better get a bit faster
Ant and I had a sprintlet just before the through and off, but the layby appeared sooner than expected. It must be all those 7 and 8 hour rides I've been doing. Or, as Keith pointed out, if you are going quicker you get there faster
Nice bit of through and off, although Alan does tend to power off into the distance once he's on the front so I had to shout to slow him down a bit. I'm sure he'll tell me its cos of some technical thing, not that he does it cos he's showing off!
Nearer the Chalrwood sign Alan went off the front on his turn and put the power down. I was buggered after my turn on the front so didn't contest the main sprint, but had a little competition with myself just to get the HR up.
Ave 21.1mph at the cafe. Nice long stop, tea cake crisps and a bottle of water.
Then off again with the fast group to Box Hill. And I managed to hang on. And did a bit at the front . And did a couple of little attacks Although got shelled out of the back up Box Hill and was penultimate lantern rouge. I was quite pleased with the ride, till Dan said, 'Well, we were going quite slowly today...' so I thumped him on the arm.
The 30 kms back to Oxted was ok but it was back to granny cog on the hills. Oooo, my legs hurt now.