Brighton yesterday

[huw williams]

From the people who brought you Croydon to Brighton and back a couple of weeks ago.

This Croydon to Brighton and back was a classic. Leaving CSS at 730 meant we got caught up with some mass crowds on the official London to Brighton ride around the Merstham/Bletchingly area but with many closed roads and Paul Tunnell on the front tapping out 26mph we quickly dropped the large crowds and enjoyed flying past startled riders through the lanes towards Turner's Hill.

It was a perfect group, with Flatland powerhouses Tunnell and Hemming dragging us along the flats at high speed while Steve (The Shadow) and Yohan wound things up on the downhills. All this contributed to delivering the specialist grimpeurs Aidon, Rob and myself) to the foot of Ditchling Beacon for the most famous ascent in the south east.

We picked up a couple of Spannish team riders for the descent into Brighton (I registered 54MPH!) and after a brief luch stop at the finishing line we headed back through the lanes to Balcomb. Awesome route this and although its largely flat there are a number of short 'step-up' climbs just outside Handcross which make it a tough half hour or so of riding. Naturally we put the flatlanders to the sword along here as payback for the high speed they were dishing out on the main road sections. And what a speed! 30Mph all athrough the Gatwick dual carriageway sections and up the A23 into Redhill. Tunnell, The Shadow and Hemming doing huge pulls on the front.

Get this, we arrived back in Merstham at about 1.15 only to cross a line of thousands of riders on the outrun to Brighton - three hours out of Clapham and they'd reached Merstham! Some were in for a very long day I reckon.

All in all an excellent day and thanks to Paul for organising it.

[Yohan]

Wow....what a great ride!

I've done this bike ride 8 times, but never with a club, and never rode back...felt a sense of achievement after this. Especilly as the pace was unrelenting....I'm still waiting for the 'nice' spin back to croydon!

kicked off from CSS, and soon came across the growing masses of riders on route.....it very quickly became apparent that the pace we were riding at was electric as we were passing people who seemed almsot stationary compared to our speed...i heard a few gasps of 'wow' frm the crowd as they glimpes the backs of our streaming group of 7 in the peloton!
A few tried to latch on, but were quickly spat out the back once realisation of the pace bace apparent.
My sluggish attempt up ditchling compared to the group was made up by a 'balls out' 10 miles into brighton, we picked up a Espania rider, who i swapped the front running with many times on the front...which lead to me an Paul T crossing the finishing line as a joint entity.

Posted top speed of 53mph...i will be doing checks on Huw's clock as i never saw him pass me!

Enjoyed the ride back through the many quite country lanes, except for the intial 5miles or so on the A23 out of brighton.

Paul 'the punisher' Tunnel never failed to suprise me by pushing hard from the front, after falling behind on the climbs...at times I felt close to blowing. Ave speed was over 19mph for the duration...not bad.

Got back, watched the 1st world cup match an duly fell asleep....testament of a decents day effort in the sadle...

where next??.....London to Southend on 9th July...any takers???

[Brian Nolan]

hi there,

I was all set for this as after an extended club run on the Saturday I wanted a long ride to really put some distance into my legs ready for the upcoming Dragon Ride.. Well, I made it as far as as round the block from my house... Trying to take my usual back roads up to Coulsdon S i got swept up in the hordes - it was already looking busy at 7am... I thought sod this - i did not fancy unclipping 200 times on the way to Brighton. So I went up to Dorking via A217 and then onto Worthing straight down the A24..
Had visions of a nice bit of fish 'n chips for lunch but got there too early 10:30 ! So read the news of the screws on the beach with a cup of tea.. After 10 minutes of that they ( the chipper ! ) had started to fry so had my lunch ( bit too much really )and then set off for home.. Must resolve not too have too big a lunch on these rides as I did not feel on form for another hour & a half,...
Luckily the A24 is not too busy so I had a nice spin back up towards Box Hill then I followed the club route through Kingswood etc down to Coulsdon.
After doing 94 miles on Saturday and 108 yesterday my legs are slightly tired now - don't think i will hop back on the bike till Wednesday morning...
sorry I missed you guy's !

[Steve B]

Wow, how fast was that !!
7 of us took off fom CSS at 7.30 (myself, Huw, Rob, Yohan, Paul T, Jon & Aidon) and it was soon apparent that this was going to be a quick'n, with Paul T soon banging out the tempo that would last the whole ride, FAST.
The pace really was quite thrilling as we went flying past hundreds if not thousands of mere mortals on their trusty steeds, doing double takes as if they didn't believe what they were seeing the first time.
As most of the roads were closed to traffic, the Addiscombe peleton relentlessly powered its way down the outside lane, picking up wanna- be 'tag alongs', only to soon spit them out the back door like an old sock.

With the change in terrain (hills) came a change in our leader with Huw or Aidon taking control of the speed wagon until down the other side when Mr T would come flying past again to resume his rightful role at the head of the pack.
On a couple of occations, a brief look to Rob or Yohan got a return look of " this is mad but good", exactly what I was thinking.

With the speed and time we were making, it was almost a shame to stop for a tea 2/3 of the way there but well needed all the same.
10 minutes later, back on the bikes and off towards Ditchling Beacon but the pace didn't slow till we actually started climbing and to no ones surprise the climbing boys did what they do best and showed us 'others' how to do it. Personally I was pleased with my effort as I could still see Huw etc, not too far up ahead.
Once at the top we re-grouped and headed off down towards Brighton. When a couple of Spanish riders joined us the Addiscombe touch paper was lit and a full on assault ensued, even I did a stint on the front trying to break the little Spaniards legs, but to no avail. One died but one lived, mixing it up at the front with Yohan, Paul, myself, Huw and the others. Down the steep hill at 54mph we went. Hang on a minute, what are we doing going 54mph on a bike, two skinny wheels no protection, are we bloody mad? Erm YES!!
Anyway traffic lights split us and we made our way to the finish where a huge egg baguette and cup of tea went down a treat. 2 hours 10 mins riding time. 10 o'clock we were sitting down at a table. If you told me that beforehand I wouldn't have believed it.

Set off for home just gone 10.30 and things were much the same as before, back into high tempo riding with Aidon doing a fantastic stint on the front all the way up the long drag out of Brighton. Soon Mr T was back at the helm, dragging us all along, and I started to wonder if this was all too good to be true. Surely my legs wouldn't be able to push at this pace for another 35-40 miles, surely the tough club run and all out sprint for the Charlwood sign yesterday would take its toll, but there wasn't really any other option. A quick chat with Yohan and I felt a bit better as I guessed he was feeling the same way.
A good half an hour of tough little ups and downs through country lanes, sapped quite a bit of energy from me and I was in need of refreshment which came in the way of a shop at Handcross? me thinks. Fuelled by a can of Redbull (it was all they had) I was rareing to burn up the final run back into Coulsdon, 28 miles so Paul said.
Now back on to flat land it was hell for leather and have a go on the front for as long and as hard as you can, which I think we all did, bringing us home in fantastic time. I think Huw's watch must be slightly wrong because I was sitting in my van in Coulsdon at 1.05pm. 2hours 20 ride time.

I am very pleased and proud to have taken part in yesterday's ride. Thanks to Paul for organising it, and thanks to all you guys for making it a very memorable day.
Huw, you said this one was a classic. Damn right it was.

[Will]

ha ha! brilliant write-ups!

sounds like you pretty much annihilated the whole of the south-east with your addiscombe juggernaut

[huw williams]

Thats about right

Number of riders we passed - 5,000 (est)
Number of riders who passed us - 0 (act)

[Jon H]

I spread the word to two potential new members on the way. One guy in FdJ kit who hung on to our peleton for a while, and another guy I was talking to at lunchtime (well, 10 o'clock) in Brighton who said he lived in Woodside, so we're his local club. He said he'd look us up on t'internet.

Hope we didn't too good a PR job, I think Monty might struggle to control a club run of 5000.

[Toks]

Hey it sounds like the ride of the year from those reports, well done boys!... perhaps we could do with some business cards to hand out to agreeable people we meet when we're out riding