club ride....'PUNCTURE FAIRIES'

[Stu Merckx Man]

good club run today..felt a little off form as i have been off the bike for 2 weeks due to a compulsery geography trip.

only 4 people up for a training ride , paul, george, sylvain and me...set off at a good pace all sharing the front frquently...george set a blinder going up the first hill bit towards reigate,(something to do with his new bianchi), i decided to follow and we temporarly broke away from syvlain and paull, they soon caught us on the flats..

as we hit the lanes and down the first hill we were greeted with a nice lake at the bottom, think thats where george got some glass in his tyre as at the top of the hill he got a puncture (first of the day)...just as he finished fixing it the 19s came along--->strangely with the likes of simon and marek...

we tagged on and i made a break away followed by george and marek who toyed with us for a while before dropping back...we decided to try and keep away from the 19s and did a good job, but were eventually caught just before newdigate by simon, sylvain and a few others i did not recognise....and then....SPSHHHHHH, my tyre burst!! more of a blow out than a puncture!

george kindly did most of the work for me (him and sylvain waited for me)...then some mad chacing and lung busting sprinting through rusper, and some of the duel carriage way saw us catch up with the 19s/some training group people....it took its toll later....i was dead at the sprint but i think i got 5-7 or something.

on the way back decided to go back via box hill, nice pace to set off with, then paul and george took the lead and it was a nice quick one to the bottom of box hill...i new i would fail miserably as my legs allready felt dead from the chasing earlier. i kept with everyone to the first hair pin, but i could not go on any longer, I NEED MORE GEARS!.... A gap opened up and by the second hair pin there was no chance of me catching them.

absolutely shattered i fell into a trance type thing...next thing i know im riding on the bank and falling on a baby horthorn tree! feeling dazed i got back on just as the chap in t-mobile stuff came past me..i think the fall twanged my neck a bit as it is a bit painful.

on the way back i broke away and got a good lead...but then out of no where everyone appears from behind a tractor using its slip stream!! i tagged on and i have to say it was a welcome break...i could feel my fuel dissapating..past the kingswood arms pub i carried on towards the golf club bit but the rest of the lads went down the bit with the big houses...i had a nice comfy ride into chipstead, only for the chap in t-mobile gear to appear behind me, which made me speed up..dammit!

as i turned off left up sandown by the junior school i think i must have hit the wall...i could barely make it (usualy an easy 20mph job) i was doing about 8 and only just...just about got home and immidiatly stuffed my face with orange juice and similar high sugar foods ( i feel better for it).

nice longish ride 55 miles, and avs speed of 20.2, not too bad

cheers,
stu

[ajay khandelwal]

Great ride guys with all that July sunshine ! I caught the 8.58 train from forest hill to Merstham and jumped on at Merstham with last group of six out from addiscombe, led by Graham in his winter beast. It was good ride and we signed up a new member on a bianchi which takes our membership upto 254 ! Graham was bravest on the descents towards Charlwood on his mountain bike tyres and took the sprint by 15 yards. What happened to Eliot ? I don't know. I won the most important sprint of the day, to the front of the cafe queue ! Thats a crucial one. Time for some coffee and eggs. There was one solitary non cyclist in the cafe enjoying breakfast, he must be the only man left in surrey who doesn't know that the ACC takes over the cafe on a Saturday morning! A couple of the guys were feeling quite hot and decided to sit outdoors! Thats pretty good for mid november. Marek and Tim were in the cafe and I told them that if we knew they were thinking of leaving the club for a couple of inner tubes we could have had a whip around in the cafe. Seriously, they have been a great impetus to the club and have taken the average club speed up by 10 km single handedly. Toks is our annointed racing guru and will stay with us, even if he is technically racing for a bike shop ! George was looking happy - as he sometimes says, 'the reason Im so happy is that Im the sperm that won!' Thats George for you. But I think that he was so happy because he had just bought a new bike. I rode back with Phil Nash, Casper and Grant. It was a good ride back. Tim Harris gave us a ex-pros a nicely paced ride back. It was good to see Sean - digest man - go with an audaciously early break and stay away up to Merstham. What happened to the Shadow where was he ? Had the sun flushed him out ? I heard he was cursing at a traffic light that turned red and halted him full flow. Back in Coulsdon I stopped for a coffee and Alex appeared with his twins for lunch. Feeling good to be out. Baby due in less than two months now, so thinking about how Im going to shed the baby weight , looking forward to some more rides next year !

[John Czernobay]

Okay just stop it there you lucky lads ; had to go the hospital yesterday pm and there put me under a general anaesthetic so I'm still rather oooozzzzzey plus another side affect which you don't want to about ; which unfortunately means I cannot go to the ball tonight

Have a great time boys and girls and enjoy .

[ajay khandelwal]

Sorry to hear John - hope you get well soon.

[Stu Merckx Man]

dam you found out!....perhaps now everyone will have a bianchi ....the cycling world would be a better place..

[Marek]

I cycled up from EG today. Decided to go with the 19 group I think as my mate was out and I wanted to make sure he could keep up. He had not ridden with a group before and did really well, although we did lose the faster group just after the Charlwood turn off we got caught up by the next group and they took us the shortish route without going on the dual carriageway to the cafe. Nick tried to come around me on the sprint and I just managed to hold him off, all sorts of lame excuses were bandied around in the cafe.

My mate was quite keen on going over to Box Hill so we had a nice little group. It was a bit too fast for him and for another guy, think it was Mario or something like that. I ended up having to yo yo off the back of the group and push them up to the group again. Everytime I would get one of them back on the other one would be off the back so I was going backwards and forwards literally pushing these guys onto the back of the group.

By the time we reached Box Hill I was pretty shagged. I did my best to get up with the speedy guys but blew my biscuit on the first leg and was soon in the wheel of Paul H, who was apparently on a bad day and then I could not hold them.

Back to CSS and the tractor was a great opportunity. I went with it for a bit but had to drop back and pick up my mate and the other guy who did not quite have the 30mph speed to stick in behind the tractor.

We cycled back and then my mate picked up his car. Unfortunately there was no room for my bike in his car (ford fiesta), he went off to my place for lunch and I had to cycle another 30km home. I was well and truly cooked with 135km on the clock as I slowly crawled into the house. Thankfully my mate decided he should buy me lunch at the local Pizza Express instead of me cooking. Thank goodness for small mercies, I don't think I could have stood up in the kitchen to even microwave some chips.

Cheers

Marek....

[Andrew G]

[quote]Anyway, a great turn out though the lack of discipline and speed control was approaching almost farcical proportions at one point as three groups that normally never meet till the cafe all merged long before then.

[Marek]

In relation to the groups all leaving together it is actually your own fault. Phil Nash was doing his best to get groups to go off at reasonable intervals and most people were too busy chatting and ignoring him. He had great difficulty getting anyone to go off in any group at all, which is probably why it happened like that today.

Also, the groups met up because of mechanicals and punctures etc. Two punctures in the fast group and a twisted chain in the second group meant we had to wait around a bit.

So if you are worried about the groups then organise yourselves a bit better at CSS and listen to the guy who is shouting at you to get your butt off the line and start cycling instead of gabbering.

Cheers

Marek...

[Andrew G]

I guessed you'd had some mechanicals up ahead, there's no way we could catch you otherwise.
[quote]So if you are worried about the groups then organise yourselves a bit better at CSS and listen to the guy who is shouting at you to get your butt off the line and start cycling instead of gabbering.

[Gavin]

Marek,

I saw you coming back from CSS later on. I was stuggling home from the normal club run!

Good to be back on the bike after 5 weeks off through illness.

Cheers

G

[Toks]

[quote]Marek and Tim were in the cafe and I told them that if we knew they were thinking of leaving the club for a couple of inner tubes we could have had a whip around in the cafe.