After the obligatory Hi's and Hello's Mark led out the first of the two big yellow ACC trains. However, it soon became apparent that train No 2, led by Monty, wouldn't be leaving for a while because in true agreeable spirit we were waiting for someone to fix a puncture...'Well, ?too many cooks and all that?? myself, Yohan, Tim, Simon and a few other impatient souls quickly launched into the first of many 'threshold efforts' and bridged the three minute gap across to the first group. With the group now swollen to almost 30 it was inevitable, once we'd reached the lanes beyond Reigate some people would start getting twitchy feet. Ignoring the mysterious booing
myself and Marek, doing his reverse club run, went to the front and were then quickly joined by Kevin and Sylvain. Indeed, this deadly duo remained at the head our group for a couple of miles, but slowly and surely the amount of asphalt between them and us began to increase. Eventually the magnetism of the group could hold them no longer and they both went off on their merry way. So bar a couple of leg stretching efforts form Tim and Marek group order was restored
Later with half the group turning off - café bound - the rest of us headed to the dual carriage way from the longest approach. Once on the DC I managed to draw Tim, Simon, Marek, Robert on a fixie and a chap in Green away from the others. The pace nudged up slowly and hovered at around 22-23mph as we began a very smooth through and off. By now the rest were far behind or so we thought!. Steve made a massive effort and road across the gap to join us - somewhat assisted by traffic lights
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Of course group dynamics are tentative at the best of times and being permanently stuck in 53/14 Marek?s constant surges finally put the ?thro n off? experiment to bed. As we left the DC our seven man group was strung out with the guy in green bravely doing a massive turn on the front. With just under three miles to go numerous pace setting jumps and fake attacks from Marek, Steve and myself ensured the paced remained high as we set about finding out who had their the best fast-twitch fibres on a Saturday morning. By the time the final bend arrived Marek was on the front and the pace was an impressive 27mph into a head wind. On Marek's wheel was yours truly, on my wheel was Steve and stuck like the proverbial flies on XXXX to Steve's back wheel was Tim. It was clear no one else one else was gonna feature in this one. With 40 metres to go I jumped off Marek?s wheel, Steve jumped off my wheel and Tim jumped us all. A simple case case of 3-2-1, and for the Addiscombe's coolest rider, job done!.
During the obligatary coffee and cakes at the café there was a nice round of applause for a Verona bound Simon before we all we headed back to CCS via Norwood hill. Perhaps not the ideal route back home judging from the efforts of a couple of ACC's, 2006 Etapers.
At the final head count just before the A23 my body decided it had had enough so I rolled back at a steady pace but still managed to give a Robbie a push up the long drag and was grateful to receive a much needed push from Dave L . Dave and I continued turn taking through Croydon and up to Crystal Palace, where we stopped for more coffee of course!. Have a good week Guys
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