Club Ride

[Alan M]

Went out with the 19s - a tad ambitious but kept up except for some falling off on inclines - managed to decide to do the longer route - one person, kicked away for a long drive to the line - failure to organise ourselves and his strength and speed meant that he stayed away until the end.

The return was quite swift above 19 average before Merstham helped by a trailing breeze. On the drag, the same guy as above (sorry your name escapes me) got away again and once it flattened out a bit Steve and I hacked off after him with Phil on the case as well. We did catch him and then it was very fast into Coulsdon by which time he had escaped for the 3rd time today - probably training group material!!

Good turn out though sea of yellow in the cafe and taking it in turns to sit down - good to see some first time returners after the festive season

Alan

[Ian A4size]

Aaah, the "gentlemans 18" straight into the headwind as we left CSS, not being too stupid i let Grahame do the lead out and i tucked in behind Nick, with us 3 up front we pulled everyone along without them doing a pedal stroke mind you some ACC riders seem to do that week in week out! 3 fixies out with us today- Andrews lovely red, Mikes lovely Blue and Marks 'kin orrible thingy white rusty thing. ( Gav- you could safely leave this one unlocked at CSS no prob).
The ride split a bit as we went over the 3 humps, this was partly due to the fixed riders keeping their cadence up- unfortunately some riders took this to be a break and split the ride up. We did regroup at the lights tho.
On thru the lanes and we managed to stay fairly tidy, a few riders took turns on the front- Huw and Mark dragged us along for ages. A bit of a split at the turn for the cafe saw about 10 riders peel off. A certain rider seemed to disappear for the remainder of the ride until the last 150 metres when he shamelessly left all in his wake, Huw went a bit too early - i tried to follow but alas i was out of match . Strange thing was he was first past the line but last in the cafe.
Good ride home, i felt stronger today than for a long time- must be the training, just need to get rid of a bit of belly, people keep thinking i am Marek!

[Andrew G]

Good ride today. I've noticed anything titled "gentlemen's" seems to become a bit hairy chested in pace . That said I think the strong starting pace helped as the Gatton "triple" didn't seem so bad today (normally a bit too early for me to have got going properly).

Good ride out, did a bit of work towards the end through the lanes but Mark and Huw sat up front for a very long time. Left the cafe early with Grahame, Nick, and a few others. Grahame and I towed to the church climb, and although I was starting to feel a bit leggy got up that quite well. On the leg to Merstham I got ahead virtue of a change of lights so I waited in Coulsdon for some company to Croydon. It arrived and was led by Huw and travelling very quickly. Latched on and spun like a loon to try and keep up.

Very good day, just hope I still feel up for tomorrow.

[Nick]

Good ride for me on saturday decided to take the plunge and move up from the 17's and I'm glad I did as I had agood hard ride into a head wind was suffering going the hills (Thanks to Grahme and Ian with there words of encouragement and 1 genlte push on one bit of an incline after I had come off the front) so I knew the Cafe sprint was out of the question but did lead for a very short while until the Group came whizzing past.

Had a fairly good ride back nothing to heavy going just 7 of us? They did wait for me on occasions as I was still suffering from the ride to the cafe. Thanks guys.

Nick.

[Grahame]

[quote="Ian Munnery"]A bit of a split at the turn for the cafe saw about 10 riders peel off. A certain rider seemed to disappear for the remainder of the ride until the last 150 metres when he shamelessly left all in his wake, Huw went a bit too early - i tried to follow but alas i was out of match . Strange thing was he was first past the line but last in the cafe.