Catford Reliability Ride.

[Andrew G]

Good fun this one. Sign on resulted in staggered start times, which was perfectly understandable to avoid a large mob racing along together, meant that the many Addiscombe riders in attendance were split up.

I was due off at 9:20 but speaking to Adrian and Apples (and friend) they were setting off rather than wait. Joined them and we set off at about 9:05. Apples mate was clearly on a mission as he flew off. Adrian and I thought sod that and sat up for a steadier ride. We met Amy on Pilgrims Way and joined her. A fast moving group came past and Adrian jumped on to that, while I stayed with Amy for a steady spin. I was doing this for miles in the legs rather than tanking round and killing myself.

Amy was clearly having a bad day as she was no where near as strong as normal, so I tried my best to be a gentleman and sat on the front to pace us along. More groups caught and passed us, although we weren't going that slowly, but a lot of people obviously think these rides are a race. I know you need training but surely there's no point going that hard this early when there's no prize or points on offer? But I bow to those with more experience.

After about 30 miles Jonathan (on a Bianchi) caught us so we formed a three for about five miles up to the first hill. We waited at the top for Amy but she then said to ride on as she was just going to ride in easy pace.

Jonathan and I then set off at about CR pace and started catching riders who'd clearly gone too hard on the flat and hit a wall on the hill. Good ride back with a bit of a grind up Ide Hill and then Star Hill back to the village hall.

Very enjoable day. Good route, good company, excellent organisation with the whole route fully signposted (didn't need the route card/map once), and a nice spin round the countryside.

This was not a hard ride by any means (unless you went in one of the training/race groups). Only three real hills and a few lumps, but mainly fairly flat or rolling. I think if we could organise ourselves to sign on together we could have a good alternate club run on this next year.

Next up Old Ports on 11th Feb from Halstead, which I expect will be a harder ride - Anyone know a rough route / which hills they take you up?

[Marek]

I thought this was excellent and the organisers did a fantastic job with the signing which was great. These events are so much more fun when you don't get lost.

I started off with a group which had about 15 riders or so. George, Jim and Max were present. Well, I fitted a new saddle yesterday and about 30km in I hit a hole and my saddle decided to move. This was very uncomfortable so I decided to stop. Max waited, the rest on the group carried on.

I stopped another couple of times as could not get the saddle straight and then all of a sudden a big fast group with Tim and Dave K came past. I tightened up the bolt and said sod the position I will suffer and we joined in with this group. That was after having to sprint for about a km to catch them.

It went a reasonably steady pace until we hit Turners Hill. Then it started to speed up and people started to get shelled out of the big group. Then we went up a long drag towards Sharpthorne and the pace quickened more and then Dave Kennett went to the front as we went across the top of Ashdown Forest. Anyone who had been hanging on was now completely blown out the back as he did a long and very fast turn on the front.

Then we hit a few of the big hills and lost a few others and it was now a group of about 6 or 7. After the feed station which we did not get anything from we lost Dave K and his mates from Norwood Paragon, but we had now caught up with George and Jim.

We got to Ide hill and I started to struggle as did Max. Tim and George went up the hill pretty fast as did Jim. Going up the hill I hit another hole and this time I had to stop again and adjust the saddle as it was going to cause me serious damage. Then it was a bit of a blast back to Star Hill where I managed to lose Max and catch up Graham.

Good to see lots of ACCers out and again the Banana cake at the finish was fantastic.

Cheers

Marek....

p.s. Andrew it is only about 6 or 7 weeks till the races start, time to start getting a bit quicker.

[George]

Some good mileage today on this reliability/sportive ride. It was well organised with plenty of signposts to point us in the right direction at every junction. There was a huge queue at the village hall at signing on, there must have been at least 150 riders maybe more.
Set off with Hal, Marek, Jim and an agreeable from Catford oops??
We rode the early part of the course in a group of 15 or so, Marek pulled over for some excuse or other.
Hal and I upped the pace at the front and we caught the Wheelers from Sydenham and got a lift up to the top of Ashdown Forest.
Caught up with Jonathon but he couldn’t quite stay on, then we passed Amy and Andrew who had stopped at the brow of a hill?? I shouted that Johnathon was behind as we flew past.
We pulled away from the Wheelers and somehow managed to miss the food stop but carried on regardless and were shelling out riders from the back after Groombridge hill there were only about 4 of us left.
Then out of nowhere Tim flew past up a hill, I quickly jumped on his wheel and realised it was the group containing Tim, Marek, Max and a couple of other cat 2 guy’s. They must have been flying.
I stopped for a pee at the last refreshment stop and missed the group leaving, had to go some to catch them back up at Ide hill where Tim, myself, Jim and Pearson guy dropped the others.
Was a bit tired near the end after the training ride yesterday but thoroughly enjoyed it.
Shame Paul and Stu couldn’t join us maybe next time.

[quote]then we passed Amy and Andrew who had stopped at the brow of a hill??

[Marek]

Cheers Andrew, and good to see you still had a smile on your face going up Star Hill.

cheers

Marek....

[Graham O]

Had a great ride myself. Left at 9.15 and stayed with my group until turners hill. By this time, the pace was starting to hurt, and the hill was the pushed me over my limit.

Anyhow, I managed to regroup and continued on at my own pace. This wa good until I got to star hill, when I had to ride through cramp in my left thigh....ouch !!

Any how, all good fun and looking forward to the next one.

Overall - I did a time of just over 3.5 hours for 62.5 miles...

[Nick]

Sorry to let you guys down.

But my son's lift to rugby was not avaliable and It was a fairly important game so I made a hard choice and opted to better his carreer than me slog and struggle in the saddle. But I did manage to put in 45 miles this afternoon.

Sounds like you all had a good time.

See you all Saturday.

Nick.

PLEASE VOTE ON THE ANNUAL DINNER QUESTION OVER 50 VIEWS AND ONLY 5 VOTES SEEMS RATHER SILLY TO READ AND NOT VOTE.

[adrian]

Lordy, that was a hard ride today. I'd echo everyone's comments about the organisation, the course and the signing. Shame I was feeling a bit 'narshus' after the Ide and Star Hill ol' one-two combo and could barely get the cake down afterwards.

Took a while to get into my stride, maybe because I was still feeling a little sheepish after being told off for using the ladies' toilet . As Andrew mentions, Apples' mate set off as though his a**e was on fire, and once we realised the route was well marked and we didn't need to hang on to him to be shown the way, we took off the hair shirt and opted instead for a gentlish warm-up on the early part of the Pilgrim's Way.

I left Andrew and Amy, who we'd come across rearranging her apparel at the side of the road, to jump onto a fairly useful group for the next hour or so. At Crawley Down they cranked it up just a little too much for me and I was sent tumbling out the back. I did briefly have hopes of getting back on, but Turner's Hill put paid to them shortly thereafter.

Formed a group with some random lonesters and bowled along quite merrily across the Forest and as far as the food stop. So far I was feeling pretty good, with the likes of Groombridge Hill presenting no significant difficulty. Even so, for the benefit of the photographer at the top, I arranged my features into what I imagined was an expression of the heroic suffering of one engaged in epic struggle. In the event, I probably only succeeded in looking a bit 'special'.

'Only' Ide and Star Hills lay ahead, the latter of which seemed to go on forever. I used the time to re-evaluate the way I use my leisure time and reflect on my decision to leave a warm bed at 6.15am on a Sunday for this. Still, the carrot at the end of this gnarliest and most dog-sh!t-smeared of sticks was the village hall and santuary in the bosom of lots of friendly ACC faces.

Got round in 3:50, which I was happy enough with, given the course and the blustery conditions. Needless to say, I wasn't much use around the house this afternoon.

Excellent to see so many of you out there today. Thanks to Apples for affording me the considerable luxury of a lift there and back.

[Jim B]

Yes great ride. Really nice to see so many familiar faces.
Good route even if I didn't have a clue where I was most of the time. Is it just me or is Knockholt in the middle of the most confusing maze of unsignposted back lanes? Must explore that part of the world more often though.

Jim

[Hal]

This is the same post, I put in the other thread but it sits better here.

Great ride, I rode up from Croydon and tagged on with Dave K for the longer then I expected ride up to Knockholt.

Started off with a good size bunch, Jim, George, Marek, Simon, Paul T plus a whole bunch more other at a good healthy pace. Probably a bit faster then I ought to have been going for a longer ride but hey its all good fun. Marek had to stop to tighten his seat but we carried on, through the first couple of check points no probs. We took a free ride behind a group of 6 Sydenham riders who made an excellent wind break. Great view in the sunshine over the forest.

Heading back I was starting to weaken wondering how long I could hang on to a wheel just as Marek and Tim came blasting past and the pace became unbarable. Into the last food stop, Simon and I carried on but I was starting to die panic eating and drinking on the climb of Ide Hill where I nearly stopped I was so tired. Eventually crawled up Star Hill to the finish about three and a half hours, very happy with that.

Now the excuses, going home I noticed a broken spoke and found the brake pad badly rubbing on the wheel, would only spin 3/4 of a turn. I heard it go on the ride up to the start but didnt check it before starting so I recon I made my life more difficult than necessay. I am now even happier with my time, maybe if I realised.... I wouldn't have been dropped.

Good job.

[huw williams]

Excellent ride and there seemed to be more ACC and former ACC members/racers out than a regular club run. Excellent turnout guys

What a great ride

Got the tactics about right - started with the first group at 9.00 and a had a leisurely ride out to Turners (averaging close to 20mph just sitting in the wheels).

Group was too big up there so it was to time to say bye-bye. I didn't start the attacks but I made sure I finished 'em. Dragged a group of ten away and we worked real hard all accross the Ashdown and over Withyham. Pace started to flag just before Groombridge when a group of ballistic 1st and 2nd cats came through and lifted the pace. Perfect. Stayed with half of them (the other half just didn't slow down on the hill and dissapeared up the road) up Groombridge and dropped all bar 2 from my starting group. Worked like hell all through Penshurst and along Chididngstone and got into the Four Elms checkpoint still in reasonable shape.

Attacked up Ide Hill and managed to get away with one other guy - passed a couple of zombies shelled out from the fast group who'd come through - not surprised they said they'd been going that hard since the start :-0

One guy who'd gone up Groombridge like a bullet could hardly turn the cranks over on Ide. I came up behind him and thought "he must be in a massive gear to be pedalling that slow." Turned out he was in the smallest gear but could hardly turn it - completely blown his doors off, nothing in his eyes. when I urged him to get on a wheel he swore at me, toys all over the road, none in the pram.

Cramp started to set in towards the top of Ide but just about managed to stave it off over Star. Load of rented mules from the short ride on the hill acting as targets.

3.24 riding time at the finish, sub 3.30 even with stops to mark the card.

Never thought a sub 3.30 was possible (for me) on that course. Tim H was first back after me and judging by his start time must have done a sub 3.15 Astounding - he'd attacked the likes of Marek, Dave K etc and got away.

Never seen so many happy faces at the end - great weather, great signage, just the right distance for this time of year. Well done everyone, we go at it again in a fortnight on the Old Ports - and that one is harder - up Fordcombe, up to the top of Ashdown, up Toys and up Star (again).

Same bloke is doing the signing so it should be good.

Pictures from Sunday to follow, CW report next week

H

[PeteS]

I last did this ride about 30 years ago and, weirdly, don't remember it as being as hard!!!
I wasn't sure how to play it yesterday and went off with Huw's group and stayed with the pace until Turners Hill where I drifted off the back. Tried to jump on another group but left it too late and just couldn't link up. Bumbled along at about 17-18mph then got in with a group of 4 including an ACC rider who dragged us along for a while.
Groombridge was a touch hard to say the least and I went into the little ring for the first time. Slogged up to the top and recomposed my features into my rictus grin for the sake of the photographer at the top. Cramp in my right thigh began to be a bit of a nuisance and every time I pushed hard it started to click in. At the checkpoint in Four Elms I met up with Paul and Adrian but by then, sadly I was never going to do much more than ride at my own pace and just keep it all turning as fast as I could. Ide Hill wasn't too bad, passed a guy who was trying-and failing- to turn a huge gear and made it to the top relatively easy. Not a lot left in the tank for Star Hill but again passed a couple of guys even worse than me. Made it back in just a minute under 4 hours which if you say it as 25kph average sounds quite good until you convert it to mph! Glad I did it, had some nice chats on the way and, at times, even appreciated the stunning scenery.

[Richard (Apples)]

Well that was interesting

Arrived about 8:15 and got a 9:20 start time so decided to set off early with Adrian and Andrew where the plan was to follow a friend of mine who knows the route. We set off at 9:05 and as soon as we hit the descent down Star hill it was clear he wanted to be home early and was disappearing into the distance. Putting in miles too much effort at this part of the ride I managed to get back on his wheel at the bottom of Brastead Hill....then I realised Adrian an Andrew weren't with us and I eased up just for a few seconds as I looked behind and he was gone never to be seen again
I latched onto a couple of riders until the bottom of Turners where I gave it a bit of a blast to the top and I think I managed to smile for the photographer

Just after that a fast group of went past and I managed to cling on to the back of them for quite some time until the pace meant I had to drop off or completely blow up
By the time I got to the last checkpoint I was thinking great only 10 miles to go but hadn't reckoned on it being all uphill.
Idle took a lot out of me and then I had to really grind it out up Star.
Got into the clubhouse completely spent but soon recovered after a cup of tea and a fantastic slice of bananna cake

See you all at Old Ports

[Andy S]

Was great to get out again after what must be two years, and was good to catch up with some of you guy's. Decided to do the short route as it was my first seriuos ride for ages and thought i'd gone to quick by the first check point as i was struggling to keep up with the group i'd latched onto, only to find i was just one of three heading out to Edenbridge. By this time i'd really got a rythum going and soon dropped the other two arriving at the Four Elms check point in 1hr 44 (30 miles) and was the second rider in !! However Ide Hill soon put me in my place and Star Hill was just a blurr as two or three riders past me (although slowly) - but I did manage to ride them both getting back to Knockholt in 2 hrs 40. For a first outing i thought it was pretty good, Course was great and organisation brilliant. Now looking forward to the next one.
Anyone got any info on the next reliability/sportive - i believe there's a hilly 55 in Feb, anyone doing this?

Andy S

Andy,
The next 2 local ones are:
[quote]February 11 2007
Old Portlians C.C.
Halstead Village Hall, Halstead, Kent
100k starting from 09.00hrs and 68k starting from 09.30hrs