Club run 23rd June

[Steve B]

Even with all the other rides going on over this weekend, we still had over 30 on todays club run. Quite impressive!
A few of the bling bikes were left indoors due to the threat of rain which didn't materialise.

2 groups left Coulsdon, with roughly even numbers. A good steady pace was set in the first group out with Jon H and Polish Andrew at the front.
Up the Reigate steps and the pace got a bit hot and the group got stretched. We lost Andrew due to a puncture, so the work at the front was then shared between a few more of us.

Long thru&off was nice and smooth, and fairly quick, and by the time we got to the traffic lights we had the other group (who did the shorter route) in our sights. As we went passed them down the hill towards the left turn off the D/C, most of them jumped in to make one huge group heading towards Charlwood. A few of the guys realised the problem of the large group and started to push the pace up. Toby pulled out from mid bunch to move forward and I followed. As we got nearer the front I noticed Stu had made a break for it. I think Jon had half gone but had not fully commited. I decided to jump the gap and see if anyone came with me. As I got near to Stu a thought crossed my mind that I had never gone for a long one before. I shot passed him, hoping he hadn't tagged on, but 300m down the road my legs started dying and when I looked round and saw Stu and Jon, I knew the long one was over.

Stu said "lets do thru&off". "S@d off" I thought, but 20 seconds of drafting later, my legs came back. The three of us did a couple of turns each on the front and it was left to Jon to do the honours of leading us out for the sprint. I went early-ish and Stu jumped on my wheel but I dug deep and he wasn't able to come round me.

It was odd with the cafe being so quiet but the tea and cake was very welcome as usual.

Andrew made running repairs to his blown tyre, borrowing a spare piece of tyre from Ian as an emergency, which lasted to Merstham

Sean set the pace on the way back. Toby and Kieren broke away thru the golf course to the church, and up the Merstham drag Kieren, myself and Stu went b*lls out and hammered it down into Coulsdon. Brian R was back to amazing form so quickly after his injury and led the next group down.

All in all another great ACC club run

Steve

[Stu Merckx Man]

thats was a great club run.

i was meant to be taking it easy because of a race tomorow, but i couldnt resist having a hard one.

it was nice and smooth through the lanes and a good through and off.

as we were 1 and half miles or so away from the finish i made a jump and was about 50m infront of the pack. though the intention this week was not to stay away until the end, but hope that someone would come over to me....

my gut feeling was that it would be steve coming across the gap, and when i looked back i was not suprised to see him steeming across. i eased up slightly, but like he says he shot passed me!

i got out the saddle and sprinted a 10m gap between us. i said we should do a through and off, and so i came through first. then we were joined by jon, and like steve said, again, we each did a few more turns. i looked back a few times and we seamed fairly safe from the pack.

as we neared the sprint jon was leading us out. i saw steve moving to the outside of me, so i did the same to jon, to make sure i could try and counter a move by steve. sure enough, still with a fair way to go, steve shot passed and i grabbed his wheel. he was not full on sprinting yet, but in the saddle pushing the pace right up. then he went for it . now this is the first time i have ever had a one on one sprint with steve...i didnt stand a chance ...i have heard the stories of his sprinting prowess and there all pretty accurate....so anyways, 70m to go and i popped out from behind him and managed to get my front wheel in line with his back wheel, but thats as far as i got, and he crossed the line half a biek length in front. a very convincing win, and well deserved, as he did go very early!

nice ride on the way back, had the little break with kieren and steve. steve was doing huge turns and seams to have improved immensly over the last 2 months or so. hes a completely different rider!! and it took me forever to get onto the back of him and kieren. when i finally did get across it was thanks to some lights got home pretty nakered. im feeling ok now, just hope im recovered for tomorrow.

cheers
stu

[Ian A4size]

I really enjoyed todays ride- even tho i was half asleep for most of it.
A good pack out today bristling with a TT legend on a sparkly new Scott, a RR superstar on a sparkly new Merckx, a smattering of the club VC's, quite a few sprinters and a tired old neverwillbe.

A fairly gentle ride out of the station, that became rather brisk by the time we got to the motorway.
It all held together quite well until the "ups" after the garage...then as usual it went ballistic, step forward Toby!
Whats all that about asked Jon? Ah its just the usual!
We managed to stay in good shape thru the lanes despite Andrew doing his best to get away into the headwind.
A timely puncture calmed him down tho
For some reason i fell back a bit up the rusper drag , mind you i did have company.

Thru and off time and for once we had a tailwind, so that made it nice and easy, and the group worked well together- not a lot of surging and good communication- esp coming out of the roundabouts where it can get a bit stretched out.

We met the 17/18 group near the end of the dual carriageway, they were also moving quite well- but we had to have 'em.
After that it all seemed to go t1ts up - the other group were having none of it and Ajay shouted "on the wheels" no formation, no calls- just head down and @rse out!
Riders were being shelled out as we tore thru the lanes- i know i was one of them!
The missus went flying past me in the dying stages- Ajay and i had a mini sprint- about 3 pedal turns each and sat up.
There were only about 30 riders in the cafe but with the adrenaline buzz it sounded like the usual 80!
Nice brisk ride home, Sean launching a few attacks and being chased down by Paul everytime.
I got home nicely knackered, i have not done a lot of fast riding recently but we hit the cafe with an avg of 21.2 mph and home with just over 20.