What a day.
Paul T, Chris K, Rob T, Ben ?, and moi at CSS. We all seem to have got in the mood by drafting various cars down the Brighton Road to get there.
Main A roads down which would normally be a bit dull, but with all the vintage cars out and police waving you through some of the red lights it's great. You get waved through lights on hills as a lot of the cars would never get started again otherwise.
We picked a number of cars on the way down flicking on and off various vehicles so as not to annoy anyone by sitting there all the way down. In between a steady paced ride we were regularly spinning along at about 22mph just by flicking pedals over occaisionally.
At one point I jumped on a more lively car and Chris joined me. This one was going well and we were flying along. I looked at my speedo and was doing 33mph and the pace was picking up. I swung off at this point as I didn't want to kill myself, and wasn't riding right on the bumper as these cars have no brake lights and when they steer it tends to be a bit more of an immediate swing than the more gradual movement of modern cars. Chris also dropped off as we were the only two to catch this ride and were now miles up the road from the others
.
Highlight of the trip down was this chap in full tweed and plus-fours on a motorised trike. It was basically a sit up and beg tricycle with a motor attached. It also had pedals which he had to use on hills to keep it ticking over. Problem was it only had one gear and pedalling involved him spinning like his legs were going to fall off.
It was very funny, but he was a really nice bloke and looked to be having a top day. We'd pull away from him on hills and drags, and then when he'd got it wound up he'd catch us on the flats. As we then passed him as the road tipped up and he started spinning the pedals like a loon he'd call out, "only one gear" in a pained cry.
We got a bit split on the final run in to Brighton, Rob and Chris had pulled ahead on a hill and missed us when they were waiting as we were drafting a big van
. Eventually hooked up at the cafe and sat on the seafront in the surprisingly warm sun, a beautiful day.
On the run back Paul took us along the seafront saying we'll head out towards Worthing. The rest of us all simultaneously raised eyebrows and shook heads.
We kept the sea on our left until Lancing where we turned inland to start taking the same route back that we had done from the Bognor run earlier this year. This is a really nice ride back on a very rolling road that makes perfect training, lots of lumps and drags and some good spinning/power flats.
As Chris and I had recognised the route Paul was clearly concerned at having to hand over some money, so took us on a few deviations after Steyening to make sure we stood no chance. Paul has previously offered £10 to anyone who can retrace the exact route you take on one of these rides (satnav not permitted) but with his OS knowledge of the south east lanes it ain't easy, and he'll change the route if he thinks you've got it
.
We then picked up the CR route for the finish. Everyone took turns all day to share the work.
Just over 6hrs riding, 110 miles, and an average a touch under 18mph. A truly fantastic day. Thanks a lot everyone from a knackered but happy soul.