by ajay khandelwal » Tue Apr 29, 2003 3:37 pm
Yep, flew the addiscombe colours in the first BHF ride to Birmingham. Marco kindly put me in touch with Jon Frost (General Secretary, Track Racer, Rollers Racer and half the membership of the Redmon CC). He picked me up from ACC headquarters at 5 am. Luckily, I had dropped my idea of riding the Norwood Hill race on Saturday, and spent the whole eating at a Barbeque instead. I spent the evening painting a self-portrait just in case I didn't survive the ordeal. After all, when I joined the Addiscombe, I thought 10 miles was a long way; i only used my cycle to commute. This was to be 120: more than I'd ever done in a day. The last long ride I did was to Brighton, which resulted in me destitute, going to sleep on a bench in a shopping centre near Redhill.
On the drive down, Jon talked me through his collection of 15 bikes, which lasted about 55 minutes. I talked him through my collection of 1 bike, which lasted about 5 minutes.
The ride was from Gunnersbery park and really well organised. There were several hundred riders leaving from london. There were 2 Marshalls at every turn turn and junction all the way to Birmingham. The weather forecast was poor, but in the event it was breezy and sunny. We met riders from Oxford along the route, and lots of people doing the ride on mountain bikes. In the end I rode it alone a lot of the time, because the pace was slow, and I lost rhythm and got cold if I chatted too much. The ride was supposed to be 120 miles, so I put a couple of good sprints in towards the end, only to find there were 13 extra miles of undulating hills extra to the finish. Ouch!
Nice finish with waving crowds at the NEC, and Addiscombe got a mention on the mic, and various people commented on the club as I walked around the bike show. Fortunately for me Jon had a company car waiting, and dropped me back to the club house/ home. So, despite rumours, the Redmon aren't all bad. Thanks for the acc members who have contributed the appeal. Hopefully, raised £150 for BHF in a week.