Old Ports RR Report

[Snoop Doug]

The Old Ports reliability ride, another first for me. Weather was set for a good day. Cold start, I know this because a) the thermometer thingie outside my car told me as I drove over and b) all the other ACCers cycled to the start and they were officially brass monkeys. Still, early Feb and I'm wondering....winter thermal gloves or track mitts. I took both and within three or four miles I'd plumped for the mitts.

We set off @ nine and before long we're blasting off down Polhill. Well, every one else was blasting, I was more like parping. Still, having had a good talk to myself I managed a slightly better effort on my first descent compared to the Hell of Ashdown and so this time I had breezed past Thora on her carbon fibre Stannah by the first bend.

Sean Hogan was agreeable beyond the call of duty today and waited for me @ the bottom of all the big descents. I repaid the favour by waiting for him @ the top of (most) of the climbs. The sun began to warm our faces, I decided to compensate for my poor descending by attacking all the climbs today so Sean and I traded blows up hill and down dale for 20 miles when suddenly, we came upon the Kent regional finals of Come Dancing....On Ice! A shady bend in the road was covered in a sheet of ice. I watched two riders go down like the proverbial sack of spuds. I gave them a 5 for effort but could only muster a 2 for artistic impression. They were OK and after Sean earned a gold good samaritan badge by spreading grit over the offending rink, we set off again.

We rested a while at the checkpoint in glorious warm (winter!!) sun and had a cup of sweet tea and a minty chocolate biscuit. Not a Viscount I hasten to add but nevertheless most welcome. The ride across the forest and on to Edenbridge was fast and really good fun, my best half an hour on the bike in 2008 thus far. We were rattling along in good shape......we had clearly forgotten the sting in the tail.

Toys Hill was its usual self, an abolute killer hill. As I huffed and puffed my way up it I tried to think what kind of toy the person who named this tortuous climb was thinking of. When I was a kid I remember stark warnings of teddy bear eyes coming loose revealing hidden spikes which laid waste to whole families of unsuspecting children. Must've been one of them then. Anyway, what goes up must come down and the descent was great - I made some good progress today in the battle of nerves and it was starting to show.

I pushed on for home and positively flew up Polhill, the final climb. Fom there a quick twiddle through country lanes and the HQ is in sight, hoorah! 4.43 for me, with a ride time of 4.12. A bacon sarnie and a cup of tea disappear in an instant. A few minutes later Sean comes into the village hall to a thoroughly deserved cheer.

A great ride, in great weather, with great company. Well done folks - and well done to The Old Ports, I've dropped them a note of thanks.

CHeers - Snoop

PS - the OP guy who told me that this ride has more hills than Ashdown was unfortunately fibbing. Garmin central tells me that Ashdown was 5550 ft compared to 4736 ft today.

[-Adam-]

[quote="Seanieh_PengeDaddy©"]ps, where were Adam & The Tunnelling machine ?

[jon avery]

Well i must say that when the alarm went of at 5.30, with the thought of a 90 mile ride in minus 2, i did begin to worry about my sanity! But what the hell, i WILL stick to my new years resolution and get the miles in. On the route down to our meeting place i met Mark and was relived to see i wasn't the only one doubting wether my marbles were still in my head. I must say it was a great turnout by the Aggreeables and this was pointed out by other members of lesser clubs than our own. we all left together, but slowly (in my case) split into our own little groups, i made friend with two riders from the West Kent RC and luckily for me knew the route ( take note Andrew and Sean), So i was happy to sacafice a bit of speed and stay with them knowing they would get me back to the finish the correct route without taking in Star hill.Finished with a time of 4hr 9mins, i was happy with that. Rode back with Jonathan and Mark, and am now having a cider or two watching the footy. Great day with great company. Roll on the hilly 50 next Saturday!

[George]

Set off at the head of the pack with Paul H in the massive yellow storage group from Addiscombe at 9am, then heard a shout from some pargons coming back up the other way h.q., Oi FAST GUYS LAST, so we headed back to the hq for a 9.20 departure with the racers group, Marco then appeared out the blue and said he'd ride with us, I wonder if he found a nice orchard to lay his head down in.

The pace was high, there were 9 or so of us at the start, people were taking hard efforts/turns up front and we were tanking along hauling in quite a few riders.

I took a couple of turns early but wasn't feeling my usual self so after this sat in for a nice cruise round the lovely lanes.

It was such a beautiful day today and once the sun came out we were nicely warmed up, Marcus was doing alot of hard early turns and later on Dave K was the man mainly on the front powering ahead.

Paul H was in another league today he was super strong and was easily the best up all the mega climbs winning with ease, back up toys hill and we finally reeled in the early starting Apples and Matt D who said they had waited for us to catch up, but they waited at the wrong place right at the bottom of Toy's Hill and thats where the toys were chucked out the pram.

Paul set the pace up Toys and it was just him Dave K and myself left, then Dave Attacked but it didn't last long Paul and I shout by him and Paul then disappears with ease up the road to take the climb at the top we thought about hammering on alone to the finish but 4 of us regrouped again.

Pole hill was where Paul attacked again and leading and nearly missed the turn off for the hq, I had dropped back 10m from the 2 with the relentless pace, so the 3 of us got back with a time of 3hrs10min. Super training ride today for the Wally Gimber, bring it on

I think Paul is easily putting out some decent wattage

[Antloony]

Well I made it, my 1st ever reliability ride. Picked up Andy on the white bianchi at GB's then set off for West Wickham. Saw the arse end off all the other agreeables and soon caught them up. Arrived to sign on with really numb ears and fingers but knew it was going to warm up as the nice weather man at the BBC had said so and they never get it wrong!!!!

Quick tea and a slice of cake, all signed in with a time of 4 hours given as my ETA...some hope I thought and I mount my bike.

9 o'clock sharp and its time to set off in one mass group all off like the charge of the light brigade...and at this point I'd like to thank the person in front of me for the rather wonderfull bum chuff they fired in my direction

The group soon started to splinter leaving the fast guys going at the front..I tried to keep up, did a good stit on the front then got hammered for my efforts up the 1st climb of the day when everyone went past me. I kept yoyo'ing back to them with Andy and his white bianchi (who I must thank for keeping me company all day, cheers mate) then finally caught them at the tea and cake stop. Quick breather then off again (sorry Kasper, didn't have time to look at your pics ).

Managed to stay with the manic pace at the front for a bit longer but slowly started to slip off the pace and thought time to take it steady knowing Toys was lying in wait. I hate that hill, I never get to the top without drama (wrong gearing, dropped glasses but today I had a bad attack of cramp twice in my right leg and had to stop to stretch it out. Got to the top then the fast decent down (love that bit) then on for the last few k's. I was really doing well again and picking up some riders in front of me through the lanes and up the big drag which I dont know its name...well I was doing well untill I thought 'hey lets turn off and go the wrong way'...dont ask. Still, quick check, turned around and set off to catch the riders I'd all ready caught once then on to the end where 2 bacon rolls and 2 cups of sweet tea revived me slightly.

Given time was 3.30 but actual time was 3.23 so really pleased with my efforts. Fantastic weather made the day (except for the ice, not nce to hear people falling off, hop all involved are ok)

Covered a total of 88 miles, rode back part the way with Carl, Andy, George and some other guy who I dont know sorry ,I felt ok and still had enough energy to have a quick run back to Sutton.

[Jon H]

A fantastic turn-out by the agreeables today; when we'd signed on and were sitting around in the HQ waiting for 9 o'clock to come around we took up almost half the available seating.

Off in the first massive group at 9 o'clock with almost everybody else. Quite a big part of that group (20+) stayed more or less together until the big climb up to the Ashdown forest, where the climbers in the group ripped the group apart. I think I was 5th to the checkpoint and a cup of tea at the top. Most of the group regrouped and started off together on the descent. I was using my Powertap for the first time on the road today, so had seen what sort of power I had putting out on the Ashdown climb when I rode away from a lot of the group. This gave me the confidence to "dish out some pain" as George would say, on some of the drags to Edenbridge. I was on the front as we started up Toy's Hill, but the same three who had been first up Ashdown soon came alongside and pulled ahead. From there on I was on my own for the rest of the ride, except for passing some of the 68k riders on the last bit of the route.

So, for the numbers fans, here's some geeky stuff:
Distance 58.8 miles
Riding time 3hrs 23mins (total time 3:28)
Average power 183W
Max power 651W
Average HR 158
Max HR 181

[Paul H]

Good to see so many ACC riders out today.

That was my strongest ride for quite a while and the only time I struggled was on the decents as usual. Cant beleive I dropped all the Paras (they were on training bikes though) and George up Toys Hill but there you go. I did find something wrong with my bike setup yesterday afternoon which I think made a big difference.

When I got to the Hall, I had done the fastest time so far - not that it is race though.

Ride Time 3:02
Official time 3:10
av Hr 144
max hr 174

[mlocke]

Good ride out today .... good, but hard!!

Out at 6 o'clock and met Jon on the way to West Wickham where we met the rest of the Acc'ers.

At the start like the other mentioned we were by far the best attended club with yellow & black shirts all over the place.

Out on the road the club was promenant too with a large contingent in the first group of 20 - 30 riders.

I managed to hang onto the fast group for the first 25 miles till I was well & truly spanked out the back at a junction at the top of one of the climbs. To be far I was starting to hang around at the back of the groups and there was no way that I would have lasted much longer anway!!!

With that my pace fell considerably as I was well and truly knackered and then Kasper came along who I managed to stay with till the check point. Thanks for the encouragement Kasper, without it I am sure that i would still be trying to get to the top of Ashdwn forest. Point worth noting at this point but what a briliant checkpoint at the top of Ashdown - great view and free tea and biscuits.

With that in mind Kasper and myself decided to have an extra cup of tea and an extended stay to wait for the main Acc bunch which came shortly.

At this point I was dropped by everyone as cramp had well an truly set into both my calfs and quads making it impossible to put any power into the bike. It was at this point that I really began to worry about th up coming Toys hill!!!!

When it eventually arrived - much later than I would have hoped due to the snails pace being made by myself it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Half way up I stopeed at the small slip road to stretch out my cramping legs but from that point it was largely downhill and uneventful until the last roundabout before the HQ where I got confused and started heading towards the Ashdown HQ at Knockholt. After asking for directions I was soon heading in the right direction and was very pleased to find that everyone was still enjoying the tea and cakes.

Officical time 4:20 - time on my computer 3:45 so i'm please with that given my total lack of pace in the last 15 - 20 miles.

Finally good rid back with the Jons after cake, tea and a sarny to take the dog for a walk and boy will I sleep well tonight.

Hope this works but for those interested the route profile is attached on this link. It oes include my ride from/to home/HQ which was 15 mile in each direction

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/char ... height=450

Mark L

[-Adam-]

Dave was racing yesterday Paul, and I'm sure he wasn't going all out anyway, he never does! Except in a race when it really counts. Even I was beating him up hills in December/January, but I know full well I was trying a lot harder than he was!

Marcus on the other hand, yes I could drop him like a fly (If I could get out of bed that is )

[Marek]

Dave K may have been racing yesterday, but I can tell you Paul was not exactly taking it easy on the club run yesterday. Good riding guys, sounds like it was a great day out.

Cheers

Marek....

[quote="Sean"]Sportive Meishter Mr Green

[Paul H]

[quote]Dave was racing yesterday Paul, and I'm sure he wasn't going all out anyway

[quote="Paul H"][quote]Dave was racing yesterday Paul, and I'm sure he wasn't going all out anyway

[carl f]

That lass from sis just wouldn't leave me alone
Was taking it fairly easy until after ashdown then got pulled into sis girls group
She was very strong and for the next 10-15 or so miles we dropped her chaperones and like andrew got lost somewhere and climbed crockam or whatever hill
Dispite the de-tour i really enjoyed yesterday
Great to see so many friendly agreeables out
90 miles in the pins,my longest ride for a few months
Carl

[Andrew G]

[quote="Marco"]I managed a quick hello and it turned out he was from Croydon and not in a club - the thing was I was suffering so much and so out of breath I could barely get the words out - "Addiscombe...friendly....Saturday 9am....Coulsdon....friendly"