by Andrew G » Sat Mar 01, 2008 7:35 pm
Another excellent Brighton run by OS Guru PVT, top notch route today there and back.
[quote="Andrew G"]Nice one, but tell Keith he has to use his commuting bike and we're allowed to stick bricks in the panniers
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Well this was said in jest but Keith is certainly up for a challenge. When he and Tamar rolled up to CSS sure enough he was on his commuting bike. This thing is a real behemoth! Steel touring frame, full guards, flat pedals with toe-clips and straps, down-tube shifters (Tamar says only about 5 or 6 of the gears work
), a full set of lights and 2 lead-acid battery packs, and of course a rack. A pannier was also attached for today stuffed to the gills with odds and sods just to up the weight a bit. If you want to know how Keith is so strong then training on a bike this heavy must have something to do with it. I swear it was so heavy I could barely lift it off the floor more than an inch, Dan said he thinks he’s owned cars which weigh less!
The ride itself was great fun, although Ant decided he’d post his entry for the face plant of the year competition just outside Brighton. Fingers crossed he seemed okay apart from a couple of cuts, but made the wise choice to get the train back with Tamar, who had to get back early. Hope you're okay mate, let us know how your doing.
Lovely blue sky when I peered over my glasses, being reacta-light (sp?) looking through them always gives the view of an overcast day, but boy was it windy.
PVT spent most of the time on the front but he’s so low on his bike so doesn’t block much of the wind, and it didn’t seem to matter where you rode anyway as it still kept battering you from the side.
Grub at the seafront café was in glorious warm sunshine but thankfully all budgies stayed smuggled so we all paid for our lunch.
On the way back Andy K was suffering a bit so he and Del dropped off to make their own way home from about Horsham (I think). Good effort today if you normally ride with the 17/18s as although I had 17.5av on the clock when I got home, making it pretty much a “tin†ride, in the wind it was much harder effort than the speed suggests, particularly as the whole route was very rolling both out and back – no dual carriageways today Huw
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PVT turned off for his little assignation at Rusper and the rest of us came back on the CR route in reverse. Hal, Adrian, and Dan turned off to add a Box Hill finish on the ride, which I fancied for the extra miles but needed to get home.
Back home with a bit over 6 hours on the clock and 110 miles on the nose. A truly splendiferous day.
Oh, 53.5mph descending the Beacon
, shame it was so windy I could have set a new PB then
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