Easter Monday ride

[Alan M]

Will we need eye protection against the dazzle Marek?

[Marek]

Cheers for the company today guys, really enjoyed that ride. Left mine at 8.30am, was cold but nothing too bad. As I got to Merstham the snow started to fall, wasn't that bad though and then went down to CSS to meet the band of brave souls ready and raring to go. Think there were about 8 of us and we headed out over to Tilburstow Hill with Antloony getting a puncture on the hill out of Merstham. After a quick fix we got going again and had a nice steady run out to Crowhurst and then over to the outskirts of Lingfield and then up over to Edenbridge via Haxted Mill.

In Edenbridge we then headed back over to the race circuit where we saw a few of the backmarkers who were finding the race pace too tough. We hung around a bit, but the commissaire informed us that it is a 15 mile circuit and the race would not be back around for another 40 mins. It was chilly so we hooked onto the back of a couple of dropped riders and got a tow over towards Lingfield. The snow was on and off throughout the ride, but thankfully nothing too bad.

In Lingfield I turned off home and the others headed over to Blindley Heath to find a pub. The new bike held up, think it should be ok for next weeks ACC race. Did you need your sunglasses Alan?

Cheers

Marek.....

[Alan M]

To pick up where Marek left off:

We then managed to miss the pub and pressed on to the return of Tilburstow hill, but from the other direction. From there we headed into Godstone and took the road that crosses above the M25. It is called Flower lane and it links to Gangers. Before Gangers we took a left onto a track and cut through the grounds of the girls school. By this time we had achieved blizzard conditions and there was a covering of snow on the road. Luckily, stopping where we did, we avoided an out of control car careering down the hill towards us and bouncing off both banks!. At this point some of the children started to play snowballs and I pressed on a bit along the completely snow covered bridleway. Eventually, after losing height and probably due to road salting, the surface cleared and we mad reasonable progress, eventually reaching the A22 where we made a heat inducing dash for Purley.

I was very cold when I got home and prescribed myself with food and a nap!. Off to Valencia for a few days tomorrow so hopefully a little sun.

Thanks for the ride

take care

Alan

PS - Very sexy bike Marek!

[Steve B]

Marek, you missed all the fun

On the way back, we decided not to stop at Blindley Heath, opting to keep going as not to get cold.

Up over Tilsburstow Hill, the sky ahead of us looked very dark indeed. Down the other side it started to snow quite heavily, but again we decided to push on. The snow now was really hurting our faces as we rode into it. Alan took us on a route to miss out the main A22, which led us up hill, on a small road which led us on to a lane that went around a big school. Anyway, halfway up this hill, the road became totally covered by about 15mm of snow. With rear wheels spinning on each pedal stroke, it all became a bit comical, with everyone doing about 3mph trying to find grip and not falling off. We all made it to the turn off on to the lane, just, except Conor, who got held up I think, and so had to walk up the last bit. As he got near us, a car came around the sharp bend ahead of us totally out of control, sliding everywhere and bouncing off the verges and headed toward him. Luckily it missed.

After a few snow balls and photographs, we set off down the lane, practicing getting the bike sideways and doing wheel spins. With cold hands now (shouldn't have thrown those snowballs), I was quite keen to get home.

All in all, quite a fun ride

[Antloony]

Wow that was fun. Well think Ive ridden through everything now...sun, rain, gales and now a blizzard. Think Ive just thawed out at last, the last few miles were cold ones and I was glad to get in and change into dry clothes and get warm.

A great ride though guys...or shall I say kids after the snowballing antics It did come down quite quick and heavy but was quite fun to ride in untill I got cold hands.

The crazy woman in the car was funny, fancy driving at that speed down hill on snow. A real DOH moment...still, she did wave at us..or was that an attempt to shift the whiff of sh*t away from her face because her expresion looked as though she'd dropped one in her pants through fear.

Legs felt a bit better today, still not 100% as struggled on anything approaching a hill but felt better than I did saturday.

As Steve said all in all a good ride, cheers chaps.

[quote]After a few snow balls and photographs

[Steve B]

[quote="Alan M"]- can we see the snaps?

[Conor Cormican]

Really enjoyed the ride today, up to a point. I was worried about keeping up when I saw who was in the group, anyway everyone was taking it easy and I was not dropped. Had to walk up Tilburstow hill because of wheel spin and a car coming backwards down the hill towards me, further up the hill another car slid across the road in front of me and hit the ditch and then came at me luckly she was going quite slow and missed. Did not get involved in the snowball fight but my hands were freezing at that stage anyway. When we reached the A22 I fell back and because of the cold decided to take the hilly route through Selsdon and on to the mad mile at Addington, I was going along quite well at that stage with my hands beginning to recover some feeling when I had a front wheel puncture. Luckly I was near home so a quick phone call and the rescue service came out to meet me. Straight into a hot bath then lunch now I have to fix that puncture.

Good day despite the blizzard, good encouragement from Steve B and glad I went out.

[Marek]

Have the picture you want to upload somewhere on your c: drive or in your 'my documents' or somewhere like that on your PC

Then use the site http://tinypic.com/ to upload it to their servers where they will host it for free (click the browse button on their website to locate the picture to upload on your pc then submit it) and click 'Upload Now' when you have selected it


When its been uploaded the screen will change and it will have a load of technical looking computer code on it

You want the box marked
"IMG Code for Forums & Message Boards:"
In this box is the code you need to paste in to your Addiscome forum message to link to their copy of the picture

eg
[lMG]http://i13.tinypic.com/47te3cy.gif[/lMG]


If you paste the code in you should see your newly uploaded image displayed on our forum

Thats it! You can upload as many images as you like to them but remember to do them one at a time and paste the computer code into the addiscombe forum one at a time (on seperate lines) otherwise it gets a bit confusing

[Antloony]

Glad you made it back ok Conor, the pace picked up rapidly towards Croydon but thought you were close enough to home to be ok. Are you sure you had a puncture or just couldn't be ar%ed to ride the rest of the way, that was going to be my plan but I thought I'd get caught ut as we hadn't been going long before I got a flat. oh and hope you had fun dodging the cars in the snow.

Marek did a good job of going slow enough so we could all keep up Thats why I love these rides, good pace, everyone hits the hills at their own ability and then re-groups and continues without dropping anyone and at such a pace we can all have a good chin wag.

Ive got a couple of pics that I'll try upload later, if I cant as Im pants with pc's perhaps I can e mail them to someone and they'll put them up.

Cheers.

[Antloony]

Tried to upload a pic...its to complicated for my little brain to cope with....help..

[adrian]

Really enjoyed today's ride despite the freaky weather - we had a very nice group that stuck together through thin and thinner

Don't have much to add to the excellent reportage already posted, but can contribute a couple of pictures I took at the height of the blizzard. Here's Conor arriving on the scene of the impromptu snowball fight. Note in particular the tracks of the out-of-control car behind :

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2154/2357935441_05b25684d2.jpg[/img]

The ghostly figures emerging out of the gloom are Alan, Ant, Rob and (far right) Steve B.

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2399/2357935635_bca540ebf3.jpg[/img]

Not the best-quality photos in the world, but you get the idea - and for a while it really did look like that.

From this point on it was a case of trying to stay upright until the A22 - a task further complicated by the snow billowing directly into our faces. Eyewear was useless - the snow built up on it - but without it the effect was similar to riding behind someone firing gravel at you from a blunderbuss.

Once on the A22, I found that the accumulated clag on my cleats meant I couldn't get into my pedals - finally achieved this at Purley. Here we (Ant, Steve B and I) realised we'd lost Conor - sorry to hear about your puncture - and pressed on homewards.

A fun day out and some decent mileage as a bonus at this stage in the week.

Thanks to Alan for suggesting and leading - bon viatge. See you all soon.

[Andrew G]

Pics from Ant.

Blimey you really did get caught when it fell down.

Bracing yourselves for the next snowball onslaught or watching the car going ice skating?
[img]http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n315/andrewgreen23/Photo-0189_000.jpg[/img]

Conor looks on as the kids play Steve - are you dodging or looking for ammo?
[img]http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n315/andrewgreen23/Photo-0191_000.jpg[/img]

[Antloony]

Cheers for posting them up for me Andrew, feel like a dunce now.

The pic is us watching a car trying to hit Conor as it skidded out of control hitting the banks at the side of the road, Conor did well to dive out of the way...

The snow really came down quite quickly, we just seemed to ride into it and before we knew it it was white all over. I avoided the snowball fight as my hands were already getting cold.

[Hal]

I had been looking forward all weekend to getting out on the bike today as there was no snow forecast

I left the house and it started snowing straight away and did,t stop. I rode out over Botley hill, into Brastead over Toys hill past the possies heading though Edenbridge in the opposite direction, down to watch the racing very briefly, then on to Forrest Row over the Ashdown forest and into the lanes towards Ditchling.

It stoped snowing for about 10 minutes and started raining instead. My back was killing me but I was warm and dryish.

Up Ditchling couldn,t be arsed to go into Brighton so went back down and headed west to join up some new lanes through towards Handcross. The road was closed and as I was walking round I realised my seat had slid backwards which explained why I was struggleing to reach the handle bars and killing my back. Fixed this then it started hailing. Then snowing, now I was wetter and hungery too.

Up to Peas Pottage and round into Charlwood the back way, still hungery, I just headed straight back up the club run home and was really tired now.

Limped home with 102 miles at a not so quick 15.5ave (but excusable given weather). Then lay in front of the TV drinking tea and eating. Bit of a mini epic, I should have gone racing in stead.

H