Brighton ride, Sunday 12 Dec

[Tamar]

Anyone want to join myself and Paul Tunnel on a spin down to Brighton and back on Sunday 12 Dec? Paul has promised a testing route, avoiding dual carriageways and including Ditchling Beacon.

Meet CSS 8.30

[JelleBrons]

hi, I would be interested. What is your pace approximately?

[Tamar]

I think we avg'd about 17mph last weekend, but it will probably be a bit slower on the 12th as we'll be doing more hills.

[JelleBrons]

That sounds good to me! I'll put it in my agenda. I'll check nearer that time whether anything has come in between.
cheers

[Maria David]

Will have to see nearer the time - that's the weekend of the Women's (WCRA) cycle training weekend in Chester so will make a decision in a few weeks' time.

Maria

[Ben C]

I'll probably be up for that.

[David Findlay]

Count me in......

[Rob]

im in, theres gonna be a good race in the middle too far anyone up for watching.

chose your man, and place your bet

addiscombe hill climbing battle

rob fallon VS mighty ajay super speed unstoppable feather weight kande.....cant remember the rest! from ditchling bottom, to ditchling top!!!

[David Findlay]

Give me 20mins to get to the top first to witness the winner...

[Rob]

looks liek weathers going to be good. bring it on

[Marek]

Excellent jaunt down to Brighton and back today. Am certainly feeling it in my legs though.

Left CSS at about 8.30am with a group of around 12 - 15 riders. When we got to Merstham Paul informed me that Toks was on his way. I was then sent off to find him while the others carried on. I went back up Merstham and waited for Toks. No sign of him but bumped into Brian Tidey who I sent on to join the ride. Toks didn't arrive so I then red lined it to catch up the group, who were thankfully waiting for me in Newchapel where Paul T took us around the Handicap course because I think he forgot we were meant to be going to Brighton.

We then took an interesting route down to Brighton which missed out all the main roads. We climbed Ditchling at a reasonable pace with Rob Fallon and Dave Pook putting in fine performances, I got stuck behind a car. By the time we reached Brighton we were down to around 10 hardy riders and others had turned back due to something called 'lunch' and 'xmas shopping', sounds like torture.

We made our way to the Regency and were treated with various culinary delights such as the L'eggs on toast and La Beans avec toast.

Dave F took the train back due to orders from the war office to be back in daylight hours.

The rest of us took the A23 for a short distance and then turned off through Hassocks and eventually came out in Handcross. We then went the club run home. By this time there were only five of us in the group I was in. PVT and a couple of others took a more direct route.

We stopped at the COOP just outside Reigate and stocked up on Fruit cake slices (I recommend them), bananas and powerade. Dave Pook and I felt a bit guilty that we managed to put away all 6 of the fruit slices without offering any around, mind you all the others were munching away on other culinary delights.

Hope you all got back ok, I have to admit that I am absolutely knackered after the ride, and I bet the young lass (can't remember your name due to exhaustion) who had another 25km to get back to Putney is pretty tired as well.

Cheers

Marek....

[richv]

An excellent day out. Thanks to Paul for guiding us around the delights of the south of England despite being so ill that he shouldn't have been anywhere near his bike.

When everyone else peeled off the dual carriageway to Charlwood Paul and I were somewhat off the back. When Paul said he wasn't going to follow the daft fools who wanted to make the ride longer and he was going to head back on the A23 I needed no persuading. Managed to suck his wheel long enough to ensure he had nothing left in the tank, quick stop at a petrol station to sort things out and then a slower trundle towards Redhill. Paul had wisely decided to head towards the station and I made it back to Beckenham in one piece.

My legs however seem to object to stairs at the moment.

[Marek]

We couldn't have a weekend ride without the Charlwood sprint, mind you I messed it up and that sneaky Fallon took it with ease.

[Tamar]

Yeah, the sprint was fun....to watch. I had forgotten about it and just taken a large bite of muesli bar when I heard the whirr of Fallon's fancy wheels as he rocketed from the back to burn off the competition. Not that I would have been any competition even if I hadn't been choking on my snack.

I think we've learnt lessons from the ride....like doing a head count at Couldson. Several people only came out for a couple of hours and then headed back home, so we weren't entirely sure how big our group was. Although we waited at the top of hills, we think we may have mislaid a rider in a red jacket on a red bike. We waited and waited and in the end had to carry on, hoping he had turned off home and was not riding in vain round the surrey lanes.

We lost another couple who shot off the front at Turners Hill, never to be seen again.

Top day out tho.

[Jon H]

If the guy in the red jacket on the red bike also had a big white beard, he probably had to turn off early to get back home in time to do something important next Friday night.