Sunday ride 21/12/08

[EdO]

Anyone fancy doing a steady ride tomorrow?

[Sylv]

Do you fancy a ride to Dunsfold to watch the Cross (you could even ride it on your SwissCross!)?

It's 44km from CSS, race starts at 1pm, so nice late start at 10.45am

We can probably leave the bikes in George's van.

Leave straight after race ends to (mostly - shortest day of the year!) avoid darkness and back by 4.30

[EdO]

Sounds like a plan. I will get down to CSS at 10:45. I think I'm gonna watch though rather than ride.
But hopefully just watching will be just the kick up the ars$ I need to do some cross races before the season is over.


Will pm you my mobile Sylv.

[Sylv]

Ok good. Anyone else welcome - will be an easy ride.

[Sylv]

[quote]Topping the entry is Cervelo pro Roger Hammond, the British cyclo cross champion was supported by Evans Cycles as a school boy showing early promise taking the title as Junior World Champion, and he makes a welcome return to the London cross scene. He will face a stiff challenge from the Arctic team featuring South East Champion Darren Barclay, Matt Holmes and Jody Crawforth, currently second in the National Trophy rankings.

Another great squad set to compete are Hargroves cycles led by Ian Field and Stu Bowers (South of England champion), and they will see eight riders in the field.

[Sylv]

Well I'm glad no-one else turned up expecting a nice little Sunday ride - it turned out to be a bit of an epic! Longer - 126km for me - than I expected, harder - that wind! much worse than yesterday - yet 31km/h averaged. On the way to Dunsfold I let Ed "the motorbike" do most of the work and eased off on the climbs. The route wasn't too scenic as the shortest way through the lanes was a bit complicated.

Onto the wind-swept and freezing cold airport we watched George, Aodan, Maria, Mark, Paul and Andrew race - but no Roger Hammond. Some say, he was kidnapped by the stig.The speed of the leading pair was impressive though - yet looking at their face and body language it didn't look like they were working that hard. They stayed together all the way with a great finish sprint won by Crawforth. George was lapped within 40 minutes but we think he finished 10th nice.

We rode back with Ben and even though the tailwind was a godsend we were all getting more and more tired. Without water we had to make a stop at Dorking and to fit our lights, a Coke helped and we finished the ride at a decent pace - totally knackered. I never tasted anything as nice as the smoothie I made when I came in.

[Ben]

We will have to get George, to carry patio heaters in his van, for us spectators. The route home was far better for me, no getting lost in the lanes. If I hadn't followed you guys home I'd still be there now.

[EdO]

Superb ride with Sylv and Ben yesterday. Really good fun despite the nagging head wind on the way down to Dunsfold. There were one or two welcome respites though when we had to refer to Sylv's beautifully hand drawn map.

Made it down to Dunsfold with a few minutes to spare before the off and caught up with George, Andrew and Paul. As they went to line up, I decided to warm up with a dirty hotdog (extra sauce) and a coffee
As the whistle went and riders were quickly progressing up the long straight I managed to steady my arms from shivering and get a snap. I was considering searching out that a certain part of the course that provide a good shot but was absolutely freezing so ended up standing on the side waiting for one of the team to come past so I could cheer them on. What became obvious after a two laps that noone was catching the front two. They were effortlessly lapping the pack.
Was great to see George absolutely flying. He was doing plenty of work and finishing very strongly.
Cheered on Andrew Green in his sprint with a guy who had allegedly been wheel sucking for most of the race and try to pip him on line. He was having none of it!!

George offered us a lift back but all of three of us decided to cycle back. There were a couple of times I regretted that decision but once we'd made it back to Reigate and on the final stretch of the clubrun, with the wind on our tails, we were fine.

Have a great christmas everyone.

Ed.