CR - 8th August 09

[Toks]

Hi Michelle, you won't be surprised to hear that according to Monty there were around 90 people out on last Sat's club run. I too would love to know how the other groups got on especially the very speedy 17's. I think Sean usually gets the ball rolling for the non TG groups but my main man clearly had bigger fish to fry viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8766&start=75#p91415

[Jon H]

Just to keep Michelle amused...

I was not racing at the weekend, and didn't have anything else on, so did my first clubrun in, erm, oh quite a while a while anyway. And what a week to pick; Monty was giving away free ACC bottles and socks at CSS, which required a bit of reshuffling of pockets' contents. I suspect this was actually a cunning plan by Monty and Phil to weed out the subscription debtors.

Anyway, set off with a fairly sizeable 18s group containing Ajay, Alex, Amy and other people not beginning with the letter A. It got a bit ragged in the lanes around Newdigate & Rusper, but I just sat in and tapped out a steady pace and didn't bother chasing down attacks or getting involved in the sprint. Nice cup of tea and slice of jam sponge cake in the garden at the cafe, needing some speed-scoffing action before the wasp got too interested. Decided to go back via Box Hill and somehow got caught up with the training group on the way there; stayed with them until the hammer went down on BH after the first hairpin which prompted my legs to fall off. I rode up at my own pace then lounged around at the National trust cafe until some other groups came up and rode back with them. Had a bit of a blast down Chipstead valley, then a steady ride back through the traffic from Coulsdon onwards with Robyn.

[Dombo]

My first CR in a while, having spent the last fortnight moving slothfully from sun lounger to beer tap in 40 degree heat.
Decided on the 18s, same group as Jon, and for a while it was like herding cats - speed all over the place, random braking - until the excellent downhill from Rusper where our BVR radar seemed to kick in and we filled the road.
Ajay made a good effort at keeping us under control until his tyre blew, and Grant and I stopped to offer advice - the useful sort as to which tyres he should have bought that would have rolled more easily off his rims than the ones he had.
Luckily I had my frame pump and after some furious pumping of my tool we were on our way. His second blowout prevented us catching the other half of the 18s, but on the basis that one ain't enough and three's too many I donated my third tube and pump and in no time we were off.
I just managed to keep up with the others as we raced to the cafe for a refreshing cuppa and bacon sarny - cheers Ajay - average 18.4mph. Sadly missed the call to BH so headed off in that rough direction on my own. Halfway there I decided against BH and took the direct route to Dorking then Reigate, ending up doing a partial CR in reverse.
Great fun and good to be back on the bike again. May have to try the mtb from EC next Sunday as well.

[Andrew G]

[quote="Toks"]I too would love to know how the other groups got on especially the very speedy 17's.

[Dombo]

[quote="Andrew G"] I trust you did a round of "did you check the tyre for flints" after the second one .

[Rob Q]

Joined the last group of the 17’s which included Mike I, Marky Mark, Tim Nick, Alan, Jeff, Serena, Tom, John and Mr Quickstep. (Apologies for not remembering the 2 or 3 others in the group)
A pretty disciplined ride up until just past Rusper golf course, when on the drag through the trees some reshuffling took place due to some slower riders being on the outside lane. Somehow Serena and Tim touched wheels, Tim took a tumble which resulted in some road rash to his legs and a bruised shoulder . Luckily nothing too serious and we were soon on our way. Mike turned off at Partridge lane, but the rest went on slowly increasing the tempo. At the sprint 3 of us were in contention with Marky Mark taking the honours…just with me finishing in second . That’s the second week in a row now . Avr of 17.8 by the time we reached the Café.

Returned via box with Phil N, Mike, Serena and one other. With Phil and I towing the others all the way back to the zig zag where we unceremoniously dropped by everyone up to Box hill . After recovering in the glorious sunshine with what seemed like half the riders that were out on the CR a great blast back to Coulsdon with Robyn, Jon etc where I joined Toks, Monty and Phil for a chin wag.

[Amy]

[quote="Dombo"]Ajay made a good effort at keeping us under control until his tyre blew

[TimNick]

As Rob posted, a good 17s group until I took a wee visit to tarmac land Nobodies fault just one of those things....by time the slow down got to me the ripple effect had left me nowhere to go.....oooh just like being a member of Euskaltel-Euskadi in pretty much any northern european race outside the summer months, you know hanging around at the back and falling off lots

Trip back was a bit of a struggle at times and will now get to do CR on Sat with 'wrist support' as it was pretty well strained....could only get a blue coloured one as well, no sign of an ACC official one, might just check with GBs though

Ride carefull y'all