First CR today

[Rogan]

A big thanks to Ben, Mark and Kate (plus a few others whose names have escaped me) for being a great bunch to cycle with today...! You all made me feel very included and welcome - thankyou.

Have agreat time this evening all.

[Antloony]

You mean people went out i this rain. I was ready to leave the house when the heavens opened so I sulked around the house for the next 3 hours moaning about the bloody weather.

Well done on getting out there, it can only get better from here on in.

[Snoop Doug]

Hey Rogan - great feedback thanks, we'll have a great time tonight and hope to see you on loads more club runs and @ the next dinner too

[Rob W]

[quote="Antloony"]You mean people went out i this rain. I was ready to leave the house when the heavens opened so I sulked around the house for the next 3 hours moaning about the bloody weather.

Well done on getting out there, it can only get better from here on in.

[Rogan]

[quote="Antloony"]You mean people went out i this rain. I was ready to leave the house when the heavens opened so I sulked around the house for the next 3 hours moaning about the bloody weather.

Well done on getting out there, it can only get better from here on in.

[quote="Rogan"]A big thanks to Ben, Mark and Kate (plus a few others whose names have escaped me) for being a great bunch to cycle with today...! You all made me feel very included and welcome - thankyou.

[Rogan]

Glad you enjoyed your first CR Rogan. Just think how good it'll be when the sun's shining!

I turned up in the pi$$ing rain, almost hoping that nobody else was daft enough to have come out, meaning that I could turn around and head straight back home! Unfortunately, some of the usual suspects were out.

Thanks to Amy for stepping up and initiating the roll out of the groups.

Despite the weather, it was great to be back on the road.

Thanks Keith, It's a lovely run and about halfway round I actually thought how nice it would be on a sunny Saturday morning. Sorry Amy for calling you a mother-figure! You're clearly far too youthful to be branded as such... By your reaction I just wanted to make sure you didn't in fact hear something else... (?)

[EdO]

[quote="Rogan"]A big thanks to Ben, Mark and Kate (plus a few others whose names have escaped me) for being a great bunch to cycle with today...! You all made me feel very included and welcome - thankyou.

Have agreat time this evening all.

[Rob W]

Yeah went back to sleep and then to the shed on the turbo.Next Saturday weather permiting of to Hillingdon For "Training".Anyone else fancy it.Say hi to Michelle from me.

[Rogan]

Glad you had a good time Rogan. Nice to meet you and a serious bike you have there.
I was the guy on the red bike at the front of our group. Apart from me nearly coming off on some ice for me it was pretty uneventful. When we turned left at the woods there was no resistance to the idea of skipping the cafe stop and pick up the club run in reverse. I would have never had got back out there if I'd stopped.

We got to Reigate and left a few of the guys to wait for Kate to catch up. That left me and Lockey. We missed our turn and went up Reigate hill heading towards the M25. How that happened I don't know. Probably my fault. Hope you all got back ok. All good fun.

There's still some snow on the lanes but will hopefully clear in the next 24 hours.

Thanks all.[/quote]

Hi again Ed (and sorry for missing your name off the group) re the bike - I need all the help I can get After I left the group - turning left at the golf course - my only way home was up Pebble Hill. Not sure how you ended up taking on Reigate Hill but I would probably have stayed with you guys and then headed off down the A217 (I assume you turned right at the top of the hill?) "Now I like Reigate Hill and I like Pebble Hill but which one is better?"

I was directly behind you when you hit that ice-crud but had enough time to avoid it. Your back wheel traversed about a foot well done for staying upright !

[Phil H]

Well I did (most of) the club run today and nobody else turned out. Saturday was just too much with the wind and the rain. Lovely today though. Back to normal next week.

Note: Just past the Charlwood sign/sprint point, there are a load of fresh new and huge potholes. Caution is advised.

[Amy]

Well, thanks for your enthusiasm, Rogan - not to mention the 'compliment'...

Not a good club run, even without the weather. As mentioned above, I thought 3 basic groups would be the best idea as there was so few, relatively speaking. Hence Keith left with a fast group and Mr Bayliss and girlfriend formed the 'slow' group.

Unfortunately that left a bit of a mixed lot for the 'middle' group - which was intended to be 17/18. We set out and immediately we had 3 or 4 who wanted the higher pace or more from the start. The rest seemed to struggling to keep up and even keep together so I managed to get to the front just before the motorway junction with the intention to pull things together a bit more so that we went over the junction as a good consolidated group. Only the majority of the group suddenly wanted to join the 4 off the front and suddenly shot past me and the other front runners. Now, I'm sure you'll appreciate from various things I've put on the forum, I am not exactly riding at my best and I didn't exactly feel brilliant yesterday, so couldn't respond as I'd wished to. It would've been nice if you'd just gone round to the front and eased back and made sure everyone was on or else waited till after the junction and said that you wanted to go a bit faster and I'd've been quite happy to split the goup or let you set the pace on the front keeping whilst ensuring everyone kept together.

That left 4 of us riding down and I thought we kept quite a high pace ourselves - I was still riding badly so felt the hills a bit - but nobody seemed to mind when I suggested the left to Leigh rather than going straight on after crossing a very high Mole (the river that is). Unfortunately as we turned into the side road there was one of those innocuous looking puddles hiding a rather large pothole and both the front guy (sorry, don't know if I knew your name..) and Pete Hewitt behind him hit it as none of us could swerve out due to a car coming down on us. So it was that Steve 'The Shadow' arrived on his winter bike (that he'd only finished building that morning at 1.20am ) to find us mending two punctures. Poor Pete had to go through two inner tubes to find one that would stay up.

By the time all was sorted we were somewhat frozen as well as wet and with Steve's driving desire to get to the cafe for a cup of tea, I suggested taking the direct route to Charlwood from Leigh - again no overwhelming sense of reluctance So we climbed up the couple of lumps at Mynthurst and the Fox Revived before dropping into the cafe to join the fast group there - the rest of 'my' group, I assume, had gone with my original suggestion for a ride by turning up Partridge and following the road round instead of turning right to go down Russ Hill into Charlwood.

After a quick stop with no queues and no shortage of cake, apart from Pete having swiped the last of the chocolate cake we set off back home for a pretty uneventful ride back to Charlwood.

I had intended to stop and have lunch at the new cafe in Coulsdon but by now my feet were soaked through (despite overshoes - it comes up through the cleat holes) and frozen solid so I followed Steve's back wheel back through Wallington and spent an hour at home defrosting enough to get in the shower and start the process of getting ready for the ACC dinner

[Amy]

Rogan, you might like to peruse this [url]http://www.addiscombe.org/members/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6703[/url]

It's the Addiscombe club run code of conduct - it can be found at the top of the General forum - and helps advise people how we expect members to ride in a group.

[Alboy]

Good to meet you Rogan. I was in the slow group and Andy and Ash went the full club run distance.
That was a cold and seriously wet one. We must be mad but really enjoyed it today.
Must get some overshoes too.
Hope you warmed up Ash? My gosh you were shivering so much in the cafe.
See you all soon.
AL

[Rogan]

[quote="Alboy"]Good to meet you Rogan. I was in the slow group and Andy and Ash went the full club run distance.
That was a cold and seriously wet one. We must be mad but really enjoyed it today.
Must get some overshoes too.
Hope you warmed up Ash? My gosh you were shivering so much in the cafe.
See you all soon.
AL