Hell of the Ashdown

[Mark F]

Having been signed up by my bro-in-law for this I duly turned up as did a couple of his mates - but he was a no show.

No surprises that it was (very) cold and had to jump off the bike about a dozen times to walk across/around icy patches. Saw a couple of people slip over at walking pace and had to jump out of the way of a car sliding backwards down one steep stretch. However, it was a gorgeous day for it provided you stayed up right and were well wrapped up and dry - one of our group snapped a chain and fell in a large puddle and shivered thereafter.

Well organised event with great feed stops and good food at the finish.

Mark

PS Saw only one ACC top

[Snoop Doug]

Good work Mark.....you nutter

[Paulos Fandangos]

I braved the elements for this one as well. At 8.45 the temperature was hovering around -4ºc and although MetOffice reckoned it had just reached above freezing about the time I finished it certainly didn't feel like it!
Was warm all the way through with the exception of the toes on my right foot!! I was disapointed that the route wasn't diverted in places to avoid some treacherous lanes, as was the case last year. I've never had walk my bike on a sportive before, but some lanes were impossible to ride in the conditions. I saw plenty of people fall off, one nasty fall on a bend up ahead. I'm sure there'll be a few bruised bodies out there today.
Despite this, it was a beautiful day being mostly sun-drenched between the odd snow shower, and met many new friendly faces along the way.
Before reaching a really dreadful stretch somewhere around Chiddingstone/Penshurst I was quite chipper and riding well. It was almost enough for me as I was fed up with the stop-start crawl through entire stretches of road covered in ice. I was basically just riding back to finish. Finally the conditions let up, and when I started to pick up the pace I saw "Yorks hill" to the left, and knew exactly where I was. Re-fuelling at Ide Hill, my first stop on the ride I made a charge for the finish. I was joined by 5 guys from Shaftsbury Wheelers, which became 3 after Star Hill. Our group of 4 rode a good pace the last few miles to the end.
Looking back on it it was a mixed days riding, highs and lows but certainly character building
Still didn't get what I wanted from the ride, maybe next year; 3rd time lucky.

[Andrew G]

Madness not changing the route the way the weather was, I'm not far from where this goes and know a lot of the lanes it uses and there is no way I would go down them when it's been icy.

Even more stupid as they publicised that the route may be changed due to ice:
[quote="Catford HOA Website"] ICY CONDITIONS
• If there is a likelihood of widespread icy patches in the country lanes then an alternative route will be used which avoids some of these.
• This will be announced at the HQ Control