The weather for the ride was exceptionally kind with warm sunshine and no wind. Eight riders were up for the challenge including Anthony on his first ever sportive type ride and Chris W who we rarely see at a weekend. Chris P is still recovering his fitness and also had a couple of spokes missing from his back wheel but I gave him a paper copy of the route so that he could make an escape if he needed to .Rather than start the ride at the northern end (Biggin hill) we started the route at the southern end which is the nicest and highest part of the Ashdown forest. We headed north away from the forest onto more typical Sussex lanes, Chris W was a bit disappointed that we weren’t riding through the forest but I knew we would see the best of it on the way back. The route north was undulating with some hills, we kept asking ourselves where the first of the four big climbs were but by the time we got to the most northerly point we had already climbed one without even noticing! Chris P was struggling a bit by this point and so decided to wander back on his own and meet us at the start. Before turning south we had a good look at the paper map and could see that two very large hills were approaching, Hogtrough hill and Toy’s hill. As it turned out we ended up going down Hogtrough hill which was an absolutely fabulous descent, on my giant SCR rather than my Raleigh I felt much more in control and so went a little faster than I was used to. This almost led me to me taking a cropper when I had to pull over sharply to the left hand muddy side of the road to avoid a car coming up the hill overtaking a few cyclists, I could feel the back tyre squirming but fourtunatly the rubber held. Following this descent there had to be an equally large ascent and sure enough it was long before we started the scent of the highest hill on the route called Toy’s hill. This was a long steady ride uphill but was never unduly steep (i.e. never like the bottom of stonestile) so we all made it up there without too much fuss. By now we were all getting a bit thirsty, so pulled into a pub for tea and coffee near Hever castle with only 17 miles left to go. From here the terrain got much easier and more attractive as we got closer to the heart of Ashdown forest. Malcolm suddenly pulled over on a climb, I stopped to see what the problem was and couldn’t believe it, Malcolm’s chain had got stuck in his front derailleur due to a broken link, yet another broken chain! Malcolm is by now an expert at fixing broken chains but this one caused him a lot of swearing as the link had damaged the front derailleur and the only way to proceed was to remove the blessed thing, so Malcolm stuck the chain on the inner ring for the rest of the ride. Leading up to Hindleap Warren was another long hill some of the group thought it was the ‘wall’ but I knew that was at the end. On arriving at the top there was no sign of Anthony, we thought he may have bonked but it turned out that his chain had just snapped on the climb. What is wrong with modern chains? Between us we have now broken 5 chains in two weeks! Fortunately Malcolm the chain repair expert was with him and they soon re-joined us. From here was my favourite part of the route through wooded lanes of Wych cross and Coleman’s hatch. Finally I recognised the start of Kidd’s hill, otherwise known as the wall. I knew that the next few minutes were going to be filled with some pain and decided to pace myself. The fit ones such as Chris W and Malcolm shot off up the hill with Me Paul B, Dave HH and Derek struggling at the back. I managed to keep going and left the other three behind lost in my own thoughts before riding out into the sunshine at the top Kings standing which marks the top of the forest. I decided I had better wait for the others in case they went the wrong way. Paul and Derek soon arrived having had to get off for a breather at some point and then Dave who was bonking really bad. Dave wasn’t making a lot of sense and kept asking for food but I knew there was an ice cream van just half a mile away. This was a nice little stop and I wished I had told the others to meet us there so we could all have enjoyed the view and the ice cream. After this there was only a short very pleasant mile back to the vehicles before loading everything up and setting off for home. Many thanks to Chris W, Chris P, Dave HH, Paul K, Paul B, Malc, and Derek for great company and particular thanks to Anthony for bringing his van and loading up most of the bikes. I think we should make this ride a yearly event so roll on March 2013.
All pictures can be viewed here
62.5 miles 13.9mph Av
S.C
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