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| Andy And Peter |
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| John Heneke |
Having checked the forecast Friday morning I was looking forward to a dry and sunny Saturday. I was going to take my Raleigh but decided to go for the Giant SCR instead. At the last minute I thought I would stick a front light on it. Both these decisions turned out to be very fortunate. Not such a good idea was deciding not to bother taking out any food as it was 'only' a 30 miler. Good to see two new, slightly apprehensive faces first time early birders at STAMCO, Peter and John H. Also there were two riders that we haven't seen for about 6 months, Andy and Metin. Making up the rest of the crew were myself, Doug, Duncan,Derek,Steve D and Mike . Steve turned up with what looked like a chav Burberry jacket, which I took the p**s out of at the time. We set off along Bexhill road and along Cooden Drive. Mike pointed out the dark clouds and said that his two mates who were also going to join him had cried off. I told him that there was no need to worry about rain as the forecast was sunny and dry, Steve D laughed at this and said I should have used the Shoreham airport forecast instead which said exactly the opposite. Sure enough by the time it got to Hooe it was raining hard and visability was poor, I was glad I had stuck my front light on, and also that I was on my Giant SCR rather than the more skittish Raleigh. Mike decided to abandon at Wartling but the rest of us pressed on towards Windmill Hill. At this point there was a tempting easy escape route down to Sidley but having already completed a third of the route we all pressed on. The rainfall got heavier and heavier with some of the worst downpours at Bodle street which is exactly where we suffered our first (and fortunately only ) puncture of the route. Despite the rain I did not feel at all cold, but Derek was feeling it a bit.Steve's chav jacket no longer looked silly, he was warm and toastie being the only one with a water proof. On we went, gaining altitude as we moved up towards Brightling, we welcomed the climbing as the heat our muscles generated helped to warm us up. There was no let up in the heavy rain and we had to take the corners with great caution.At Brightling the rain started to ease up, the worst appeared to be over but our bodies had wasted a lot of energy just keeping warm. By the time we had climbed up Darwell Hill I could feel my blood sugar level dropping and started to bonk , so diverted off the gps route to the little shop on the corner where one (very expensive) mars bar later I was fit and ready for the rest of the route. Unfortunately Derek had not seen us pull over and had ridden past. I phoned him but it turned out he didn't have his phone on him so did the rest of the ride on his own wondering why he never caught up with us. From this point out it was mainly exciting downhill riding and the wind started to dry us out again. At battle we split into two groups with peter, Steve D and Metin main roading it back home while the rest of us pressed on determined to complete the route.Now the heavens decided to open again and for the last 6 miles of the ride the rain was non stop.
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| Lovely weather For A Puncture! |
Its very rare for me to ride in the rain as I always check the weather forecast first but I must admit I found this wet ride very enjoyable and exciting. Peter and John needed have worried as they both rode really well and are defiantly up to Early bird ride standard so hopefully we will see more of them.
Distance 32 miles
Av Speed 14.9mph
Ascent 944m
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