4 Jan- Battery Hill Gets A Makeover

Battery Hill Gets A Much Needed Face Lift !

Our normal route down Battery Hill was not possible as we arrived to find the road  cut off by barriers. When we enquired what was going on, we were told that both sides of Battery Hill were going to have a major face lift with large areas of patching laid down on both sides and that the whole job would be completed in one evening. This is good news for us as this will mean a much smoother descent in future. The nice man in charge of the barriers agreed to let us through so that we could ride down Matineau lane and reach the coast via Chick Hill. As both Ivan and Malc were on fixed wheels myself and John S let them go first as we all descended in the dark very cautiously. On the long drag up to Broad Oak, Malc and Ivan raced up to the top (Malc later said that he thought he had never seen Ivan ride up there so fast) while John kindly gave me a tow all the way to the top. On the descent from Broad oak I was riding behind Malc enjoying the spectacle of his little legs spinning like mad on his fixie. As we reached the approach to Stonestile, we had to dodge a couple of nasty potholes that have just  appeared (and will need reporting), John has now reported so many that the council rung him up and invited him to a consultation evening! Ivan was going much stronger this week and had no trouble ascending stonestile lane on his high gear, although Malc made it up even faster.
The Friday night Broad Oak ride meets at the top of Battery Hill outside the Fairlight Lodge Hotel at 7;30 every friday.