Friday Chain Gang 2 March- Barney Shows The Way

Great Fun Having Simon N And Barney Out With Us

Stonestile leaderboard (Top 17)

Another cold but dry night for the Friday Chain Gang. Fantastic to see that Simon Newell was there on 'old pinky' (his first Friday  this season) and also Barney was there on his first ever . Just as we were about to leave another very bright front light approached, it was a rare but welcome appearance from Josef who we haven't seen much of this season. This made a group of eight riders which is a great turnout . I had warned Barney how dangerous it was descending Battery Hill in the dark with the poor condition of the road. As he hit another little pothole he was thinking to himself 'I hope my front light doesn't fly off' when almost exactly at the moment mine did just that and proceeded to roll down the hill. having pulled over ,I told Barney to go ahead and tell the others I would  catch  up. On cycling back up to retrieve the light there was car coming down the hill straight towards where my it lay, luckily as the car drove over it , the light went between the  wheels and my light emerged unscathed. I caught up with he others at the nature reserve. On the long drag up to Broad Oak the front pack lead by Simon, Malcolm and Simon N just managed to drop Simon G before the end with the rest of us spread out on the hill. Despite the temperature being only 3 degrees it felt warm and I was able to ditch the woolly gloves and ride with fingerless gloves which gives much more feedback from the controls, I guess we must have acclimatised to the cold? The local council have been busy and have done a great job of fixing the big potholes (that Jon and I reported) on the approach to Stonestile lane . The smoother approach gave us a bit more energy for the climb and we all felt good. Despite this being Barney's first time on the route, he managed to better the experienced  Malcolm and got to the top first with an impressive fifth fastest ascent of all time on strava (our very own Matt Reynolds is second, that that would make a good scalp for barney to aim for?). Both myself and Jon felt really good compared to the last time we rode a Friday and for me it was a PB on Stonestile with the twentieth fastest strava ascent of all time (LOL). It was great fun to have Simon N, Barny and Josef with us, hopefully they will come more often