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| big turnout of 2 dozen or so, Team Sky have just texted to say "Quick sign that Reynolds fella with the nice top before Garmin or the Rovers get him ! " |
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| Pete Tadros on his Sunday best - 6kg! |
Chris Parker writes "H&StL CC Wednesday Chain Gang Winter 2012 -2013 has a very fast finish
The 2012-2013 Wednesday evening chain gang ended on a high last night with a big turn out including In Gear's Pete Tadros for the first time this season fresh from Saturday's win in the Catford 10 with a 19.44 on the Tonbridge bypass. With a 30mph TT fresh in his legs the chain was well and truly broken with only Matt Reynolds holding Pete's wheel for the entire ride, Rover John Cordner almost managed it too. Eleven repaired to the Anchor afterwards to celebrate a great winter's gang with many 20 plus turn outs and also a probable last chain gang for Chris Watson who is likely to be back north of the border when the Wednesday gang resumes in September."
Friday Chaingang meets 7.30 Fairlight Lodge till end May, first Wednesday TT 1st May meet 6.30 at Broad Oak on A28, just past B2089.
Was a quick one, Pete Tadros did a personal TT and few could hold his wheel. John C stayed on longest and got dropped at Spooky hill, the last five or six of us were dropped leaving Bexhill - worked well taking short turns, but couldn't catch. At the stop Svawek could taste blood, " that was a heart attack" and I felt a bit ropey like I might lose my dinner for a bit. Malc said we should have worked harder, and Ivan leading a group behind us said that he was definitely closing us down. Some small comfort could be taken that Pete admitted in the pub later he was " really trying" to drop everyone. So well done Matt, have you ever thought about road racing? Team up with Trevor, he's doing the Hove Park Crit this Friday, then there's Lewes crits, Eastbourne GP. Dan Harwood has also road raced before and might be threatening a come back. I'm sure a good team of six could be mustered and make its mark!
Yes folks it's good night from me as I'm likely to be repatriated to Glasgow before the next Weds Chaingang season begins in September. They need all the votes for independence they can get and have promised me a fiver and a can of Irn Bru so off I go to cash in. In fact I'm going to really miss all the great riders and enchanting roads of Sussex, a place I grow fonder of every year, so I'll try and make this short - cough, sniff, etc.
Six years ago Dan Harwood told me about the chaingang. I hadn't been near a bike club since 1989, but was about to become a parent. Suddenly a strange urge to get fit and get old before I died came over me not to mention an excuse to get out of the house, to do something fun that wouldn't leave me feeling dehydrated and headachey the next day, well you can't have everything.
I turned up at the pier on my Dad's spare 70s Puch, wearing a white skateboard lid, soft trainer shoes and grey sweatshorts. I've no idea what the collected hardcore roadies made of this, this vision in a thrift shop, but Steve Curtis who has been running it since forever, was friendly. Later on he gave me sound advice about what proper gear to get - from lights to SPD pedals and recommended I also get a mountain bike to do the Bewl Water rides on Friday nights in the summer, first lap in the bunch, second flat out - 24 miles and as exciting and tough an hour and a half ride as anything - yes so Steve was very welcoming, but I still looked like a total nut. I wonder if the rest tried extra hard to drop me that night, any way I was soon on my own, took a wrong turn and was lost deep in a cul de sac estate near Bexhill and had to phone my missus to get the street map out and navigate me back to the coast. Phones have come on a bit since 2006. Gradually I sorted out my shocking non - kit, managing to not get dropped for a little longer each week. I even got to know the regulars a little bit, lets be honest, many cyclists are not always the most outgoing souls at first, some of the time they're close to collapse from trying too hard, other times they're self obsessed quiet loners plotting how to beat everyone else, but not all of them are. Sometimes they're both. To any newbies reading, don't give up, keep saying hello and smiling, it can take time to become part of a club, but it's worth the effort.
As time rolled by my motorbike grew rusty in the garage and all my beer tokens went on bikes, bike clothes, and bike accessories. After some weeks or months I finally hung in the bunch all the way to Pevensey and had a first go at sprinting for the roundabout. I'll never forget Dave Earle's shout of encouragement as I set off in pursuit of the front men "COME ON JAY!" It'd be a while before I began taking turns, mainly because the group was usually led by Ivan or Pete, ace time triallers in training.
Some nights in bad weather it was just Steve and me, doggedly suffering in the cold wet darkness to hold onto Ivan's wheel. Sometimes I wondered what the hell am I doing, following a little yellow pool of light across what seemed like an eternal winter's night, but ultimately I'm very grateful as having my legs torn off 2 or 3 times a week for my first year or two eventually brought me up to the dizzy heights of being able to . . . well, suffer, to hold onto Pete's wheel. Pete and Ivan rode heavy old mtbs with flat tyres then, to slow them down for the rest of us. Others had ride to work hybrids, or fixeds of uncertain age, yep winter bikes were heavy old anchors then, hacks you'd be embarassed to be seen near in broad daylight, just filthy old rusty gates to be dragged through the wintry muck and salty grit basically. So the chaingang has changed a lot since I started and no doubt will keep evolving - nice to see more younger riders, bigger turnouts, new friends from near and far. So just to say thanks everyone for letting me play, as a wannabe racer I've enjoyed the chaingang immensely, look after yourselves and maybe I'll see you out on the road this summer before I go look for another good club in Glasgow.
Chris Watson CTC 1983, Central Scotland Wheelers 1984-1989, Hastings & St Leonard's CC 2006 -
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