June 16th - Birling Gap Off Road

Warming Up At Last

As we arrived at Birling Gap car park all our thoughts were, "where was the summer". Looking around at everyone with vests, long sleeved tops and wind proofs it was more like a scene from March rather than June. We were all freezing and anxious to get going. The gradual climb up to Butt's Brow soon had us warmed up and ready for the filling loosening decent down into Jevington where the vibrations shook off my chain . Rather than take the normal climb up to the 'long Man' via Folkington, I chose a new path running parallel which was in much better condition. Post Alfriston we were back right at the top of the Downs and ready for the fantastic 5 mile decent down to the Golden Galleon pub. Only one climb was left, the ride up through Friston forest parallel to the road. last year this route was fine but this time it was muddy and over grown. We were covered in scratches and at one point as I was falling off, I had a moment to decide; land on the wheel or land in the bed of nettles? I chose the latter and spent the rest of the ride down to Birling Gap with my left side all lumpy and tingling (I have remapped this section to avoid it- next time we do the family track instead)!. A few miles before the end we swapped bikes with Duncan, which gave me and Paul a chance to ride a 26er again. We were both shocked at how horrible it was, no one is ever going to persuade us to give up our 29ers and go back to 26ers, LOL

Time For A Breather!