HSCC Friday Night Ride-Wet Wet Wet!

Ivan gets A Few Minutes Shelter from The Rain

Simon G was pleasantly surprised to see so many of us out despite a dodgy weather forecast predicting rain.I reassured him that I had just checked the weather forecasts on two internet sites and they both said no rain until 10:00pm, so we would be finished by then. On the flat part of the ride towards the nature reserve, super fit post LEL Steve B decided to put in a huge effort and touched 30 mph with the others trying to hang on. As we rode together at a more steady pace through the reserve, the first few spots of rain started to appear but as we got to the bottom of the Rye Broad Oak drag they were falling more steadily. We were shocked at the state of almost the whole Rye- broad Oak ride, as the council appeared to have scarified the road and there were chippings all over the place. My bike was vibrating so much that it shook my light bracket loose causing my light to drift over into the spokes. Steve b was running carbon wheels with about 120psi in the tyres so he was having problems holding a line on the terrible surface whereas Ivan with 90 psi and a summers worth of mtb riding wasn't so bothered by it. By the time we regrouped at Broad Oak , the rain was now full on so we decided to main road it rather than do Stonestile Lane.We all took the two main descents very gingerly, aware that the roads were going to be extra slippery after such a long dry spell. It was a relief to get to Westfield were the road was flat. By now the rain was falling heavily, my spectacles were covered in water and I could hardly see anything. Ivan very considerably had waited for me and I was then able to follow his red light, this was just as well as at one point three cars were waiting at a junction and with the light scattering all across the surface of my specs, I could literally not see where the curb was. The people in the white Heart pub must have thought we were mad as we we turned up dripping pools of water around our feet. We had to find some chairs with vinyl covers instead of fabric otherwise the next person to sit on them would have got a nasty surprise. When we left, it was still raining and the wind had now picked up, so it was a very wet, cold and windy decent back down to the seafront
. All good fun though, LOL.