Chaily Audax

Chaily Audax
Things started off badly for me on this one. I could not download the entry form so sent in a cheque. After a fews days I got a note from martin the organiser telling me I had put a 1p stamp on the envelope and he had to pay £1.68 to get my letter !
I had persuaded my mate Roy Beeley the chaiman of our local tri club to come . he had entered online as he had a pay pal account.
i had not realised that there was 2 courses ,a hilly and a hillier , you guessed it he had entered the hllier and i had entered the hilly. We were the first to arrive so Roy changed from hillier to hilly as organiser happy to do that. John V and Dan H arrived then Tom N who of course had arranged the ride . Last but not least Steve D.  No rainman of course.
So the debate was do we ride together or in seperate groups , then discovered more inconsistancies with entries to hilly or hillier. Tom knew the route for the hillier but not the hilly but all of us with Steves GPX had the hilly programmed . In the end we went off as one group on the hilly
It had been spitting gently as we gathered for the start and then the heavens opened . It was however quite warm . first hill was at about 500 metres from start. several more hills but not to bad. I was already getting left behind, but others waited for me . We passed a couple of old chaps but then we see stopped several times as although we had 4 sat navs between us Tom was leading following the route from a bit of paper attached to his handlebars( a true audaxer).Anyway the old chaps would come past then we would pass them again and so on ( they had obviously done this route many times and knew it by heart.
I fell behind on Cobbs hill , we have done this before I think on haywards heath sportive , it is not long but horrendously steep. this is followed shortly afterwards by another short but steep hill.
We got split up but shortly after is the food stop. When I arrived others were tucking into hot dogs with fried onions and tea, thats a first for any ride I have been on . By time I arrived they had only veggie hotdogs left but they were really good. steve D had shot off from the start but he was still at the stop.
27 miles left and terrain was more rolling than hills and if it had not been for the rain would have been really good. We split again with Tom Dan and John pulling away. We followed on
Tom had said if you want to do a bit more can go up ditchling beacon. We decided not to do that and we got back to find others not arrived. Yes they had decided to do ditchling beacon.
Back at the parish hall there was teas and coffee for 50p and you could have a lunch for £1 including a tin of rice pudding
Would you believe as we left the hall the sun came out!!
I do not know how they do this for £5 but I shall do another
Derek M