Dec 7- Hack Bike Ride To brighton

We Finally Got To Meet 'Mile Muncher' Jason

This year we had a record turnout of 13 riders on our annual hack bike ride to Brighton. This included first timers Nigel, Nick and legendary mile muncher  Jason Kind. It was brilliant to finally meet the legendary Jason, who was doing this ride on top of the 400 miles he has already done this week! Having assembled at Glyn gap we rode up through Sidley meeting up with Pete B and Steve S on the way. Pete T is not very good at shepherding riders and before long myself and derek had been dropped,with the ever thoughtful  Nigel staying with us. We knew roughly where they were going and expected to see them waiting for us at the top of Boreham Street but they hadn't waited and we didn't finally catch up with them until the first stop at The Golden Cross pub at Hailsham. This was a new pub stop for us and turned out to be excellent with a roaring fire and some very nice friendly (and attractive) young barmaids.After a quick first pint and the obligatory group photo, myself and Nigel looked round to see that Pete had shot off again with the group.Yet again I had got left behind and it took some while before myself and Nigel caught up with Derek and Steve D who had fallen off the back of the group. The next pub stop another excellent pub 'The Green Man' at Ringmer. We were all feeling a bit peckish by now so Steve D treated us to an enormous 0.5 kg of salted peanuts, which we soon demolished. By the time we left, dusk was falling and it was time to switch on the lights. This time the whole group did stay together and before long we arrived at Lewes for our usual pub stop in the town centre. So far the ride had been pretty flat but now we had the steepish climb up from Lewes and onto Plumpton. It was now pitch black and I was very grateful to have the road light up by my moon 500 light.Although we were all very spread out due to our wide range of abilities, there was no fear of getting lost as wherever you looked ahead you could see a string of red lights bobbing up and down in the pitch dark. Our favourite pub stop at the half moon pub at Plumpton did not disappoint , we could easily have stayed there longer. Pete launched a new competition where each of us had to predict the order of the top five riders up the Ditchling beacon climb. There were no

First Pub stop at Hailsham

Pete Triumphant On Ditchling

prizes for guessing who would be first but the other placements would be much harder to predict. Jason was feeling a bit apprehensive as surprisingly despite all his mammoth mile munching he had never had the pleasure of ascending the beacon. We all agreed that we would stay together until the start of the climb to give everyone a far chance. On reaching the start Malcolm and Dan launched a savage assault to bypass Pete T, Pete responded but as he did so his right foot pulled off the pedal and by he time he was rolling again they had created a bit of a gap. Despite this, the inevitable happened and he was able to reel them both in before the top. At least Malcolm and Dan had the pleasure of knowing that they had made pete really work for the first place submitter this year . Also storming up the climb was dark horse Nigel who is so strong that despite being on one of the heavier bikes and carrying panniers and a rack still managed to come fourth behind Malcolm in second place and Dan in third. Steve S was a very creditable fifth place. Steve D had correctly predicted all placing and so had one the £13 prize but graciously decided to keep the money in the kitty. I found this climb really tough and it took me over nine minutes to make it to the top. Having got our breath back we realised that Jason and Steve D were missing. Eventually Jason appeared, he had suffered a puncture near the bottom but rather than try to fix it there in the dark had decided to press on for

Even 'Tractor Tyres' Can Puncture

Jason' s 'Wine Bar'

the top and fix it with the help of all our lights. Steve D soon appeared as well, his foot had come out of the pedal and not being used to spd-r cleats he couldn't get his shoe back in the pedal and and had trouble getting going again.We all found it ironic that Jason was the only one to get a puncture as he was using very wide 'tractor sized' touring tyres! Pete T switched to freewheel for the decent and to get up some reasonable speeed had to tuck into a super aero position for the decent, we all dutifully followed behind him on what was a much safer decent than previous years when we have had to descend in howling wind, rain or fog.On safe arrival in Brighton we enjoyed a massive blow out curry in a curry house near London Road before heading to the station for the journey home. Amazingly, both Nigel and Malcolm were not with us as they had decided to cycle back to Hastings. With so many of us using the same train there was a real problem getting all the bikes on board. Fortunately the train guard was a friendly sort who agreed to let us all on as long as we took off some of the wheels. Jason and nick had their own 'wine bar' with them and it was a good laugh on the train until some agressive 6ft 5inch gorilla got unpleasant with us on the way home.He was getting off at Hastings so we decided it would be prudent for all of us to get out at st leonards instead.

This was great fun day out, thanks to everyone who came and made it a day to remember.