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| Our largest Ever Turnout For The Hell Of Ashdown! |
It was time for our annual trip to Ashdown forest to complete a modified version of the Hell Of The Downs sportive. They run the sportive in the frozen month of February whereas we do it in April when hopefully the weather will be on our side. So it was today, with the sun shining and the wind almost non existent , a slightly chilly air temperature was my only complaint. With ten riders this was our largest turnout so it took a flotilla of three vehicles to get us all there but Nigel who had developed a taste for epic mileages (apprentice mile muncher!) decided to cycle and meet us at the start. Impressively he turned up just one minute behind the appointed meet time. Starting at the highest point meant we had easy riding for the first 18 miles. As we descended the steep hill parallel to Kid's hill (aka the wall) I reflected on the fact that next time we came back we would be climbing up this steep gradient rather than free wheeling down. With the increasing temperatures we had to stop and remove tights, vests, windproofs etc. Derek took this opportunity to carry on expecting us to catch up with him before too long.Our first test was Bailey's Hill, a lovely ramp like hill which then levels off through the lovely Goathurst Common. Unfortunately Mark sustained a puncture about a third of the way up. I stayed with him to lend support. Like me mark has discovered the joy of CO2 cylinders but there was something wrong with the gas adapter and half the gas was spraying out the side rather than into the tube. Despite this it was up to a reasonable pressure for a front wheel so we set off after the others, only to have to stop when Mark fortunately noticed
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| Well Deserved R & R before The Wall! |
the beading was popping out.By now Ivan had come back down the hill to lend support (this was to be a repeated pattern during the day) . Test number two was an equally impressive climb up the long drag of Hog Trough hill . Malcolm C was struggling a little today, not due to lack of fitness but not having a big enough rear sprocket to spin up the ascents.Up the hill he was getting dropped further and further back but this turned out to be a slow rear puncture. I stopped to give him a hand fixing it and looking at the worn out state of the rubber was amazed that he had got further than a mile without it deflating. Despite its age, this tyre was a pig to get off the rim. Fortunately Ivan had set off back down the hill again to lend assistance with his Ivan powered fingers. I left them to it and continued up the hill to inform the others.Test number three was Toy's hill .This famous hill has the greatest height of just over 800 feet but has a nice steady gradient so never seems too tough.I was impressed by the number of families with children that were cycling up this hill, parents encouraging their kids to keep going, this is not something you ever see around Hastings where kids wouldn't dream of cycling up any hills. About half way up it was my turn to puncture. Mark stayed to give me assistance but with the aid of my brand new CO2 adapter I had the tyre up in no time and got back up to the others waiting at the top,just in time to stop Ivan once again riding all the way down to lend assistance (I think he enjoyed the roll of puncture mechanic) The descent down Toy's Hill is steeper than the ascent and a fabulous vista of endless countryside with heathland and forests opened out before us, unfortunately it was a not a good idea to lose concentration as constant pressure of pads on rims was needed to keep the speed down to a safe level. I found myself having to pull on the cables harder and harder as the rims started to heat up. Steve D found himself going too fast and couldn't stop at the bottom and overshot the junction to the other side, fortunately no vehicle was coming at the time. All day I had been impressed with all the pothole patching on the roads, unlike in our area all the patches were really well done and feather beaded into the tarmac. On the next section however there was some awful broken potholed surface on the left so myself and Kie had to ride in the middle of the road to avoid it, a car came around a bend and we had only a split second to decide to either stay in the middle and hope the car moved over tot he left or to take our chances with the potholes. Sensibly we chose the latter and clenched our jaws hoping for the best as we bashed our alloy bikes on through he broken tarmac. I fully expected to damage my nice new Asium rear wheel but hats off to Mavic as it emerged completely unscathed. After another long climb up to Hindleap Warren we rewarded ourselves with a well deserved pint and half hour rest. Just 10 miles remained. Most of these 10 miles were fast slightly down hill riding , finally with 4 miles left to go we arrived at Kidd's hill (aka the wall) . With our wide spread of ability we became very spread out with myself and Malcolm C at the back. This hill is not as bad as its reputation and before long we arrived in the bright sunlight on Kings standing where the familiar figure of Derek had been waiting for us wondering why we had not managed to catch him up. A short blast to the car park and 'The Hell Of Ashdown' was over for another year. This wasn't enough for the intrepid Nigel who despite the tempting offer of a lift home decided to ride all the way back!! This gave him a total mileage of 124 miles after which he crashed out and slept for a solid 12 hours, lol.
We will be back in 2015!
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| Leg breaker Profile! |
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