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| Alexander Joins Us! |
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| Ivan Resplendent In New Gear ! |
We had planned to do the route of the King of the downs sportive but owing to the dodgy weather forecast decided to cancel it and arrange a simple local road ride instead. ,We had a good turnout of eleven riders including Ivan resplendent in black new cycle gear ( although I would worry about its visibility?). There were some unfamiliar faces ; Alexander who rarely comes on a club ride, first time rider with HSLCC Gary, and Kevin on his first club ride for sixteen years! Ivan was concerned about the weather but I assured him that all forecasts said it was going to be dry but overcast (although looking at the black clouds I was not totally convinced) We set off at a faster than normal pace towards battle. Andy accompanied by son Paul was giving it some welly forcing me slightly out of my comfort zone. However, once we reached Netherfield hill it was Andy that was struggling and I felt that I was getting into a rhythm. The route we had planned was to take us around Darwell but Andy informed us that the road had been dug up for resurfacing (a good thing in the long run) so we would have to stick to the main road until the sharp turn for Darwell hole. An unknown cyclist had overtaken us before the decent but was there again standing at the muddy verge of Darwell hill, I wondered if he had overcooked it on the decent but with the speed we travelling at there was no way we could stop and ask questions so just had to assume he was OK. Ivan's pessimism seemed to be justified as it was spitting quite a lot and with the strong wind it felt unusually cold for the time of year. Ivan had not brought a wind proof and being so thin he was really suffering the cold so decided to call it a day at Woods Corner, as did Andy who was really struggling on the hills today. The rest of us pressed on knowing that as long as we kept moving the cold was bearable. It was a great help that most of the riders had the route loaded on their Garmins so there was no need to keep looking around and checking where everyone was. On reaching Heathfield our luck changed and the rain petered out, from here there were some nice up and downs that took us to the Lakeside cafe at Horam. This is turning into a real cyclists cafe as some well known faces from Bayeux CT such as Martin Markowski and John Willis were there as were some other riders from an unknown club. Peter C also turned up to say hello. We didn't hang about too long so were soon back on the road. We knew we were in for a treat as once we turned East the wind would be at our backs. Sure enough it was great fun riding home and many Strava pbs were to tumble.
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| First HSLCC Club Ride For Gary! |
I have rescheduled the king of the downs road ride to sat 14 June, lets hope we have more luck with the weather.
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