30/10 HSLCC Fri Night Ride- The Rolling Stones

The good weather plus the facebook effect (posting on our facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1067348029942839/ to confirm attendance) gave us a good turnout of eight riders. This included a rare appearance from 'Ultra' Stu Hodd who was free of Friday child care duties for a change.

Stu Makes A Rare Fri Night Appearance!

Simon was anxious to set off bang on 7;30 but I persuaded Stu to hold everybody back until he had counted to sixty seconds as I am such a wuss at descending Battery Hill in the dark. This worked out really well as by the time I got to the bottom only Stu and 'The demon Descender' (Marcus) had caught up with me.

We had quite a strong headwind as we entered the Rye nature reserve. Not having checked my mobile I was unaware that JV had text me earlier warning of pebbles across the path that had fallen off lorries employed to rebuild the shingle banks. Sure enough  we soon came to our first mass of pebbles and had to  dart back and forth to avoid the main mass of them. This had to be repeated about five times until we finally reached the exit road and were clear of them .

Entering Rye it was great to be out of the wind. Malc has been having trouble with his left leg all week and said he would ride at my pace all night but even a Malc with a dodgy leg proved too fast for me so it was a solo ride for me almost all the way to the Broad Oak.

With it being unusually mild , I was seriously overheating by the time I regrouped with the others and was glad of the long descent down through Brede valley to cool me down.

Entering our 'cut through to Doleham lane' we were surprised to have to slow down and pass several vehicles using this lane, as Stu said' what were they doing here, this is our piece of road!' I managed to get past the vehicles first and so had the honour of leading the pack as we swept through Westfield and onto the 'Stonestile approach' . Myself and Dan are usually an even match for this steep climb which is just as well as Dan's front light suddenly died but with my 1100 lumens up front to light the way he had no trouble finding his way to the top.

Another enjoyable Friday night ride and great to get the chance to ride it with Stu again (one of the original 'Friday night riders') Stu is now only two points away from being awarded his 2nd category road racing licence. He has just two events left to get these two points so we all wish him good luck with this.


Steve C