13/5 HSLCC Friday Night Ride- The Return Of Malc D

Malc is back!

last night was a great turnout of eight riders for the HSLCC Friday night ride. This was a pleasant surprise but even more surprising was that Malc C turned up to ride. Following his recent hip replacement I didn't expected to see Malc riding until July but his doctors have actually encouraged him to get out and ride, so thats great. Malc is still in rehabilitation mode so would do Dumb Woman's lane to reduce the mileage of the route.

I was also surprised to see Paul Butler on his first ever 'Friday Night Ride'.

This week we all set off together down Battery hill . There were still signs up for roadworks but thankfully the traffic lights have now been removed. Waiting for us at the bottom was Mark who had ridden over from his home near Rye. This almost gave us a double figure turnout, so different to a few weeks ago.

 During the day it had been quite warm but now it was chilly and we had a nasty head wind all the way out towards the Harbour. Myself and Derek found this particularly hard and were well and truly dropped buy the others.

We all regrouped at Rye and began the long drag up to Broad-oak. Despite the toughness of this climb it was such a relief to get out of that cold wind. Derek is really climbing well and beat me to Broad Oak (I cant remember the last time this happened)

Having bade farewell to Mark we set off for the usual descents towards Brede and Westfield. I am still loving my new CAAD 8, it feels so stable on the descents and the new shape 105 shifters are even more comfortable that the old style Tiagra ones.

Very enjoyable first 'Friday Night Ride' for Paul

Paul was really enjoying the route and made it up Stonestile easily . I haven't got round to fitting my 32 tooth cassette yet so thats my excuse for making it up in last place. So different to Dan who was on top form last night and achieved a Starva PB on the climb.

Four of us headed straight to the Robert De Mortain pub to meet up with Malc . I am pleased to say that Malc got round the truncated route without any problems, and actually bagged two Strava achievements, great news.Three pints later we stumbled out of the pub into a freezing cold wind. I was the only one who had brought tights out with me, much to the envy of the others.

Steve C