6/5 Friday Night Rescued

Smile Ivan!

The HSLCC Friday night ride has been on 'life support recently'. Friday night stalwart Sargent Grogans has done his best to keep the flame alive , turning up even in poor weather. Unfortunately not everyone is as hardy as Simon and on some occasions it has just been Simon plus one other rider.

The arrival of warm spring weather (at last) meant that I was prepared to come out for the ride, and I know that to get Ivan to come out all I have to do is suggest the idea of drinking beer post ride. Ricky and Andy T also joined us, as did Ed for the first time.

As we were quite a small group we all descended Battery Hill together only to get held up by the  road works there which seem to have been going on for ages.

Once we got to the sea defences we were riding into a head wind which was surprisingly chilly considering the warm weather everyone had enjoyed during the day.

Easy first ascent for Ed

Fortunately the broad-oak drag soon got us warmed up. Ivan stormed ahead with Andy in hot pursuit, only for Andy to burn up somewhere before the top.

Myself Ed and Ricky went up at a more modest pace. Ed's rear light was in need of a battery change so Ed never strayed to far from myself or Ricky.

Ricky is now completely at ease riding with clipless pedals, his climbing has improved considerably and he is now significantly faster than myself on this climb.

Ed had never climbed Stonestile before and asked several times where it was. The obvious answer came soon enough. Having done the pre-BBR of Beachy many times, this first ascent was an easy one for Ed. Ed thought the Friday night ride route was great, so hopefully the Friday night ride has gained another recruit- it certainly needs them!

Steve C