Wedding ride

We had a fantastic ride today on the morning of the royal wedding. Six of us: myself, Chris P, Colin, Simon G, tony and Paul K set off for a repeat of chris' 'criss cross ride'. The ride was even more enjoyable than when we did it last sunday. As most people were indoors watching the royal wedding, the roads were exceptionally quiet and the weather was a lot sunnier than we expected. Tony found the hills a bit hard and peeled off about half way but the rest of us completed the route and finished it with lots of grup at the coastguard cafe. Good to ride with colin Enderson again as he rarely comes out on any of our rides. we must definately do this ride again beforethe end of the summer- its my favourite route!
Total distance 52 miles, average speed 14.7 mph.
S.C

last weds chaingang of 2010/11

Last night was our last weds chaingang of the season. Thanks to the many riders who rode the weds chaingang this year. From memory they were : Curt, paul F, Paul K, sean, Dave , Chris P, Chris W, Paul H, Conrad, Alex, mike,duncan, jay, josef, pete T, peter H,Simon T,Matt, Max, Simon N, Simon G, Tim, Malcolm, karin and Ivan. It was a great season in that we attracted a lot of new riders, but proved to be a difficult season weather wise with terrible cold weather in december followed by a lot of wet wednesdays. Despite all our sufferring, I am sure we will all be up for it again next season which kicks off on weds 7th of september.Some of us celebrated the end of the season with a few drinks at taffers (see photos on right)
S.C

Club Runs: Sunday 24 April: Fri 29/4 Sun 1/5 etc

No time (yet) to write up a fantastic ride 6 of us had Sunday (7 for first hour) 24 April. I still plan to do a brief write up of my Tour of Malaga's Hinterland with Chris Chapman and two friends. Watch this and other spaces on the BLOG.

Friday 29 April: Steve Curtis is organising an early bird run, regulars will have the details e-mailed, others ask for info please.

Saturday 30 April: No bacon butty run

Sunday 1 May: I am a a great believer in everyone turning up at the Harrow on the Ridge 9.00am and see who is there. This week no regular leader is available so just turn up and pal up with someone. Strong riders used to orderly club runs with roadmen (not for the inexperienced or faint hearted) can ride with the Bayeux if we are not quorate.

Saturday 7 May: A possible overdue bacon butty run, we have missed quite a few weeks.

Sunday 8 May: Probably no leader at the Harrow since quite a few of us will be racing / marshalling the Marshman Half Ironman and shorter event at Lydd, probably followed by a ride on the Marshes.

Chris Parker 07902 630574

Friday chaingang report

Just four of us out on friday: me, Simon G, malcolm and duncan. Poor old Ivan was out of action again, this time with a pulled muscle in his back. Weather continues to be fantastic, this was the first friday chaingng that we were able to ride with shorts and short sleeved tops, brilliant!
S.C

Thanks from Chris Chapman

Message from Chris Chapman thanking all who helped out today with the ESCA 25 mile TT

'Thanks to all the marshals, helpers and riders for getting up early and for helping to make this morning's event a success. The weather was very kind to us and resulted in some rapid times. A few people asked Jane for the recipe for the Chocolate and Almond cake at the HQ this morning and here it is:
* 5 eggs* 200g butter* 200g sugar* 200g plain chocolate* 200g ground almonds 1. Melt the chocolate and butter together, then mix in the almonds. Set aside to cool a little. 2. Seperate 4 of the eggs. Mix 1 whole egg and 4 yolks with the sugar. Blend this with the chocolatey mixture.3. Beat the 4 remaining egg whites until they are stiff. Using a metal spoon, carefully fold the egg whites into the chocolatey mixture.4. Pour into a non-stick spring-form baking tin and bake at 175-180 for 45 mins. Serves: 12'
Thanks, Chris

chaingang report 13th April

Back to colder weather again at the chaingang last night with quite a strong head wind on the way out. Another good turn out with 14 riders despite Ivan being missing with vertigo and Chris P away on holiday. We had two new riders with us: Sean from the bayeux who did the Hastings to Pevensey section, and another rider who was way back behind the lantern rouge (sorry we didn't catch his name). We waited quite a while for the new rider to catch-up at Pevensey but he didnt turn up so we set off back only to see him still slogging into the wind! I think he's a friend of Max - perhaps he might try one of Chris Parker's easy paced Sunday Rides.

by Steve C

Early bird ride report 10 April

Nine of us (me, Ivan, Mike K, Mike, Paul K, Malc, Rob, Simon G,Tony)set off this morning for the 'Tour de Romney marsh'. We rode to appledore along the royal military canal at a fair pace before heading off into the marsh on a big loop.Rob soon started to tire, this was due to him riding the day before and decided to turn back on his own.The 8 of us carried on but before too long Tony was finding his saddle uncomfortable, this was because the nose was tilting further and further upwards. he had a rather painful ride for the next 10 miles until we stumbled upon some friendly builders who had a spanner of the right size to tighten it.We then carried on to Appledore at which point we split into two groups of four. Myself, Ivan, Mike C and Paul K wanted to go back via the planned lumpy route through Wittersham and broad oak while the others opted for the flatter blast back along the canal. After saying goodbye the four of us headed out. The lumpy route back has some excellent quiet roads but also a fair few hills. I found myself really suffering after a while and was glad when we finally got back to ore via rocks lane. For me this was the hardest ride of the year so far, I felt as if I was on the limit of what I could do (must lose some weight!!), the other three were in much better shape than me when we finished the ride at the fairlight church tea shop where we stuffed ourselves with cake and bacon sandwiches. Total distance covered 65 miles, average speed 15.7 mph.

Friday chaingang heats up

Six of us set out on the usual friday night chaingang on friday.We were fortunate to have the rare appearance of Alex riding with us,was this his first ascent of 'stonestile lane'? The weather got warmer as we rode and several of us were
over dressed. Duncan continues to get faster and faster climbing up stonestile lane and paul K only just overtook him before the end of the climb
S.C

Weds 6 April Chaingang

Great weather tonight and now that we are entering Spring, we had light for most of the ride. A good turn out with 15 riders.The pace seemed very fast (to me at least!). Welcolm back to Jo who did do one chaingang back in the depth of winter and now hopes to get fit enough to become a regular (she is preparing for the london to brighton ride). Also good to see Josef out again on a Wednesday. Only 3 more weds chaingangs until the end of the season!!

Friday April 1st Chaingang

A very mild and pleasant evening for the Friday chaingang. present were: Steve, Paul K, Ivan, Malcolm and Duncan.It was such a mild evening that we were all overheating on the 5 mile climb up to Broadoak, very different conditions to the one we did 2 weeks ago where we passed a gritter going down stonestile lane. Duncan continues to gain strength and beat meet up stonestile lane, so i am back in my customary 'lantern rouge' position (sob!)
S.C

Laughton TT photos added

Thanks to karin for taking the photos from the laughton TT. Photos can be seen on the slide show. Click on a picture on the slide show to get the full picture.
S.C