Car spotting - Chaingang 28th September

A perfect Indian summer evening brought the motorists out like flies and a big group of 25 this week, seemed like we were flagging a car up every 2 minutes, and welcome more new riders as several regulars didn't show! Average speed to roundabout 22.5 miles per hour. Some rotten poacher on a steel fixed nipped past big Shaun 30 yards from line, with Stuart M finishing hot on his wheel.

On way back Jay commended junior Joe Jenner's gutsy strong riding bridging a big gap. Club Chairman Stuart C had the checkered board outside his house, I think Simon Grogan took that prime, couldn't see as was having a breather at back after going for the 30 at Cooden. Had another dig at Bexhill, got a gap and sat up, then Max came past to take it. ESCA hill climb is 16th Oct at Firle Beacon, 9am start, £6 and entries on CTT form to Mark Winton asap! Swavek revealed John climbed the Aubisque and Tourmalet this summer, while the Miles's did Alpe d'Huez, anyone beat that?
CW (drawing by Prampolini)

Another Classic Early Bird Route

A really enjoyable 'Early Bird' route this morning, with Ade, Paul K, Doug, Tony and myself. We were trying out a new hilly 30 miler route that I had mapped out with my 'trackslogs' software in the morning. It took us through Crowhurst, Watlington,Sedlescombe,Westfield, Doleham, Winchelsea and finshed with our old friend, Battery Hill.Doug had had a few weeks off the bike and was climbing really well as was Ade who goes from strength to strength. Tony was struggling a bit on the hills but did more or less complete the route although he found a devious way of avoiding the direct climb up battery hill. We all agreed that of the three hilly 30 milers I have so far mapped out, this is the best!
Distance 31.8 miles
Average speed 13.9 mph
S.C

Cod& Chips and cycling don't mix

Another good turn out for the Friday Chaingang (23 sept). Good to see Steve Denny there again, this time he made it up the long drag to Broad Oak without any punctures. Poor Ivan was not feeling so good, he put it down to the fact that he had eaten a big portion of cod and chips at lunchtime.By the time we got to Stonestile lane his legs had 'gone' and he could no longer ride, so he had to get off and walk. He did feel better later after a few beers at the pub!

Your back light's out mate, Chaingang Weds 21st Sept

Even more riders this week, around two dozen. With such a big group we took it easy till Galley Hill, but still got split up at lights and junction. Matt champing at the bit- leapt off the front and attacked on Galley hill, Max, fixed, 52x16, said" let him go, he'll get lonely out there all on his own" I wasn't convinced, but anyway he was off and opened a big gap. There was a fierce headwind and right enough along Bexhill front he flagged a bit, we dug in and overhauled him. A big bang at Cooden; Malc's front tyre this time, bad luck. I stopped, the first dozen slowed then rolled on, I figured a dozen more were behind Malc so I decided to give chase to the front group and caught them by the railway crossing. Roadman Shaun Reed came thru near the end for a strong spell, somehow I ended up on the front, managed to jump not too early this week, got a gap and made it stick till the end, first time I've managed that this season.

Shaun told us about his new assymetric chain rings that Team Sky use - almost square and 5% or 10% faster say the scientists. See John Sharples, and bring an envelope full of cash. Back in the 80s oval biopace rings were all the rage for a while, with hindsight we know Biopace were as Shaun comfirms, " total sh*te" because they got the deadspot in the wrong place. Will we all be using the new squared off rings in 20 years time, or will they go the way of Biopace,and other shortlived innovations like L shaped cranks? Time will tell, and at £200 a set, I'll wait and see, meanwhile trying to turn my old rings round 5% faster.

On the way back Max used mind control to keep Matt boxed in until Spooky Hill, where he flew away, pants on fire. Jay and Simon, fixed, 49x15 gave chase . With a good tailwind I had to spin like fun on 48 x15 as M shifted into top like a dirty cheat and shot off down the other side like a rocket. More mad effort to bridge, and we actually had a good gap, until I took a spell and Shaun and his big mate got across to us. Now approaching Cooden, its customary for the Bayeux Sunday run to wind it up after a long ride on the flats and contest the 30 sign, Shaun used a clever bluff to distract Matt and motored off the front to take the sign, we saved our legs for the chase down to Bexhill, where some traffic got in the way at the end so we didn't get to duke it out after all. Good to see more new faces, John and Wotjec ( I think? excuse spelling) over from Eastbourne, had a lift of my bike and both agreed it was "very heavy" !

C.W.

Doctor Ivan Prescribes, 14 Sept Wednesday Night Chaingang

This week we had 21 or more riders hard to say exactly as three joined along the route, anyway that's a new record. Great to see more new faces and the return of Tim and Jay Miles, with the impressive claim that they haven't ridden since visiting the the Tour de France back in July! Also Conrad who tho' he hasn't been riding much at all was still mixing it up in the sprint.

Speed was about 22 out and 23 back, mph.

More pacemaking from Matt. At a kilo to go Horta kicked early, I got on his wheel, had a dig then sat up, blown. Matt zipped thru with Stuart D, Alex and Conrad all on his wheel, yet strong Matt held them all off. As I rolled up Matt was plugging his terminator legs into the national grid for a charge-up, claims he's stretching due to stiffness from something called "running"? says he needs to ride his bike more...

Hmmm well anyway, talk turned to Sunday 11th when our bold racing men got up in the dark to do battle on the A22; despite hurricane downpours at 6am and strong cross winds all day Joe Jenner won fastest juvenile at the ESCA 25 mile TT, Adrian, Malcolm, Chris Parker and myself all enjoyed a good race while Pete Tadros, (who we'll expect to see after end of the hillclimb season in October) won in 52 something, thats 25 miles at 29 miles per hour! - Also Max Norell broke the hour with a solid 59:40, so our convincing excuses about the wind adding 4 minutes were pretty much sunk then, sad to say.

Time to head back, Matt went off front early, I had to sprint hard to get across. By Spooky hill we had a bigger group which broke up over the hill leaving four in the front - Alex, Matt on pace, a new guy, sorry I only saw your back, and me hanging on grimly! One car passed us quite close from behind, as a chap was moving up the line, said chap might have swore at the car, hem hem. Matt broke clear at summit of last lump before the Bexhill lights but I managed to bridge and stay on his wheel until he sat up and decided to have a rest, just before the point where I would think of jumping - sort of takes all the fun out of stealing a sprint on the line from a stronger rider so I didn't bother.

At the Bexhill stop spirits were high as everyone seemed to be feeling good and going better than last week. Simon Newell joined the five riders out on fixed this week, chirping "its easier on fixed!" as those on gears were still gasping for breath.
No sign of Malc and Ivan. A quick call; Malc discovered a flat tyre upon setting off at the halfway, Ivan stayed to lend pump. Chaingang organiser Steve Curtis and I waited for them as it was time for everyone else to go. Some match spinning fun was had down the natural velodrome slope between Harley Shute and Filsham.

Rolling home I was bemoaning my plummeting times to Ivan who gave this sound advice for nailing a sub hour 25: "Well Max rides over from Eastbourne every week, but for the rest of us the chaingang is like doing two "Tens", what you need to do is ride 25 miles, flat out, three times a week." How long do I need to that for? I asked,
"Oh, every week"

CW

Three Early Birds Sat 17 Sept

Just three of us braved the showers this morning: myself, Duncan and Paul K. We almost abandoned the ride after a heavy shower came down but fortunately we continued and the rest of the showers were light. We decided to do the same route as last week 'Darwell'. There was one tricky moment when a large van was coming up a blind bend near 'Darwell Hole' while we were coming down the hill. I only saw the van at the last minute, luckily I was going slow due to the wet road surface, also credit to the van driver for careful driving.This makes me think that soon it will be 'main road' types of ride for the early birds!
S.C

Steve Denny Turns Roadie!!

Great turn out this Friday for the Friday chaingang. There were eight of us at the start including Tim and Jay Miles. Just before we set off we saw a cyclist ride past, a few minutes later the cyclist returned; it turned out to be Steve Denny (who used to do some off road with us). It turns out steve has bought an old Bianci and has got into road riding.Apparently he has been regularly been riding from london to Brighton in the dark!. I think he said he had done this four times now and was determined to do it within 4 hours.He had already ridden 18 miles at the point he saw us but decided to ride with us anyway. He was with us at Rye but when we all reassembled at Broad Oak he wasnt there. After waiting 10 minutes we had to move on we assume he must have either decided to give the climbs a miss or had a puncture ? (his phone was switched off when we tried to ring him), The rest of us continued as usual although the pace was gentler than average and for me ascending Stonestile lane was a lot easier than the week before.
S.C
PS- Turned out in the end that Steve had a puncture just a mile from Broad oak, he really enjoyed the ride though so hopefully we will see him again.

Tony returns 10 September

Great to see Tony King out again on this mornings early bird ride.Myself and Paul K were a bit tired due to the Friday chaingang the night before so we wanted a gentle pace ride of short length. Tony was struggling with the hills at first after a six week lay off. At one point he was going to bail but we persuaded him to stay. As the ride progressed Tony seemed to get stronger and in the last 5 miles it was me that was getting dropped on the hills!. Paul is climbing really well on the road at the moment and rode particularly fast up the hill to 'Ashburnham'. I always enjoy these short early road rides, 30 miles is my ideal distance. We were back in the old town for bacon butties before 11:00. We tried out a different cafe- the one more or less opposite the anchor. A little pricey but excellent bacon. The guy working there was very keen to talk to us about his son. Apparently his son who is in the army is a fitness fanatic and does several iron man events each year and is mad keen on cycling. I passed him our club email so hopefully we will have another rider on the occasions that he is back home in Hastings
S.C

Friday Chaingang Gains A New regular

A very pleasant Friday chaingang on 9 September with myself, Ivan, Paul K, Malc, Simon G all present . Also present was newbie club rider Adrian on his second Friday chain of the season. looks like Adrian will become a Friday regular. This was my first Friday chaingang of the season. Having felt relatively fit on Wednesday, I thought this would be a breeze.This was far from the truth as I had forgotten just how long the drag from rye to broad oak is (about 4 miles) and just how steep the climb up stonestil lane was. My objective there was just to survive the climb, this I did but only barely, all the others including Adrian leaving me in their wake. Hopefully it will be easier for me next week! Still no sign of Paul Baxter- has he gone into hibernation mode again now that summer is over?
S.C

The easy way to ride fast into a headwind. Chaingang Sept 7th

Seventeen riders and welcome more new faces, Major, Derek, Adrian, Stuart, Nick, & other names I didn't catch. I was trying so hard to hang on that I cant remember much about the outward leg, I think it was mainly our Ivan and new face Stuart Davis from Eastbourne Rovers making the pace, might have been something like 19mph average, riding into a tough headwind. I had a dig at Spooky Hill just for badness and to see who was fresh in the final miles, Max came through very strong and drove it right up almost to the flamme rouge - actually a little tunnel of trees a kilo or so from the finish when a big rider in a US postal top came thru very strong, I'm thinking - crikey whats George Hincapie doing on our chaingang- but I hopped on his wheel, hoping for a lead out. After 100 yards Dave H-H, not G.H. looked back, saw me there, and sat up, so I had to go - too early with a block headwind like that, I blew before the end where all the fit lads who'd been sitting in fizzed past. Poachers! Chatterboxes! Take your turn on the front! Pah!

Simon Newell asked how could they ride so fast into the headwind, Stuart explained how easy it was - something about finding your core and holding onto it, too bad I've forgotten exactly what he said, it could come in pretty handy a thing like that, as could being smaller and fitter than a racing whippet, I imagine.

On way back Simon N attacked then Matt and Max escaped at Spooky Hill, lucky for them a car was coming the other way and all us on fixed were desperately under-geared for the super massive tailwind, or we'd have had them both for breakfast, without a doubt, easy.

Alex did a lungbusting effort to narrow the gap along Herbrand walk. I was feeling a bit sick by now hanging onto the tail of a train of six riders, hitting 27 mph and above like a hysteric washing machine on spin, Malc had an even smaller gear than me and never wavered. Aproaching Bexhill,found a good wheel, had a dig from 200 meters out at washing machine spin cubed, came past two then was all out of puff and watched the big train go by all over again. Next week I'm going up two teeth on the front, 48 x 15. So a fine training ride.a bunch of us went to pub after to drink beer and compare flashing lights. Tune in next week when we'll ask the fast men the secret of their success, and try not to forget what they said this time.
CW

Summer's last Gasp?

As we do every year those of us who like to do a bit of off road completed our once a year 'off road' to Brighton.Present were the usual suspects, myself, Ivan, Paul K and Colin (on his once a year mtb ride).The ride started off with all road until we were able to pick up the SDW at Eastbourne. There is then a brutal very long climb up to the top of 'Butts brow' before a very rapid and bumpy decent down into Jevington.Here we met a friendly cyclist who was on an old Kona that was nearly as old as the retro bikes that we were riding,we gave him the club email so another possible recruit? At this point I began to think that maybe full suspension wasn't a waste of money? Having gone all the way down to the valley floor we then had to climb all the way back up towards 'the long man'. Myself and Paul found this to be the hardest climb of the day and shamefully we had to get off and walk up some of it. Ivan as usual took it all in his stride and Colin was going well to. Following another very bumpy decent down into Alfriston we headed for R&R at our usual cafe stop (Badgers), unfortunately this establishment was full but then we discovered one on the corner of the road, the ladies in there were really friendly and it was cheaper than Badgers so that was a nice discovery. After the R& R we decided we would take the easy route to firle along the old farm track which skirts around the base of the Downs rather than the downs itself. The only price we paid for this was that we had to do the steep climb up to firle beacon on the road, this wasn't so bad but did seem to go on for ever and with backbacks on our backs we were overheating. We now knew that most of the hard stages were behind us and flew down rodmell hill only to discover Dave HH about to climb up it. Dave was doing the SDW in a day and had been on the route since 5:00, we didn't envy him at all knowing full well what he had left to do.Colin's response was f##k that! The rest of the route proceeded quite nicely, when we finally reached a bit of tarmac, Colin was so glad he kissed the road before the best part of the whole trip which is the endless fast decent down into the heart of brighton. Colin suggested we try a different curry house this time and the one we discovered was much better than the usual with excellent staff and food, this is the one we will use when we ride to Brighton again on one of the hack back rides. A tough but enjoyable day, myself and Paul really did struggle on this ride and for us that is the last off road of the season, tarmac here we come!!
SC

"Where did you get them Flashing Lights?"*

All the local crazies were out last night, and so were we with a promising
turnout of 15 riders for a fine summer evening of tall tales and bold moves.
Half a dozen of our regulars were absent but great to see some fresh new faces
and welcome back all the old lags as well.

Matt R set the pace out to Pevensey averaging 23.7 mph, and claims he spent
the summer "resting" oh aye? indeed.
Welcome back Dan Harwood who claims he hasn't ridden a bike since he
went to work in Yemen 3 years ago yet somehow finished top 5.

Young Joe Jenner on his first chain gang punctured, Chris Parker stayed back
to show him the route. Only Malc and Tony (with a swish new ride) were on
fixed, the rest of us chose to break in gently on gears.

On the way back some cars were held up from Spooky hill all the way to the
level crossing, despite us riding single file. Anyway as they passed us a
little red car squirted its windscreen washer and Matt set
off in hot pursuit, muttering curses - he actually caught them at
Herbrand walk and brought traffic to a halt while he offered some helpful
"road etiquette" thru the drivers window. If only we could get a number on his
back, as reluctant to race Matt said himself, "insult my mother and put me on
a 10 and I'd go OK"

Swift roll back to the pub for a quick pint, chatted with Charlie from Bell's
bikes and Chris Parker signed up some stragglers for the ESCA 25 on Sept.
11th.
CW
*random drunk fisherman who came up to us on a brakeless rat bike at the
Bexhill stop.

Wednesday Time Trial Series

I aim to add a brief report here.

The top five riders plus other snippetes of info have been in the Hastings Observer every week which is why I have not added reports regularly.

When I add info I will change the title to include the series winner's name.

Chris Parker