27 January - The 'ghost' of riders past!

A record equalling turnout for the Friday chaingang with eight riders. Also there was Paul Baxter who hadn't turned up for a ride but had tuned up for a chat and to see what was going on. When asked why he hasn't ridden since the summer he admitted it was pure laziness. he claims he will be at the Wednesday chaingang, but we will see? Jon was there as well on his first Friday chaingang. On the way down battery hill there was a large hissing sound as Jon suffered a large blowout having hit a pothole. As myself, Jon and Anthony were at the back the others were unaware of this. Having fixed the puncture we caught back up with them at Rye harbour. Despite living at Westfield Jon was determined to do the ascent of stonestile but unfortunately his new light started flashing a low power warning so he had to save his first ascent for another day. Another impressive effort from Derek who pulled out all the stops to get past myself and Anthony on stonestile

S.C

And then we sever. Chaingang 25th jan

"When I heard the sound of sixteen pairs of SPDs clipping in, that's when I knew. It was going to be fast"
Welcome new rider Gavin - sorry I should  have mentioned clip-in shoes and racing kit is the norm, well done for going so well wearing jeans & trainers, not to mention bulky anorak and rucksack.  Gavin enjoyed the ride nevertheless and promised to be back next week with some sportier kit. With the running training he's doing I'm sure he'll be on the pace, no probs.  Jay Miles is down to his racing weight already -  himself and Gavin are training for Hastings half marathon, any more runners in the pack?

Incidentally this might be a good time to point out to  riders new to riding in a bunch that our Wednesday Chaingang is very different to a traditional Club run.  A Club run  - which we do at weekends - everyone generally keeps together in a tight bunch and don't try to break away or attack, except perhaps at agreed points like an important climb or a "30" sign approaching home and  regrouping soon afterwards.

Some good tips on group riding here:


http://www.westlothianclarion.co.uk/westlothianclara.html

http://www.westlothianclarion.co.uk/westlothianclarb.html

http://www.westlothianclarion.co.uk/technique.html

Our chaingang is Devil tak' the hindmost, more or less,  but two or more riders working well together can beat a soloist, unless it's Pete . . .

A Southerly wind  against us on way out.  Pete T.  and Ivan led the way out at 21mph, until Pete attacked and broke away at South Cliff. Ivan and I chased - at times we appeared to be closing on Pete's blinking red taillight, then suddenly it danced round a bend and out of sight like some deceptive Will o' the Wisp - mocking our efforts fly thru' air like treacle.  Swavek, then Simon N then Malc rolled up having bravely battled the fierce wind alone to stay clear of the bunch.

Pete led us back, winding the pace up higher and higher along Cooden Drive until the elastic was well and truly severed. Not a lot we can do about that - unless Charlie Bell can be persuaded to motorpace us on his custom Derny one week - only joking.

Early bird 21 Jan- Jon returns, Dan takes a tumble

Good to see Jon back out again, he hasn't be able to ride with us since before Xmas so I was expecting Jon to be struggling at the back but in fact it was Jon together with Doug who were leading at the front with myself and Derek further back (with Duncan somewhere in the middle). We repeated the route that Pete mapped out for Xmas, although I modified the final 10 miles to cut out the main road back to Bexhill, although stupidly I forgot to put into the route the loop around Brightling so we ended up sticking on the mainroad to Woods' Corner. During the ride I was really looking forward to the long steady descent from Wood's corner to Ashburnam and was not disappointed with fast riding on a minor road with a good quality surface (much more fun than it was before in the dark)

Distance 40.3 miles Av Speed 15.3 mph

PS- Dan harwood sent me a text to ask what route we were going as he didn't know the meeting point and intended to meet us on route, near Winchelsea. Unfortunately, just like Colin a few years back, the curse of Chick Hill struck again and Dan ended up crashing into the fence at the bottom. Pete took him to A and E for a check up. Luckily Dan escaped with just bruising but his road bike is a right off with broken forks, cranks and chainset. Dan intends to use this as excuse to buy a brand new one on the ride to work scheme.

Great Chieftains of the Pudding Race - Chaingang wed 18 january

15 riders - good turnout for an otherwise unpromisingly dreich and misty night. Local ace Pete Tadros and Shaun Reed, the only rider from west of Pevensey set the pace, with Simon N. Paul and myself hanging on grimly like the witches chasing Tam O' Shanter's mare. The tail tore off painfully at South Cliff as two riders were shed. I clung on a bit longer, came to the front at the level crossing , but was spent by the Star Inn. Just after crossing the bridge Pete attacked like a pro, Shaun shouted "inside" meaning Shaun was chasing thru' on my inside in lee of the wind. Addle headed I thought he meant me to move to the inside accidentally boxing him in so Pete escaped over Spooky Hill into a westerly headwind like Auld Clootie hisself. Curses, thats what happens when we give him a rest!

Going home with the wind at our backs, fixed Pete undergeared now, & everyone spinning briskly and keeping more together. Had a wee dig at Cooden hotel, Stuart Crabbe was out supporting at the hotspot. Charlie Bell's Bikes had a dig up the South Cliff, whereupon Tadros countered, really trying and quickly opened up a gap, as he kindly pointed out later I only caught him up as he was undergeared and yes it took quite a long time to reach him and yes I was giving it everything. Needless to say on bridging I tucked in behind until he tired then showed him the old Malcolm Elliott at the last yard.

We stopped at Bexhill to regroup, Pete says he trains 10 hours a week, something like 200 miles - from his daily commute, our chaingang and a weekend ride - thats what it takes to win races! All I know is my sore legs would be glad of a rest after this "burns" night - (groan!) After our rest stop Malc and Pete zipped off over Galley Hill and we never caught them.

Steve Curtis says " I intend to do an early bird ride on sat 21 jan. This will be a modified version of the xmas ride that pete took us on. Distance is 40 miles with quite a lot of climbing
Meet opposite Hillcrest school, Rye road at 8:00am sharp, if forecast is dry"

Early Bird Ride- Beachy head Sun 15 June

Great turn out today for a Sunday early bird ride. The weather forecasters had warned of frost so we had decided a few days before that we would play it safe and do 'Beachy'. As it turned out temperatures were well above freezing and there was no sign of an frost so we could have done an inland route after all. Good to see Mike, Matt, Simon G and Alex out with us again, I guess they were tempted as the Beachy run is one of their standard routes. Also good to see Josef making an appearance (we havent seen much of him this season) as well as Simon N on his first ever early bird ride. Just as we were about to leave I had a phone call from Malcolm, he had just woken up and told us he would try to meet us on route somewhere, I was sceptical that we would be able to meet up with him. We were also pleased to meet Edwin who had decided to give an early bird ride a go, he was a bit worried as he had only ridden with Chris P before on a bacon butty ride. We set off at quite a brisk pace with a tail wind behind us, Edwin and Josef were struggling a bit and we waited for them near Norman's bay. They again got dropped somewhere after Pevensey. I waited for them and josef soon caught me up but there was no sign of Edwin, I guess he must have abandoned (lets hope this doesn't put him off!) The climb up Beachy was great with a nice tail wind and wall to wall sunshine, while the decent down to Eastdean was even better with riders moving at 40 mph at some points. Simon G had to pedal like mad on his fixed wheeel to keep in contact with us. With the wind behind us the nasty little climb up from Eastdean was much easier than normal but we had a bus hovering behind our posteriors for most of the ascent which is a bit intimidating. Matt, Alex, Mike and Simon G split off from us at Polegate while the rest of us took the scenic route back. Now the wind was at our faces and it was a long grovel back to Hastings. Much to my surprise Malcolm managed to find us (his wrist is much better now) on the way back but at some point we lost Anthony (not used to longish rides?). A great ride in the sunshine with a good turn of speed.

Distance 45.2 miles Av speed 16 mph

Derek gets new legs - Fri 13 jan

Bit of a shock to the system on tonight's Friday chain-gang with temperatures hovering just above zero. Anthony had arrived too early and had to wait 15 minutes for the rest of us to arrive so he was pretty 'chilled out' by the time we arrived. Good to see Anthony and Joe out again following their inaugural ride last week. Apart from cold feet it wasn't too bad once we got moving as there was no wind chill to speak of. Derek had his best friday chain gang ever and left myself and Steve Denny well behind on the long drag up to Broadoak. We decided to give Stonestile a miss just in case there was any ice forming, so we took the main-road through Westfield, we all found it much easier than stonestile. Derek again managed to thoroughly drop myself and Steve on the long climb up westfield lane, is Derek on EPO?

S.C

Escape from the Chaingang Weds Jan 11th

Do you ever worry about the big questions in life? Things like why are we here, is the world going to end soon, and closer to home - is the sort of cycling I do good or bad for my heart, that kind of thing?
To get some answers I had a go at taking my resting pulse in bed this morning - without proper instruments I can't claim any accuracy - 40 or 47 bpm, give or take 10 or 20. Anyway the interesting thing was it seemed possible to slow it down quite a bit by breathing more deeply and slowly which was quite reassuring in a way. Either that or I carelessly missed some beats. I'm sure now about one thing at least - relaxing in bed doesn't strain the heart overly much.

Great turn out of 21 riders and the return of lots of our regulars. Lashings of Christmas pud doesn't seem to have put a dent in most of you, why!? I've gained 5 pounds! Stored carbs - like a camel.
Speed out was more than 21mph, Pete Tadros, Ivan and Matt doing most of the work with John and Shaun escaping up South Cliff, but somehow we dragged them back. John escaped again at Cooden Beach, the second time I nearly buried myself trying to catch him, and actually eased up half way across, lucky for us he'd slowed up a bit too. Of course by then our chasing group was up to speed and rolled on and past and over, like a humungous juggernaut being carried by a relentless juggernaut transporter.

Just before the halfway stop I thought Ivan had opened a good gap so I tried to help but ran out of gas quickly, everyone was itching to go, in the end John then Swavek prevailed lapping the roundabout in honour, 3rd time lucky, good game! And a 21.5 mph average, not bad at all against a westerly wind.

On the way back we averaged 24 and something mph, I think in three groups that all finished pretty close together, good effort. Spotted two traffic cops on motorbikes and a panda car, so it's a good thing that we never ever jump red lights. Everyone rode home sensibly and we'll see you next week friends, take care of yourselves, cheers!

Early Bird report 7 Jan- Broadoak in reverse

Fantastic weather for this morning's early bird ride. Solid turnout with 7 riders including the welcome return of Doug who we haven't seen for quite a while. Steve Denny turned up last with tyres that were almost flat, this wasn't due to punctures but simply that he hadn't pumped them up for so long having been doing mainly off road recently. Once Steve had pumped up the tyres we proceeded up Harley Chute on our 30 mile route. Steve kept getting dropped but when he finally caught up with us at Catsfield we found out why, his tyres were still soft. Once we had put a decent pressure of air into them we proceeded up to battle, watlington and broadoak. Riding down the long road from Broadoak towards Rye instead of grovelling up it was great, it felt like we were getting our revenge back on the hill. From Winchelsea we had quite a long stretch on the road before turning off for Three oaks at Guesting. Derek was suffering a bit by now having down both chaingangs this week, and peeled off on his own hoping to find an easier way home. I am not sure that this was a good idea as I reckon Rocks lane is the easiest way back , LOL. We finished the ride off with a large 'Witherspoons' breakfast (bargain at £4)

Distance 30.5 miles Av speed 14.9mph

Joe and Anthony Join the Friday Chaingang- 6 Jan

Good turnout for a Friday chaingang, including for the first time Joe and Anthony. Weather was very different to that suffered by Wednesday's chaingang with light winds. Good to see that Anthony has taken our advice and ditched the cross tyres, he said it made riding a lot easier. We were a little worried about how Anthony would see his way way round the route as he only had a small commuter light and the batteries were going flat but somehow he made it. Joe was going really well and on the long drag up to Broadoak he was up front with simon G, Paul and Ivan. Anthony also did well on the long drag where despite my best efforts I couldn't shake him off and we arrived at the top together. Anthony and Joe both enjoyed the ride so hopefully they will become Friday regulars?

S.C

Happy New Chaingang January 4th

"27 and we're not even pedalling!" Anthony (not Adrian as we were calling him earlier) on his new slicks shouted as we strung out in a line approaching Stuart's house. I think we might even have touched 30 later on judging by the traffic going backwards. So a good night out indeed for nearly a dozen of us surfing the 37mph West South Westerly wind to Hastings. Great to see old friends / new faces Jon Moulton, Charlie from Bell's bikes testing his new old Ambrosio, as well as our hardy regulars - Happy New Year everyone, see you next week : )

Oh, the ride-out? Wasn't such fun - bunch was soon divided by 37 mph headwind which nearly blocked me to a dead halt several times on my overgeared fixed. But I wasn't the only one suffering - Anthony also mulled over leaning his bike against a tree and quitting cycling forever! Popular fantasy that. Nice of the front group - Shaun R, Simon Newell, John and Swavek, to wait for everyone at Cooden. Feeling my post Christmas legs of chocolate I got dropped twice. Wobbled last miles to Pevensey on my own, until I was caught by the Jon Moulton, Simon Grogan and Joe Jenner train. Riding solo into that wind was pretty grim, might have been the toughest chaingang ever, yet probably worth the ride back home with a free moped engine. But hey, we were lucky, no hailstones. And the proper miserable rain obeyed the BBC for once and waited till after 9pm to plop.

Heard some interesting rumours about our local bike shops and maybe a new pub, fingers crossed that all goes well. Does anyone read Cycling Active magazine? I do drawings for it every month and sometimes Cycling Weekly as well, been waiting for right time to use this winter club run image so here it is.