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| Andy |
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| John Vidler |
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| Stubb's lane Is such Fun In The Wet! |
The weather forecast said light rain initially followed by heavy rain all morning. In previous seasons this would have been enough for me to cancel the ride but this year having had so much rain exposure there has been plenty of time to evolve flippers and gills so even heavy rain was not going to put me off. Arriving at the cemetery at 8:00 I wasn't surprised to see Doug arrive a few minutes later. With only a few minutes to go before setting off we thought it quite likely no one else would be crazy enough to come out in the rain. Much to our surprise a whole clutch of riders suddenly appeared (the Westfield/Broad Oak/ battle contingent) including two early bird newbies John Vidler and Andy. We set off on the Appledore 34 miler which is a good route for wet conditions. It does however involve the steep descent of chick hill which john felt particularly nervous descending having come off there last year which cost him several months off riding. This time we all made it down safely and for the next 15 miles it was flat riding all the way towards Appledore. The ride got a lot hillier once we turned west for Wittersham Iden and Brede. At some point Steve B who was at the front got separated from us, I think he was too busy following the route on his GPS and we didn't see him again until we got to Westfield. From here we all split up and it was left to myself and Doug to complete the route with a nice wet ascent of Stonestile. As this was the second time I had ridden it in less than 12 hours, my stiff legs were relieved to reach the top. Maybe we will be lucky and have a dry early bird sometime?
Distance 33 miles
Av speed 15.1 mph
Ascent 752m
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