30/12 Club Ride - David Shows His Tracking Skills

Anyone Seen David?

Arise Sir Wiggins

With everyone still on their Xmas holidays and with such good weather it wasn't surprising that we had such a great turnout today of ten riders. This included Andy foster on his first ever club ride. Chris P was leading us on another trek out to one of our favourite cafe stops, the 'lake Side' at Horam, but took us out  by yet another new devious route. We were all concerned at the state of the roads passing through Crowhurst as there were pot holes and broken surfaces everywhere, Jon S said maybe we should call this the Horam Cyclecross route as bikes and riders were getting such a hammering (Lord knows what they will be like once we get some frost!) Chris pushed out a faster than usual pace today and with myself and Steve D recovering from too much alcohol we spent much of the first part of the ride near the back of the bunch. Newbie, Andy F had no such trouble keeping up despite having done two hours yesterday on his turbo . As the ride went on our hangovers receded and it became a little easier for us, it was now David's turn to be the lantern rouge. At one point we completely lost sight of the others but Chris had waited at a junction for us. He asked if myself and Steve were the back markers, I told him that David was behind us and I thought (wrongly) that Dan had held back for him. Chris knew Dan was up ahead and so assumed that David was up there with him. It wasn't until we eventually caught up with the others that we realised we had left David behind and in the last 4 miles or so we had taken a number of turns. I didn't think there was anyway David would find us but perhaps he would make his own way to Horam? Much to my surprise David soon appeared , he had found us by tracking (grey owl style) our tyre marks on the road! Following our usual bacon sarnies at the cafe we headed south along Gun hill and towards Hailsham. Here there is that annoying bit where you have to cross the main dual carriage way (frogger style) , having safely crossed the road Jon S had a low speed slip on some muddy leaves, he didn't think anything of it but unfortunately about 3 miles up the road he realised his mobile was missing and must have slipped out of his pocket when he fell over, so had to abandon us and go back to get it. Once we got to Stonecross we had a fast return all the way home with the South Westerly wind behind us.
Thanks to Chris for mapping out another excellent route to Horam. Hopefully we will get some more good numbers on the club ride again.
Distance 50 miles
Ascent 835 m

27 Dec- Upon the world dim darkness doth display

Darkness Descends!

Six riders met today for another early bird. We had planned to do a 40 miler but as the weather forecast said heavy rain we decided to do the 'jack frost 30 miler' which is a good choice for wet conditions. I was surprised to see Ivan out again as I know he doesn't like cold and wet weather. When we started there was no rain and there was even some blue sky but as we got nearer to Rye the sky started to cloud over. Suddenly everything went really dark as if it was late evening. We pulled over to throw on our water proofs but Ivan decided to throw in the towel and head for home rather than get a soaking.The rest of us pressed on up the long five mile draggy route up to Beckley. John, Andy and Steve B really gave it some welly and soon dropped me, I in turn dropped Derek so we became very spread out but regrouped at Beckley. From here it became a little easier for a while but Derek again got dropped and decided to make his own way home. John has been really pushing Andy in his training and for someone so new to cycling, Andy has come a long way very fast as is significantly faster than the last time he came on an early bird ride. As the only one heading back to Hastings I had to do the last 6 miles on my own up the hilly climb from Sedlescombe past the vineyard and up to three Oaks, it was quite surreal with the cold wet and darkness but I soon got back to reality on arrival at the back of B and Q.
The wet weather must have taken its toll on us as last time we did this route we averaged 15.8 mph so we were almost 1 mph slower!
Distance 29.2 miles
Average 14.9 mph

Early Bird- Boxing Day Ride

These Used To Be Fields!

A brief dry weather window for our boxing day ride. Present were myself, Ivan, Steve D, Derek and Duncan. Weather was quite blustery but also quite mild. This was a new short early bird ride, the 'Hankham Hailsham 34 Miler'. With it being Boxing Day, we had the roads mostly to ourselves although we did pass a few cyclists including our very own Simon N and Doug. The first part of the ride through Ninfield and Bodle Street was quite hilly. Myself and Derek were a bit off the pace as I was recovering from the Nora virus a few days before while Derek had not done enough training in the last few weeks. Duncan was determined to push himself hard as he has been too busy to get out much with his new job, Steve was in good shape having still managed to keep up his weekly training mileage despite the wet weather. On arriving at Cowbeech Duncan had our one and only puncture which gave me plenty of time to admire the newly formed lakes all around (used to be fields). From here it was fast riding and I seemed to get a second wind, the last 15 miles flying past easily. This was another good winter route which I will repeat again before the end of the season.

Thumbs Up For Boxing Day!

Distance 35.2 miles
Av speed 14.5 mph

Swampy- Bacon Butty Ride 22 December

Having had to cancel the 'early bird' ride due to the wet weather I decided that I would join Chris Parker for his 'bacon buttie ride 'instead. No one else was masochistic enough to ride in such heavy rain but myself and Chris decided we would simply do the weds chaingang to get a few miles without risking sliding over on a twisty route. It was quite exciting looking at all the flooding on the Norman's bay road to Pevensey, Chris said he had never seen it so flooded. There was so much water on the road I suffered a blow out where I hit a pothole hidden by deep water . We pulled into the bottom of spooky hill to fix it. The flooding was particularly bad here and we enjoyed watching all the cars ploughing through the deep water, watching it spray all over their windscreens. By the time we got to Pevensey, we were both too wet and soggy to contemplate going in a cafe stop and headed straight for home. On the way back Chris also got a sudden puncture which took a while to fix as the rims on Chris's wheel are extra thick for strength.

These Tyres Are A Tight Fit!

Deep water On Approach To 'Spooky Hill'

Tuesday training -18 December

Ivan punctures, a chance for me to get ahead!

Owing to the terrible weather of late, myself and Ivan decided we would squeeze in an extra Broad Oak night ride on a Tuesday when the weather forecast was excellent. John V and Nathan decided to join us. As the forecast promised, it was a nice still evening, the temperature was chilly but safely above freezing point. Ivan got a sudden puncture while heading out along the rye harbour road. I used this as a chance to get ahead but as usual it wasn't long before the other all fitter riders came past me on the long haul up to Broad Oak. On reaching the top I could see all the others waiting for me but rather than stop I decided to make another break for it to try to get ahead, so shouted a 'catch me up' as I rode past. With gravity now on my side it wasn't until the approach to Westfield that Nathan caught me up. On the rough road up to Stonestile the mist had descended which slowed Nathan down and we road together to the base of stonestile with no sign of John or Ivan. The fog lifted and Nathan soon shot off up the hill. before long I heard the heavy breathing of another rider behind me  , it was John on his first ever ascent of stone stile. Once, John had gone past me I expected to see Ivan but I just managed to get to the top of the climb before he caught me up. Ivan said he was still not quite up to full fitness and had had to walk at the first and steepest part of the climb.

John's first ascent of stonestile

High And Over 16 December

The Turning For Rickney

Some good mild winter weather for this morning's club ride. Good to see Andy again, he doesnt come out with us very often but he is preparing to do the Lands End to John O Groates next year so we may well see more of him. Rather than head straight down to Bexhill road to pick up the GPX route we decided to  head through Battle,along the North Trade road, Boreham Street  and Wartling. The sustrans route through Rickney was fine but Ivan and Simon warned us that further to the west is was so muddy you would need to us an mtb to get through so we used the B2104 to take us straight into Hailsham instead. Having been out on Saturday Andy was struggling to keep up and knew that it would only get worse once we passed through Alfriston so we had to leave him to follow the route on his own. 'Hi And Over' didn't seem too bad today but for Ivan on a fixed wheel it proved a bit too much and he had to walk the last few meters. The glorious descent down to the coast followed, then up the long drag alongside Friston Forest before the ascent of Beachy head. It felt like summer climbing through the switchbacks there, as the wind had dropped, the sun was really bright and we were all nicely warmed up. Myself, Ivan and Steve B stopped at the cafe in Pevensey Bay. They used to do fantastic cheese on toast back in the day when it was called the Sandwich inn, now its called the Bay cafe and the cheese on toast is nothing to write home about. I  struggled with a sore back today on my SCR so had a quick go on steve's SCR. Now that he has fitted a shorter stem if felt a better fit with less of a drop between saddle and hoods so I will have to start looking on eBay again for an SCR 2 in large rather than medium.

Steepest Climb Of The Day

Ascent 981m
Distance 58 miles
Av speed 15.9 mph

Hi,

I don't know if you are aware, but there is a new Bike Shop in Town.

Handsome Bikes Ltd are located at 1 Harold Place right opposite Jempsons Cafe and residing in the building which was previously used by Velocity. A shop nothing to do with Bikes but selling furniture.

The shop sells Trek and Genesis bikes, and hope to add further stock from Upgrade and Brompton.

A well appointed shop, with quality spares and accessories, together with a large workshop at the rear. The shop is open 7 days a week 9 to 5.30 with slightly different opening times at weekend.

The website located at www.handsomebicycles.com should be up and running next week.

The shop is run by Rowan and Mike who have 15 years cycling sales experience (Evans Cycles) and would appear that there are trying to offer suitable kit and equipment for the club cyclist.

Contact the shop on:

Tel: 01424 722815

or

Email: sales@handsomebicycles.com or workshop@handsomebicycles.com

 .

 

'There and back again' Wednesday chaingang Dec 5

 illustration by Eric Fraser

One degree above freezing brought twelve riders - notes were compared on winter gear- always a compromise for me of being too hot under effort or being too cold when waiting at stops - average speed out 21, back 22. We met a group of five or so new faces en route, well one I think we met at the club hillclimb the other day, why not meet us at the start next week and say hello. Got news from Barney about his Elite, 1s and 2s race at Hillingdon last weekend.  Later on I thought we'd blown him away, but he explained later he'd felt his back wheel go away from him  and stopped to see if tyre was soft, in fact it was some icing on the road - of course we believe him.   Malc, Nathan, Stuart and Svawek did most of the pulling on front as far as I could see. As Dave H-H pointed out pace is down a bit from the race pace of early September - suits me as I can now bring the fixed winter bike and leave the racer tucked up at home, also on  fixed Malc wisely  rode a traditional low winter gear of 46 x 18 to save the knees and improve spinning power and I had 48x17- which is fine for chaingang but a bit high for longer hilly rides. Watch out for nasty little pothole coming down the hill heading towards Pevensey, nobody saw it and I hit it square on, the air turned blue maybe causing some paint to blister on nearby frames but no serious mechanical harm was done.

1/12- Nathan Joins The Not So Early Birds

Early Birds Assemble

Dan Is Impressed With Nathan's Speedy Puncture Repair

With temperatures forecast just above zero, the early birds (including Nathan on his first ever early bird) met at 9:00 instead of 8:00. This was just as well because the temperature was colder than forecast and the ice had only just started to melt. I had mapped out a new route over Rye, Peasmarsh and Westfield that kept to main roads. This made a big change as most early bird rides are on small lanes with lots of hills. Derek was worried about traffic on some of the roads but even on the A268 there was very little, and free from the attention needed to safely negotiate hills and blind corners were were really able to get into the 'zone' and just push on through the miles. It didn't take long before we arrived at Sedlescombe where we had some climbing to do to get to Westfield and then Three Oaks.There was still quite a lot of icy mush on the road  so it was a good job we hadn't ridden round in the opposite direction. Despite starting at 9:00 we were all done by 11:10.
Av Speed 15.8 mph
Distance 29 miles
Ascent 605 m