Secret training methods of the Chaingang

Seems like everyone's been training super hard lately,  going out nearly every day over the last week -- Meanwhile I've been compounding  my meager winter  base mileage  with a couple of late night sessions - on the lash - mainly red wine,  gin & tonic, whisky, ale, lager, pizza, apple pie and custard  by night  mixed up with watching cartoons (I recommend Wreck It Ralph) driving family to half term activities by day - so no cycling at all,  bar Sunday afternoon on the cuckoo trail with missus and littlun in which we cycled five miles, and had a pub lunch. 

Contrast this with our own tip top form Matt R and Stuart H targetting and bagging KOMs over the week, Stu D lost three in one night!  East Rover John C, who's cunning  strategy of "just popping out for an hour" each evening after the kids are in bed and ferociously ascending his cyclocross bike up ten  thousand feet of frozen mud is also paying dividends. Will Matt R and Stuart H enter the  ESCA Hardriders TT next month and score HSTLCC's highest places? I hope so. Can escape artist Matt beat John C who led our bunch so well  - time will tell!  WilI I tie on time with John C like I did last year, or was it the year before?  Bet against it dear reader, bet against it. 

I counted sixteen  riders backed by a swift Northwesterly. Our own Matt R jumped away early on with Simon N in tow. I tried to drag everyone else across and was closing - and tiring - when the John C train rolled to the front, let us catch onto his wheel, then steamed up and closed Matt down. Matt got away again a few times and John brought him back for us. Simon rode agressively  - well on  a big fixed gear you need to sprint up hills to be fair - and a pack of usual suspects sat in and were able to finish strongly on - relatively -  fresh legs. But riding straight into the teeth of the Northwesterly Matt and John showed that little bit stronger than all the rest of us who tried so hard tonight. Still we have plenty new riders with lots of potential, keep up the good work. I hope all of you will enter the Hardriders TT, one of the first and most fun of the local race events - just like in Strava, your first time trial is a personal best. 

Dont forget, annual club do tomorrow at Cinque Ports Pub, All Saints St, bring £5 for buffet, have a beer and a chat with us  and see the glorious club trophies get handed out, cheers.

Steve Curtis writes: Tonights chaingang was the first one for Trevor Deeble . Trevor has been on a few bacon butty rides, he then came out on the club ride with Malcolm and Chris C. All he had was a vintage 1950s bike, despite this Malc and Chris were impressed how fast he rode. Trevor has just bought a secondhand modern bike with Ultegra and this was literally his first ever ride on it. He got it twenty mins before setting off on the chaingang. Malcolm predicts  he will be one of our fastest riders soon as his average speed from Strava was 18.6 on his first ever chaingang, which says it all really, huge potential!