14 April- Hell Of Asdown

At last we were back to Ashdown again to complete the GPS route for the famous 'Hell Of Asdown' route. It seems longer than a year ago that we did this route for the first time. Sad to think that Anthony and Paul K who were with us last year, no longer ride with us but on the plus side we had the pleasure of Dan and Trevor riding the route for the first time. After yesterday's prolonged heavy rain we were all pinning our hopes on the weather forecasts which predicted dry sunny conditions from about 9:00 onwards. At 8:45 it didn't look like that was going to happen as it was cold windy and raining. Dave HH was not happy and no sooner had he taken his bike out of the car before he decided the weather was no good and abandoned the ride before it started. The rest of us had more faith in the forecasts and sure enough within the next 20 minutes the rain had petered out.

Twenty Minutes Later This Cold Wet Weather Was  A Distant memory

For the next 10 miles we had to have regular stops to shed more and more layers of clothing until most of us ended up in just shorts and jersey. Derek was reaping the benefit of fitting a 30 tooth cassette at the back and was performing much better than at the 'Tour Of the Weald' from a few weeks ago. Before long our first proper hill appeared, Bayley's Hill. This is my favorite hill of the whole route as despite gaining over 700 feet, the elevation never goes above 8% and there are great views into the valley.Award for the tallest hill of the day goes to Toy's Hill which we came to about half way through the ride  (altitude of over 800 feet) but again this hill has a moderate gradient (up to 9%) and so is nothing more than a very long drag. By the time we reached Hever (of Anne  Boleyn fame), Derek was feeling worse for wear. Fortunately this is where we stopped last year for refreshment at the local village pub. Sitting in the garden in the sunshine sipping our drinks and munching chocolate bars, we could feel our pasty complexions reddening in the sun, best weather day of the year so far, by a mile. Leaving the pub we had just 15 miles to go and this section contains some of my favourite riding around Hindleep Warren where there are very long slightly down hill sections that seem to go on forever.All the time I was on the look out for the 'Hatch Inn' which marks the start of the decent down to the bottom of Kidd's hill, aka 'The Wall'. Being the first one to arrive, I stopped to let Trevor know we were about to arrive at the 'The wall'  and then watched as he and  Malcolm set off at their own pace to best the climb. Trevor went on to achieve the 86th best ride of all time out of 1541 riders which is impressive for a first ever ride up this famed climb. For myself, I was content just to plod up there and achieve a not so impressive 1388th best ride of all time, LOL. I was worried about Derek managing to get up the climb but thanks to Dan's encouragement he was only a little way behind me.

Refreshment Time At Hever

Another Hell Of Ashdown completed in excellent weather, we will be back for more punishment
 next year.