5/4- Fri Chaingang: Stuart Storms Stonestile

Stuart Hodd- First Time Friday Chainganger

After many weeks of disruption to the Friday chaingang due to bad weather and Saturday riding commitments, I had made a special effort to encourage riders to turnout this week. Yet again it was cold and this time there was a strong easterly wind to make riding unpleasant. I was concerned that only one or two of us would show up but in the end the only a few  regulars were missing (still no Ivan!). There on his first ever Friday chaingang was Stuart Hodd, one of the fastest riders from the Wednesday chaingang. This gave us a total of seven riders which is not a bad turnout . Now the clocks have gone forward , the descent of battery Hill felt a lot safer in the light and we were easily able to avoid the potholes. On reaching the sea wall we were battered by the cold head wind, causing the gang to quickly fragment into three small groups. I was thankful that I had put a T shirt on under my jersey for extra insulation as there was a large windchill factor .For a while I sheltered behind the two riders in the slow group but felt strong enough to go past them and try to leapfrog onto the back of the second group but couldn't quite make it and ended up in no man's land for the rest of the sea wall.

Third Fastest Ascent Of All Time, On His first Ever Climb!!!!

 On entering the reserve we slowed the pace down and gingerly crossed over the area of the path with the dumped pebbles. On regrouping at Rye we realised that Steve D was no where in sight, perhaps he had punctured? We waited quite a while and were about to phone him when he finally appeared. He told us he had not seen the pebbles and had hit them head on, losing the front wheel and falling off on his shoulder which felt stiff and  painful. Steve D decided to carry so we all headed up the long drag towards Broad Oak.This is where its every man for himself and the others soon disappeared from sight leaving me at the back but steve D with his painful shoulder some way behind me. I wasn't too concerned at being dropped and just decided to plod up the 5 mile drag at my own pace. Much to my surprise Strava later informed me later that this was a PB for me on this section! On regrouping at Broad Oak we expected to have a long wait for the injured Steve D but in the event he was only a few minutes behind me and sailed past us, thanking us for waiting. On the approach to Stonestile, Stuart was getting anxious about the climb as he had never done it before. We rode in front of the others and I told him I would point out where it starts. As we past the final bend of the approach Stuart was unleashed and with the most incredible acceleration up a hill I have seen for a long time, he was gone and round the first bend of the hill while myself and the others were still labouring up the initial 18% slope. Feeling slightly over geared, I struggled up the hill arriving breathless at the top (but surprisingly gaining another PB) meeting up with Stuart who scarcely seemed out of breath. Stuart said he would treat this first ascent as a reconnaissance as he didn't know where to really push himself, I told him I reckoned his effort would definitely be a top ten ascent as I had never seen anyone accelerate up Stonestile like that before. I turned out to be correct, as Stuart's climb was actually the third fastest of all time with only the unknown rider Matt Hull and Weds chaingang hard man Matt Reynolds above him. Stuart really enjoyed the Friday chaingang (a very different beast to the weds one) and intends to come again, it was great having him ride with us, there is good a chance that Matt R will lose this particular KOM by the end of the season, lol.