9 Aug- Friday Chaingang

Nigel nails His First chaingang!

With all the heavy rain in the morning I had bailed out of going to Bewl Water for fear of slipping on the notorious Bewl Water mud. This was a silly mistake as the afternoon turned out to be warm and sunny so it would have been fine. Still, it would be good to do the Friday road chaingang again. Simon and Stu have done a great job keeping the Friday chaingang alive while us off roader types have been AWOL. Joining us were Steve D and also Nigel on his first ever chaingang. Nigel had already ridden 45 miles that day in the morning so to come out and do another 25 miles shows great enthusiasm. With it being peak holiday time we had to negotiate a lot of holiday makers along the nature reserve and it was a relief to get onto the harbour road. Simon is as fit as ever and soon pulled away from us on the broad Oak climb, with Steve in hot pursuit. Nigel put in a great effort to keep up with them and I was soon left as the 'lantern rouge' although I did manage to claw simon back before reaching broad oak. Steve had failed to bring any lights (naughty!) and so had to carry on the mainroad back to Hastings while the rest of us 'enjoyed' the climb up Stonestile lane. The miles finally caught up with Nigel and I managed to hold him off on the climb while gaining a strava PB for myself. Only another three bewl rides left and then we will all be back on the Friday chaingang again!