17/11 ESCA Reliability Trial

This was the annual ESCA reliability trial. This event is like a gathering of the clans with over 200 riders from many well known local clubs including: Eastbourne Rovers, lewes Wanders, Sussex Nomads, East Grinsted CC,Southborough Wheelers, In gear RT, and Worthing Excelsior.Unfortunately our club representatives were surprisingly few in number with only myself, Lee, Malcolm D and Tom.This is one of Chris Parker's favourite annual events and he was gutted to have to miss it due to feeling unwell. As we drove towards the head quarters at East Hoathley we were passed by impressively large petatons of riders who had already been set off. Having signed in we set off on our much smaller mini pelaton of just the four of us together with a couple of Eastbourne Rovers who had chosen not to ride with the main Rovers pack. The first ten miles were fast and easy as we set out on main roads towards Hailsham and on into the marsh at Rickney for the first check point. From here we changed direction, and soon it was more up and down as we headed North towards the high point at Brightling. Any idea that things would get easier from here were very misplaced as from here on we were either going up or going down steep hills, there were very few flat sections.There were some dodgy little lanes to negotiate , even Malcolm was getting a bit scared as sometimes were were descending on bits of unbroken tarmac only a foot a so across sandwiched between wet slippery mud on one side and large potholes on the other. There was very little room for error and I remembered how last year one rider came off and broke his pelvis. For the first time this Autumn I realised that winter really is upon us and its time to give the small technical

At The First Check point- Easy So Far!

lanes a miss until next spring Road conditions stated to improve once we passed Wadhusrt where there was a wonderful fast but safe decent past the railway station followed by a 'dogs leg' up a steady incline to the last of the four checkpoints. The rest of the ride from here was fantastic with lots of steadily climbing and fast safe descents through places such as Tidebrook, Mayfield and Cross in hand. With only 10 miles to go we all felt good. A lot more riders seemed to be around us now and I was quite pleased to note that I was able to beat about half the riders up the climbs and with gravity on my side beat more than that on the fast descents. All day the light was very poor, I noticed that a lot of riders (Like myself) are now equipped with powerful flashing front and back lights for day use. As the route ascended up a long main road  drag past Mayfield, it was quite a spectacle seeing what looked like an endless string of flashing red lights blinking their way up the hill. Despite it being a main road, we cyclists owned it and the car drivers had no choice but to stay behind us until we reached the crest of the hill .The final two miles were all fast descending as we shot back down to East Hoathley, only to miss the final check point which we had assumed would be in the pavilion. Doubling back to sign in, we fluffed things up and realised too late that we had come in five minutes too early so looks like we are unreliable again. This was a fantastic event, those who didn't come with us really missed out.
I have modified the best two thirds of this route into a new 70 miler so those who missed it may get a chance to do it sometime next year once the roads dry out.