1/2 HSLCC Early Bird- Horam Via Brightling

Hail At Brightling!

Today's 'early bird ride' was one of Chris Parker's three routes to Horam. This one is probably the easiest of the three and goes through Brightling. Following the storm on Friday night the wind was surprisingly light and there was some welcome sunshine. Joining us for the first time on an early bird was Mick . Tom was also joining us for the first time and had ridden all the way from Eastbourne  intending to peal off from the route at Hailsham. Tom had got up really early to be at the Harrow on time but was having some back trouble brought on by a stormy hard weds night chaingang riding an old steel bike along side Trevor and Barney. We headed off along the main road towards Battle and then the long climb up Netherfield hill. After getting dropped on the last early bird, Malcolm C had done some extra training and was definitely riding better on the hills. We carefully negotiated our way across the minor roads  and although there were some pot holes and mud, these roads were in pristine condition compared to some of those we 'enjoyed' riding at last weeks audax. On approaching Brightling the sky turned dark and for ten minutes we were bombarded with hailstones that turned the road white and made a satisfying crunch under our wheels. Now there was some fast riding on downhill or flat roads as we headed in the direction of Heathfield, this was only spoilt by some cold intermittent  heavy showers.Tom's bad back was slowing him down and he was falling back somewhat., so when he suffered a puncture and a failed inner tube nobody realised until it was to late. Not knowing exactly where he was we rung him up and arranged to see him at the lake side cafe. Poor Tom took so long to fix his puncture that he arrived at the cafe just as we were leaving but decided to forgo the cafe rather than hold us up. We ignored the 'road closed' sign at Michelham priory where the moat had flooded and water was pouring across the road, this proved difficult for cars but easy for us who were able to pass through on the right side of the road. The wind had now picked up but fortunately was blowing from the East so all the way back from Hailsham we had the wind behind us helping  break a good few personal  Starva segments on the way back to  Hastings

Mick Negotiates Flooding At Michelham  Priory!

.