12/2 HSLCC Chaingang- Riders On The Storm

As I set out for the Wednesday chain gang I knew it was going to be an interesting ride as half an hour earlier there had been a proper storm! I knew this because it had all the right ingredient for a storm. Thunder, lightning and hail! Unlike all the other 'storms' we have been getting which are really just wind and rain. Anyway, the proper storm or just wind and rain argument can wait for another day... I have a ride to review.
I set of from my 'gaff' near Ore and took the route along the ridge, down Harrow lane to Bulverhythe to try to avoid some of the wind and then over Galley hill. On some sections of this route I think I must have reached at least 4... maybe 5 mph!
At the bus stop waiting were four other nutters, sorry riders in the shape of Slawek the great, Tom, Barney (baldrick) Willard and the whippet Trevor. That was it so we set of at what can only be described as slow. This continued for the rest of the ride out with Slaw, Barney and the whippet pushing ahead while I stayed with Tom as to leave a man behind on a night like that was bad form and with the strong wind he may have tried to get to the Pevensey roundabout but ended up in Westfield instead Mary Poppins style!
At the roundabout we said goodbye to Slawek the great and Mary Poppins and myself Baldrick and the whippet set of back towards Bexhill.
 With the whippet on the front and Zephyros behind us the speed rose dramatically! 25, 27, 30! Spooky hill was like a mere bump in the road and while there we could see the English channel lit by lightning as a 'proper storm' raged above it.
It was 30 mph all the way to Cooden where after the turn and with the whippet back on the front and the Greek god of wind at our heels this soon went up to 35! at the Cooden incline Barney flicked his elbow for me to pass which took me a good 200m  as I was already flat out! This aloud the feather like whippet to be whisked from us by Zephyros and his insane fitness! I gave the briliant baldrick a lead out and he unleashed his sprint in a vain attempt to catch the magnificent whippet, this was all he had left so I continued at pace to earn myself a nice little KOM (sorry Slawek) to the lights. (the whippet is not on Strava... thankfully!)
We rode home at a decent pace, said fairwell to the whippet as he peeled away at the Azur to leave Barney and I to be blown along the seafront and up the hill towards home. After a quick summit meeting and debrief outside Barney’s I made my way home after a ride that I wasn’t looking forward to turning into one of the classic Hastings and St Leonards cc chain gangs!

Stuart Hodd