1/3 HSLCC Early Bird- Marsh Blast

Ideal Terrain For A Fixie!

Meeting us for the first time on an HSLCC ride was Dazza Wall, a mate of Nick's. Dazza's bike is nicknamed 'anvil' as its quite a  hefty cyclecross bike rather than a racer, but this does have comfort and load carrying advantages  for the epic charity ride deep into Europe that Nick, Dazza and other will be doing in about five weeks time. Descending down battery Hill in the  light is so much safer than when we do it on the Friday night ride. On reaching The Smugglers' pub at Pett level there was a figure dressed from head to waist

Lets Give It Some Welly!

in pale blue with a matching fixie. It was none other than Colin! The promise of a flat steady ride had persuaded him to make a rare appearance. As long as the winds are gentle, its hard to beat a long steady ride over the marsh. With good surfaces and nothing higher than a mole hill , the miles passed easily under our wheels. At one point I persuaded the others to give 'through and off' a try. There was some disagreement over the right way to do it but in the end I persuaded everyone to give Simon G's preferred method a go. This went comically badly, if anyone thinks I am bad at this sort of thing, they should try doing it with Paul, Derek and Dazza. After five minutes of this, we wisely decided to get back to simple group riding. Right at the furthest Northerly point there was one hill. Colin became anxious that the route was going to start getting too lumpy for his fixie but he needn't have been concerned as once we headed South it was back to the flat lands. After 60 miles we decided we deserved some tea and bacon sarnies so stopped off for half an hour at the  excellent  Strand cafe at Rye. We now had a choice: continue the route towards Udimore, then Winchelsea station and Panel Lane or take the easier route along the main road with the climb up Battery Hill as the only difficulty. When Derek informed us that he had never climbed Battery, that clinched the deal. Battery Hill it was. The long ride finally started to catch up with Dazza and Derek and they both suffered badly up our 'old friend'.

Dazza Suffers Battery Hill !