27 June HSLCC Fri Night Ride- Keeping The Flame Alive

Sub Four Minute Stonestile For Stu!

With many of us at Bewl water and with Simon G taking a break, numbers at the Friday night ride have been very low recently. Often it has just been Marcus on a solo ride that has kept the Friday night ride alive. Having been scared off by the threat of mud at Bewl , I had decided to do the road ride instead. Fortunately Simon had seen my email and decided to come along. We were joined by Stu Hodd who unusually was free of child care duties on a Friday. Stu was feeling tired so was up for an easy ride where he could make some alterations to a creaking saddle on his top end carbon racing bike. The roads seemed to be exceptionally quiet and we made easy progress up to Broad Oak before enjoying the sweeping descent through Brede and onto the Stonestile approach. Stu and Simon have not done this ride since the council carried out major patching work on Stonestile, and like me they were very impressed with the repairs. No longer will there be any need to keep dodging holes as you build up momentum for the climb. Despite saying he wanted an easy ride, Stu could not resist going for a sub 4 minute ascent on stonestile and sure enough he got it at 3:59 which was a PB and the 5th fastest ascent of all time! Whilst recovering at the top of the climb all three of us declared our love of the Friday night route, it really does have a bit of everything and finishes with such a great climb. I have decided that for every two visits to Bewl I will do one Fri Night Ride to help keep it alive over the summer.