10/10 Fri Night Ride- Storm Corridor

Andy Is Ready For His First Ever Friday Night Ride!

With heavy rain at 4;30 I decided to abandon any hope of riding the Friday night ride and so stayed late at work until the caretakers booted me out at 5:45. Cycling home I was surprised how pleasant the weather was, it was quite warm, the wind had dropped and the roads had dried out very quickly. So despite only having time to throw a bowl of cereal down my throat I was there at the lodge (7:30) together with eight others. This included Andy L on his first ever Fri Night ride.It was great to see Andy there but I was bit concerned for Andy when I saw the pitiful light output from his front lamp. For the Friday night ride a powerful minimum 300 lumens output light is really essential. last week I was so badly dropped by the others down Battery hill that this week I suggested I descend on my own two minutes before the others. Andy decided he would descend with me but on arrival at the bottom I looked behind me only to see no sign of Andy , concerned that he may have fallen off in the dark I pulled over to the side to wait for him. I then heard a whooshing sound and could see bright head lights coming down the hill, the speed it was moving I thought it was a car but a few seconds later Marcus and Malcolm swept past me at an impressive speed. How they do that amazes me, they must have night vision like cats. Fortunately Andy had not fallen off and we all regrouped near the Harbour entrance. There was beautiful full moon in the sky which a mysterious red glow (a partial blood moon?), This kept us amused as we traversed the reserve. The darkness was occasionally lit up by lightening flashes to the left and right of us, we realised we were riding in a calm corridor before the two storms and hoped we would finish the ride before the corridor was squeezed out .Without Derek or Pete around I had a lonely climb up to Broadoak. Not wanting to delay the others any longer I shouted a cheery 'not stopping' and immediately began the descent down towards Brede valley. Unlike last week there was no fog to obscure the view and before long we were climbing up the 'Doleham cut through' where Andy exclaimed his love of hills (a comment that he may have regretted later!). Onto the Stonestile approach we rode with Andy enquiring where the climb started. We told him not to worry as it would be pretty obvious when you got there, lol. Hitting the initial slopes of Stonestile Andy soon found out he was in the wrong gear and had to get off and push for a while before the slope eased. The traditional successful first ascent photo of Stonestile will have to wait for another day!