When I arrived at the lodge there was only one rider (Diego) , but then one by one more and more riders turned up until eventually we had a dozen riders which equals our record for a normal Fri Night Ride. This included Kevin on his first ever . Peter Baker was there again, having become one of the most regular riders but had still not completed the ascent of Stonestile, choosing instead to take the Three Oaks route back to Pett. Tonight was going to be different, Peter had decided it was too
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| ..and in the blue corner, Diego! |
dangerous going through Three Oaks on his own and that it would be more fun and challenging to do Stonestile with the rest of us. Setting off down Battery Hill in the pitch black was as daunting as ever , but apart from me everyone else seemed to descend down there like stones thrown off a cliff which left me well dropped and it was only by the entrance to Rye Harbour reserve that I finally caught everyone up. leaving the harbour to join the main road into Rye some of us were in front of a car and some were behind it . I don't think the car driver liked being surrounded by all the bikes and flashing lights, as he was aggressively revving his engine and pulled into the road with some wheel spin, just for a moment I considered what would happen if he lost control? This was nothing compared to some completely mad impatient truck driver who decided he could not wait behind us for a few minutes as we passed through Rye, and decided to accelerate at a tremendous rate and overtake us with other vehicles coming the other way. Somehow he got round us and managed to miss the oncoming vehicles which were angrily beeping their horns at him. Literally ten seconds later he indicated right to take a right hand turn so what was the point of all that? It was a relief to start the long drag up to Broad Oak and we soon split into three groups. I was of course in the slow group with Derek and Peter for company.Derek has increased his road mileage and seems to be back to his old self, Peter is very driven and although new to cycling is getting faster all the time, so the three of us were an even match and none of us could drop the others completely although honours go to Peter for making it to the top first. As we descended into the dip at the bottom of Brede Hill there was a dramatic drop in air temperature and we entered a cold fog bank. This made life difficult for myself and Kevin who wear spectacles but the fog cleared as quickly as it came once we began the cut through to Doleham lane. Often we have a little breather at the top of the cut through because there is normally someone (most notably Ivan) who needs a pee, but perhaps because Susan was with us nobody needed a leak so we pressed on in single file down the main road through Westfield. Something shot out of peter's pocket and I could hear the sound of hard plastic breaking on the road, this turned out to be Peter's prescription cycling glasses (ouch). With so many of us out we must have made an impressive sight as we sped along Stonestile approach and with so many front lights the closely enclosed road was lit up as if it was day light. I could sense the tension in Peter as we approached stonestile, its difficult to know how hard to push yourself on this hill when you don't know how long or steep it is, but Peter did a great job staying with me all the way up to the top and just managed to pip me to the top . Kevin had the benefit of knowing the hill but had not climbed it for many years and was declaring his love for the climb and the Friday night route in general at the top. Derek reckoned this was one of our best ride times, I wasn't so sure but Starva tells me he
was correct, this was my third fastest time for the whole route ever. Great to have so many riders out, will we be able to maintain such high numbers once the tribulations of deep winter are upon us?
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| Double Stonestile Firsts For Peter And Kevin! |
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