14/12 HSLCC Club Ride- High And Over

Saturday night was supposed to have been the coldest night of the year, however the weather forecasts said that a warm front would be coming over early in the morning so I went to sleep unconcerned about any ice risk. In the morning I was shocked to find the forecast was wrong, where was the warm front and  why is the ice on my car windscreen about a centimetre thick? Checking the forecast again told me that by 9:00 it would be nine degrees so hopefully the ice would soon be gone? Riding carefully up to the  Harrow, the roads didn't seem too bad and without much wind it felt rather pleasant. A lot of riders who said they were coming had clearly decided the ice risk was too high but Simon G, Peter Baker, Steve B and Nick had decided to risk it. While the rest of us were grateful for our roubaix backed tights, Nick was just wearing shorts, exclaiming that he refused to recognise this as Winter until post Xmas!

Concerned about the ice , I recommended that we headed towards Pevensey via the coast rather than from Wartling as planned. I assumed that riding on the coast would be warmer than going inland. Simon recommended using the Trade road through battle instead but the familiarity of the coast road won us over. This turned out to be a big mistake.

Heading down Queenway it felt like we were in a winter wonderland as all the trees and grass were completely covered in frost. Taking it easy and just coasting down towards Bexhill road meant that we were all like blocks of ice by the time we got there.

Cycling along the flat coast road  our muscles generated some useful heat but when we reached Herbrand Walk the temperature got noticeably colder and suddenly there was ice across much of the road.To be safe we had to ride in the middle of the road where it was drier. Fortunately there was very little traffic around and so managed to avoid pulling over into potentially icy surfaces.

Once we reached Pevensey we were back on more substantial roads with less ice risk  and were able to step the pace up, although there was one road we had to divert from when a considerate van driver informed us the road was too icy to ride.

Once we reached Upper Dicker we were suddenly hit by what felt like a warm blast of air from a hair dryer.The temperature shot up by around ten degrees, the promised warm front from the west had thankfully arrived.Before long the ice and frost was but a horrible memory and we could ride in confidence.

Nick and Peter had never done 'high and Over before' so were in for a treat as we ascended the steady gradient before a quick photo opportunity at the top.

Thankfully The Route Was Now Ice Free!

The road back along the seven sisters  is one of my favourite bits of road, especially this time as we had a bit of a tail wind to push us along. Myself , Pete and Steve stopped off at Birling gap for refreshment while Nick and Simon headed for home. After five minutes trying to work out how to enter the cafe, we headed straight back out again as there was some sort of event going on and it was picked with lots of old folks. We all agreed a stop off at the Pevensey cafe would be a much better option.

The ascent of Beachy Head was another enjoyable first for Pete, as was the fantastic alpine style descent on the other side. Until reaching the  the Sovereign Harbour we were joined by a solo rider from Eastbourne. He said he would check the blog so maybe we will see him again?

The excellent food at cafe confirmed we had made the right choice and with bodies refuelled, the final twelve miles were  an easy blast home.