Arriving at the harrow, only Simon G was waiting at the bench, but all at once 5 others appeared almost out thin air. Hight H, Lee S, Dave M, Nigel T and newbie Nigel Fitchett, joining us for his maiden Sunday morning club ride.
Nigel quizzed me on the predicted pace of the ride, asking "It won't be like the chaingang on Wednesday, will it?" We set off with him having been reassured that it would "a brisk, but easier pace than that."
We headed East with the wind on our backs (and drizzle, that had not been forecast) for a fast flat start, brought prematurely to a halt on Friars hill, as Dave M suffered our one & only puncture of the day.We got going again, making good time along Pett Level & through the nature reserve, picking up our 8th rider, Mark Ingram, at Rye(back to it after several weeks out with a chest infection)
We rode in a tidy paired formation through Rye & out to Lydd, with just a little encouragement needed to " not be shy, and/or enjoy the comfort of the wheel & rear mudguards for too long," and we then cruised across to Lydd in excess of 23mph. Turning left at Lydd church, we started to catch a bit more sidewind & occasionally a headwind as the lane twisted & turned, as we headed inland. Reducing the pace quite a bit, so that we managed to keep grouped together, we wound our way across the exposed marsh to Ivychuch & Brenzett, before turning fully into a headwind on the Snargate road to Appledore. We gathered our thoughts in the usual "thought gathering/nature break layby" in Appledore, as we waited for newbie Nigel to catch back up, as he had just fallen of the pace slightly with the hard grind into the wind. Declaring that he was "blowing out of his @#%*", we sympathetically gave him time to have a quick drink, before starting the the steady grind up to Tenterden, with Nigel T dropping back( the furthest he got from the cleanliness of my rear mudguard all morning) to shelter & encourage Nigel F on the slopes towards our cafe stop.
We arrived at Tenterden for our much anticipated & deserved cafe stop, only to be greeted at the door to be told that the empty indoor tables had been reserved, and that only the outdoor tables were available. Maybe it was the smell of 8 sweaty mamils that was putting them off, or simply that they have a better class of "greasy spoon" in this neck of the woods??? Hats & gloves stayed on as we observed rule #5 & hunckered down outside to refuel ourselves.
Having cooled off a fair bit during our alfresco dining, the descent into Smallhythe was to be a rather chilly restart, but knowing that we had a few climbs on our way back meant that we would soon warm up again. Heading through Peasmarsh, we took the horseshoe lane turning, and finally regrouped in Broadoak at the top of the beautifully surfaced, but long & tough climb of furnace lane. Dave M appeared towards the rear, having earned my full admiration (not to be confused with sympathy, haha) for even turning up for the start of the ride, after being out partying until 2am, let alone finishing the ride, but was now clearly paying the price for his night of revelry.
We all disbanded & headed back our own ways at this point, and I rode back into Westfield with Nigel F, discovering that he had covered the distance on his own before, but that he was about 3mph above his normal ave speed. Well done, 60 miles at arond 16.5mph!
Until next week, J.V
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