1066 Tri Club 6 Hastings and St L cycling club 1

The evidence is clear, never  rely on a weather forecast when deciding to go cycling.
Me and 6 others from my tri club turned up for the annual Tour of the Weald.
This is 100k starting from Staplehurst  and takes in many of the Kent Villages Headcorn Smarden Yalding Benenden Biddenden Goudhurst to name but a few. This is one of Steve's favorite annual rides but he has had a relapse into girls blouse and put out that fatal e mail .

Not to be deterred by a bad weather forecast. 

So it rained at the start . I asked Mike who runs this annual event if he could turn the rain off but he said you will need to keep cool as there is a steep hill after about 3 miles . Those who have done this ride will remember this hill , it is steep but Mike had promised to switch the rain off at the top and he did. From then on there was no rain for 4 hours but plenty of sun.  Rain jackets were shed and not needed again. This would have seen most of the riders home but not me .

We had a shower at 57 miles but as many will remember this is the start of the famous time trial. You are timed over a 7 k section which starts fairly easy but the last section is quite steep.
The 1 H&stL ( apart from me )was Duncan Pain who was pleased to see some familiar faces as he knew me and Kim.

I really love this ride . There are 7 significant climbs but lots of flat sections in between. The course had been altered from previous years and a feed station is at 45 miles.

The sad thing about this event is that only 49 riders had booked in advance. Mike runs a good event as every turn is marked . Last year it was cancelled through lack of advance entries. I hope it is on next year but if not the reason is clear. It is cheap compared to many Sportives .

Dave Dixon was first home . Many will remember him as he had been a Hastings member for probably 20 years but now does Tri.. He was followed by Dawn then Kim then Roy Beeley the 1066 chairman.Then me. Then Nick Bridger who has been a Hastings member for the last 2 years . I am working on his renewal.


Derek M