What a difference a day makes - London to Hastings.

It's sunny this morning (Sunday) this but time yesterday it was cold overcast with the constant risk of rain but the e mails had gone round and we were going to do it. There was a lot of Facebook banter about digging out the ‘big girls blouses’ but we all managed to resist the temptation.

Getting up so early on a Saturday morning to arrive at Hastings station at 5;50am involved a degree of self-discipline especially for Steve C who refused to go to bed the previous night until he had finished editing the chain-gang video (it was finally finished about 12:30am)

Last to board the train were Andy L  and John S who boarded at Robertsbridge .

How can the railways be so good at messing up journey's. The train had already been diverted via Redhill but when we got there we got the tannoy announcement “ the train to london bridge is cancelled as the driver cannot close the door”. There was another train so we had to get all the bikes off and onto the train. Steve D was already on it as he has secret knowledge about these things.
We were going to be about 15 mins  late so a hasty phone call to Sam walker had to be made .

We piled off at London bridge . Stepping outside we were confronted by the reality of the unseasonably cold air, how could it be this cold in April?

Assembling at Somerset House

 We now had to get to Somerset house. We had two  people with “the knowledge” but they had different routes. The race was on. Some followed Duncan P some followed Steve D. I opted for Duncan and this involved a lot of sides streets . We were nearly there and someone in front slammed on over the Thames in front of me so I slammed on but Duncan F was looking at the boats on the Thames and so ended up going over the handlebars and landing in the road.

Nigel riding up to London made it ten minutes before we did

Captain caveman (Nigel T) was already there, he had decided not to go to bed that night but stay up till 4am then cycle up a route he knew to his mums’ house in the suburbs before following a route plotted by a Strava algorithm to meet us for the start. Now some would think that odd but not us as we know this is the sought of thing Nigel does.

I think we were expecting to see quite a few in Sam's group but there were only three of them whereas we were now a dozen strong.

There was quite a contrast in appearances between Sam’s group and ours. We were all riding clipless and the latest lycra winter attire whereas Sam was wearing a fleece, flat pedals and a single speed bike. Some of our group were also riding some seriously high end bikes including Duncan P on his first ever ride on a brand new Trek Emonda. Initial thoughts were that Sam’s group were going to be far slower than us but this impression was totally wrong as Sam turned out to be surprisingly strong and could have outrode all but the most able of our group.

Has Captain Caveman brought along one of his pets?

So we were off . Riding in and out of the London city traffic was interesting, although Steve C found it rather stressful and was glad to ride near Peter Brehme who is more used to these congested roads. The roads gradually became less littered with ‘road furniture’  as we passed on into the suburbs, then Crystal palace at 10 miles . One of our dinosaurs was missing (you would need to be over 50 to get this joke) so we had to check this out.

This was also our first stop. It seemed early but Derek was glad of the break as his fingerless gloves were proving a mistake. It turned out to be a long stop as bacon buttie's were being ordered but Derek headed straight for the radiator to defrost his fingers. Amazingly both Shirley and her brother Matt were riding in shorts as well as fingerless gloves. Do they have a rare family gene that enables them to resist cold temperatures?

A chance for the two groups to get to know each other 

After leaving Crystal Palace ,the urban terrain soon changed to rural, our pace improved and the hills of the North Downs now appeared. Before long we were soon passing Chartwell and climbing up towards Tunbridge Wells. We stopped at the top to look at a spectacular view and regroup. We were spreading out quite a bit.

Patrick Peter Punctures . It rolls off the tongue. Patrick seems to have passed his puncture curse to others. The first one happened outside a row of small houses. A mature lady pulledup  in her car up to see if we were OK and asked us where we were cycling to. When we explained we were cycling from London to Hastings she was so impressed that she invited us all round to her house for tea and cakes. We really appreciated the gesture but sadly we had to turn her down as time was pressing .Patrick,Pete and Nigel urged the rest of us to leave them to fix the puncture alone, being ‘A’ group riders they would soon catch the rest of us up . Those who follow Strava will note their ride time is about 20 mins less than the rest.

Sam had plotted a route which managed to avoid too many hills. This pleased Shirley and Helena no end but there was one short but impressive hill called Hogtrough hill. This was the only hill that defeated Shirley, although we think she would have made it, if only she had the confidence to ride out the saddle.

By now Duncan had had enough time to assess his new bike purchase. This new Trek has Dii gears ,apparently you just sit on it and it does the rest for you. He told us he was really enjoying this new bike and that the fit was excellent, he was certainly riding well.


Tunbridge Wells, 42 miles, 4 hours and the Velo cafe. A cycling themed cafe which was packed. The owner comes out and gives you each a bike lock to use. We had missed the breakfast menus but there are quite a few unusual alternatives. Steve D did one of his disappearing acts, but this time it wasn’t Steve being antisocial. Somehow his rear derailleur had got broken which necessitated a (for him free)  train ride home. Most of the riders ordered fancy food such as wraps and bean sprouts  but Steve C and Peter Brehme stuck to good old fashioned carrot cake. Steve thought it was the largest bit of carrot cake he had eaten in his life and felt a bit dizzy with the subsequent sugar rush.

It was a terrible shock to the system when we stepped from the over warm café to the very cold air outside. While we struggled working out which key unlocked which lock, Duncan P wisely remained inside grinning at us through the door glass only joining us when his bike was free.

Our mini Paris-Roubaix

At some point Peter picked up a second 'A' grouppuncture. Once again we left the A team to fix the puncture on their own but for the next ten miles or so we enjoyed a lot more downs than ups , so this time it took them some considerable time to catch up. Steve C was leading many of these descents including one really long very steep one that joined a T junction head on. Luckily his cautious nature came up trumps as all riders managed to safely brake in time. The route directed us down a narrow country lane with signs warnings about mud. It felt a bit like the Paris Roubaix but without the cobbles . We thought Sam and the others were behind us, so were surprised when they suddenly appeared in front of us. They had taken an alternative route to avoid the mud , it was now that Steve remembered reading something about  a change of route on one of Sam’s emails!

A couple of weeks ago Derek had suffered badly on the 547 feet climb up to Brightling where he suffered his Captain Oats moment. This time however it was a different route up to the stop and although it gained the same altitude , the steepness was not so severe. Also it was clear that Derek was a different rider compared to a month ago. The combination of Improver’s rides and the ‘Tour of The Weald’ have done him a power of good , his climbing is the best we have seen from him for a long time

A welcolme surprise for us At Brighling from Sam and partner

At the summit of the climb we were greeted by Sams partner who had kindly prepared some home-made blueberry muffins for us.
This was  great, some bright spark commented we should arrange this ourselves but with there being one less muffin than riders !!!!

Sam then asked if we wanted to detour to see mad Jack Fullers pointy tomb. Unfortunately some did want to so two more miles were added. We had to go back the way we came as the next viewpoint was the observatory. This is at 647 feet

No John, this wasn't built by the Egyptians 

That done it was mainly descending all the way to Pevensey where we  had to stop for Peters second puncture. This time Steve C gave him an extra thick inner tube, hopefully this would avoid 'A' group puncture number four. Initially being so near the end, we all waited for him to fix it, up to the point when there was a loud pop as the tyre popped off the rim and the amusing sight of CO2  gas spaying out of a frozen canister in all directions (Pete is the world’s worst puncture repairer)

"I cant take it any-more, sob!"

We left the A team to catch us up and the sun suddenly came out so it was a sunny ride back. Thoughts naturally turned to the pub stop with us eventually agreeing a mid point pub between Bexhill and Hastings to be fair on the Bexhill riders. Unfortunately we missed Duncan P  who had gone past and by the time he answered his phone he was in Hastings.

Many thanks to Sam Walker for plotting such an excellent route (84 miles) and for looking after us so well. Sam’s road leadership was superb with Sam always riding ahead to the next junction to make sure everyone went the right way before waiting for the slower riders to catch up. We all hope to be able to ride with him again next year.


Derek /Steve C