'Hunt!'
A voice behind me boomed out and my shoulders froze - who had I upset now? - I then immediately spotted the mass of horses, tweed and dogs up ahead.
'Oh 'hunt!', that's a relief.
We had no choice but to stop and allow the group to pass by; there must have been at least 50 muddy dogs, who seemed to be having a great time; panting and wagging their tails with great enthusiasm as they pushed past. The hunters themselves were very polite and thanked us for stopping; although we didn't have a lot of choice. I'm not sure what kind of hunt this is, but I've also seen, bizarrely, the same group on mountain bikes over the winter! .
I was at the front of our group with Nigel and headed for Chilley Farm.
Once we had recovered from this interruption we got on to the subject of my helmet - again!'Have you bought one yet' I asked Nigel ' only you said you liked it, and if you buy one it might stop the relentless p*ss taking I'm getting (particularly off Lord 'B' and Peter 'B')'
'It's not really fair is it?, he replied, I mean it's not as if you take the p*ss out of anyone is it?'
'Yes, quite right' I said.
Earlier............
Normans Bay Crossing - 07:44
I was particularly pleased to see Lord Buckland - it is a long while since I have seen him on a Pre BBR . Also in attendance were Mal C, Mal D, Darren, Adam and also a newbie called Gareth
There wasn't much to report on the ride up to Beachy, accept to say that try as he might Lord 'B' was unable to shake me off, and I took great delight in slip streaming him on the final stretch to the car park - although, very tactfully I didn't pass him.'Squeal, piggy, squeal', I taunted him as I sat on his wheel.
And received a response far too rude for this blog!
As usual I took a few snaps outside the 'bogs' then we headed back into a fierce headwind. I was quite relieved to enter the zig-zags and get away from it.
Just outside Pevensey Bay a bus driver was 'busting a gut' to get past us - which eventually he did, but then braked, abruptly and without warning at a bus stop once he had squeezed past. This really angered Mal D who went into 'meltdown'. He swung past him onto the other side of the road, towards oncoming traffic, maneuvered himself through a gap about two foot wide and then swung back onto our side of the road narrowly avoiding a serious case of 'hari kari'! We all exhaled together in relief that he hadn't got squashed and carried on towards Bexhill.'I'm not sure what happened to the new guy?' said Adam, he seemed to get slower and slower and then just disappeared'.
I must admit to feeling some guilt about this, I mean it's his first time out with us and we didn't exactly take great care of him - I think 'The Colonel' would be less than impressed with us. My only defence would be that on the way up to Beachy he was going really well. He did hang around at the back ( but this is quite normal for a newbie, it takes a lot of confidence to ride on the front on your first outing with a new group - in fact it was week three before I dared to go on the front with my new club in France.), but then at the foot of the real climb he shot past me like a 'rat up a drain pipe'; so I didn't have any concerns about his fitness. However, if you are reading this please accept our apologies for not waiting for you and if you would like to ride with us again next week Lord 'B' will buy you a 'Full English' by way of compensation.
Once we had got onto Sluice Lane Tom (who had joined us at the top of Beachy) and Mal D decided to put the 'hammer down'. I'm not sure what was going on behind us, but Darren and I gave chase and hung on as best we could - Darren had the edge over me by a few meters as we neared the Bexhill lights, but we both resorted to cheating to beat them back to Di Paulos by taking the right turn just before the lights.
' Any idiot can take a short cut!', said an embittered Tom.
This in no way deflated Darren and I, and we swaggered into the cafe.
As usual there was a good turnout. Steve C was there having put his MB into mothballs for the winter.
I was particularly pleased to see Ian return again for more punishment. He didn't have a great time last week so it was great that he hadn't given up and was prepared to give it another go.
'I didn't want you lot thinking I was 'a one hit wonder', he said to me later at Chilley.
We set off on time.
'Have you bought another new bike this week, Steve?' I asked sarcastically.
'Funny you should say that! - I looked at a full suspension MTB, but they didn't have it in my size', he replied cheerfully.
I don't know how many bikes he has but it must be a lot.
As usual the group split into two at the turn for Tilley Lane.
I chose the 'Nouveau Classico' route again along with Andy C, Nigel, Ian and Mal C - I've got a feeling I've forgotten someone (so apologies if it is you.)
Nigel and I arrived at Chilley ahead of the rest and ordered our grub, and as we sat down he spotted the couple at the next table who had Bromptons. Very kindly they let him have a go on one as he had explained that he was thinking of buying one for his commutes to London. Watching him play around on it I was very much reminded of the scene in 'Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid' where Paul Newman rides around to the accompaniment of 'Rain drops keep falling on my head'; i was even tempted to take the place of Katherine Ross and sit astride the cross bar! (those under the age of 50 may wish to ignore this paragraph.)When the food arrived I felt a massive pang of envy as Nigel had ordered a sausage bap and it had three sausages in it! - I would have easily swapped my egg and bacon bap for it and shall defo order one next week.
The best thing about a BBR is that at the food stop we all sit around and talk rubbish and take the p*ss out of everybody, and this week was no exception, and I shall certainly look forward to doing the whole thing again next week!
Peter Buss
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