London To Hastings Ride 1/Oct

 Patrick decided it would be a good idea to repeat Sam’s excellent London ride before the realities of winter set in.

Fixing a nighttime puncture is such fun!

Last year ‘the caveman’ (Nigel) decided to ride all the way up on his own and met us there. This year he had some company with Patrick also riding up in the small hours of the morning while the rest of us lesser mortals did the sensible thing and got the train up. Shirley was looking forward to this ride but Shirley has a propensity to cut things fine and this time it was her undoing because she missed the train!

A soggy Patrick arrives

Cavemen are not very good at timekeeping and so Patrick’s plan to arrive in plenty of time for a hearty breakfast was scuppered by setting off half an hour late and picking up a puncture. They arrived about the same time as Steve D and Duncan P who had caught the later train. The journey up on the train had been very pleasant with the fields bathed in sunshine but the water dripping off of Patrick’s clothing told another story. Walking outside to check the weather, I was surprised to see the rain pouring down. We had over 80 miles of this weather to look forward to!

New club member Colin was joining us for the first time. Also joining us was Heather, a rider who had been on the same Italian cycle holiday as Patrick and happened to live relatively nearby. So Heather would do the ride down to Hastings and get the train back.

Unusually, the caveman was complaining of having tired legs (brought on by a bout of running during the week). Taking pity on him I gave him my return ticket home with the proviso that if I bailed due to the rain he would pay my train fare home.

Get ready for the rain!

After waiting a couple of minutes while Patrick scoffed a quick roll, we were off into the rain. Patrick had plotted a new tourist trail bit  from Charing Cross, this was very pleasant but soon we back on the main route and fighting our way through the traffic. Riding through London is quite dicey especially in the rain. Our lowest ebb in London was when Patrick picked up a puncture. This took some time to fix due to a hole in the new inner tube and then the bead coming off the rim. Duncan was visibly shaking by the time we got moving again and regrouped with the others.

Fortunately we only had one London puncture!

Things got much better once we got to Crystal Palace. The café was closed for demolition (they are going to build a brand new one) but fortunately a mobile café van had been set up next to it. We didn’t bother to look at the dinosaurs, it wouldn’t have been the same without the caveman. Steve D did his usual disappearing trip (he never seems to do a 100% ride with us) and had set off on his own muttering about a possible reunion back at the Velo café.

Steve would disappear into the ether as usual!

Leaving Crystal palace we entered the suburbs, the roads became far less busy and the rain slowly petered out and then stopped, even the sun come out, hooray! Now the real riding began. The terrain is quite hilly with some outstanding countryside. Malc C was on his new commuter bike including rack and pannier. This was fine on the flat but gave him a big disadvantage on the hills, so he was suffering rather a lot. There were two notable climbs before the Velo house : Hogstrough hill which was so steep at the top that Colin’s fell off when his wheels ran over a white line and the rather wonderful Bidbourough hill which is the type of hill I adore, being very long with a steady climb.

I love this hill!

Even Patrick's bike enjoyed the view!

By the time we got to Tubridge Wells and the Velo café, it had just gone past 3:00. They are not supposed to serve hot food after 3;00 but they took pity on us and many of us enjoyed their version of ‘hash’. One of the good things about the Velo house is that they have a cycle mechanic there, so Patrick was able to get his tyre inflated to the correct pressure and Malc got one of his hoods set back up to the correct position. Surprisingly Steve D was there waiting for us, having done his own thing for the last hour or so.

Post Velo house, Colin left us  for a more direct route home while we pressed on. Just outside Wadhurst we realised that Malc was no longer with us. He must have missed a turn? Four frantic phone calls to Malc later and there was no answer. So we left a message telling him to follow the signs for Wadhurst and meet us at the fire station. Finding himself alone Malc had decided to bail and get the train instead. Being someone who likes to be well prepared I had brought along two powerful front lights. Seeing that the one I had used all day was now on red I pressed the button to switch on the second one. Nothing happened, it was dead! This meant that out of the five of us, only two had front lights, not good when we still had thirty miles to go and less than two hours of daylight left! I turned off the light that was working trying to save what little charge remained for later.

Derek riding strongly but would pay the price later!

Now began the hardest section of the ride. Without Malc’s super commuter slowing us down it was decided we would increase the pace to a level where we should just about make it home before the light completely failed. My legs were feeling Ok and I was able to use a couple of gels to give me an energy boost. Of all us , Derek was suffering with the pace the most especially the tough climb up to Brightling. To save a bit of time we decided to head back through battle but this did mean we had to climb up Netherfield hill. Halfway up the hill the heavens opened and heavy rain came upon us, causing us to hastily pull over and sling on our waterproofs.

From Netherfield it was mostly plain sailing but Derek was now so tired that he fell a long way back on the climb out of Battle so I waited for him to catch up. He had no light and it was now getting dark. I now switched on my front light hoping there would be enough charge to get us back to Hastings.

The others were waiting for us outside Bannatynes. It was a relief to have made it back home, the weather and the lack of lights had made this ride feel like a real adventure. Heather was a stronger rider than most of the men and had really enjoyed it so hopefully she can join us again when we do this ride or others in the North downs area.

A great day, thanks to everyone who came and especially Patrick for mapping the route and leading the ride.

Steve C