6/11 ESCA Reliability Trial

It was time once again for the ESCA reliability trial. This is the most popular reliability trial of the year and gives a chance to ride with members of all the other cycle clubs in East Sussex (120 riders entered this year).

The weather was bitterly cold for early November and on arriving at the HQ in Hassocks, the car windscreens were still covered in ice. Peter Br and Mick were already there, sitting near an electric radiant heater trying to keep warm.

The event is superbly organised and at our allotted time our little posse of seven riders were off. Our big worry was hitting a patch of ice but fortunately the sun was out so the tarmac had warmed up sufficiently to allay these fears.

The first 15 miles or so were mostly flat with a few undulations. I am in reasonable shape at the moment but being the heaviest rider, every time we came to a hill I fell out of the group a little but was was able to get back in on the next descent.

Things started to get a lot more hilly once we entered Ashdown forest where we embarked on the long steady climb from Nutley towards Whych cross. I always enjoy this type of steady climb and despite getting dropped at the beginning I was able to  reel in Duncan F before the end. Duncan is a strong rider so this was surprising but later I found out that Duncan had done the Brighton pre-BBR special the day before and had not eaten anything for breakfast!

Cob Lane was a bit of a shock

So far we had seen no other clubs but finally we caught sight of one group ahead of us on a  steep climb leading to the first check point. We rapidly overtook them and I heard one rider exclaim' these guys make us look like we are standing still'. This was a boost for our egos. At the checkpoint the marshal gleefully muttered something about Cob Lane but we weren't really paying much attention .

A couple of miles later ,what looked like a wall suddenly appeared in front of us. This was the famous 'Cob lane' and the 20% warning sign told us the next few minutes were going to be painful! Thank goodness I have a 32 toothed cassette at the back, this enabled me to honk my way up. Colin's front derailleur refused to change gear, so he ground to a halt near the bottom. The others had already gone by the time I reached the top of the climb but I waited for Colin to make sure he didn't get lost.

The others had waited ahead so we were soon all back together. The terrain was very undulating by now and we were now surrounded by riders from other groups which made it more competitive and fun .

A marshal at the second checkpoint informed us that there were no more surprises in store and that the last twelve miles were mostly flat or downhill. My second glucose gel had now been absorbed and feeling a rush of energy I pushed up the pace and led from the front for the next eight miles. This was in contrast to Colin who was now beginning to suffer the repercussions of not having ridden on the the road for over a month.

Darren is in good form

The last five miles were a bit of a struggle. My little energy boost was over, Malc and Duncan were feeling the effects of riding the Brighton special and Mick also started to run out of energy. Only Peter and Darren seemed unaffected.By coincidence we were riding on the same day as the London to Brighton vintage rally so there were some long queues on some of the roads cutting across this route. We didn't mind too much though as it was interesting seeing some amazing vehicles pass by .

Our chosen target time was 3 hours and 30 minutes. To gain a point a rider has to arrive before this time but not more than 10 minutes early. We arrived with just two minutes to spare, so had timed it perfectly.This gave us a total of 7 points and point us in 4th place out of 11 East Sussex clubs, so despite the absence of the 'A'team this year, this was one of our best results.

As always we were very impressed with the organisation of the ESCA and really appreciated all the free tea and food at the end (especially Duncan who was absolutely famished)

Duncan and Malc really appreciated the food at the end. 

Steve C