Great Chieftains of the Pudding Race - Chaingang wed 18 january

15 riders - good turnout for an otherwise unpromisingly dreich and misty night. Local ace Pete Tadros and Shaun Reed, the only rider from west of Pevensey set the pace, with Simon N. Paul and myself hanging on grimly like the witches chasing Tam O' Shanter's mare. The tail tore off painfully at South Cliff as two riders were shed. I clung on a bit longer, came to the front at the level crossing , but was spent by the Star Inn. Just after crossing the bridge Pete attacked like a pro, Shaun shouted "inside" meaning Shaun was chasing thru' on my inside in lee of the wind. Addle headed I thought he meant me to move to the inside accidentally boxing him in so Pete escaped over Spooky Hill into a westerly headwind like Auld Clootie hisself. Curses, thats what happens when we give him a rest!

Going home with the wind at our backs, fixed Pete undergeared now, & everyone spinning briskly and keeping more together. Had a wee dig at Cooden hotel, Stuart Crabbe was out supporting at the hotspot. Charlie Bell's Bikes had a dig up the South Cliff, whereupon Tadros countered, really trying and quickly opened up a gap, as he kindly pointed out later I only caught him up as he was undergeared and yes it took quite a long time to reach him and yes I was giving it everything. Needless to say on bridging I tucked in behind until he tired then showed him the old Malcolm Elliott at the last yard.

We stopped at Bexhill to regroup, Pete says he trains 10 hours a week, something like 200 miles - from his daily commute, our chaingang and a weekend ride - thats what it takes to win races! All I know is my sore legs would be glad of a rest after this "burns" night - (groan!) After our rest stop Malc and Pete zipped off over Galley Hill and we never caught them.

Steve Curtis says " I intend to do an early bird ride on sat 21 jan. This will be a modified version of the xmas ride that pete took us on. Distance is 40 miles with quite a lot of climbing
Meet opposite Hillcrest school, Rye road at 8:00am sharp, if forecast is dry"

Happy New Chaingang January 4th

"27 and we're not even pedalling!" Anthony (not Adrian as we were calling him earlier) on his new slicks shouted as we strung out in a line approaching Stuart's house. I think we might even have touched 30 later on judging by the traffic going backwards. So a good night out indeed for nearly a dozen of us surfing the 37mph West South Westerly wind to Hastings. Great to see old friends / new faces Jon Moulton, Charlie from Bell's bikes testing his new old Ambrosio, as well as our hardy regulars - Happy New Year everyone, see you next week : )

Oh, the ride-out? Wasn't such fun - bunch was soon divided by 37 mph headwind which nearly blocked me to a dead halt several times on my overgeared fixed. But I wasn't the only one suffering - Anthony also mulled over leaning his bike against a tree and quitting cycling forever! Popular fantasy that. Nice of the front group - Shaun R, Simon Newell, John and Swavek, to wait for everyone at Cooden. Feeling my post Christmas legs of chocolate I got dropped twice. Wobbled last miles to Pevensey on my own, until I was caught by the Jon Moulton, Simon Grogan and Joe Jenner train. Riding solo into that wind was pretty grim, might have been the toughest chaingang ever, yet probably worth the ride back home with a free moped engine. But hey, we were lucky, no hailstones. And the proper miserable rain obeyed the BBC for once and waited till after 9pm to plop.

Heard some interesting rumours about our local bike shops and maybe a new pub, fingers crossed that all goes well. Does anyone read Cycling Active magazine? I do drawings for it every month and sometimes Cycling Weekly as well, been waiting for right time to use this winter club run image so here it is.

Riders on the Storm - Chaingang Dec 14

At what point is it wise to abandon a ride - drizzle, heavy rain, hail, snow? Well, so long as we're out here, might as well continue a bit further and see if gets better, or worse . . .

On leaving home tonight rain began spotting the pavement, by the end of the street it was getting heavy, but I was determined to ride - so I turned back and grabbed a rain jacket, extra layer and a woolly hat to cover my ears. I reached the meeting place late, and no one was there. What the heck, I'll roll on a bit further and maybe see if anyone else is out or if I'm the only one taking a gamble on it clearing up. With the extra layer I soon began feeling a bit too warm, better than too cold as sheet lightning flashed in the storm clouds, and a 20mph gale blasted icy drizzle into my face. No tail-lamps could be seen on horizon, come this far, might as well continue. After seven miles or so the misty drizzle suddenly turned to handfuls of nails flung in the face - a hailstorm, eighth of an inch ball bearings of ice drifting on the ground like snow! I jumped off the bike turning my back on the flying hailstones to try and find shelter, it lasted about a minute then I set off again, reasoning if I turned back now then I'd be riding inside the storm all the way home, might as well go a bit further and see what happens next. Leaving Bexhill my spirits lifted and I hummed what else but "break on thru' to the other side" of course, as patches of clear sky appeared and the wind dropped.

Along Herbrand Walk the road was all but covered in pebbles washed off the beach, bar two narrow tyre tracks. The Star Inn looked deserted. A night train passed, showers of yellow sparks flew from its wheels and more sheet lightning flashed out over the Downs in the west . If I get struck by lightning out here on the flat marshes - will my thin rubber tyres save me? Halfway between Spooky Hill and Pevensey I saw some likely bike lamps approaching. Was pleased to turn round and catch up with Simon Grogan, Joe Jenner and Simon Newell. They told me John & Swavek had rode out with them as well then continued on home towards Eastbourne. The five of them had kept going right into the teeth of the hailstorm without stopping , proper hard riders!

A good run back to Hastings assisted by a tailwind, waved hello to Stuart Crabbe as we passed and finally Simon N and Joe had some jump left at Bexhill. Felt great to steal a ride on a stormy night, feet were cold by the end despite warm socks and winter overshoes

Lots of Police cars out patrolling and doing spot checks what with works do's and whatnot, even saw a silver unmarked Audi A4 patrol car pull a foolish red light jumper by the Carlisle, was a big 3 litre with flash boy racer alloys. Ride safe.

Stars and Cars and Trains - Chaingang 8th Dec

About 14 riders, nice to see Tim Miles and his immaculately tuned road bike. Simon's ribs are still hurting a bit from last week. Bunch broke into 2 groups over Galley Hill, Ivan did the most work on the way out into the wind with Simon N, John, Shaun, Malc and I taking a spell too.
Bit of a sticky moment meeting a car on the narrow bridge at the Star Inn. Please try and remember to shout "Car up!" if your at the front and try not to brake hard until following riders have been warned to avoid a pile up, not always easy to do when gut reaction is to instantly brake but this time it was OK. Malc locked up his back wheel and did well to control a skid.
In the chute up to the roundabout I followed Shaun's wheel, had a dig, then John & Swavek came round with explosive efforts, strong lads!

The western contingent all headed back towards Eastbourne, so it was just like old times with a smaller bunch heading back to Hastings. Sky was clear as a bell with stars out and we could feel the promise of future ice lurking as we roll on into the depths of winter. Dave picked up the pace over Spooky Hill and led the bunch going strong in his bones top & nifty Ti bike. We stopped at the level crossing to let a fast rattler pass and later on Ivan, Malc, Simon N and I got our own little fixed gear train rolling sweetly.

Big Westerly Chaingang Nov 30th

Round 1:

About 20 riders battled into a big Westerly* wind,

Simon of Phoenix Cycles went down hard on the corner of Cafe on the Beach, striking a pedal on the footer of a temporary fence support - watch out for these lying in the path by the tunnel. Simon picked himself up and continued, hope it was nothing worse than some bruised ribs!

About six of us took turns plugging into the wind, dragging the bunch thru' Bexhill, by the next climb the front group was down to eight, where Shaun & John opened a gap.

From back of bunch where I'd had a short rest I could see gap was up to 50 yards or so, with hindsight I should have wound it up a bit more gently and tried to take all six of us across but as it happened I dug in afraid of losing touch and bridged quicker than expected, but unfortunately nobody came with me. Sat in until the level crossing and then did share of spells to the end. John slid back climbing Spooky hill, but manned up and got back on . Shaun declared he was taking it easy for the home stretch so John & I punched for the roundabout.

Round 2.

Shaun packed and turned back for home at top of Spooky hill, saving himself a longer ride home into that fierce wind.
Ivan the TT engine rode from the front to take Chairman Stuart's Checkerboard, I did a spell, then John made a move on the next hill and opened a gap, which Ivan then took us across for a little wind-up before the rest stop, where we all had a good natter for some minutes.

Malc stealthily broke away over Galley Hill and kept us in the distance all the way to Bridge café. We chased hard as we could but didn't quite catch him in time. Malc confessed to some blue-rinse drafting, but he was so far ahead at the good spot for joining the flow that we never saw him "taking pace" at all.

*A westerly wind means that the atmosphere is moving faster than the Earth spins. wiki-answers

Eastbourne GP Cat 3 road race May 22nd 2011

Just found this fun youtube clip from Handsling's Cam of the Eastbourne road race I did back in May with Pete Hooper (Fuga) and Dan Henchy (PB Science) I'm number 26 in the red Hastings jersey. You can see us all smiling on the start line, and several times later on - not so smiley! We raced 10 laps of the seafront with a sharp little climb each lap and then 2 laps of Beachy Head. I stayed near the front till the top of the big climb out of town where I watched the lead group open a gap into a really nasty headwind then hung onto the chasing group till I dropped my chain downshifting for Beachy. Did the others stop and wait for me to get the chain back on - sporting fashion? No, they're off like Contador! Mighty Mike Coyle of the Mitre won - here's a proper race report from the sharp end . . . since fitted a chain catcher.

New Blood - Chaingang 23rd Nov

19 riders & good to see Chris Parker back out on the bike recovering from his running injury. This week we were proud to be honoured with some new blood in the shape of Todd and Josh, one rides for a team in Flanders and the other is a top triathlete. Welcome and hope to see you again next week lads. In fact Matt warned me we were going to get **** ****d and as we rolled out to Galley Hill the excuses began to drop thick and fast - "Actually -I've got a really bad cold", "I missed last week", "I've got a broken leg", "me too" and the rest.

We got a little chain going at the front, then Matt broke away at Bexhill with Todd in his wheel. I was unwilling to drag a strong bunch up to another Hastings jersey, so I marked Josh ready to follow a move. Malc had a go at closing the gap, then I tried to bridge alone but couldn't shake the others, sorry Matt! By the Star Inn we'd regrouped. Todd made a big dig up Spooky Hill, others countered but no-one was strong enough to stay clear for long. Matt kindly offered to lead me out to the roundabout where out of the pack came Eastbourne John with a strong late finish.

Wayback was swift again with Ivan and Malc doing lots of work on the front, Simon Grogan and Simon Newell going well too, I had a stealthy wee dig for the checkerboard outside chairman Stuart's house. Matt came through to open a good gap for a while, but I was too tired to help him so it came down to a bunch finish at the 30 sign. Matt opened a large gap again on way home, big thanks to Malc and Ivan for sharing work to bring him and his immaculately clean bike back.

Any more ideas or votes for the club social/ prizegiving in February? Stephen from Eat@the Stade has offered us same sort of deal as last year in his new venue, also Nick at St. Clements next to Horse & Groom, St. Leonard's has offered us the whole room and a 2 or 3 course menu.

Friday chaingang as usual, Fairlight Lodge 7.30
Text Chris Parker for the Saturday morning bacon butty ride.
Sunday run Harrow, 9.30

Dave learns some roadcraft, Chaingang Nov 9th

Simon and I were having a nice chat spinning along Bexhill seafront when some hooligan in a Fiat top and killer whale leggings jumps out and attacks, with big Mike, I mean big Shaun hot on his wheel.

I've done my turn on front - so I sit up and let them go. Three or four more flash by to give chase. Wait to see if anymore? No - OK - now its time to dig in hard as the gap is getting too big. Here we go again, busting a gut to get back on, survival of the suffering-est.

After Cooden Beach I was hanging onto just Matt and Shaun, in fact Matt lost ground at Herbrand Walk and had to chase hard to get back on. They were strong, I felt like I was going to blow up but somehow hung on. Finally Shaun went clear, just rode away from us, then stopped to wait at the Star pub. Mercy? No, a dim headlight and " I get bored riding on my own, I like to be sociable" Maybe mercy then, or a cat toying with an injured mouse before the inevitable kill.

Matt did the rest of the hard work till the end, where Shaun feigned a jump to get 2nd wheel, then actually went, I jumped after and hung on some more until he tired, then came round in the last yard, feeling cheap. "Poachers!" shouted Matt as he rolled up in third place. "Dave isn't it?" Shaun says to me. "No, Chris" I say. "You really should do some road" says Shaun.

Return leg - bunch left early while I was still chatting to Ivan and Malc who had a mechanical with his cleat, I excused myself swiftly and had to chase like a dog for 2 or 3 miles to get back on, just as the bunch reached Spooky Hill where a move often goes. No blood left in my brain by this point so rest is a blank until closing on Matt and Shaun again as we approach Bexhill.

Matt is doing the work again, Shaun sitting on 2nd wheel, and I'm hiding behind Barry, I mean Shaun. This time Barry slows a smidgeon, just gently eases me out the back, then stands up and crunches the pedals to sprint, later he'll generously explain that this is a bit of tactical roadcraft to use against an opponent, but at the moment I'm in such a zombie state I don't really notice, just follow the wheel, the wheel!

Shaun's gears slip on the second stroke and he bangs his knee hard on the frame, I'm thinking S***! last two times I did that I went right over the bars and my elbows and knees were well bloodied up. And I'm right on his wheel! But its OK this time - he keeps it going, then gets tired and then thats when I make my move and come round, after the efforts done, in the last yard, feeling . . . well, you get the picture,

don't you, Dave?

23 riders. Average speed out : 21.7mph with a bit of a tailwind.

Back: 21.5mph and for sure a headwind.

Through and off - youtube clip

good little vid of a chaingang

Chaingang Report

A lucky rollover week for the rain, with the same three riders as last week somehow avoiding a soaking. I've been wondering about the difference between rainclouds that are a long way up in the sky and the ones that are so low down they're actually scraping along the road. The rain in the high ones often seems to want to swoop down and pummel you from a great height, which is just miserable, while the other kind have effectively almost landed already, so are content to just float around you benignly in a sort of cuddly fine mist, with the result that you're really no more damp than you would have been from your own perspiration, which is what we had tonight. Of course if you get both kinds at once then you're scuppered . . .

The three of us stuck together and grovelled out into noisy 25 and 31mph headwinds. Our reward; a spin back in a magic pocket of stillness at windspeed . Simon G first home to Bexhill. temp 9-10c warmest we've seen for a long while.

For fixed gearheads I used 46 x 17t (about 72") for the headwind grind. For the return I should have flippped for 15t (about 81") which 2 or 3 others also use for chaingang. 72" at 33mph feels bouncy, over 160rpm! more info here fixed wheel tech, Sheldon Brown

Chris P will be at the Harrow at 9 for the usual Sunday Run, but is playing Hockey this Saturday so won't be out.

chris watson