Another Account Of The Dunwhich Dynamo

Dunwich Dynamo 2014- Sometimes you just need to get on your bike and smile at the sky

This event despite its popularity (up to 2000 riders) remains virtually unknown to many cyclists. With its deliberate lack of organisation and the turn up on any bike and go when you want ethos, it retains an underground and slightly subversive feel to it. The origins go back to 2002 when some courier riders decided to keep riding to the coast overnight because they could and the rest is history as the event has grown to become a Mecca for all that is great about the eccentricities of cycling. Taking place every year around the full moon in July it attracts riders from far and wide who just get the challenge of riding all night for around 160 km. There is a steady stream of riders leaving from early evening heading east for the Suffolk coast like bats into the night. Starting from London Fields Hackney the first section getting out of London is busy but straight forward and quickly you are out through Epping where the main roads are left behind for quiet lanes. There are some pinch points around the pubs as some think beer and riding is a good idea! Riders soon string out and you follow a line of red lights snaking into the night. The route is marked in places with tea lights but mostly you follow the masses on the magical mystery tour heading east for the coast. At about halfway there is a feed/water stop if you want it. This gets busy but gives a welcome break for tired legs and you get a snap shot of the variety and numbers of riders/bikes. Back on the road you roll on through sleeping villages and it becomes strung out again. There are small groups of unfortunate people fixing punctures at various points and you hope you are not next. Some ride at a pace and others do their own thing content to just be there in the moment. Although the profile is relatively flat there are rolling hills which seem to grow before your eyes as the legs get tired. If Boris bikes, recumbents, tandems, a BMX, and Bromptons can do it any bike can. One year a Penny Farthing even completed it. Check out the YouTube video. http://m.youtube.com/watch?
v=91PBQUWZCp8 . So how did the Hastings CC riders fair? We met at the start as some came up by train and I joined them with my brother who lives in London and has done the
ride several times. It was my second ride and I had wanted to share the magic of the event with the club. Those who took up the challenge were Nigel Tamplin, Peter Buss and Diego. Steve Butcher had decided the weather forecast was not for him and cried off. He need not have worried as we dodged the rain all night save for a brief downpour and soon dried off. There was a lot of surface water in places but the cycling gods smiled on us and we avoided the worst showers. It was a warm night and short sleeves were the order. The pace from the off was high and pushed around 30 km through Epping! This could not last but it remained high as Nigel powered on like a demon. Peter was dropped and we decided to regroup at the feed stop. Before there we dropped Diego and Peter did not show. It turned out both had continued past the stop. Later Nigel spotted Peter on the side with a puncture (he had five during the night and had to buy tubes off people) We decided that a combination of soft tyres and probably not removing the flint or thorn was the likely route of the problem. This made his ride extra tough and was not the best experience for his first century plus ride. Still he remained smiling and wants to ride it again! Diego had arrived first riding alone but hitching a tow from a group of Dulwich Paragon club riders. Next in was Nigel 'the gorilla' Greipel who put on an endless show of power to drop us. I came in with my brother just after 5am. Peter appeared around 6am. At the end the car park was littered with bikes as riders took stock of their achievement. Whether ridden at pace or just ridden to get there, all had a shared experience and the buzz was palpable. Queues snaked out of the cafe and the beach beckoned for others to simply lie and recover or for the hardy to take a dip.The swim for me is the reward for the effort and a fitting end to a special ride. I stayed in for 20mins letting the cool water ease my muscles. Looking back, the beach was littered with bikes and the chatter of individual stories floated across the water. Now refreshed with bacon butties and coffee my body still running on adrenaline started to crave sleep and it was time to leave with another DD in the bag. I cannot recommend this ride enough. If people can arrange the logistics it has to be done but be warned you will want to come back for more.

Jon S

Dunwhich Dynamo

Well what an evening for the brave few that made the arduous trip to London to ride in this years 114 mile London - Dunwich overnight cycle ride.

With Diego, Nigel and Peter meeting at London Bridge and making the perilous ride to London Fields we were met with John and his brother, Matt where after a few brief exchanges of past experiences of previous experiences we made the push off at 9pm, it is to be said that we were some of the last riders to leave, as most riders opt to leave like a bunch of Swallows at 8pm. We only managed to get 150 yards and suffered our first mechanical of the evening, a dreaded puncture and after much huffing and puffing with a small pump a local man kindly donated a track pump to ensure pressures were up to the recommended 120psi.

After this minor setback we were off, winding through the streets of Clapton, East London and then out to Walthamstow all the time avoiding the perils of Addison Lee and red buses, the saving grace of all 5 is the simple single file follow the leader style and strictly no overtaking. After our journey through the fringes of London we up to Epping forest and following the recent Tour de France route, it was at this time that the club really started to show its pace and we were reeling in riders that had left at the earlier time of 8pm, it is to be noted that you all you could hear were the loud shouts of "on your right, on your left" as the keen club cyclists were overtaking a large amount of nervous cyclists who probably hadn't ventured further than the comfort of the Barclays cycle lanes and at times there were a few misses as lesser confident cyclists were pulling out left right and centre!

And so this continued for a relentless 55 miles, a quick pace of 30kph led by Nigel and Johnathon, sadly for the me I couldn't keep the pace up and so started to wind down, partly because I knew that we hadn't reached the halfway mark and I am not Vincenzo NIbali!

As the evening progresses the number of amateur cyclists decreased and what I consider keen club riders increased, to the extent I was passed by a peloton of around 30 riders made up primarily of Dunwhich Paragon came past a rate of knots and knowing what I know I saw my golden opportunity to jump on the back of this and save my legs and this. Is what I did for around 30 miles, until they hit the last food stop at 90 miles and I continued on only to hit the wall at 100 miles.

By this time it was a round 3 in the morning and I had ridden through countless groups of riders mending punctures, wet weather crashes and broken bikes but ironically at a time when your body wants to stop and sleep (I did pass a lovely looking travelodge which seemed very appealing) you just keep going, fuelled by the knowledge that there simply isn't any alternative, Ipswhich is 30 miles away and the Suffolk countryside is pretty empty of places to stop and rest.

And so the last 14 miles are the hardest and the hilliest (I'm sure they aren't it just seems like that) and inevitably you end up riding with people sharing the same pain and cadence as yourself each asking for direction and morale support, hoping each corner you will see the converted signs showing you that the end is in sight and then at 4am I reached it, 7 hours in the saddle (beating my previous time by 1 hour) with Nigel and Johnathon coming in at 5 after a pit stop at 85miles and Peter coming in at 6 after suffering a disastrous 5 punctures and being ripped off for 8 pounds for a dodgy tube.

The ironic thing is arriving early and seeing the faces of joy that everyone has when they finish the ride, not one complains but is overwhelmed by a sense of achievement that they completed one of hardest rides.

The point is that it puts it all into perspective, after spending all day sleeping on Sunday I am not sure I ready to do that distance again, our friends on the the Tour De France complete that distance in around 4 hours and are ready to do it the next day.

Diego

11/7 HSLCC Fri Night Ride- Strength In Numbers

Muddy conditions at Bewl helped boost the Friday night ride count to a much more respectable nine riders including prospective new young (Andy Schleck lookalike) member Michael M. It had been raining most of the day and there was still a little dampness in the air but it was pleasantly warm as we headed off down battery hill. Malcolm went unusually slowly down the descent using his 'air brake' system of legs wide apart although John V just thought he was using this to cool his balls down. Our progress through the reserve was initially hampered by dozens of runners taking part in some sort of race . They were heading in both directions so we had to carefully weave our way between them . I know we sometimes suffer for our sport but judging by the amount of groaning and ragged deep breathing, some of these runners suffer more! On starting the Broad Oak drag, progress was temporarily halted by Kie picking up a puncture, but this was soon fixed with a carbon dioxide cylinder.Most of the riders soon disappeared into the distance but Malcolm was content to take it easy to save his legs for the 50 mile TT on Sunday and John V wanted to help me up the drag , so following in their draft I had  soon managed to reel in Steve D. With it being unusually dark I

Super first ever ascent for young Michael!

missed a small but deep pothole ( despite a warning from Steve) , and rode straight into it. No damage was done to man or machine but the dreaded hissing sound informed us I had given myself a nice pinch puncture.I soon had a replacement tube installed but couldn't get the tyre inflated, it turned out to be a dud tube. Picking out another from my saddle bag I noticed a split , luckily Malcolm had a spare for me to use and at last we were back on the road to catch up with most of the others who were left wondering what was was going on. There was no time for explanations so I shot off down the descent wishing I had put  a little more air into the squishy front tyre. On passing through Westfield at some speed, Kie and myself had a heart stopping moment went a car began pulling out of a blind drive way into our path. As we we moving at about 25mph at the time, this would have been a catastrophe, fortunately he must have seen the flash of our lights and quickly stopped moving forward (lesson to be learnt here, make sure you ride with powerful lights on this ride even in the summer and keep them on flashing mode as long as possible). Despite the squishy front tyre the adrenalin of our near miss must have given me a boost as I managed my second fastest ever 'stonestile approach' although this was nowhere near enough to keep me in plain sight of young Michael and the other fast ones as they accelerated up the initial slopes of our beloved stonestile . This was a first ever ascent for Michael who is bound to rapidly move up the stonestile rankings for this climb. Stu had better get ready to lose his fifth all-time place?

Gas And Air- The joys of racing!

It Was All Going So Well...!

Today I raced at Fowlmead in Kent. Last minute decision as mum and dad said they would have the boy and dog. It was a cat3/4 race so I was in with a chance of some points and with a £500.00 1st prize I thought what the hell... There was several teams there that had targeted the 1st place so as I was on my own I was always going to find it hard but what the hell, always up for a challenge! I kept near the front of the race for most of it with a couple of attacks to get things going but with the massive wind it was always going to end with a bunch sprint to the line. One of the teams went with 1/2 a lap to go and took the rest of the field by surprise so they lead out there man to win and we were left to battle it out for the points that were left on offer. the pace was fast with 1 km to go so I picked a wheel to draft then unleashed my massive power (hahaha) this was going well as I started my sprint with 100 meters to go until a rider appeared to my left and leaned towards me... I knew this was going to end badly so I immediately started to swear... Then I hit the tarmac at about 37mph and this made me swear more! I skidded along ruining my expensive race kit as i went for what seemed like a couple of hours shifting my position a bit to try to make it more comfy but alas this didn't work so I swore some more! then the pain happened... So I laid there for a while to check my body was not broken and then swore at whoever was there... Nothing broken but massive road rash and bruising so after apologizing for my potty mouthed antics I began the somewhat painful journey home as I had to get the boy and dog from mum and dad before I could go to A&E. After waiting for 3 years I was seen and braced myself for more pain but to my delight the nurse cleaning my wounds offered me some gas and air!.... man alive that shit is good! It used to cost a lot of money and a meeting with some dodgy but 'safe man' geezers to feel that good! Now i'm home and drinking beer which I haven't done for months but am sure will help me rest.
My thanks to all who helped at the circuit, my son Flynn for his support at the hospital, Barny Willard and Suze, Pual butler and Nathan Fletcher. Race hard or go home!!

Stuart Hodd

9 July Pevensey Time Trial Times

I am just getting out the times quickly.  There was superb winning PB by Joe Kingsman who is the fastest 10 miler in the club this season.  Will any of the seniors go better in 2014?!!?  I think there were several other PBs but did not have time to quiz all riders, who often do not seem to know their own PBs so I am not sure how I am supposed to !!!!  For standard distances like the 10 you should know your all time PB for any course, your course PBs are something that you can keep track of.  Please keep me informed of PBs and confirm or correct my assumptions. Chris Parker

6/7- HSLCC Club Ride, Wet Wittersham

Stuart Tries Unsuccessfully To Free up the Gear Cable!

With met office forecasting rain all morning it wasn't a surprise that only four riders showed up for the club ride from the Harrow. There was just myself, Lee, Malc C and Stuart. There was no way we were going to do the originally planned 'Mad jack' ride as it would be far too dangerous. Despite the rain there wasn't much wind so we decided to head out in the direction of the marshes instead. By the time we reached Ore I realised that Malcolm wasn't with us, thinking he had had a puncture I rung him up only to find out that somehow he had got dropped and thinking we had taken a turn off the ridge was now at the bottom of stonestile lane!  Malc decided to head off and do his own ride and so that just left the three of us. Stuart was having increasing problems with his gears jumping, myself and Lee diagnosed a sticking gear cable but despite our best efforts to improve it, nothing worked and Stuart had to abandon at Rye. This left just myself and Lee. Despite the rain increasing it didn't seem to bother us, as long as we stuck to non technical roads it was fine, in some ways I found I rather liked it as I am not overly fond of hot summer weather. We decided to do a mixture of the old Heidi memorial ride, the Jack frost ride with an extension over Wittersham thrown in for good measure. I was glad to have my flashing front light on as it was surprisingly dark at times and felt more like an autumn ride rather than high summer. Arriving at Staplecross we went our separate ways with lee heading up Marley lane to Battle while I had the trickier way back up to Westfield, Three oaks and Rock lane. This made a decent length ride of about 50 miles. It just goes to show that riding in persistent rain is fine as long as the route is safe enough and you have a waterproof. I will add this ride to my collection and leave it on the gps as a wet weather backup.

H&StL CC Pevensey 10 Report - Pevensey TT next Wednesday‏

There were fine conditions for the first of two Hastings Pevensey Club 10s with a number of PBs set on a warm evening with just a light wind and occasional gust. Most impressive ride of the night was PB by 12 year old Fabien Large on his third ride at the distance after a 35:02 at Tenterden six weeks ago and 32:01 at Fowlmead a week and a half ago. He broke evens for the first time with a further massive improvement in PB of 2:24 to record  29:37. He is one of three 12 year olds on the start sheet for Saturday's SE heats on the Fowlmead Cycle Park closed road circuit to qualify for the GHS National Under-17s final in September. The fastest boy and girl from each year group qualifies for the final. Fabien will face competition from a 4T+ (!) Velo Club junior and Hastings junior Finlay Pritchard-Brady who will be making his TT debut after just a couple of Bacon Butty Runs.


Event winner Stuart Hodd (22:59) must have been a PB by a large margin and I am pretty sure second placed Trevor Deeble (23.38) was also a PB. The only other Hastings rider to break evens was third placed Malcolm Daly (23:59) who has severAfrom his very successful 2012 season, but watch this space!


Making up the top five places were Mark Brittle  (24:06) who his having a good season in Rovers and Lewes club tens but not yet ready to knock out the sort of times he could a few years ago (21s and 55s) and Lee Smith (24:28 PB) riding Tri bars in anger for the first time


Simon Newell (25:07) and Nigel Tamplin (25:42 PB) broke the 26 minute mark but no one else from the club broke the 27 minute mark.  Seven broke the 28 minute mark with what proved to be the most popular time of the evening: a 27:**. Neil Smith (27:28) rode a ten for the first time, having had a few Ninfield 14s under this belt but it was Stewart Buckland's (27:36)  TT debut. I am pretty sure Jon Stainsby's 27:05 was a PB (but it may have been his first 10?) in a dead heat with Greg Blackwell.


Note that it is impossible for me to keep a record of everyone's times. It is up to individuals to record their times in their training / racing diaries or whatever and inform me of results and PB improvements.


Note that evens is 20mph, which was more significant many years ago. It is not that long (50 or so years!) since the first man to break evens in a 100 mile TT died. He broke 4 hours on a fixed gear, I did calculate his cadence once and it would have put today's big gear grinders to shame! And of course 20mph is now pretty routine for the 12 hour and even 24 hour TTs !!!!


Epsom CC's Bob Coleman, who lives in Eastbourne and often rides private TTs with local clubs, came off his bike about 100 yards after exiting Pevensey roundabout on his way to Little Common. No car was involved and  Bob was fortunate a nurse driving behind him saw it happen, stopped and soon flagged down a passing ambulance who looked after him and got control to send another ambulance to their call.  He was taken to hospital as a precautionary measure since he had landed very heavily on his back on the near side of road verge in the brambles and after a thorough check up was released to go home soon after midnight. Stuart called round to see him in the morning and I have spoken to Bob who is bruised and sore on his left side and has a broken finger so taking it easy for a few days.


Club TTs are on the Pevensey course next week then we move back to the Ninfield circuit with an earlier sign on time:


Wed       09 July   Pevensey 10    G10/83                    Meet 7.00 first rider off 7.30 late

Wed.     16 July   Ninfield 14                                        Meet 6.30 first rider off 7.00

Wed.     23 July   Ninfield 14                                        Meet 6.30 first rider off 7.00

Wed.     30 July   Ninfield 14                                        Meet 6.30 first rider off 7.00



Chris Parker