Early Bird ride - Just The Two Of Us

Nice to Meet You Mark!

Only myself and Ivan were present for this morning's early bird ride, a few others said they were coming but failed to show. Good to see Ivan again , he has been out of action with a dodgy ankle so arrived on his geared bike rather than his fixed wheel with the ankle heavily strapped. The weather was brilliant being cooler than it has been of late with a gentle wind that kept changing direction. This is a great fast route ideal for a quick ride or for the winter. On the road up to Broad Oak we got chatting to another rider named Mark Palmer.Mark lives in London but quite often comes down to Robertsbridge where his nan lives. He is more into mountain biking than road cycling and quite often goes on the south Downs so hopefully he can ride there with us sometime. Today he was just getting used to a second-hand road bike he had just bought from eBay in order to do the 'Ride London' event taking place next weekend. Mark kept up with us for a little while but eventually got dropped as myself and Ivan got into our stride for the long drag all the way up to Cripp's corner. More climbing took us to our highest point at Brightling, from there is was mostly downhill with exhilarating riding all the way back to St leonard's and well deserved coffee and toasted tea cakes at cafe on the beach.

Bewl Water- Singles Hour

Single Or Double?

Steve D Has Gone Full Suss!

Now that we have moved on a month beyond the summer equinox I was happy to use the fading daylight hours as a good excuse to do a single loop rather than a double loop of Bewl. Paul B and Steve D were waiting for me and Derek when we arrived, they had  already done one loop. this was very mild for Paul as the last time he came to Bewl he completed nine laps continuously (that's got to be a record!) . Knowing I only had one lap to do made it much more enjoyable as I could push myself  a bit harder  knowing that I would not have to save energy for the second (endurance lap) . I managed to hold Paul and Steve in sight as far as the halfway road section but they lost me soon after that. Derek was last man home by some margin but this turned out to be caused by his rear hydraulic calliper rubbing badly on the disc. For me, this was the most enjoyable Bewl ride this season, from now on I am a singles man rather than a double.

Ninfield times for Wednesday 24 July

Possible PB For Dave?

What promised to be another fast evening for the Ninfield circuit turned out well, but not as well as last week. In a field of 14 riders there were 5 PBs, 7 had gone quicker this year, Club Chairman Peter Campany has gone quicker in previous years and Malcolm's extended run of woe continued with a mechanical DNF despite wearing the number 23 when setting off at 13.

Stuart Hodd (35:20) won the event with Simon Newell (35:48) coming second with another PB after last week's and many years of riding the circuit. You do not have to be in the flush of youth to keep getting better!

Tim Knocks Almost Two Minutes Off His Time!

Trevor Deeble (35:55 PB) was back from following the Tour de France to take third place ahead of juniors Joe Kingsman (36:12 PB) and Joe Jenner (37:16) in fourth and fifth places.

Sixteen year old Tim Conneally (44:08 PB) had a great ride coming in almost two minutes quicker than last week.

The fastest time was a private time trial by In Gear's Barney Willard (34:12) who was 33 seconds off his PB set last week which suggests the evening was not as fast as last week despite the 5 PBs.

See the attached table of times. Dave Connor is marked as a PB but I do not have times for more than three years back readily to hand so it may not be, but as with Simon you do not have to be a youngster to keep going quicker!

Make sure you turn up next Wednesday (31 July) for the last Ninfield circuit of the year and see if it is going to be another evening with a good number of PBs.  The post event gatherings at the Red Lion, Hooe, have also been rather good these last two weeks

Jon Meets The 'The Badger'

As a finale to my visit to the Tour I met Bernard Hinault a true cycling legend. Just as I thought that my cheeky jump onto the podium couldn't be topped I
happened upon a meet and greet with Bernard Hinault 5 time Tour winner and Christian Prudhomme the Tour director in a swanky shopping centre in Paris. I
knew this was a never to be repeated opportunity and duly joined the queue before it got too long. He was very gracious and I summoned up my best french to
tell him it was an honour to meet him. We shook hands and posed for the photo. I left with a signed photo card for the scrapbook. I cannot imagine that you could
get so involved with another sport at the top level and this made my whole Tour experience extra special. I take away memories of Froome attacking on Ventoux,
stunning scenery, passionate fans, the party on Dutch corner, riding Ventoux with my son as the sun crested the summit, the impromptu use of the display tent at
Decathlon in Gap, watching the Sky team load Froomes bike into the boot like it was the most precious thing ever, seeing the mechanics strip down Cavs bike
and leave it within touching distance of the fans,and so much more.

Jon Stainsbury

Froome brings it home and I nearly made off with the podium sign!

John Stainsby reports from the last day of Le Tour.

Couldn't resist jumping onto the podium it was just there in front of me. I tried to blag the sign but the minder was having none of it despite me name dropping
Chris Parker! The final was electric with the riders coming round the Arc de Triomphe just in front of me. I climbed up the large TV screen to join an American
who insisted on giving me beer all afternoon. Who was I to refuse. This vantage point gave me a birds eye view as the peleton came around. David Millar put in a
valiant breakaway before being swallowed up as the pace increased. There was a fly past with coloured smoke trailing and everywhere union jacks flew over the
crowds. As the sun went down Froome pushed his glasses to the back of his helmet and came round alongside Cav. The crowds cheered and people scrambled
up trees,lamposts and craned necks for a glimpse of the action. It did not disappoint and all were witness to a finale to the greatest sporting spectacle on the
planet (ignoring all other lesser sports of course). Around me the beer flowed and people swayed but the good nature was abundant with no trouble. As the riders
flew past on the final lap towards the finish line I joined the masses squeezed in front of the tv screen to witness the drama and roar Cav on. Alas this was not his
day and it was left to Froome to satisfy the fans. The Arc de Triomph was illuminated and on the podium Froome fought back the emotion and almost shed a tear
before regaining his composure.The whole spectacle in Paris was worth the trip alone and I found getting to the stages easy and had no problem with camping
both rough and at sites. If you do one thing visit the Tour and get to Dutch corner on L'Alpe d'Huez and witness the passion of the orange fans. You will see the
drama and the passion that makes this race so epic.

Early Bird- Return To Shadoxhurst

Reaching The Fabled Shadoxhurst- Time To head South

Having really enjoyed the new Shadoxhurst circular a few months back I decided it was well worth a return trip. Despite the good weather there were only three of us, myself, Paul K and Steve D. This route took a direct journey to Rye before heading North on fabulous quiet and wide roads towards the fabled Shadoxhurst near to Ashford. Despite all the roads being 'yellow' C roads they a are wider than most C roads and with only a few climbs this made for fast riding. I felt like I was riding fairly close to flat out on my recently acquired Giant Defy and that I must be breaking lots of Strava segments so I was surprised that I only managed to beat half the segments set last time on my old Rayleigh, so maybe the old girl is not as bad as I thought? Despite having done two hard mtb laps of Bewl the night before, Steve was riding significantly faster than myself, the only time I could get ahead of him was when he had to shift about to give his groin a rest. Paul has been putting in 150 miles a week recently since getting back to road riding and he was also really flying. On the way back we had to slow down for a few 'traditional' Sussex lanes that could do with a big sweeping to remove all the accumulated muck and gravel in the middle of the road. We were now only six miles from the cafe, but to get there we had to climb up Doleham hill and then Peter James lane. these didn't seem quite as hard as last time and I managed a second best on Doleham and a pb on Peter James. As most of the road surface is so good on this route, we will ride this classic route once more in the autumn before the year is out.

H&StL CC Ninfield 10 times

It was a superb evening on Wednesday for the Club TT on the Ninfield circuit.  There were some great times for the field of 15 starters

7  PBs
2 SBs
1 first time ever
4 have been quicker
1 DNF

So make sure you all turn up next week if these fine conditions continue, turn up anyway since we will probably have several returners from following the Tour de France back to tell tales of what they got up to.  See the great write up by Jon Stainsby posted on the BLOG.

With Trevor away Stuart Hodd (35:11 PB) bagged another win to consolidate his second place in the Points Table behind Malcolm whose run of woe continued with a puncture and DNF.

Simon Newell (36:23) took another second place with an all time PB after many seasons riding the circuit, a very good indication of how good the evening was and also how Simon has kept on improving over many years.

Juniors Joe Jenner (37:03) PB and Joe Kingsman (37:38) took third and fourth place, might it have been different if JK had been on his TT bike?

After helping out time keeping John Vidler (39:27) was back racing for fifth place and a  PB.

Stu Bags Another Win!

Note that Greg Blackwell's time has been revised after checking post event, but he still did a SB.  There is one other query by someone who did a PB, I am inclined to leave the time as is since he will no doubt do a PB next time on the course.  My records indicate that the given time is OK but there is a possibility the time is one minute out.  Had the stop watch with a memory of 100 times not failed after setting riders off the query could have been resolved for sure, the back up watch does not have a memory.  A new 100 memory stop watch has been ordered!

And what made it an even better evening was a good gathering in the balmy evening for rehydration at the Red Lion, not that time keeping had dehydrated me that much ……..

Could have written more but lunch time is over.

CLUB EVENTS:  Wednesday 17/7 we are back at Ninfield with an 18:30 sharp sign on time

Wed.    24 July Ninfield 14                             Meet 6.30 first rider off 7.00
Wed.    31 July Ninfield 14                             Meet 6.30 first rider off 7.00
Wed.    7 Aug   Broad Oak 8                             Meet 6.30 first rider off 7.00

Sign on for Ninfield is in Downs View (TN33 9JF) off Church Lane i.e. 200 yards south of the main road.  Please sign on ASAP.  Most weeks after the Ninfield 14 we will go in the Red Lion Hooe for a chat, if not riding some turn up at the finish just for this!

    Chris Parker