25/10 HSLCC Fri Ride- Rolling Stones

It was another warm and windy October evening for the weekly Hastings Friday night ride. When I arrived at Fairlight Lodge, Malcom, John Stainsby in his amazing super-reflective Castelli gear, Trevor, John Vidler and Marcus were all chatting. A few moments later Simon Grogan arrived on his Giant, John Stainsby called time and we set off down Battery Hill. Unlike last week, tonight the wind was pushing us firmly in the direction of Rye, and the 7 of us had to descend carefully down to Pett Level. I think it was Trevor, Marcus and John Vidler who made the first break, enjoying the crazy speeds possible with the tailwind, arriving at the gate for the nature reserve road before the rest of us. Much to my surprise Nigel had joined the group, having just missed us leaving but chasing on down Battery Hill after seeing the trail of red lights. Not easy! We were chatting while riding along the narrow nature reserve road when there was a big shout of “Stones!” out front. The shingle had spread across the right-hand side of the road, and with us riding two-a-breast, the rider on the right didn’t have much choice but to ride over it, bouncing and slipping over the pebbles, and hoping for the best. Luckily no one came off, but it was pretty treacherous in patches all the way to the left-hander taking you out of the nature reserve.

On the hill going up to the Udimore Road the pace of the climbing was brutally quick, despite the strong winds. After losing John Vidler’s wheel, I tried to stay with John Stainsby, who was sixth man, but I couldn’t hang on. By the time the road levelled out myself and Simon were left at the back. The wind was ferocious in sections, and we took it in turns to shield each other all the way to Broad Oak, which made it far, far easier. It’s a shame the road resurfacing work hasn’t actually improved the road at all here - there were at least two or three pot holes that were difficult to avoid, and the surface is ridiculously rough.

On the way down to Westfield we split again. Malcolm, Trevor and John Vidler were ahead and were first up Stonestile. John Stainsby peeled off homeward bound. I rode up the hill with Marcus, managing to stay on his wheel until the flatter section where he really piled on the speed. With the summit in sight Simon caught and passed me with some serious momentum, standing up and powering his way to the top. When I arrived the recent finishers looked to be in agony, hunched over the bars and gasping for air. I pulled up and involuntarily did the same. A few moments later Nigel arrived, we all agreed it was a good ride, said some hasty goodbyes and headed home. It was another really good Friday night ride. I’ll certainly be trying to make it whenever I can.

Metin

27/10 KCA 100K Reliability Trial

Assembled At Claygate!

Waking up to strong winds and heavy rain  my first thoughts were, 'why did I commit myself to going on the reliability trial'. I wasn't the only one with such thoughts as Chris woke up with a bit of a hangover having over indulged on a mixture of drinks the night before and Derek's text asking me if I was still going showed he was also thinking the same. I just hoped that the forecasters were right and that it was going to improve. Chris had given us very detailed instructions of where to meet ,so all of us assembled together on

Chris Doesn't Need A GPS To Lead The Route!

time at the White Heart pub at Claygate.Taking part were myself, Chris P, Derek, Metin, Steve D, Malc and making an extremely rare appearance Nick Bridger. Nick is into iron man events which he manages to do with relatively little training. Having done little lately except short sunday rides (followed by full English breakfast!) he was up for a longer ride and so had decided to come with us. We set off at a gentle club pace but this was too slow for Steve D who soon dropped us and disappeared into the distance following the route on his gps. I was the only other one with the route on gps but Chris has such an incredible route recall that he led for much of the time only asking me once if it was straight on or turn right. The weather was holding up, the rain had gone and the wind had dropped from storm force to strong wind force. The route was mainly flat having only around 2,000 feet of climbing despite its length of over 60 miles. At forty miles there was one section that did have a couple of hills. Having made a few adjustments to the head tube spacers on my Giant Defy the day before I was feeling really comfortable on the bike having reached that perfect spot between comfort, handling and wind position, sofeeling better on the bike than I have for a long time I was able to get ahead of everyone and photograph a few action shots. Once everyone caught up, it soon became apparent that Derek was in quite a bad way. Rather than bring out his carbon bike he had brought out his lower geared but heavier alloy specialised bike and at the last minute had had to change the rear tyre to an armadillo that was ok for a turbo trainer but terrible for riding any sort of distance . The combination of firm aluminium frame and rigid tyre meant he was feeling every slight bump in the road and his back was suffering, it was only by slowing down to stretch every few minutes that he was able to keep going. Nick was also feeling it a bit, not having done any long rides for a while. We decided it would be best for Derek and Nick to take a short cut back to the headquarters while the rest of us completed the route. While I was digging out a paper copy of the route to give to Nick (useless because he couldn't read it without his glasses), Chris and the others had left, thinking I was there behind them.Despite feeling fit, I couldn't  catch up with them but to be honest I was really enjoying riding along on my own for the last 23 miles just following the little black line on my Garmin. This last 23 miles was into a headwind almost all the way but I barely noticed as I kept plodding on, passing one suffering rider after another.About 6 miles from the end, on a slight rise, I spotted a rider up ahead dressed all in black standing by his bike.

Malcolm Riding Strongly As Ever!

Nick's Been Tangoed!

Thinking he may need some assistance I decided to pull over and see if he was OK and was surprised to see it was Steve D. Steve's chronic groin problem had flared up again and he had had to stop, there was noting that could be done and I had to leave him to limp back to headquarters on his own. Meanwhile Chris, Metin and Malc were making  good time as Malcolm lead into the wind all the way back with Chris (also feeling good) just behind him and Metin (feeling tired) at the back of the peleton. I arrived back at the start ten minutes behind them with only eight minutes to spare to be declared reliable . Our enjoyment of the beer and peanuts in the pub was dampened slightly with our concern for Derek especially when we got some garbled voice messages due to the terrible network signal strength in the area. Fortunately we needed have worried because just as we were packing up our bikes in the car park Derek and Nick appeared, I don't think Derek wil ever ride on that armadillo tyre ever again, LOL. Thanks to Chris P for getting us all organised and enrolled in this wonderful event, this is one I look forward to doing again next year.

Bacon Butty Ride 26 Oct

Eight of us met at bridge café. Set off against a strong SW wind which got lighter as we turned inland. Regrouped a couple of times. It was pleasing to see that some of the worst sections of the lane across Pevensey Levels have been resurfaced however one of the group suffered a puncture. Had a longer stop at Chilly Farm shop to regroup. Wind behind us towards coast, I couldn't keep up with the stronger riders along coast road. Said cheerio at Coogan Bay and went our own ways. Malcolm C.

East Sussex Hill Climb on Firle Beacon

Ollie Chapman had made a great start to hill climbing the day before in Saturday morning's East Sussex Cycling Association hill climb up to Firle Beacon. The early riders benefitted from dry conditions but steady rain and a rising gusting wind made it harder for the back end of the field. Chapman really impressed as he smoothly approached the chequer board with a quick time of 5:18 to take 18th place, excellent after puncturing just before he started and then having problems with his cycling shoes.  Joe Jenner (5:50) also picked up ESCA team points for Hastings.  The second oldest rider in the field Chris Parker posting the slowest time of 7:43 coming in one place behind the oldest rider (7:29). Joe Kingsman's weekend did not start well with a puncture before the start and technical problems that lead to him being a DNF. Even In Gear's Peter Tadros had problems, with a puncture on his bespoke fixed hill climb bike forcing a rushed bike change to a geared set up and a time of 4:17, well off his course record of 3:42, for second place to Lewes Wanderer Patrick Hough (4:10). Tadros was one of only two vets in the top ten, both only recently having joined the veteran ranks, again proving that hill climbs are more suited to the youngsters.

Battery Hill 2013 Inter Club Hill Climb between Hastings & St. Leonards CC and Rye & District Wheelers

Although time trial fields are dominated by vets it is the younger riders that are best suited to the explosive effort and rigour of hill climbing. In the first official interclub hill climb between Hastings and Rye on Sunday morning it was the Hastings juniors that determined the result. The fastest up Battery Hill was Rye's Nick Wilson (4:44 PB) with Stuart Hodd (4:58) winning the Grimpeur's Trophy for the fastest Hastings rider in his first ever hill climb.

Checking back on the last two years Rye's teams of five riders were quicker on aggregate time (and in 2010 I think) but this year Hastings shaded it with a team time of 26:39 for Hodd, 15 year old Ollie Chapman (5:07) the quickest junior of the day, 16 year old Joe Kingsman (5:29) who lost time when stopping after his chain came off within sight of the finish, Malcolm Daly (5:30) and 17 year old Joe Jenner (5:35).  Rye's team of five included one junior, 14 year old James Fosbery (6:04) close on the heals of his Dad (5:52) in their aggregate time of 27:19, a close run thing.

Rye's Rebecca Wilson has ridden the event for four years now, setting a PB on every ride with this year's time of 6:31 pretty close to Eastbourne Rover Emma Faulkner's 6:16.

There were a number of other private time trials including the quickest time of the day by Sam Stean (3:55) from Eastbourne, the third rider since 1999 to break four minutes, only Peter Tadros (3:45) has gone quicker since a young Mark Markowski set the event record of 3:42 for Hastings in 1985. Former Rye Hill climb champion Alan Thynne (4:33) now with PMR and former Hastings short distance trophy winner Rover Marc Townsend (4:34) recorded the second and third quickest times of the day. Rover's 17 year old Sam Houghton recorded 5:24.

Chaily Audax

Chaily Audax
Things started off badly for me on this one. I could not download the entry form so sent in a cheque. After a fews days I got a note from martin the organiser telling me I had put a 1p stamp on the envelope and he had to pay £1.68 to get my letter !
I had persuaded my mate Roy Beeley the chaiman of our local tri club to come . he had entered online as he had a pay pal account.
i had not realised that there was 2 courses ,a hilly and a hillier , you guessed it he had entered the hllier and i had entered the hilly. We were the first to arrive so Roy changed from hillier to hilly as organiser happy to do that. John V and Dan H arrived then Tom N who of course had arranged the ride . Last but not least Steve D.  No rainman of course.
So the debate was do we ride together or in seperate groups , then discovered more inconsistancies with entries to hilly or hillier. Tom knew the route for the hillier but not the hilly but all of us with Steves GPX had the hilly programmed . In the end we went off as one group on the hilly
It had been spitting gently as we gathered for the start and then the heavens opened . It was however quite warm . first hill was at about 500 metres from start. several more hills but not to bad. I was already getting left behind, but others waited for me . We passed a couple of old chaps but then we see stopped several times as although we had 4 sat navs between us Tom was leading following the route from a bit of paper attached to his handlebars( a true audaxer).Anyway the old chaps would come past then we would pass them again and so on ( they had obviously done this route many times and knew it by heart.
I fell behind on Cobbs hill , we have done this before I think on haywards heath sportive , it is not long but horrendously steep. this is followed shortly afterwards by another short but steep hill.
We got split up but shortly after is the food stop. When I arrived others were tucking into hot dogs with fried onions and tea, thats a first for any ride I have been on . By time I arrived they had only veggie hotdogs left but they were really good. steve D had shot off from the start but he was still at the stop.
27 miles left and terrain was more rolling than hills and if it had not been for the rain would have been really good. We split again with Tom Dan and John pulling away. We followed on
Tom had said if you want to do a bit more can go up ditchling beacon. We decided not to do that and we got back to find others not arrived. Yes they had decided to do ditchling beacon.
Back at the parish hall there was teas and coffee for 50p and you could have a lunch for £1 including a tin of rice pudding
Would you believe as we left the hall the sun came out!!
I do not know how they do this for £5 but I shall do another
Derek M

18/10 HSLCC Fri Ride- Double First

Mark Ready To 'Defy' Stonestile

With some riders planning on doing the Chailey Audax and with other riders saving their legs for the hill climbs on Saturday and Sunday, I wasn't surprised that by 7:30 there was only myself and Jon S ready for the ride, but in the last five minutes four more riders appeared including Metin who was doing the Friday ride with us for the first time and Mark who was doing the complete route with us.This goes to show what a good bank of riders we have now for the Friday ride, we seem to have a different combination every week. It was a full moon but unfortunately there was thick cloud cover so we didn't get the benefit of the extra light down Battery hill. Having successfully made the decent I could feel my bikes rear end going all squidgy, yet again (third time in a month) I had picked up a puncture.I ended up having to do the job twice as the first (patched tube) I put in wouldn't hold any air. I am a bit disappointed in these schwalbe Durano tyres as they are not as puncture resistant as the Continental 4 seasons. I think I will keep the Schwalbe for the front only and go back to a 4 seasons on the back, they almost never puncture even when the tread is badly worn.On reaching the sea defences we were hit by a strong gusty south westerly wind. This seemed to get worse as we entered the reserve, we were all leaning to the right in order to stay up right and despite riding as a group we were down to around 15 mph. For once we weren't the only people on the reserve as the husky dog sleigh teams were also out there with lights just as bright as ours. Getting through the reserve seemed to take ages, it felt like we were on a different route to normal but once we changed direction we had a strong wind up our backs. This was going to push us all the way up to Broad Oak and helped mark to get a PB for the important Rye to Broad Oak segment moving up to 17th place overall. There was no such chance of a PB for me as my little pump had only managed to pump the tyre up to about 60 psi and with my 14 stone plus on the back end, the handling was terrible. Despite this being a low mileage week I felt done in by the time we all reassembled at the top of Stonestile in time to take the traditional first ascent picture of Metin and Mark.

First HSLCC Fri Night Ascents For Metin And Mark