Photo courtesy Bob Taylor (Eastbourne Rovers)
ESCA 2up TTT
I’ve ridden this event with many partners over the last 20 years but from early on I remember one particular pairing from our esteemed Club arrive back not speaking to each other, mumbling in turn ‘ridiculous to go that fast up hill’ and ‘stupid to go that fast down the hills and on the flat’. The results showed that they had taken a clear 4 minutes out of the second placed pair – their names were Elms and Dennis.
The current course is very different but still uses some of the original roads – I quite like it. Starting at the top of Shortgate Lane near Laughton you fly down the Broyle to Kennel Corner turn sharp left and follow the road through Laughton to the A22 left again through to the A26 towards Lewes left at Earwig Corner and climb towards Ringmer, back up the Broyle to finish just short of 24 undulating miles.
Two teams were entered Messrs Dennis and Yates and Adam Grange and myself. The former expected to be quick, Adam and I planned to go under the hour and beat a couple of rivals.
After last weekend’s poor weather the day dawned calm but a little chilly.
We started at 8.46 and were soon into our rhythm taking it in turns at the front with Adam taking longer ‘pulls’ on the uphill sections and playing to our strengths. Inevitably there is always one weaker rider unfortunately it was me! Our plan worked though even ‘burying’ myself coming back up the Broyle to the finish, poor Adam must have been deafened with all the grunting and groaning!
Mission accomplished we recorded 59.55 [I had 59.53, so did Garmin, but I’ll take this up with the timekeeper at a later date!] beating our personal competition and improving by over 2.30 on last years effort.
Steve Dennis and Chris Yates recorded a stunning 52.49 and were 2nd ESCA associated team and third overall.
Funny they didn’t seem to be speaking to one another at the end – maybe I was just imagining it!
Paul Winkley
The 2 up event takes place on the rolling 23.92 mile GS/839 course
