Quick Report; Urrrrgghhhh!!
Longer report; A strangely mixed day weatherwise, met a Willesden rider from Cycling Plus forum at home and rode 45k
to the start; fairly straightforward but very frosty, used the club’s hill climb course as it’s much nicer than the A22. Met some other urc riders and Paul Harris (my lift home!) at the start.
At Penhurst I forgot to get my card stamped as I was too pre-occupied with Dave Hudson’s legendary food stop. Conditions and my legs deteriorated
over the next 58km to Fairlight; where needless to say the AUK vehicles
were the only ones in the car park, and faster riders were selling
places under the only tree. The remainder of
the ride was a mix of riding on a slow flat to avoid losing touch with
the Lewes posse (which would have involved having to actually read the
route sheet), and ultimately failing, and negotiating the less brown
rivers running over the road to clean the skog from under my
mudguards.
Grovelled back to the finish at 1555, where Tim was sat with
tempting cappucino and sticky choccy donut. There was even a hint of sunshine at the very end. The first time I did it the
controllers at Burwash remarked “a lot of riders do it once only”; this
was my third on a row; do I need counselling?
Stats, total distance ridden 165km, of which 120km and 2050m of climbing was on the actual ride, 0.75 AAA points
Martin
