After an overshoe malfunction shortly before leaving I meet Micky T & John Miller outside Boots just after 07:00. We decided due to the low temps to stick to the main road over to Dial Post & set off up the bypass towards the A272. Before we'd even reached Piltdown I snapped my chain (something else I have in common with Fabu), but with Johns assistance we had it fixed before Micky had finished watering the plants. Head down for the rest of the journey over we rocked up at the HQ shortly after 08:30, having witnessed directly in front of us some joker spin his car 2 or 3 times & plant it backwards into a tree (knob!).
Coffee taken on board, a quick chat with Adrian Hills (the only other Womble) & Brevet cards collected Me, MT & John set off as a happy little threesome towards to back of the 83 strong peloton.
As the group rolled along on the flat roads out of Dial Post we could see a couple of groups starting to establish themselves up the road. Nothing to worry about yet & still early days. After a few miles, whilst we were having a good catch-up with 'Audax Mark' (who we haven't seen since last years Audaxes - apparently he's gonna do L-E-L on fixed!!!), some little fella went shooting down the outside off the front of our group & making his way to the Tet de la course (or whatever it is?).
"I'm not happy about that!" I said to Micky, who was busy telling Audax Mark about all the other times he's done LEL, so I was obviously not getting any help from there. We took another couple of turns on the route & the gap to the front group was getting far too big, so across I went. No mans land for a couple of minutes, then contact was made. This group contained quite a few Worthing Excelsior jerseys & a few undercover guys, about 10 in total. They obviously meant business as they weren't hanging about & were lined out behind a big guy setting a good pace.
The smart move was obviously to sit in & regain ones composure for a while before sizing up the group & seeing what the 'dynamic' was. Instead I asked myself "what would Tommy Voeckler do?" & just motored up the outside of 'em all & set a quicker pace of my own on the front. Knowing I still had at least one with me I waited till an opportune moment about 10 minutes later before looking over the shoulder. Turns out the bunch behind had been whittled down to just 2. After a little while more of setting pace we chilled & started to chat between us until the Black Down climb. One of the guys dropped his chain over the high side of his cassette, whoops. We rolled in to the control at the top of he hill & were quickly joined by the cream of the following group, which by all accounts had been towed along by John Miller for a fair while.
Not unusually for the Black Down control, it was snowing, & snowing quite hard with VERY BIG bits of snow falling & settling in quick order. Fed & watered & with the snow in mind I decided to be the first away from the control. The descent was in sh1t order & the climb back up & descent down Quell Lane was even worse. Fortunately the snow was restricted to the higher ground & down at 'normal' level it was just wet & cold as normal. I pressed on alone till near the second control where I was joined by another couple of Worthing Excels.
More cake, more tea & on to the finish. We shared a bit of the work for a few miles before we turned out of a junction onto a long, straight & gradually downhill section of road. Now, I'm 93kg in my birthday suit, so if I hit a downhill & gravity is pulling me at speed to the bottom who am I to argue with Newtons Law?
So it was that I completed the last 15ish miles solo (again) & really gunned it to the finish. That said I wasn't back at the hall long before the first of the followers started to trickle in & eventually Micky & John turned up, freezing & filthy to get a feed in & warm soup inside them before we embarked on the final 30 miles back to Uckfield.
The ride home wasn't anywhere as eventful as the ride out. Even our average speed had tailed off & with 120ish miles on the clock another massive day in the saddle was completed.
Definitely not your usual Audax.
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