Offroad Clubrun Report
Wow! What a mix of weather over the last few days I’ve experienced. Went to France for a few days work on Thursday, arriving in scorching heat; the following day was cold and wet; the day after was bright sunshine and snow showers!
I arrived back in the UK on Saturday evening in bright sunshine, looking forward to Sunday’s ride with mixed feelings-done a lot of hard work and was aching all over. However, Sunday dawned bright, all aches were forgotten and by the time I rolled up to the lights at Lewes prison to meet another five riders, I was positively buzzing.
We headed off up the back of the prison and on past the racecourse at a fair old lick, everyone staying together and enjoying the sunshine. Black Cap came up next, followed by Ditchling Beacon. No time for ice cream today as we sped on towards the Jack and Jill windmills, hanging a left turn and heading the wrong way round our old offroad time trial course. It’s a long time since I road that way round that course because it’s mainly uphill and hard work, but all worth while as it brings you back up to the top of Stanmer Park-some walked, but will remain nameless!
Once in Stanmer, I gave the reins to Dom as it’s his playground. I seem to only know my way round at night in the dark-it was suggested I ride with my eyes closed! We managed to find the only bit of sticky mud around the top of some of the Big Dog course, before we dropped all the way down to the finish-fast and exhilarating for the font runners who were being chased by a hound, unawares of the chaos we had left behind for the owner!
Unfortunately, what goes down usually has to go back up; and so we grovelled up the blacktop just to get my favourite run back down. What can I say, it’s tight, twisty and technical through the trees and I have trouble riding slow, waiting for the rest to catch up-there is no tarmac equivalent, it’s heaven!
With tea, coffee and cake consumed, Dom took the lead again for one last lap of the park before we headed back up to Black Cap. The final run in to Lewes took us round the chalk pits where Bob Evans declared we were all mad and that there was no way he would ever ride down “those slopes”! I think the fixed grins on the rest of our faces might have said the same! It was a fitting end to a grand day out.
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