Club Run Report - Sunday 26th May

Club Run to Blackstock Farm, Hellingly

Sunday 26th May by Paget Cohen

With Ian away shopping for rare bike parts there was a vacancy for a cat-herd.  Mark L came armed with a plan, I had an idea or two, but nice Martyn was official deputy even if Mr Pelham might have appeared to be in charge to the casual observer.  Our welcome interloper amid 9 Wanderers being Alistair, incredibly on holiday in Hailsham (staying with parents), but more credibly identifying (via our website) an LWCC club run as the best way to spend a sunny morning.

A taste of things to come was Deputy Crawford slipping his chain at Pear Tree Corner; 4 slowed up for him and just about managed to alert the other 5 before they rode off into the distance towards Bentley.  The weather and pace were hot from the off and next it was Mark L's turn to be left behind - losing touch on the climb to the Glyndebourne wind turbine and rejoining after the descent into Glynde.  No sooner had he made contact with the back of the bunch then the chain gang took it as a green light to put the hammer back down on the path alongside the A27 and we split asunder once more.  When Rob then stopped for a P myself, Mark, Stuart K and Alistair figured we may as well carry on to Ripe as he'd soon catch up at the rate he was going.

You can normally rely on the level-crossing at Berwick or at least the Drusillas roundabout to compress or split a group, but we were delayed by neither as we made for Exceat.  We managed to begin the haul to Friston all together, but pretty soon Rob, Herstmonceux John and Alistair took off.  Mickey T and Stuart K 2-upped behind while I found company with Martyn and Simon F.  John Miller (doing a fair impression of a Rover from a distance in his yellow jersey) showed impressive pace on his Kinesis Ti Tripster (see Mark W's Blog report), but the knobbly tyres weren't helping him climb the smooth stuff.  Simon had time to remove his leg-skins before Mark met us chatting opposite the pond.

I began the descent to Jevington near the front, but just as when we rode it in the opposite direction I was dropped before the village and relied on Simon, Mark, John and Alistair to pace me back to the waiting bunch.  As in Berwick we were lucky with the Polegate lights and straight onto the Cuckoo Trail to cross the A27.

It was still too early for tea so rather than traverse Hailsham we turned right onto the Ersham Road.  Passing the Hillier Garden Centre we found ourselves behind one of those golf buggy type things farmers use whereupon Rob took off like a dog after a rabbit in order to grab it's tail, only breaking off the chase when confused by the next junction, where Martyn and I persuaded the fast guys that we ought by now to turn left for Rickney and make for the tea stop.  Try as I might I couldn't stay in the wheel all the way across the levels so sat up to ride at a comfortable pace with Martyn and let the lunatics wait for us when they'd finished playing.  I made one last effort to keep up through Magham Down, but just couldn't follow when the road steepened as we approached Blackstock Farm.

Having found somewhere to park I checked my computer out of interest and found I'd averaged over 20mph for my 52 miles so far - no wonder I was struggling as well as straggling.  Hearing another rider pull up I turned around and found Martyn had turned into Chairman Slow, not that there had been a coup nor snap election, but Chris M had snuck in behind us.  Martyn, Midgo, Graham J and Chris H joined the back of the queue and our crowd retired to the benches out back to enjoy the scenery, sunshine and sustenance - cake plus coffee in a cardboard cup for us Wombles, tomatoes on toast for the non-local.

Once rested and refreshed we returned to the impromptu bicycle showroom out front to make our selections only for Martyn to find his Trek had a front flat and he a ready made excuse for being dropped before.  Lacking a mechanical to blame my performance on I hooked up with Simon and Chris M for an amenable and relatively leisurely loop home, but found I still maintained 18mph for the metric ton.  Pleased to say my legs were up for a 70 miles solo jaunt to Bolney and back the following morning so it must have done me good.