Northeast of Crawley

Hail the conquering hero!

Yes, he did it! Anton successfully rode the PBP (Paris-Brest-Paris).

Well done mate, incredibly tough ride but you managed it.

Here are the stats (Anton was rider number 5716):

Yes, that's 1230 kilometres (about 880 miles) in about three and three-quarter days!

Anton is Iron Man (cue Black Sabbath track of same name) - "Durnn, Durnn, Durn,durn,durn duddle-duddle,durn,dad,durn,dad,durn etc. " (in a big, gruff voice).

I'm hoping to get more detail out of him about the ride, but I do know that he had to contend with a lot of rain and two days with a severe stomach upset that prevented him from keeping any food down!!

So today's ride was a sort of "warm down" for Anton - a mere 30 mile easy pootle during daylight hours. Joining Anton and myself at Three Bridges Station were Barbara, Ros, Laksh and John C. We headed off through Pound Hill, over the M23 on the Turners Hill Road and then down Old Hollow before using Copthorne Bank and Cross Lane/Dowlands Lane. The wind was generally behind us and we were soon through Horne:




Emerging onto the A22 just north of Blindley Heath, we turned left and then just as quickly, forked left back off the A22 onto Tilburstow Hill Road. As usual, we took the right turn just before the hill really kicked in but also we stopped for a breather, Ballet practice for Anton and a bite to eat for Ros....

Then Barbara grabbed my camera and took a snap of me - note the John Peel T-Shirt - I was wearing that to commemorate Johns birthday on 29th August.

Carrying on, we came to cross the A22 at a crossroads. As I got there, there was no traffic so I went straight across. When the others arrived a few seconds after me, a sudden glut of traffic meant we had to wait about 4 minutes before we'd all made it safely over.

We carried on due east for about a mile before turning south and down to the junction by The Brickmakers Arms - it was good to note that this pub appears to have reopened after a period of closure. The picture shows everyone sheepishly making their way back having missed the turn (and not noticed I was standing in the road waiting for them!!):

This road runs alongside that impressively long straight stretch of railway that runs from Redhill in the West to Tonbridge in the east - here's the view from an overbridge looking towards Redhill:

Next we passed through Crowhurst and saw the village sign:

It looks like a local benefactor was from Estonia - an inscription on a bench said that he was a "Great English Patriot" - leaving aside the obvious flaw in that statement, it's funny how the word "Patriot" has become quite an uncomfortable one, what with its shades of jingoism, racism, discrimination, association with the right wing and various other "isms". But then, that's a feature of our country, language and culture - we constantly change, adapt, absorb and become stronger for it. I'm SO glad we are such a mongrel nation - it makes it that much harder for extremism to get any kind of hold.

After Crowhurst, we headed through Lingfield and out along the western side of the racecourse along Blackberry Lane past some swanky houses. Then we passed through Felcourt and a downhill swoop before the final (stiffish - well stiffer than I remember) climb up into East Grinstead where we stopped at The Bluebell Cafe for lunch (all except John that is, for he headed on home in order to catch the Grand Prix).

The food was very good and we spent an enjoyable hour or so there before heading out and having said goodbye to Ros, acquired The Worth Way for a pleasant and easy ride back to Crawley.

Next weeks ride is the final DA Event of the year, The Arun Crossings. As a Member Group we're doing quite well in the DA Trophy competition - I reckon if we could have a good turn out for this last event, we may well win it. I believe the weather forecast is good for the weekend, so I don't think we've got any excuses :-)

This ride starts at Pulborough Station at 09:30hrs and involves several crossings of the River Arun using a variety of roads and bridleways, with a lunch stop at The Ship pub in The Haven (and usually a tea stop at Wisborough Green). I would recommend using a mountain bike or a strong touring bike for this ride as it involves quite a bit of fairly gentle off-road riding. It's great fun and I always enjoy it. Please note that car parking used to be free at the station on Sundays but now costs the princely sum of £1.

Travel by train takes about 30 minutes and would cost about £9.30 from Three Bridges (return), leaving at 08:46 (platform 3) and returning at 19 minutes past the hour sometime late afternoon (16:19 most likely). These trains would all stop at Horsham in both directions as well.

Shoreham Airshow

Todays ride was a quick sprint from Horsham to The Downs above Shoreham for a leisurely picnic watching the aerial displays at Shoreham Airshow. Led by Bob, the other riders were Pete S, Pat, Frank, Barbara (part of the way), Clare and Dave. The ride down was fairly uneventful save from the fact that Bobs middle ring revealed itself to be unusable following installation of a new chain and that Clare is King of the Mountains - more on that later.

Sitting on the Downs was very pleasant and we had a good view of the airfield and the aircraft. I took a few pictures but they rendered the day as looking much more grey than it actually was - there was strong sunshine pushing through a fairly thin layer of high cloud.

First we were entertained by a trio of Gnats - these were the fast jet trainers formerly used by the RAF (and by their display team the Red Arrows):




I messed about with this one in Photoshop:

Here's Pete with Lancing College in the background:

Another display was by the Breitling Wingwalkers. Each of these planes (I think the plane type is a Steerman) had someone on the top wing, though it was hard to see what the wingwalkers were actually doing - hanging on for dear life I guess!

I suppose that in a way the following picture is iconic "Shoreham Airshow":

The Falcons Parachute display team were good - very accurate - although my picture doesn't really do them justice:

and there was a dogfight enactment featuring several WWI type aircraft - these two are SE5a's - the type of plane that Biggles' friend "Wilko" Wilkinson flew:

There's the possibility I may have doctored this picture:

After about threee hours of sitting on the turf and having met up with several riders from the Bognor and Chichester section, we decided it was time to get cycling again.

I decided to take us north, further up into The Downs and then to head down the steep rocky path to Bramber. All the time we were travelling this route we could hear more planes flying around but didn't see much of them apart from a couple of Spitfires (I was too slow getting my camera out for them) and a Hawker Hunter:

As we traversed the rocky path we were caught up by the Bognor Chichester riders:

Once at the bottom we said goodbye and we headed east and north whilst they headed west.

We headed up the A2037 as far as Small Dole and then, at Woods Mill, turned right onto Horn Lane to Woodmancote. Crossing the A281 we went through the quiet backwater that is Blackstone before a short traverse along the B2116 and then Wineham Lane - every time we came to a hill, Clare shot up it and I shot out of the back of our 'peleton' (even though I was ride leader!!). The two hills on Spronketts Lane saw me run completely out of energy and that tough little climb into Warninglid was almost a bridge too far.... At this point Clare mentioned that she was a Black Belt Judo instructor - no wonder she was so fit she could just eat up the hills and spit them out! Continuing north, even the (relatively) easy slope from Slaugham Pond to Handcross meant the others had to wait for me to catch up again but the level road all the way to Pease Pottage allowed me to get back into the spin of things.

We crossed the bridge in order to avoid the big roundabout and, at the Horsham link-road crossing we parted - Clare and Dave were debating which route to use to get back home (the long or the short route), Pete and I to go down the hill, past K2 and through Tilgate and Furnace Green. Oh, I forgot to mention that Frank and Pat had left our viewpoint early and headed over to Cuckfield to "get on down" at a Rock concert (or something)..........

Pulling up at home, I had about 56 miles on the speedo and also some shopping to do - for a middle chainring - Shimano, 36 teeth, 9-speed, 4-bolt, 108mm centres.

Next weeks ride is a Three Bridges start at 10:00 and will go north and east from Crawley. It should be an easy 30 miler, see you there!

Forest Row and back

We were pleased to welcome a new rider from Horsham to our beginners ride start at Three Bridges Station – welcome Sandra! We had slightly overcast but pleasantly warm weather as we headed off down the Worth Way. Normally we can’t ride the tandem on to the Worth Way at the Three Bridges end, but due to some moderate reworking of the wooden chicane (someone has broken them down!) we are now able to ride up the slope to gain access to the shaded path of the NCR21 going east. We took a gentle ride up to East Grinstead where we were delighted to see Ros back on her bike and looking well and fitter than ever. She had been out on her bike for a short ride during the previous week and was now keen to get back in to regular cycling, without overdoing it. So we decided to head through the lovely old town centre of East Grinstead and then south east (descending) along the Forest Way to Forest Row. In Forest Row we observed the extravagance of two sets of lights to cross the A22 – one set for pedestrians/cyclists and another set immediately adjacent for horses. Turning right we headed up to Future Cycles and turned left in to the quiet back road through the village – a road that some of our regular riders had not visited before. We then looped left up to the tip and past our usual café, run by our Dutch friends, as we had a rare treat in store. Climbing quickly on the Forest Way back to East Grinstead we turned off to visit Ros at her new house for coffee and home-made cake! Thank you Ros for your hospitality. Ros then lead us through diverse ways (!) back to the centre of East Grinstead and then along a sequence of minor roads and bridleways to arrive back on the Worth Way by Gulledge. We noticed as we passed that this house, although having a fine stone front when viewed from the Worth Way, is in fact a much older timber framed building at the back – a building practice that I believe was quite common among rich landowners at one time (?Georgian period). Here we said au revoir to Ros as we freewheeled through Crawley Down and back in to Crawley. Slightly longer than our usual two hours, but very pleasant and relaxed in nice weather and company. And a total of 25 easy miles on this occasion (again a little more than usual for a beginners ride).

Next week we are all looking forward to visiting an airshow to be viewed from the South Downs. So bring a picnic for a 09.30 start at Horsham Park Pavilion (swimming centre) – go on, you know you want to!

DA Event - Picnic

This weeks ride was the penultimate DA Event of the season and involved members from each of the West Sussex Member Groups rendezvousing at Wisborough Green for a picnic. I was down to lead from Horsham but the usual struggle for me to get to the start on time was compounded by having been out late on saturday night - in fact I was so tardy, I had to scrounge a lift from my wife and arrived a mere 10 minutes late.

I spotted two bikes I recognised and sure enough, when I went into the cafe I found Barbara and Norman waiting. We sat and chatted for a few minutes and then set off. I'd decided to use the most direct route and so we headed through Horsham town centre and out on the Worthing Road. Turning right at The Boars Head on Tower Hill we used Two Mile Ash Road and headed towards The Bax Castle. As we crossed over the Downs Link a heavy shower started so we sheltered under the bridge and waited for it to pass.

Back out on the road there were now a few patches of standing water but the sky was mainly blue (apart from a big bank of dark grey cloud to our left). We took the usual shortcut along the Hordens in Barns Green and then turned right immediately before the level crossing onto Valewood Lane. Turning right at the end of the lane onto West Chiltington Lane we stopped as this is where we were parting ways - Barbara and Norman were heading on back to Horsham and I was carrying on to Wisborough Green.

I next used New Road and then, on reaching the A29 decided that as I was by myself I'd use the main roads to Wisborough Green. Ten minutes later I was sat down on a bench at the crossroads in the middle of the village.

After half an hour no-one else had turned up so I decided to eat my picnic lunch by myself - bang on cue, just as I finished, the others arrived! In all there were about eight of us and we sat around chatting about various rides, refreshment stops and the like.

An hour quickly passed and then we all headed off home in our different directions - mine was a lonely ride (sob, sob) and I more or less retraced my steps to Horsham and then took the Forest Road back to Crawley via Pease Pottage. All in all I only rode about 32 miles today.

Next weeks ride starts from Three Bridges at 10:00hrs and, led by Pete, will be an easy ride using the Worth Way. It will be suitable for all cyclists including beginners. I hope to see loads of you there.