I'd eaten too much, drank just a little and stayed up late watching The Bourne Ultimatum - do you feel an excuse coming on? Well you're dead right - I had severe trouble getting up and consequently only gave myself 25 minutes to do a 40 minute journey. Manfully I rode into the wind, trying not to overdo it as I've only just recovered from my cold (actually the remnants are still on my chest). As I rode past K2 (which was closed), a couple of Crows tried to fly out of my way and both of them flew straight into a chain-link fence! How weird?
I thought I was making good time as I crested Pease Pottage Hill and the clock still looked good as approached Colgate but that tiny little hill there took minutes off me and somehow the road seemed longer from there to Roffey. I kept the power on down through Roffey but it was 10:15 before I arrived at the (closed) Pavilions in the Park. I hung around, looking to see if there were any recent tyre tracks visible (none were), but after 10 minutes and barely having seen a soul, I concluded that either no-one else fancied a Boxing-Day ride or that they'd got fed up waiting for me and gone off.
I decided I would head out towards Doomsday Green, so took Depot Road. At the end, realising that I was on my own and my bike was fitted with knobblies, I decided to use the bridleway route along Hampers Lane and then down to Hammerpond Road. This was quiet and pleasant although the second part was definitely not suitable for any of the more delicate, close clearance bikes (my Kona did it with it's eyes shut and both hands tied behind its back!!).
Hammerpond Road was up and down as usual but seemed easier than usual today and I was soon on Grouse Road. I'd put my rear light on at the start of todays ride and it was noticeable that (almost) all the traffic was giving me plenty of space - even on the narrow part of Grouse Road, a car actually had the good manners to stay behind me until the road widened out! I think there's a lot to be said for having a bright red flashing led on the back of your bike.
At Pease Pottage I had a decision to make - stay on the road or go off-road through Tilgate Forest? I'm afraid I wimped out - feeling too lazy to have to clean all my gear after doing an off-road ride, I stayed on the road and belted down Pease Pottage Hill. Then, as I cut through the deserted K2, at exactly the same spot as the Crow incident, I disturbed a Green Woodpecker. That's the first time I've seen one and it was on the ground! (until it flew into the tree that is).
Arriving home, I'd only ridden 19 miles but they'd been enjoyable enough and I'm sure the exercise had done me good.
Our next ride is on New Years Day, Sunday 1st January. Starting from Horsham Pavilions in the Park at 09:30 hrs, we will head south to The Black Horse at Amberley where we will meet up with riders from the other two West Sussex groups for lunch. I reckon it's a Medium rated ride of about 40 miles. There will be a couple of hills but nothing too hard. Let's hope the weather is kind to us.
Monday, 26 December 2011
Sunday, 18 December 2011
South and West from Crawley
This weeks ride should have been led by me and was intended as a short morning ride to the south and west of Crawley, however, I was laid low by a cold and couldn't even get to the start to see if anyone else was out. I've not had reports that anyone was - please let me know if I'm wrong!
Sunday, 11 December 2011
Christmas Party
This year, our Christmas Party was held at The Dragon in Colgate.
We organised/arranged that anyone wanting to ride would use their own route and meet up at Rusper by 11:15, so I set off from home at about 11:00 hrs. I was taking it very easy as I wasn't feeling too good - I seemed to have a cold developing - but I arrived at Rusper with time to spare. As I stood waiting, I was bemused by just how poor the average motorist is at driving. Perhaps we should stop using the term "motorist" as that implies some level of ability at the task in hand! The most classic example was a person who approached from the Ifield direction and swept around the sharp corner on the wrong side of the road in order to pull up by the right hand kerb outside the shop. The only trouble was, the wrong side of the road is the right side of the road for traffic moving in the other direction and, yes, there was a car coming in that opposite direction - fortunately he was awake and managed to avoid the collision!
Shortly after, Barbara and Pete could be seen climbing the last few yards up to the junction. After a brief chat whilst we waited to see if any other rider would materialise, we set off. We headed down towards Ifield then bore right and down past the Lambs Green turning before the climb up to Dowlands Lane. From here it was down, past what looks like a large housing development, over the railway and through Faygate to the roundabout on the A264. We got across without incident and met up with Sandra.
Now we had to work for our dinner as we tackled the one mile climb that is Tower Hill. With perseverence (and a lot of inconsequential chatter from me), we soon crested and could get our breath back as we rolled the final 100 yards to the pub.
Although we were early, having locked the bikes up in the garden, we were allowed into the pub and could divest ourselves of our outerwear - look at the state of Pete's jacket:
All that spattering was the result of a rather muddy road surface and a rear mudguard that failed the trades description act!
Soon the four of us were joined by John V and John C with their partners, followed by Pete, Marian, Pat and Frank.
Dinner was served and was piping hot with monster portions and we all manfully strove to get outside it all!! Then it was time for Barbara to make a small speech to sum up the clubs year.
Barbara finished off her piece with the award of the Mick Horley trophy.
In recent years we have awarded the trophy to the club member that turned out on the most rides but this year the committee felt that it should be awarded to the person that had done the most work in promoting the club (and cycling in general). So, for his sterling efforts in creating and running the Family Bike Ride, Crawley Cycle Forum and his Right-to-Ride work, this years winner of The Mick Horley Trophy is......
Pete Smith:
We organised/arranged that anyone wanting to ride would use their own route and meet up at Rusper by 11:15, so I set off from home at about 11:00 hrs. I was taking it very easy as I wasn't feeling too good - I seemed to have a cold developing - but I arrived at Rusper with time to spare. As I stood waiting, I was bemused by just how poor the average motorist is at driving. Perhaps we should stop using the term "motorist" as that implies some level of ability at the task in hand! The most classic example was a person who approached from the Ifield direction and swept around the sharp corner on the wrong side of the road in order to pull up by the right hand kerb outside the shop. The only trouble was, the wrong side of the road is the right side of the road for traffic moving in the other direction and, yes, there was a car coming in that opposite direction - fortunately he was awake and managed to avoid the collision!
Shortly after, Barbara and Pete could be seen climbing the last few yards up to the junction. After a brief chat whilst we waited to see if any other rider would materialise, we set off. We headed down towards Ifield then bore right and down past the Lambs Green turning before the climb up to Dowlands Lane. From here it was down, past what looks like a large housing development, over the railway and through Faygate to the roundabout on the A264. We got across without incident and met up with Sandra.
Now we had to work for our dinner as we tackled the one mile climb that is Tower Hill. With perseverence (and a lot of inconsequential chatter from me), we soon crested and could get our breath back as we rolled the final 100 yards to the pub.
Although we were early, having locked the bikes up in the garden, we were allowed into the pub and could divest ourselves of our outerwear - look at the state of Pete's jacket:
All that spattering was the result of a rather muddy road surface and a rear mudguard that failed the trades description act!
Soon the four of us were joined by John V and John C with their partners, followed by Pete, Marian, Pat and Frank.
Dinner was served and was piping hot with monster portions and we all manfully strove to get outside it all!! Then it was time for Barbara to make a small speech to sum up the clubs year.
Barbara finished off her piece with the award of the Mick Horley trophy.
In recent years we have awarded the trophy to the club member that turned out on the most rides but this year the committee felt that it should be awarded to the person that had done the most work in promoting the club (and cycling in general). So, for his sterling efforts in creating and running the Family Bike Ride, Crawley Cycle Forum and his Right-to-Ride work, this years winner of The Mick Horley Trophy is......
Pete Smith:
Special mention must also be made of Anton who completed the VERY tough Paris-Brest-Paris ride(PBP) back in the (wet) summer. His achievement is even more remarkable because he was suffering from a severe stomach problem for two of the four days of riding!
Other mentions go out to John V who managed a couple of continental cycling "jaunts" - joined by John C on one I believe - and to me (Bob) for completing my own version of the Coast to Coast (I rode from St Davids Head to Hemsby).
Here are a few pictures of us enjoying the meal:
Merry Christmas everybody.
Sunday, 4 December 2011
Easy Bike Ride
I'm sure we had a ride on Sunday 4th December, but at the moment I can't remember any details of it! Anyone care to remind me? Or write a blog for it? Or a poem?
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