New Years Day Ride

Back in the autumn when I drew up the rides list for the first three months of 2012, a rendezvous ride down to Amberley to meet with the other groups on New Years Day seemed a really good idea, BUT the reality of a night out seeing the New Year in and then having to get out of the house by 08:45 proved a little bit tough to say the least. I managed 08:55 but I could tell my heart wasn't in it as I plodded into the wind along the Forest Road. All the time I was thinking "It's going to be against this wind all the way to Amberley" and "I bet no-one else turns up". That coupled with the fact that I needed to be back home by 15:00hrs meant that I had completely dissuaded myself from riding to Amberley before I'd even got to the Horsham start point!

Just like I always seem to be, I was late getting to Horsham Pavilions in the Park, but it didn't seem to matter because there were no riders waiting for me. That settled it, I definitely wasn't going to ride to Amberley.

Then Norman turned up.

"How'd you get past me?" he said. He'd been waiting for ages and it looked like I'd arrived just at the moment he'd decided to do a quick loop of the car park to try and spot other riders. Meantime, my brain was busy adjusting back into doing the ride to Amberley mode - now there was someone to ride with, I couldn't let them down. Norman's next comment however was to the effect that, because he hadn't been out riding for some time he would probably cut his ride a little short and maybe not go all the way to Amberley - that was enough for me to suggest that maybe we could just do a shorter, more local ride and so, basically, this weeks ride became a facsimile of last weeks.

We rode out of Horsham along Depot Road but then instead of using the bridleway I used last week, we stayed on the roads - Comptons Lane, St Leonards Road and Hammerpond Road to Doomsday Green. Norman and I were chatting about Christmas, fitness levels, skiing and foreign holidays as we rode along (although that dip and climb past Roosthole interrupted the conversation). We soon turned onto Grouse Road where a small group of more 'sporty' cyclists flashed past us. At the top end of the road, Norman and I parted - I headed to Pease Pottage and home, Norman retraced our route back to Horsham. So once again, the ride hadn't been what was originally planned, but Hey! I got back in time to wrap up some presents we then took to the family party we were going to ( and I got there on time!!).

Happy New Year everybody, hope to see you on one of our upcoming rides.

The next ride, on Sunday January 8th, is another of our "introductory" rides open to members and non-members alike. It will start from Three Bridges Station at 10:00 hrs and, depending on who turns up, will be an easy ride either out along the Worth Way or head north on cycle tracks and quiet lanes to Redhill Aerodrome. The plan is for the ride to last just a couple of hours and get us back to Crawley in time for lunch. Why not come along and kick-start that New Years fitness resolution into action?