Spring Forward

It's that time of year again when the clocks go forward and we have one hour less in bed. It was hard work getting motivated to go riding but hey, it's what I do on a Sunday.

With a Horsham start, I'd arranged to meet Gordon at Pease Pottage and ride over with him. This makes the journey seem a little easier although I noticed I was measuring my pace against his and coming to the conclusion that I seem to be getting unfitter :-(

I would like to report that there were hoards of people to meet us at Horsham, all eager to get out there in the countryside on their bikes.

There weren't.  No-one else turned up.  As we waited around just in case, the static bikes in the gym above us probably wasted another 10 miles of effort going nowhere. Amazingly, none of those riders decided to leave the warm gym behind them and join us for some real-world cycling. Ah well, their loss.  Off we went - out on the Brighton Road and then south down Kerves Lane (down until it goes up that is). Left at the top and then bear right past Sedgwick Lane to cruise on down to Copsale. Is The Bridge Inn going to reopen as a pub or as a private dwelling? Does anyone know?

Like last week, the beauty of there only being Gordon and I out on a ride is that neither of us is scared of a bit of off-road (even though I was running on slicks), so we next popped onto the Downs Link which although a bit muddy and grimy in places was easily rideable and not long afterwards we arrived in Partridge Green. The sun was shining from a nearly clear sky and the pub had just opened so we stopped at The Partridge and sat in a sunny courtyard sheltered from the wind. Gordon had a coffee but I was spoilt for choice as there were about seven real ales on tap (five from the nearby Dark Star brewery). I felt it was a bit too cold for a Hophead so opted for their Best Bitter - good choice, absolutely the right beer to sup outdoors on a crisp day but with a bright sun warming (defrosting) my feet and legs.

All too soon the pint was finished and it was time to move on. As all of the riders were from Crawley I decided to head straight back there and not return through Horsham. So we went up through Littleworth, took the first right, crossed the A272 and headed on up Burnthouse Lane and then Newells Lane. Turning right onto the A281 then left up to Lower Beeding, we next took Church Lane, past another brewery (Kissingate) before swooping down over the Hammerpond and climbing up to Grouse Road. The sun was still out but the bitingly cold wind was in our face all the way up Grouse Road. Soon after reaching Pease Pottage Gordon was safely home and so was I a few minutes later. It had been an enjoyable ride of about only 30 miles and I was home to join the rest of my family for a roast dinner - result!

Our next ride is a Horsham Pavilion in the Park start at 10:00hrs on Sunday 7th April. We will head down to The RSPB centre at Wiggonholt for 11's and join our other West Sussex CTC groups for the first DA Event of the year, The Freewheel. This will be held at the same place as last year, Nutbourne Road,  before we enjoy lunch at The Rising Sun in Nutbourne. Come along and join in the fun - to be good at the Freewheel it helps if you're a bit on the heavy side and don't know how to use your brakes :-)        I qualify on both counts.