Feb 7th, Hailsham - The Winter 1066. 100km, 1980m of climbing
One of the many rides organised by Dave Hudson out of Hailsham. His rides are always a little more expensive than most (OK, I'm talking £6 rather than the usual £3) but in return you get to stuff yourself silly at every stop with as much stodge and sugary stuff you can manage. He even brings along seats, toasters etc to the rest stops. All you do is sit on one of his seats, open your mouth and he just shovels in calories. Most people end the ride having put weight on...
Very much a ride of three thirds, the first third being the bit I get on least well with, a real bumpy continual up and down though Sussex lanes. None of it extreme, just up hill, round bend, down hill, round bend, up hill, round bend... for 35km to the first of the stodge stops. The next 40km were more my style of hills, long grindy steady climbs, each of them a few km long. This took us down to Hastings (the clue was in the title...). I've always wondered if a cyclist will (with sufficient speed etc) set off a speed camera and after a long grind to a ridge above Hastings we them had a 75km / hr blast down the other ride to the sea front, complete with the speed camera flashing away to it's hearts content. In hindsight I wish I had clocked it beforehand as I could have given it a "special wave" but I wasn't about to turn around and go back up the hill (not yet, anyway...).
A lovely cruise along the seafront at Hastings for about 5km, winter sun was out, sky was blue, then sharp right turn, up a 1 in 5 that leveled off to a 5km climb back up (& a bit further along) the ridge we'd come down and back to Dave for another helping of stodge.
The last 30km were dead flat, just a few m above sea level, across (not literally) the marshes along the sea front back to Hastings.
All in all a lovely ride, the sun came out and it's nice to feel fit again after the winter break.
Ride stats: 107km, climb 1,980m, ride time 4hr 50, average a bumpy 22km / hr.
200km out of Norwich this coming Saturday. If the newly arrived wintry blast doesn't shift that ride will be "a bit cold".
No comments:
Post a Comment