A ride-fest rather than a ride, with nine seperate events over the weekend...the next set of notes describe the long and fast (in a relative Wheelers way) ride out to Eastbourne

Long and Hard - Isle of Dogs to Eastbourne

This was the challenge event of the weekend. Ten set out from various parts of London and gathered at Hayes station. For me, this meant a ten mile warm up under the Thames (192 steps in the Greenwich tunnel I believe)*, up through Greenwich park, over Blackheath, across to Bromley and up to Hayes. To add an extra challenge to the problem, I had been given half a kitchen to carry, including assorted knives, a blender, and a range of herbs and spices. Still, it was better than chef Nick, who turned up with an Aga strapped to his rack.

The latter part of the ride was along the Cuckoo trail, which - in a southerly direction - is great - slightly downhill most of the time, good surface, protected from the wind - fast and direct cycling to exactly where we wanted to go. However - that was the latter part. The former part, which was the majority, went over the North Downs, over the Greensand Ridge, over the High Weald, over everything really. The toughest test of all was the Cudham climb, clocking in at a 25% gradient, and successfully sorting the goats from the sheep (result: no goats).

But the views were superb, and the lanes were quiet, and it didn't rain, and everyone rose to the challenge, and we found a nice tea stop at Bough Beech reservoir (Kent Wildlife Trust - recommended for a visit some time),  had a good lunch at Forgewood Campsite, and then had just a few more hills until the roll down the Cuckoo trail - which we needed, because the leadership had been cracking on (tables booked - had to get to the pub on time), and people were tired. There was a sting in the tail though - a spirit breaking 12% hill up to the hostel which brought a few riders to their knees (well, feet really).

And then we were there - and the first team to arrive after 65 miles and 4800 feet of ascending! Turns out that the short ride group had spent the previous two hours having ice creams on the seafront and had got to Eastbourne ages before us. But we feel the victory was ours. A quick shower for those who still had the strength, just time to dump the Aga in the kitchen, and down to the Lamb where we had an excellent evening meal.

Top routing as ever from Rides Co-ordinator Caroline, and a great start to the weekend, with everyone feeling like we'd met the challenge and the food and beer was well earned. Which I think it was.

Dave A

* Ride organiser Caroline informs me that there's actually only 187 - I thought it didn't seem so hard...

And here's Gail's report on the Monday short ride...

A Mellow Monday Meander...

10 of us set off from the hostel took a wrong turn but a friendly Community Support Officer redirected us to the promenade.  We headed along the promenade – we made very good time as we had a tail-wind.  We took a short cut through Sovereign Harbour (a very picturesque man-made harbour) and then through a caravan park onto the road again to Pevensey bay for tea (temporarily lost 2 members around the corner from the tea stop, but they were soon redirected)

We had a lovely tea and collected many leaflets from the Tourist Information office.  We set off onto the NCN2 then left the NCN2 and headed to Rickney, Herstmonceux Castle (where we had our only mechanical hitch of the day:  a chain came off and wedged between the cassette and the chassis.  Luckily, Mr Fix-it (aka Rob), with Ken assisting, managed to loosen the chain, and we got under way again), via a bridle trail (with loads of gates), on to Wartling, then back the Pevensey for lunch at the Royal Oak.  Unfortunately, the Royal Oak had no staff, so were not doing food or drinks.  Gerry found a fish and chip shop past the Roman fort – lunch was saved! 

After lunch we headed off up the NCN2 (in the other direction from the morning ride) up to Bexhill and the De Le Warr pavilion – a striking building.  We then continued up to Hastings.  There was a bit of traffic, but everyone (cyclist and drivers) was well behaved, and the ride was quite pleasant.

It had been decided to get the train at St Leonards, and not to continue through to The Stade as it was quite late.  All 10 of us arrived at St Leonards (after stopping to ask for directions) about 7min before the train to London Bridge.  We arrived back at London Bridge at about 7pm.

Gail

And something from Caroline for Sunday:

Sunday’s bicycle adventure

Officially “the short ride”, with the first tea stop only 4 miles in, this proved a popular option......

And what a four miles it was!  We set off (pushing) up the hill from the hostel in the wind. We soon struck off across the South Downs Way, generally good going on dry grassy chalkland but with enough rabbit holes to make being alert a Good Idea, and enough headwind blowing to slow progress even more. As we approached Beachy Head we were just about in the clouds, but were rewarded when they parted to give a great view of the coast and (for those brave enough to be near the edge) the lighthouse at the foot of the cliffs.  The next stage was a marvellous downhill swoop, except that today we had to pedal for most of it (did I mention it was windy?). So when we arrived at Birling Gap National Trust Tea Room it was time for a break and we needed to stop because a) it was for a good cause b) we like coffee and cakes and c) it won’t be there in a few years’ time due to erosion so you need to visit while you still can.

The next leg of this bicycle adventure took us away from the sea to pretty East Dean village and then up a steep bridlepath through a field full of buttercups. There was a “horse adventure” going on at the same time but in the opposite direction to us and we gained brownie points for equestrian-cyclist relations by holding gates open for them. A brief road section led to Friston forest and a slightly bumpy but pleasant track through the forest to another pretty village, this time West Dean, full of marquees and wedding reception attendees. From there a few miles on the lanes took us to Alfriston (yet another pretty Sussex village) and lunch. A great choice of pubs and tea rooms, but we all opted for the excellent village deli and a picnic on the green.

Here we spotted a group of rather familiar cyclists also having a picnic – the medium ride team who were doing a rather longer circuit than us in the opposite direction. They had covered about 30 miles at that point to our 12.  After lunch we set off downwind for the first time in the day and suddenly our progress became spectacularly fast (by our standards) and soon we were following NCN 2 on yet another bridlepath through the woods and back on the Cuckoo Trail that we all knew from the day before. We continued on to Eastbourne seafront, along some surprisingly attractive cycle paths (considering the proximity to the town and main roads) and then made a bee-line for the Ice Cream Parlour which the short ride team had been kind enough to check out the previous day.  The only thing left was to get up the monstrous hill back to the hostel – not the most enticing prospect but we found a route which kept us off main roads and wound its way quite gradually upwards to suddenly emerge just below the hostel – which produced a few happy faces.

About 30 miles in total, 11 riders
 

And more Monday exploits:

Ashford, the not very hard way.

On Monday the long ride group set off eastwards intending to cycle via the coast to Hastings and Rye, and then swing inland to Ashford, with some possible extra mileage options available if anyone had the energy. The first part of the ride was pretty much along the seafront, out of Eastbourne and through the Sovereign harbour marina development. After the descent from the hostel, this was really as flat a ride as it is possible to get, although hints were being dropped about the “monster climb” the other side of Hastings. And today the wind (though less strong) was behind us. We soon stopped for coffee at the De La Warr pavilion, a first visit for most to this rather striking modernist building.

Not far beyond that we negotiated the worst section of NCN2 – a 2 mile stretch on a rather unpleasant main road which will hopefully soon be replaced by a shiny new seafront path at Glyne Gap as part of the Connect2 project. This brought us onto the promenade path all the way through St Leonards and Hastings – two places but they really blend into one, although the architecture changes quite markedly, with the eastern end of Hastings being the “Old Town” and the fishing beach with its distinctive wooden net drying towers. By this time the sun was out, the weather was warming up and the traffic was totally mad. Hastings was gridlocked!

Nothing for it but to go for the monster, especially as the ride leader was quite firm about not stopping for lunch until we had climbed and descended. We must have gained some fitness over the weekend as we had a few goats this time (or was it just the difference between 25% and 20% gradient?). Views from the top are fantastic but not long lived as very soon comes the big descent – a mere 12.5% but enough to get up speed. Varying degrees of bravado were evident, but we re-grouped at the bottom before a fast 2 mile tail wind dead flat stretch behind the sea wall to Winchelsea Beach, our lunch destination. We all got take away food and drink from the café there and sat on the pebble beach, with Dungeness a distant blur along the coast. A few more miles took us on to Rye where we diverted into the town. We pushed our bikes up the impossibly steep and cobbled streets and admired the many old buildings – it’s a very special place. Then we said goodbye to the coast and headed inland, pedalling on a minor road alongside the Military Canal as far as Appledore where Miss Mollett’s High Class Tea Room was our target. A complete contrast to our lunch stop, we sat at tables outside, and drank tea served in mismatching floral patterned tea cups and saucers, poured from equally mismatching and floral teapots. Oh and the cakes were good too.

For the last leg of the journey we followed the signed NCN 18 to Ashford. The countryside was attractive and very gently rolling after the totally flat route across Romney Marsh from Rye. At one point we went through a beautiful tunnel of beech trees. The final mile or so into Ashford was a traffic free route through parks, where we were raced by a small boy on his 12” wheeled bike. We found the station and after the usual faffing to do with group save ticket purchases and who wants to go on which train, we returned to London, to be greeted by the rain – but at least it had held off all weekend.