FNRttC FNRttC 7th August to Felpham near Bognor Regis 2009

[Sittingduck]

Big thanks to Simon and his lads for organising this one!

My rear wheel is shot to sh*t and banana-fied but I will pop it into the LBS to see if they can true it. Not sure what I hit or where but noticed the pads rubbing about 25-30 miles into the ride I think the flint path finished it off but I managed to limp to the station at Bognor and from CJ back to mine.

Showered and re-hydrated... I feel a nap coming on

Great to meet the new people I have not bumped into on rides before and of course the usual suspects. I had a lot of fun on this one - once again thx to Simon for all the hard work!

Cheers,
SD

 

[Rob_J]

That was a fantastic ride - a great route and fine weather. Thank you Simon, and all your helpers, for your efforts. I did take some photos, a selection of which can be found here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/RobertI...authkey=Gv1sRgCKOPo671rqfV_wE&feat=directlink

 

[matthew]

Now home and had a little sleep.

That was great, the weather was perfect, the route had no major climbs and the food stops just worked with a smile on their faces.

I spent an unusually high amount of time at the front!! and therefore marked lots of junctions.

The ride home in the company of Jane and John was my first of the year. Thanks for tolerating the route I had planned on the main roads to save on navigation in our sleep deprived state.

205km + the bit to Chelsea bridge (I forgot to start the computer)
13 hours + above

My first ride of >200kms!!

PS I hope that simons planning with Robert goes well nd that we were able in the last section to show him how the ride works.

Matthew

 

[theclaud]

Hellair! Another splendid and memorable night. A few pics from my phone and TarteTatin's here. We're knackered. Any cold beer in the fridge, TT?

 

[Radius]

Great ride, total mileage 148.23. Great sprint into London as well. Hipster London knowledge rulez.

Here's a misty shot from my phone as I caught up from the back of the ride for the billionth time after being elected wayfinder at practically every junction:

 

[theclaud]

Here's a misty shot as I caught up from the back of the ride for the billionth time after being elected wayfinder at practically every junction:

Where?

 

[Radius]

Well it's the most recent image here..... http://joamitchell.blogspot.com/

 

[theclaud]

Well it's the most recent image here..... http://joamitchell.blogspot.com/

Very nice. And a bit classier than my phone snaps .

 

[TimO]

My version of the route on Bikely.

It's not the same as cycled by most, since I took the "approved" route following Simon (after being delayed by yet another fairy visitation), whereas the majority went of on a slightly different route, which put an unnecessary dog-leg in.

 

[Aperitif]

I have had the best time yet - despite the episodic return trip. What a brilliant, excellent, Night, day, evening whatever.
Romance, intrigue, memories - and that was only the bit from Hammersmith to Hyde Park Corner...the aperitif before the main menu!
And a Happy Birthday to Stuaff - who bought himself a bike for his birthday but was too modest to launch it upon tender souls of the FNR...(That ok Stu?)

A massive return blast too - mouseketeer heaven! A29, A24 = Londinium!
Except this time we were to be sub-named 'the mikeketeers'.

Fantastic experience Simon... "this could be the best yet..." (prescient or what?!) I even have 'the locals' wanting the agenda so that they can be there to support us!

 

[Wowbagger]

It was indeed an excellent ride. There were stretches after the Bacon Butty stop in which I was riding on my own just soaking up the dawn views. Balm for the soul, to quote The Man.

For some reason best known to himself, Simon likes to mollycoddle me. He warned me against riding his "ruffti-tuffti" stretch not once, but twice. However I wasn't going to miss this. As it happens it was very mild compared to some recent rides I've been on. Controlling the tandem on a loose-surfaced French 1 in 8 last week was quite a challenge but probably the roughest stuff I've experienced this year was on the Solstice Ride where we negotiated NCN Route 45 across the Larkhill Artillery Ranges on the old Salisbury-Devizes road, which in places had been churned to scree by a generation's tank manoeuvres. Some of these tanks were actually on manoeuvres while we were cycling across this 6-mile stretch so I'd wager that it would be hard to find any rougher stuff outside of Afghanistan.

Simon, your rough stuff was a pussycat! However, last night's was indeed a very fine ride well-honed by a master of the craft backed by a team of most able assistants.

 

[mike e]

The FNRttC just keeps getting better and better.

The route worked very well and had plenty of interest, the weather was fantastic, the destination (cafe and beach) was most excellent. I would like to use some big worded acclaims to the whole night but am struggling because a) I don't know any & I am absolutely knackered and can't think straight

In the meantime thank you everyone for making the ride what it is, thank you everyone again for the kind donations and best wishes.

Despite the Astana in-fighting between Andy ILB Contador and Jack Radius Armstrong we breezed into central London with plenty of time to spare.

Arrival at the cenotaph 15:55, ok so we cut it a bit fine.

Big thanks also to the rest of the team - Mac, Teef, Des and RedJedi. Look out for us, coming soon to some big mountains in France next July

 

[mike e]

Thanks also of course to Sig and Andrij for guiding me to HPC, apologies again for my late showing.

 

[StuAff]

Another excellent ride, no better way to spend a birthday. Thanks one and all for the good wishes & excellent companionship. Thanks to Mr and Mrs Paddington for ensuring I didn't take a 'creative route' from Waterloo to HPC. And Mike E, your efforts were suitably heroic! My right knee is aching somewhat right now (I think my LBS set the seatpost too low when they serviced the Cadenza this week, only noticed on Bognor promenade...), but that'll recover, preferably by the morning. I suffered a bit on all those climbs (Mr Legg, those are most emphatically not 'rises', the amount of time I spent using the 34 tooth ring was evidence of that), possibly was a bit lax in the carb intake, but the most excellent bacon sandwich at the Cabin Cafe eased matters somewhat. Found the chalk path just a teeny bit hairy in places even on my nice wide tyres, though most if it was OK, will not be doing that again, been there, done that...View from seafront was as lovely as ever, cafe was excellent. And yup, cycled back, total mileage for the 24 hours (including my commute) something around 110-115 miles (I reckoned 80 or so from HPC to Felpham, from there to home another 25). Well and truly my first imperial ton, in any case!
Fine 'teef. Will be going to meet the seller and collect n+1 tomorrow, was the most mutually convenient time. Might well bring it for next month's. Excited

 

[Radius]

Well done on your ton Stu!