Great ride. No faffing, cycling with a purpose. It really did fly by. Some great sky views.
Approaching the South Downs south of Hassocks as the light was starting to break was superb, and however good those photos are (and they are), they can’t do justice to the grandeur of that heaving bulk of chalk moodily making its presence obvious to us all. Almost mystical.
And then in a trice, a buzz of an altogether different sort as 25 cyclists hared off en masse down the fast lane of the A23 proto-motorway as fast as their cranking would allow them.
Chapeau to whoever asked for a bacon and hash brown bap at the Madeira (were you the one heading on to Hastings ?) I had one too and it hit the spot. I’d have had two if I hadn’t been scooting off. One to remember for next time.
The Lewes extension after the Madeira was fun and was easy to navigate (thank you Adrian via Simon’s re-telling of the best route).
Apologies to Simon, Susie, Tim, Charley, Louise and Julie for my disappearing with Dave at Lewes when the train came in and not saying goodbye or thanking Julie properly for the cup of tea, or Tim for delivering the Grauniad quiz to us all. We scooted along to the first carriage for bikes, conscious that things were going to be a bit squished if we all tried to cram into the one carriage.
And lordy, how squished did it all become. At Haywards Heath they must have just had a whole fleet of buses deliver a bit more than a trainfull of impatient and frustrated Brighton to London travellers. It might also have been that our carriage’s doors were alongside the platform entry. Heaving. And I ended up balanced over my bike without a handhold anywhere near. At East Croydon our bikes were on the platform side so we had to get out with the bikes and there was never a chance we would get back on. The next train was five minutes later and was virtually empty. As it pulled in to Clapham I saw Louise and Julie, but at the other end of the platform, and by the time I got back to them to say goodbye they had already left the station.
I was home in time (just) for domestic duties and was allowed the rare privilege of an afternoon kip, as we were heading out in the evening and Mrs hatler didn’t want to have the pleasure of seeing me fall asleep with my head in the soup.
Well, another FNRttC year is over, and sad to say I only made two, but more’s the pity, the minis didn’t make a single one (I think, my memory’s becoming increasingly unreliable). This wasn’t by design, just a series of really irritating diary clashes.
Fingers crossed that we get a bit luckier next year. The minis have really missed climbing the Beacon with you all this year.
And after another witter from me, here’s a final 2013 THANK YOU to all the people who make these rides such a joy, and, of course, a special vote of thanks to Simon for organising, and to Susie for letting him do it.
(That couple of words doesn’t really do justice to the time and effort that Simon puts in to this, but if the volume of text were to be in proportion, I’d be sitting here tapping away for quite a bit longer, and people might accuse me of sycophancy.)
See you all next year, looking forward to it already.
Robbo