I haven't been to Brighton for over a year, and I'd been intrigued by the Streat variation. So even though I wasn't feeling 100%, having been suffering from some lurgy all week, and despite Rebecca having to cancel, probably due to some dodgy scampi, I turned up at Victoria to meet the usual suspects.
Heading off through South London, one (of many) good things about having done so many FNRttC trips for over 7 years, is that having travelled those roads so often now, I can happily just look around me, taking in all the sights, sounds and smells of wonderful London and enjoy the ambience, without worrying about not knowing how long that little hill is, or knowing that once I manoeuvre round that particular pothole, the road is smooth again for a bit. And all the while, I can see a snaking line of flashing or steady red lights stretching away in front of me, occasionally bunching up as we congregate at lights, and then elongating again. Of course, once we're into the outer suburbs, then often it was just the 4 or 5 of us clustered around someone taking it a bit easier, whilst the pack was racing away ahead. And really, that was all that happened, or rather, everything went as it should be, thanks to Simon's planning. In the first half, I think the only drama was Susie losing her cap just before Portnalls Road - despite Ross and I going back up the road to search for it, it was nowhere to be seen.
And then once we'd descended Reigate Hill, we were out in the countryside, and the clouds which earlier had been masking the moon at times cleared. The FNRttC truly shows that we are all, in one sense of the word, lunatics, for we were definitely moonstruck. For a while on Lonesome Lane, I was in my own little bubble, with no-one visible in front or behind, and the bright gaze of the moon was shining all around, lighting up the fields and giving an icy white glow to the road. And the stars. OMG the stars. White dots scattered on a black canvas. Sheer bliss. And then, when our speeding wheels brought us back to suburbia and an alternative reality, surprisingly, there weren't even any comedy drunks in Horley. So a double whammy.
The Scout Hut again did us proud - although I did wonder how and why can 6 people decide to volunteer to dish out food and drink at 4 am on a Saturday morning!
And then setting off again, it was a bit chilly. However, as I'd discovered my front dérailleur was playing up, and would only work on the big ring with some rubbing, I left it on the smaller ring and spun my way from the back of the ride towards the front, to warm myself up, and zoomed up Turners Hill. And then after that, it was the usual ups and downs - at times there were even a few wisps of fog. The Streat variation was quite nice - hilly and I'd imagine some of those lanes could be nasty if there was more traffic, but certainly more picturesque than the road leading to Ditchling Village. The Hatlers dishing out coffee was clearly being appreciated by many - although I didn't partake, and merely inhaled.
And that lead nicely onto the Beacon - which is now nicely tarmaced, so yet another nice thing about the ride. I didn't zoom up Ditchling though, and just took it steadily as my lung capacity wasn't quite what it should be, and I certainly couldn't manage the 3 times that I think Sam did. It was nice to cheer people though, and to see smiling faces, as people achieved a personal goal.
And finally we rolled into Brighton, for the usual magnificent breakfast at the Madeira.
Simon seemed to have some beer money
so a few of us followed him, with bikes as mentioned above, into Wetherspoons.
The rest of the photos can be found
here, whilst the gpx file for the trip is
here.
