FNRttC Friday Night Ride to the Coast - te 'Genteel' ride to Brighton on 23rd July 2010

[Aperitif]

A grazed buttock!

 

[Aperitif]

There's a first time for everything...Abi and Martin, ready to roll.

[media]

]View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA09xgV-MUE&feature=related[/media]

 

[Aperitif]

Simon Legg rocks!
Captions anyone..?

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Apart from the York/Cleethorpe FNRttC this was my first London ride.

Teef kindly offered to meet me at Marylebone which was a great help as I'm unfamiliar with London cycling. Martin was with zimzum and once we'd collected Claudine and Ruth it was off to HPC. 'Fun' ride out of London but once out into the country the ride was great. Bit of a shock seeing Stu lying in the road with Ian emptying his wallet and pinching his food making him as comfortable as possible until the emergency services arrived, very glad to hear he's ok. At the end of a reasonably long ride I can't say I was pleased with the prospect of Ditchling Beacon but I made it without getting off. Zoomed into Brighton following zimzum, who'd done the ride fixed, and watching his legs whizzing round in a blur on the long descent to the seafront was great entertainment. Big breakfast which I ate like a savage. A couple of Speckled Hen 'shandies', nice chat with the SMBitB associates plus a few others (mentioning no names, richp

) and it was time for the train home. All went quite smoothly despite my best efforts at going completely the wrong way at every opportunity between Victoria and Marylebone - made the train with 10 minutes to spare. Thanks go to the birthday boy, tecs and wayfinders.

What better way is there to spend a night without sleep than cycling to the coast with such a great bunch of people. Brilliant fun!!

 

[rusky]

Wow! what a night.

A big thanks to Simon, the wayfinders & TECs for organising the ride, RichP for joining me on the train up & guiding me to HPC, those handing out home made fruit loaf, flapjacks & coffee & everyone else on the night making my first FNRttC such an enjoyable one

I'm slightly less aprehensive about the Martlets ride in September now.

OTOH, thanks to topcat1, I am now unable to close my eyes without seeing Richp's crisp packet photo etched into my mind

 

[Mista Preston]

So apart from Stuey's throwing himself to the tarmac scenario, another very successful FNRttC.

The Ditching Beacon party for His Regal Leggship was fabulous and brilliant at the same time. A FNRttC legendary moment.

So, there where a lot of firsts on this ride.
3 New FNRttC'ers (There where a lot more, but these where the 3 that decided to SMRbtH)

Martin235, Halo J and M Grant

Martin235
First FNRttC
First SMRbtH
First 100+ miler (His previous PB distance was 50 miles)
First 200+ km'ers
First ascent of Ditchling Beacon

Martin after reaching his maiden 100 miler. (Martin 2nd from right)

Next up was Halo J
First FNRttc
First SMRbtH
First 100+ miler
First 200+ Km'ers
First ascent of Ditchling Beacon

HaloJ celebrates her maiden 100 miler
(L-R M Grant, Zig Zag, ILB, Me. Arallsopp, Halo J, Topcat1, Martin235)

Finally M Grant
First FNRttC
First SMRbtH
First 100 miler
First 200+ Km'ers
First ascent of Ditchling Beacon.

Mark kneeling to celebrate his 100 (The Fitness sign was co-incidental.. honest)

The SMRbth was hard work, the pace was high and there was a lot of climbing, especially on the first half. So Chapeau to the new guys and gals...

Aha.. there are a couple of more firsts.
At Croydon most went their separate ways. I had another mad plan. Why not cycle all the way back to Wellington Arch HPC. Only one take.. Halo J.
After the earlier exertions it was tough work, but we got there and roped an American tourist to take the obligatory pic.

(Has anyone else actually done the same? A FNRttC and back to HPC?)

HaloJ had 10 miles to cycle home, so I guessed she ended up with 140+ for the day.
I had 20 mile journey home and finished on 160 for the day. A personal distance best for me.. and boy am I feeling it.

Roll on August FNRttC.

Great pics Ian

well done you lot for making it back and beating your milestones see you next Sunday

 

[HaloJ]

There's a first time for everything...Abi and Martin, ready to roll.

nice photo after getting our attention by shouting "OI GEEKS!" Note to self don't blow kisses on photos as they make for unflattering shots.

 

[StuAff]

.... leaving Adrian and I with the police and the ambulance crew, who were trying to persuade Stu that, no, it wasn't sensible to resume the ride with a bandage on your head (the police informed us that they had no powers to compel him to go to hospital unless they invoked section 136 of the Mental Health Act....). Stu was in the back of the ambulance attempting to reason them to death, and at one point it looked as if he might succeed, but we called a taxi, popped him and the Viner inside, and, while he was transported to Gatwick, Adrian and I pounded down the A217, Adrian peeling off to go to find Stu while I whizzed in to Horley to meet the happy throng at Planet Sweet......

I'll freely admit that any time I have a prang of any description, if I can get right back on the bike and carry on, I will. Did after my argument with a cattle grid after ascending the Gospel Pass last year, ditto when I clumped a bank on the Mega Meon Sportive a fortnight back. But even the likes of Jens Voigt wouldn't carry on if he was unable to operate his shifters!

All the while I'd been receiving and relaying messages from Stu, who was, by this time, on a train to Corsham where he would be met by his mum and driven home. One of these messages now makes a good deal more sense than it did at the time. 'Tell me when you're on top of Ditchling Beacon'....

Cosham (northern bit of Portsmouth) rather than Corsham (Wiltshire). Confusion entirely understandable, thankfully I was at the right one!

I've tried to put the story together, but it appears that Claudine had masterminded a coup de theatre for my benefit that every one of you buggers knew about. All of you. Apparently my organisation of the departure from the Greenhouses was nothing of the sort - people were engaging me in conversation to delay my departure, so they could get to the top before me. So, as I turned the last corner having, as I thought, almost kept company with ILB (who had really been sent down again to see me up the hill) I came across a road covered in TdF style chalk and rode under the Birthday Banner, before coming to a stunned stop and being handed a glass of fizz. It took me some time to work out that some familiar faces were those of people who hadn't been on the ride, and that the prosecco was not from a single bottle, but from an ice-filled barrel with a dozen bottles in it. Adrian was there, having seen Stu off and zipped up from Brighton.

So it was a slightly (more than usual) confused Dellzeqq that wandered down to the seafront, and sat down to his breakfast. My nap was enlivened, so I'm told, by RichP's helpful suggestions about waking me, but when I did wake, presents and the most extraordinary collection of pictures inserted into a photo album were put on my lap, and, once again, bewilderment knew no bounds.

The danger of thankyous is that you leave someone out, so I'll stick to a general thankyou to the Conspirators, Cakebakers and Fizzbearers who made my 56th birthday so memorable. You're all so very sweet. I've got a job on to live up to all this friendship.....

You're very welcome, richly deserved. The parkin was courtesy of my mum. I'm more hacked off about missing all the fun & nosh, and wounds to the Viner, than all these aches and pains....

 

[StuAff]

Pain and suffering update: have been this morning to the NHS treatment centre, wounds all cleaned up and redressed. The guys in the ambulance did a great job in the circumstances, but they were improvising a bit, ditto with my mum on the thigh wound that they'd left...Not surprisingly, the new dressings are as they should be- holding in place, clean and dry, etc.... Right hand was x-rayed, but it appears to be more inflamed than anything else, thankfully. It has even more bandage around it than before, and the arm's in a sling, just as an aide-memoire to keep the hand up a bit rather than for necessity. I'm to go in my GP Monday or Tuesday to get that lot looked over again. Definitely off the bike for a few days......!!!!

 

[StuAff]

[QUOTE 1112895"]get well soon Stuart, whose safety talk I can still hear now at the top of Reigate hill.
[/quote]

The irony is not lost on me either. Didn't recognise you at first for some reason...you know what you're doing going down there (mind you, thought I did

).
'User10571's bend' to be joined by 'Stu's catseye'?

 

[StuAff]

Well that was quite a ride in many ways although my version of it was quite different from that I had imagined it might be beforehand. That is part of the beauty of life I guess. It was a fine night, where the moon viewed through the gaps in the cloud was big and yellow. The weather was kind, almost balmy at the start, and it was only when waiting at the top of Reigate Hill that I felt the need for armwarmers.

We made good progress and were going well up to The Incident on Reigate Hill. As I was doing what I usually do, hanging back to be the last rider down with as much clear road in front of me as I can get, I didn't see what happened. All I can say is that everyone responded superbly. Everything that I thought of to do was being done by one or other already, so I just flagged down motorists coming up the hill to slow them down a bit. The Police and Ambulance crew were a credit to their respective professions. After all parties had agreed that the best thing to do would be to get Stuart into a taxi to Gatwick for onward transport to Portsmouth, (the final party to buy into this plan quite reasonably being Stuart himself) I then had to make sure that

1) the cake in Stuart's bag made it to Ditchling

2) Simon didn't take on the Gatwick role and miss his party.

Fortunately, as it ended up, neither was difficult. The cake was switched to my bag while Simon talked to the taxi driver (who looked nothing like Travis Bickle). It was readily agreed that one of us was more needed to rejoin the ride than the other.

I then had the worst part of my ride. Setting off down the hill after the police car, my thoughts had just turned to the speed camera when my bike developed a shimmy, that most frightening of things. So I had to slow down gently and take it very slowly. After that I had the best part of my ride. Simon applied the speed and we blasted down the A217 at a better than good pace to the edge of Gatwick. I then unilaterally granted myself authority to use the Authorised vehicles only entrance to the airport, slipped up the stairs that emerge by the Costa just after Stuart had arrived. We then had time for a drink before there was that most useful of things a train to Brighton with an onward connection for Portsmouth. The railway staff then continued the evening's spirit of being excellent. First the one at Gatwick who told us where the bike space on the train would be to within 10 feet and then the ticket barrier staff at Brighton who got me a fresh bandage for Stuart's hand which hadn't stopped bleeding. We then parted company, Stu towards Portsmouth and me home. I then had sufficient time to swap bikes to give the Inbred an outing before the night afforded me an opportunity for a new experience, as I had never ridden to the top of Ditchling from Brighton before. I can report that, views aside, it has little to recommend it. It is a long old drag, and knobbly off-road tyres are rather had work. The 36 x 18 gear was just fine though.

Thanks again for the company, the dressing, etc....

Claudine at this point you need to accept a virtual bouquet of flowers for the organisation

Hear hear!

 

[HaloJ]

[media]

]View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpbRrCjUSq0[/media]


Happy Birthday

EDIT : oops it's still processing

 

[martint235]

Having been suitably terrified on the country lanes last night, I've now ordered a Hope 1!!! My missus is not impressed!

 

[StuAff]

Excellent choice Martin! Your missus clearly doesn't cycle enough at night, she doesn't realise it's a bargain....

 

[Eurygnomes]

Awesome video, haloj!!!!!!!! Well done!

Such a good party (both collectively, and literally! :-)