Back home and Roast dinner nommed
What an EPIC day out. Thanks for all the others that took a chance and braved the elements .... particularly Nye, what a star!
My day kicked off with a 0415 alarm and I was on the road by 5.15 for Coulsdon. With no traffic on the road I made excellent time, parked-up and got to the station nice and early for a coffee and baguette. One by one the team mostly composed of Clarion , Nye, Butterfly, Terrie, ttcycle, Bob, Topcat, Arallsop, Frank, Adrian et moi convened and hit the road.
East Croydon was positively balmy, a short sharp shower around sarf Croydon-ish was the primer to the rains to come.
We bimbled-along nicely, stopped for a cuppa somewhere and split into our 2 groups, team fast and team slow.
Team fast cracked-along quite nicely. I was doing a turn at the front somewhere around Gatwick when I noticed a lack of peleton (I'm not usually that fast). I waited, I called, I ducked under the landing 747's and after a while the group sans Adrian appeared.
Now, I wouldn't want to cast nasturtiums about our glorious organiser, but .... Adrian had suffered a recurrence of a recent back injury and thought it best to take the train home. A lame excuse clearly. Obviously m'lud, the impending deluge had nothing to do with his decision ;-)
Frank's already told the next bit and as you know with great doggedness and absolute stair-rods Bob and me made it to Brighton. En-route we stopped at a Petrol Station for facilities usage and got chatting to people in 2 Cadillacs that had shipped there cars over from Chicago for the event and a young couple from Switzerland, all soaked and all hugely excited by the whole event, even the Biblical rain.
After our F&C lunch, it was pretty dry. Bob was going to go to the station and I thought I would tackle the route home and enjoy the tailwind's free ride a while. It was about 1500hrs. We said our fond farewells. I started reasonably gently so as not to do battle with lunch a second time and after about 5 mins or so, Bob was with me once more and wanted to ride back as far as Crawley.
The rain fell again, we met team slow some 5 miles out and the Bromley contingent flying spectacularly in battle stations formation.
The wind did indeed give us a shove ... well me mostly, in this case Bob's recumbent was at a disadvantage. The rains fell, the sky darkened, our lights inadequate, but somehow we found Crawley station, and said goodbyes (again). I refuelled witha kit-kat!
Getting out of Crawley was a pain, the Garmin wanted to take me some convoluted route that in the dark was hard to follow. Eventually I grabbed the M23 by the neck and head-down give it the beans back to Coulsdon where I found the car at around 1920 ... it had obviously aged during the day. 95 miles on the clock. Not speedy but around 11 to 12 mph from memory moving average.
The M25 was blocked at Chersey (isn't it always?) and I arrived home just after 9.
A;ll in all, t'was a good day out! I loved the cars and the company. The rain didn't phase me. I've learned some more hard fought lessons to be put into practice on longer and harder rides to come.
As I drove back in the car it occurred to me that I felt 'good' just plain honest to goodness good - and that doesn't happen very often.
Thanks all
PS: will post some pictures when less knackered. Topcat - love 'em!
