Another excellent day out. And this time I very nearly made it to Hastings (St Leonards, so close but no cigar). As per last year, I opted to get the 5am Southern train into Victoria, for multiple reasons, not least it's nearly half the price of SWT and barely slower that time of the morning. So, after a mere five hours kip, up at quarter to four, on the road at half four. Train ran to time, left it at East Croydon in order to kill time in a positive way and get some more miles in. And at a quarter to seven, even London roads are quiet. Successfully negotiated the tramlines and headed north through Norwood, Tulse Hill (inspiration for one of my favourite song title puns, Carter USM's '24 Hours from Tulse Hill'), Brixton and Kennington, before crossing Westminster Bridge and heading east. Still only 7.45 or so, so I went on a brief and fruitless search for a not terribly expensive cup of tea at Waterloo station & back north of the river before making it to our rendezvous at 8.06, still first there. Shortly thereafter I was joined by the first other of our number (of the Hastings CC contingent), our ride leader, and Claud. Nigel (who I remembered from FNRttCs past) was the heroic/lunatic chap who rode up. Yes, I've done that before, but not before a
morning ride and certainly not in four hours (and his route from home would be considerably more lumpy than mine). Chapeau!
Once we were joined by the rest of the CC chaps and gals, off we went. As last year, the initial stages were a bit of a trudge. Those who somewhat optimistically opted for fingerless mitts regretted it in the damp. An extended stop at Crystal Palace park, but we were already making much better time than last year, and that continued. Church Hill defeated me again- I would have had the gearing for it (34x32!!) but my pace went down faster than I shifted, still had two sprockets left when I was forced to put a foot down or risk falling over, and once you stop on that gradient you aren't going to kick off again.
At some point, my Garmin decided to have a return outbreak of a malaise I haven't seen from it in many months. You have a track loaded. Pink line of navigation is on the map. You are following said line. But it's not giving you any directions. Not a problem if you're in the group. When you aren't....At Penshurst I missed the turning east, kept going south as I knew no different and nothing implied I should turn. The last direction prompt the Garmin gave me came some thirty miles back (!). Got to Fordcombe, some further distance south, and realised (a) I'd gone astray, not merely riding on my own somewhere en route and (b) I was at least going the right way, if not the right roads in the right order. Fortunately, the route into Tunbridge Wells and rejoining the pink line was straightforward. Down to the A264, go east, and I'd be in town and back en route. I tried phoning Sam and then Claud (the only two I had numbers for) to let them know what I was doing, neither answered so I just kept going. Got to the junction where I met the route, was going to see on the phone where the Velo House was…then I saw it across the road. I arrived there only about ten minutes behind the rest.
Veto House was only slightly less busy than last year, and most of the waiting staff were still unfamiliar with the concept of looking/asking for order numbers rather than wandering around with the food. Fortunately, my burger was one of the exceptions and was most excellent. Second half was just a teeny bit less lumpy, the pace picked up noticeably, though no-one could describe it as flat. Following Brightling Hill, Mrs W and the refreshment stop were very welcome. Mad Jack's residence looked as fantastic as ever..
Some biomechanical lawnmowers were in action...
The Pevensey Levels stretch was a real blast- slight delay due to fly-tipped washing machine excepted. Most of the Hastings contingent took their leave not long after Bexhill (the De La Warr pavilion looked fantastic even without a coach hanging off the roof) to go to the pub. Self and Claud fell off the back of the remainder in St Leonards- Sam waymarked a turn, the others seemed to miss it, we thought they were all going to turn back…in the end we went to the Warrior Square station for the Brighton train. No problem connecting with the next Pompey train, back just after 9.30. Half a ton of grot cleared off the Litespeed this morning, though it was much cleaner than the bikes without mudguards!
Thanks one and all!