OP
OP
martint235
Dog on a bike
- Location
- Welling
Don't start.
October Ride for Food-22nd Oct-Rye & Back
- Thread starter martint235
- Start date
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Don't start.
So sorry your injuries have stopped you riding for a while Rimas. You were talked about and would have loved this ride and was missed.
Today we had, Myself, Martint235, Mark, Frank, StuAff, RB58, TimDecker, Alberto and the welcome return of Mr Flying Dodo.
So the temp was a little chilly first thing but there was blue sky. So not too many layers today and so it was to be for the whole ride. The wind Gods were kind to us with only a slight headwind for the outbound and a very helpfull tailwind on the way back.
The first half of the outbound had plenty of up and downs, including a couple of cracking descents into Westerham and Ticehurst. From Ticehurst it was a sprint all the way to Rye, a great chance for us to let the legs really let fly.
The Ypres Castle in Rye was the destination and a huge lump of Cod and some chips all washed down with a fine pint of Harveys.
A goodbye to Stu at Rye who got the train back to Portsmouth left the rest of us heading north into them thar hills for the trip home. The tailwind was proving to be a godsend as the rolling hills started to take their toll on all of us. Adam split to head to Ashford and Tim split to head home, which left the hardest climbing (Inc. a nice 20%er) to the rest of us...but again we were rewarded with some cracking descents.
So 119 miles for the day with about 7500ft of climbing. The weather was great, not too cold and not too warm. The cycling was great and the company was great.
I think we are all going to sleep well tonight. Cheers all for coming. Hope you enjoyed the ride as much as I did.
Today we had, Myself, Martint235, Mark, Frank, StuAff, RB58, TimDecker, Alberto and the welcome return of Mr Flying Dodo.
So the temp was a little chilly first thing but there was blue sky. So not too many layers today and so it was to be for the whole ride. The wind Gods were kind to us with only a slight headwind for the outbound and a very helpfull tailwind on the way back.
The first half of the outbound had plenty of up and downs, including a couple of cracking descents into Westerham and Ticehurst. From Ticehurst it was a sprint all the way to Rye, a great chance for us to let the legs really let fly.
The Ypres Castle in Rye was the destination and a huge lump of Cod and some chips all washed down with a fine pint of Harveys.
A goodbye to Stu at Rye who got the train back to Portsmouth left the rest of us heading north into them thar hills for the trip home. The tailwind was proving to be a godsend as the rolling hills started to take their toll on all of us. Adam split to head to Ashford and Tim split to head home, which left the hardest climbing (Inc. a nice 20%er) to the rest of us...but again we were rewarded with some cracking descents.
So 119 miles for the day with about 7500ft of climbing. The weather was great, not too cold and not too warm. The cycling was great and the company was great.
I think we are all going to sleep well tonight. Cheers all for coming. Hope you enjoyed the ride as much as I did.
Flying Dodo
It'll soon be summer
Martin wasn't kidding when he said it was hilly!
I've had a good workout today, and I only did the first half, so the others have earned their stripes.
As seems usual when I've got an early start, I woke up at 5 am, half an hour before my alarm. After getting ready and several times wandering outside to see how cold it was, I decided to stick with leggings and my Night Vision jacket. When rolling down the hill towards Luton station, it felt quite cold, so I reasoned I'd warm up later. After stopping off to get some cash, I was amused to see a police car zoom through the pedestrian area, with sirens, to then stop outside McDonalds. Either they were late for their breakfast, or someone was trying to riot inside..........
Once in London, after a quick dash from West Hampstead to Victoria, I was soon at Bromley South, where Martin & Tim were waiting. After a few more arrivals, we set off in a vaguely southerly direction. I've never been in this part of London before, but it doesn't look too different from all the rest! After picking up Ian and Stu, we fairly quickly started to get to the countryside.
Bearing in mind all the recent TV programmes about the 75th anniversary of the Spitfire, it was nice to see the other Battle of Britain stalwart, the Hurricane, as part of the Gate Guardian duo outside Biggin Hill. That and the Spitfire alongside are replicas.
It was a bit sad though to see the RAF blocks looking very desolate and run down.
After Biggin Hill, there's a very steep hill, which fortunately we were going down, although being my usual cautious self, I didn't exceed 40 mph. No doubt others went faster! After rolling over the M25, there was another little climb
where we met up with Ross and Frank in Westerham. And then basically from then on. it was the same sort of thing - up a lot, down a lot, along a bit, then up a bit, down a bit and repeat!
Eventually, we started to see tell-tale signs we were getting close to our destination:-
and we got to the Ypres Castle pub at around 1.20 or so, which was good going considering the terrain.
As for the £11 Fish & Chips......
the general consensus was, there could have been more chips.
Heading outside again, Stu left us to get to the station, and then a few miles down the road, at around 2.30, I left everyone else heading for the hills.
After a quick dash for Ashford, and the HS1, I was then home just after 5 pm, having done just over 80 miles. I could definitely tell I was struggling a little bit towards the end though, although I blame that on the fact my blood was only 7/8ths of its normal capacity.
It's a good route with lots of good scenery - even some lovely stretches of smooth tarmac.
Thanks Martin for organising this - my legs will recover at some point...........
I hope everyone else got back OK.
All the photos are shown here.
I've had a good workout today, and I only did the first half, so the others have earned their stripes.
As seems usual when I've got an early start, I woke up at 5 am, half an hour before my alarm. After getting ready and several times wandering outside to see how cold it was, I decided to stick with leggings and my Night Vision jacket. When rolling down the hill towards Luton station, it felt quite cold, so I reasoned I'd warm up later. After stopping off to get some cash, I was amused to see a police car zoom through the pedestrian area, with sirens, to then stop outside McDonalds. Either they were late for their breakfast, or someone was trying to riot inside..........
Once in London, after a quick dash from West Hampstead to Victoria, I was soon at Bromley South, where Martin & Tim were waiting. After a few more arrivals, we set off in a vaguely southerly direction. I've never been in this part of London before, but it doesn't look too different from all the rest! After picking up Ian and Stu, we fairly quickly started to get to the countryside.
Bearing in mind all the recent TV programmes about the 75th anniversary of the Spitfire, it was nice to see the other Battle of Britain stalwart, the Hurricane, as part of the Gate Guardian duo outside Biggin Hill. That and the Spitfire alongside are replicas.
It was a bit sad though to see the RAF blocks looking very desolate and run down.
After Biggin Hill, there's a very steep hill, which fortunately we were going down, although being my usual cautious self, I didn't exceed 40 mph. No doubt others went faster! After rolling over the M25, there was another little climb
where we met up with Ross and Frank in Westerham. And then basically from then on. it was the same sort of thing - up a lot, down a lot, along a bit, then up a bit, down a bit and repeat!
Eventually, we started to see tell-tale signs we were getting close to our destination:-
and we got to the Ypres Castle pub at around 1.20 or so, which was good going considering the terrain.
As for the £11 Fish & Chips......
the general consensus was, there could have been more chips.
Heading outside again, Stu left us to get to the station, and then a few miles down the road, at around 2.30, I left everyone else heading for the hills.
After a quick dash for Ashford, and the HS1, I was then home just after 5 pm, having done just over 80 miles. I could definitely tell I was struggling a little bit towards the end though, although I blame that on the fact my blood was only 7/8ths of its normal capacity.
It's a good route with lots of good scenery - even some lovely stretches of smooth tarmac.
Thanks Martin for organising this - my legs will recover at some point...........
I hope everyone else got back OK.
All the photos are shown here.
potsy
Rambler
- Location
- My Armchair
As for the £11 Fish & Chips......
There are chips on there?
I thought you'd taken the pic half way through eating it
Evening gents.
Back home now with the legs tingling a bit. Mrs Mark made a particularly fine apple crumble today - so I filled up on that to start the the recovery process.
I had a great day out today - many thanks to Martin for organising, and to everyone for the company. Great photos too Dodo - thanks for posting those. It does look pretty cold in some of those pictures! Was it?
See you all in November for Frank's Chilterns Caper.
Back home now with the legs tingling a bit. Mrs Mark made a particularly fine apple crumble today - so I filled up on that to start the the recovery process.
I had a great day out today - many thanks to Martin for organising, and to everyone for the company. Great photos too Dodo - thanks for posting those. It does look pretty cold in some of those pictures! Was it?
See you all in November for Frank's Chilterns Caper.
StuAff
Silencing his legs regularly
- Location
- Portsmouth
That, for me, was the toughest ride I've had since the audax at the end of January. Not so much the climbing (Garmin Connect has it has 3,235 ft for the first half), not that that wasn't good exercise, more the ******* headwind. When you're as scrawny as me, strong winds are a real problem on the bike, little chance to conserve energy and mostly using lots of it. Tim noted I was pedalling on downhills that he could freewheel past me on....nonetheless I still hit 36.9 mph at one point. Thanks to everyone for being patient with me (and not just because the train was late)!
I had in mind originally to ride on to Eastbourne for some extra mileage (riding back into the smoke would have meant I wouldn't have got back till 9-ish, perhaps), but considering the fare from Rye was the same, and the legs (and everything else) were definitely feeling the first half, I thought better of it. Thanks Martin for organising, and everyone for splendid company as always.
I had in mind originally to ride on to Eastbourne for some extra mileage (riding back into the smoke would have meant I wouldn't have got back till 9-ish, perhaps), but considering the fare from Rye was the same, and the legs (and everything else) were definitely feeling the first half, I thought better of it. Thanks Martin for organising, and everyone for splendid company as always.
rb58
Enigma
- Location
- Bexley, Kent
Terrific day. Some of those lanes on the return journey definitely deserve a return visit. For the first time for a long time I had quite a bad patch as dusk started to fall. Legs and back were aching, and I dropped behind the group.. Thoughts started to turn to bailing and getting a lift home. But then I emerged into familiar territory and the encouragement of the rest of the group gave me a real lift so I carried on. I'm glad I did too as the long descent down Sevenoaks way got my average for the ride back to 15mph. Got to be pleased with that bearing in mind all the climbing.
Big thanks to Martin for organising the ride and shepherding us so well. Only next time, I think I'd prefer the 'stupid hill' up into Sutton Vallence over the surprise
20% detour. Good job I still had some legs at that point!
All in all a great day. Thanks everyone - see you on the next one.
Ross
Big thanks to Martin for organising the ride and shepherding us so well. Only next time, I think I'd prefer the 'stupid hill' up into Sutton Vallence over the surprise
20% detour. Good job I still had some legs at that point!
All in all a great day. Thanks everyone - see you on the next one.
Ross
OP
OP
martint235
Dog on a bike
- Location
- Welling
140 miles for me and I can say I definitely feel all of them. It was a great day out and a fantastic ride.
I think the replacement for the "stupid hill" warrants a return visit, it certainly got the blood pumping!!
Thanks all for a wonderful day out and see you in the Chilterns!!
I think the replacement for the "stupid hill" warrants a return visit, it certainly got the blood pumping!!
Thanks all for a wonderful day out and see you in the Chilterns!!
Excellent ride and perfect weather. The way into Rye was on fast roads and we definetely pushed it towards the end. I really enjoyed the return leg on those quiet and rolling lanes. Not sure if it was just me, but the last 50 km were the most challenging, maybe because of the already tired legs and some of the steep hills. Can definetely feel the legs today! going out on the mountain bike now to recover from yesterday's efforts.
Thank you all for the great company and Martin for putting the route together. Hopefully see you on the next one!
Thank you all for the great company and Martin for putting the route together. Hopefully see you on the next one!
frank9755
Cyclist
- Location
- West London
A lovely day out in the sun!
Thanks for organising, Martin and also, Ian, for providing useful local knowledge in leading us home.
To answer the question, the Fish and Chips was probably a bit steep at £11 as that worked out at about 75p per chip! But it was a nice pub and the pint of Harvest was worth every penny.
I got home at 9pm having done 163 miles. Quick shower, some food and I was in bed by 10:15 and out like a light.
I found it quite hard; my legs were aching before we got to Rye and I was pretty slow on the climbs. But I didn't feel any worse when I got back home and it was good to do a long-distance ride again and be reminded of the pains and pleasures involved, and get into the mental zone to keep riding.
Thanks for organising, Martin and also, Ian, for providing useful local knowledge in leading us home.
To answer the question, the Fish and Chips was probably a bit steep at £11 as that worked out at about 75p per chip! But it was a nice pub and the pint of Harvest was worth every penny.
I got home at 9pm having done 163 miles. Quick shower, some food and I was in bed by 10:15 and out like a light.
I found it quite hard; my legs were aching before we got to Rye and I was pretty slow on the climbs. But I didn't feel any worse when I got back home and it was good to do a long-distance ride again and be reminded of the pains and pleasures involved, and get into the mental zone to keep riding.
Thanks Martin for organising a great ride and thanks to everyone for the company. Some stonking hills as there always are in Kent, but East Hall Hill going up the Greensand Ridge was the toughest. I was on my dinner plate sized rear cog for that. I split off at Teston, thinking that if the train to Strood was due, when I went pass Aylesford I would jump on it. Unfortunately I had just missed it, and figured I would soon be very cold if I sat down and waited 30 minutes, so I continued home along the Medway Valley through Eccles and Burham and was rewarded with the view of a nice sunset. Hopefully see some of you on the Whitstable FNRTTC
