Club Run 13th July

[Marek]

Hottest day of the year so far. Left the house with a slight hangover after a few beers the night before but didn't feel too bad once I got up to Coulsdon South, blasted it down the Merstham drag to the station after overtaking Del on the way up. A big crowd at the station and a few old faces I haven't seen for a while, including Stu who is now back to the bike after his failed rowing attempt.

Training group headed out and pace was not too bad, Rich Buerkener going up the three steps like a steam train, he was going very well today. We had a bit of an altercation with a Fiat driver on the way down the other side of the steps but after he had gone things settled down. A good pace set and up through Rusper it got very quick. We hammered up the little hill through the trees and then the small hill up to Rusper where I put in a bit of a dig to try and get the sign but Rich came past at the last second and got it. I then feigned a puncture as I needed a minute to get my breath back, I had dug a bit too deep. I think Steve and Stu turned off just after that point and the rest of us did the dual carriageway. Ant had an issue with his crank nearly falling off, we tried to fix it but didn't have a big enough Allen key so he said he would pootle. As we come up to the sprint who springs up but Ant out of nowhere he started the wind up for the sprint. As I have no sprinting prowess I went around quite early and put in a big dig, I was doing my best to hold on when Rich suddenly sprinted past me and took the win again.

A quick coke and cake and then back out and over to Box Hill a nice steady pace to the hill and then a young 22 year old lad on a touring bike that weighed about 14kg came past me and started to set a pretty ferocious pace. This motivated to move my butt a bit quicker so I overtook and put my head down and went for it. Not sure if anyone was on my wheel or not I was just concentrating on going as quick as I could just in case the tourer popped up again. Unfortunately had to take my edge off the speed at one point as a car was coming the other way and two riders from Kingston Wheelers were riding 2 abreast and I could not get by. Got going again and then pushed it a bit more up to the top. Strava later showed it was my best ever time up the hill.

We regrouped and the headed back off, I turned off and went through the back lanes back to Reigate, did a loop around Redhill airport and then headed home. Ran out of water with 10km to go so was pretty parched by the time I got in. 135km on the clock. Very enjoyable ride, the weather makes a big difference.

Cheers

Marek....

[Antloony]

My first venture into the TG for a long while. Some big turns being put in esp by Marek who was on some kind of mission.

Like Marek said in his report my crank worked itself loose (thanks to Pearsons for that one ) so had to drop to the back on the thru & off as I could only peddle hard with my right leg. Stayed with the group then hit the front before the sprint to do my usual lead out with suffered a bit due to my dodgy crank, did the job though and left Marek and Rich to battle it out.

Luckily Lockey had a large enough allen key to sort my crank out so it was off for the BH return. I managed to get across the busy main road with Simon just before the turn for BH and just kept going knowing I'd never be able to stay with Marek, Rich and co up the top if I was in their company. Luckily I had enough time to get to the top before the others though they weren't that far behind me.

Good ride back down to Nonnas, Steve B recovered well and he and Peachy got a gap on the rest of us that we couldn't close despite me hammering it on the front. Brian T on his blingy yellow Scott was flying as well putting in some good turns and sticking with me, going well fella.

All in all a bloody good ride despite me hitting a nasty ridge and almost losing the front end of my bike, however I stayed up right I'll never know, almost sh1t me shorts