Club Run Report 27 July

[Marek]

Great ride today, the weather held out and was very good. I rode up from East Grinstead this morning and put in a bit of a dig and I think I did my best time to CSS, was a bit knackered when I arrived but soon cooled down. Went out with the fast guys, I think we were meant to be a 20mph group but with Illiya and Ghaleb in the group I knew it was going to be a bit quicker than that. I don't think most of the group minded the slightly quicker pace. Dave on his new Canyon was going like a train, he was riding in the newbees group about 3 months ago and now he is mixing it up with the training group guys, awesome effort, the Paul Hone training plan of going out and killing yourself at every opportunity seems to be paying dividends.

Ghaleb and Illiya were putting in a lot of work on the front, I was being cheeky and just popping up now and then to take the sprints and hills. Group stayed together until Rusper where the pace got a bit tasty and we had to stop to regroup before heading over to Charlwood through the back lanes. Ghaleb led us out for an age before the sprint, Dave put in a bit of an effort and with about 400m to go I opened up and managed to get up enough speed to avoid getting any passengers and got the sprint without sprinting.

We then split up a bit and Dave and I joined the Steve Cave group going to Tanhurst Farm Shop. A nice steady ride with a few horses to contend with and then down to the farm shop. Doug Rollings was there with his new Specialised, very nice and had a good chat. Then a proper cup of coffee and cake and Jim 'Poulidor' Burdett turned up. We then headed out to Box Hill, Jim and Dave upped the pace a bit and I decided to chase after them and go on up Box with them. A good pace to the base and then I put in a bit of a dig. Managed to get up a bit before Jim 'Poulidor' Burdett with Dave getting up a bit after.

I then headed back to EG with the sun still shining, 130km great ride out. Next week is the Prudential 100 so hopefully these miles will help me get a good time on that one.

Cheers

Marek....