Date: 28th June 2009
Riders: Richard, Davebus, Nick, Shaun and DaveTerry
Ranmore Common, Leith Hill and Holmbury Hill
Weather: 25.5°C

Another dry weekend with dusty trails and I thought it was gonna be my third weekend out of four in A&E.

A new meeting place, the seemingly remote Stony rock car park on Ranmore common saw a small group meet up which included Shaun who we haven't seen for a while and a new rider Legohead whose real name is unsurprisingly according to the law of mountain bike names, Dave (at least 50% of mountain bikers you meet will be called Dave; it's the law!).

Although it was early in the morning and only five cars in there that didn't stop some miserable old bastard dog-walker from scowling at us as we pulled in to park. See that disc on my windscreen mate? That means I can drive and park wherever I want...

Starting from Ranmore meant we were soon at Abba Zabba and after giving this a go, Shaun and I moved onto Blind Terror. I was at the bottom and the other 3 were scattered around the vicinity when Shaun rolled in. He had second thoughts at the top and put his feet down. But Mr. Gravity was strong and his weight tipped the bike forward into an endo and there was a terrifying moment as he slowly tried to keep his feet walking along as he toppled over going right over the bars and landing with a bang on his right shoulder, very reminiscent of last week with Paul's injury.

But these South Africans are a tough bunch and I think he's still in his twenties so after a few seconds gathering his wits on the deck he was ready to get up and ride. (I would have been out for a week after a fall like that).

After directing a couple of riders from Chelmsford who were lost on Ranmore Common and trying to make their way over to Holmbury Hill (but had already come from Leith Hill so didn't want to go back the natural way I would have directed them) we headed off to Westcott and up The Rookery onto Leith Hill.

After messing around on the dips and berms near Deliverance we headed over to Windy Willows where we paused for a break. We were just about to set off when 3 riders went past who turned out to be none other than Mr Smith, Sgt Wilko and Elliot of Chocolatefoot fame and after a catch-up session we headed off in opposite directions.

We had been planning a few more trails but Shaun was hfeeling the ride in his legs and although he didn't admit it, Legohead was definitely lagging and so we cut across to Holmbury Hill at the end of Windy Willow before taking the High Ashes farm track down to the road.

After pausing at the King's Head for Shaun to top up his camelbak we rode Telegraph road and then down past The Volunteer and along Reakes Hollow before the long steep climb up White Downs which Davebus and I cleaned before cutting across the top of Ranmore and back to the cars to complete a pretty full-on 21 mile circuit.

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Date: 20th/21st June 2009
Riders: Richard, Cas, Gazza, Tony, Twelve, Felix and Terry
Leith Hill and London to Brighton and back
Weather: 23°C

What a weekend for me, poor diary management meant that I rode the 40 mile commute on Friday followed by a 14 mile mtb ride on Saturday cut short by a trip to A&E and then 100 road miles including 5000+ feet of climbing on Sunday. On top of that I picked up a new swing-arm to repair the broken chainstays on my SX trail.

Bad planning of my commuting schedule saw me riding to work on Monday, Tuesday and Friday which included getting caught in the massive thunderstorm and torrential rain on Monday evening.

Saturday morning saw me meet Paul and Andy, a Roger Federer lookalikey (on the right there) , at Westcott for a spin round the challenging trails of Leith Hill. Paul lives in Luton but has ridden the area a few times although he only knows one route from Westcott up to the Tower whilst Andy was lugging around a 35lb 10 year old Scott and was totally new to the area and hasn’t ridden much in a few years although both have completed a recent visit to Afan.

Things started badly for Paul as he had forgotten his SPD shoes but luckily Nirvana let him borrow a set of flat Easton pedals only requiring to hold his Shimano SPDs and phone number hostage for the duration of the ride.

So we were ready to go and I started off at what I thought was a reasonable pace but soon saw them lagging behind on the Rookery climb and by the time we had ridden up the twisting singletrack on Wolverns Lane then past the entrance to Summer Lightning Andy started to suffer from overheating, having worn 3 or 4 layers on what turned out to be a very hot day indeed.

After a long break interrupted by a gaggle of giggling schoolgirls looking for directions we set off again and the climbing done were able to enjoy the twisting singletrack trails that are typical of that area. Up to the base of the Tower and then turn back on ourselves to head along to Deliverance. This was more like it and the guys were really enjoying the trail especially the bombhole trail to the left of Deliverance and they both followed me straight down Deliverance without a second thought.

Onwards to Waggledance and a pause at the top of the descent. “Now be careful at the bottom here” I stated, “there are two really small kickers but they seem to be badly made and loads of riders come off badly” and off we went. A nice fast descent and I slowed for the kickers shouting “here they are” and Andy and I rolled them then braked to wait for Paul. We had just turned round to watch him when the first kicker launched his front wheel into the face of the second and he was over the bars landing heavily and groaning in a similar style to Terry on our recent Scotland trip.

A quick assessment indicated that was the end of the ride and we were joined by 3 other riders who had just descended via regurgitator. Thanks to Stuart and his mates whose names I forget but they stayed with Paul for 40 minutes, making him comfortable and even removing the borrowed pedals from his bike whilst Andy and I rode back to the cars and then drove round to Coldharbour to pick him up before heading to Epsom A&E where it turned out that Paul has three broken bones in his shoulder, ouch!

Onto early Sunday morning and Terry turned up at my house at 5-45am and we had left by 6 am for the short ride over to Belmont to meet the others.

We left Belmont at 6-20 and rode to Woodmansterne where we joined the official route, it seemed like most of the riders we encountered were not official entrants.

A good pace was set with the group breaking into two distinct groups, Felix, 12 and Cas up front, Terry, Tony and Gazza at the back and me floating somewhere inbetween.

The front group paused for us to catch up at various points along the route. It was great fun descending on wide open roads with no chance of encountering any traffic in the opposite direction and the miles were flying by.

In a last minute rush in the few days leading up to the weekend I had tried to source a 12-27 Campag cassette to replace the current 12-25 in an effort to make the Ditchling Beacon climb easier on my legs having ridden up it last year but remembering it being a real struggle.

Needless to say, the fact that it was a Campag cassette meant that most of my regular suppliers were unable to help but I hadn’t counted on the added strength my commuting had given me since last years attempt and I found it much easier this year even managing to reach the top first out of the group hence being able to take the pictures below, although I did have a few minutes start on most of the others who had stopped whilst Gazza of the ill-fitting shorts took a pee-break at the foot of the climb.

Ditchling Beacon had been a lot easier than last year and I overtook a number of riders including two serious looking roadies who had blasted past me earlier who were now duck-walking up the Beacon, very strange.

From there the first half of the ride is pretty much over and we rocked up at the finish line at 9-20am. What a great feeling…

We then had a fFull English breakfast on the sea-front and Cas confused everyone by taking charge of the money requiring numerous recounts and trips by the waitress to the till for pound coins.

Felix bought out two dubious looking packages from his saddlebag (no, that’s not a euphemism) that turned out to be a block of malt loaf wrapped in clear plastic (distinctly dope fiendish) and what looked like a kilo of Colombian nose candy but turned out to be Torq energy drink mix.

The ride back was just four of us, Cas and Tony heading off for a family friends party and Gazza arranged to be picked up by his old lady in the car (poor show Gary). We headed along to Shoreham and then onto the A24.

We were riding as a tight grupetto and the first 12 miles flashed by as we maintained a steady speed of 20mph with Tony doing most of the wind-breaking (makes a change form Lee I suppose).

Once we were on the side roads the group split a bit but we had some more sustained riding in a group. The worst part for me was between about 68 and 75 miles when I was on my own and just watching the odometer tick slowly, very slowly though the miles and the 10% climb that was thrown into the mix did nothing for Terry or my confidence.

Once I reached 75 miles and we paused for refreshment at a village store and I popped an energy gel I felt much better knowing that I was on the final quarter of the ride and started to hit roads that I recognised.

A final climb up Reigate Hill and it was all downhill from there only interrupted by one of Terry’s spinning class spotting us and hallowing loudly out the windows of a blacked out, bodykitted Range Rover making other other three wonder what the hell was going on.

100 miles in six and a half hours; I’m pretty pleased with that.