Friday May 8 - FNRttC Brighton

My second FNRttC (Friday Night Ride to the Coast) saw a huge group of people (90ish) making their way from Hyde Park Corner to the Madiera Cafe in Brighton. My first FNRttC was to Southend just after I'd got my Condor and was a lot of fun so I was looking forward to a nice ride and a chance to prepare myself for the BHF version next month. We had a large contingent from LSST but there were riders from as far afield as Hull and on a wide range of machinery including a recumbent tricycle and a couple of Bromptons.
Setting off at midnight, we made our way across South London via Clapham, Balham, Tooting and Mitcham and out into Surrey. The pace across London seemed a lot better than the glacial rate at which the Southend ride started so that was nice. We passed Coulsdon before having a bit of a stop/regroup just inside the M25 (I later found out we were waiting for a cab to collect one rider with an irreparable mechanical failure).
Setting off again took us down Reigate Hill. I know Simon had asked us to be careful descending in the dark, but even without pedalling I still hit over 42mph which was a blast. Having regrouped again we headed off along a lovely country road called Lonesome Lane en route for our half-time refreshment venue, a scout hut near Horley, which furnished us with tea, soup and rock cakes.
Dawn had already broken by the time we left there and I found myself in a breakaway group of 7 including DanB, Tanya and Sol as we upped the pace all the way to Lindfield. Another regroup and by now my mind was focusing on the fast approaching climb over Ditchling Beacon. It's been something like 20 years since I last climbed it and it does have a bit of a reputation so although I was disappointed that had to stop 3/4 of the way up, I wasn't too surprised. In retrospect I probably set off a bit too quick but at least I remounted once my heart rate had lowered and I didn't walk any of it.
From that point on it was literally all downhill to an empty seafront and a welcome full english breakfast, before training it back to London.

Filling in the Gaps

Having enjoyed Sunday's outing so much, I did feel a bit bad at having taken an alternative route for one section thanks to a bit of poor navigation on my part. So, as the sun once again decided to defy the BBC's predictions and put in a good solid performance, I decided to retrace some of Sunday's original route to see what I had missed out on. There was noticeably more traffic about on the early sections of the ride, but once outside the M25 it dropped right off and the Essex country roads were enjoyably empty. This time I managed to remember to turn left at Greensted and followed the empty roads out through Bobbingworth, Moreton and Matching Green before arriving where I had rejoined the route near Abbess Roding. At this point I turned right and rode the opposite way along my corrected route of Sunday down the B184 through Fyfield to Chipping Ongar. There I turned left on the A128 towards Sunday's inbound route at Kelvedon Hatch. I then followed Sunday's route through Navestock and Stapleford Abbotts before diverting again at Chigwell by continuing down to Woodford. The headwind on the return leg dropped by average speed to under 17mph, but still a very pleasant 55 miles.