June 21 L2B.......2L

Christophe and Cherry refuel in Brighton

Having repeated Sunday's ride on Tuesday as a bit of extra pre-Brighton ride training, and having taken it easy on the Saturday, I should have been confident and relaxed enough to get a good night's sleep but that didn't happen. Instead I lay awake listening to music and thinking that I might as well have listened to everyone else and gone for the 6am start time and not my favoured 8.30.

Anyway, Christophe picked me up at 7 as, having started a new job this week, he had a secure place to park up near the start and we added Cherry to our crew on the way. The start area was packed and Cherry and I joined the queue to start at 8.30 while Christophe waited for us on the other side of the start as he hadn't registered. We actually crossed the start line at 8.40 and it was immediately apparent why the others had suggested the early start. With the number of riders and the police on every junction ensuring red light observence along with managing traffic flow, progress was slow and halting. Skate marshalling skills enabled us to people slalom better than most and Cherry proved best at this disappearing into the distance after only a few miles when I got caught at a junction. This congestion was annoying, but worse was to come. About 12 miles in near Chipstead, the route went under a railway bridge and then turned right into gridlock. Obviously the number of cyclists that couldn't cycle up this hill had reached the point where those that were walking up had blocked the road to the extent that those that could cycle up it were unable to. Fortunately I had a map with be and after checking it and asking a couple of local spectators I found that if I continued along the road, took a right and then another right I could rejoin the route. So instead of having to walk slowly up a hill, I got to climb a lovely, well surfaced, wide, empty road. Result. By the point that I rejoined, the hill was over and people were riding again.

Unfortunately, I was unable to perform a similar trick at the next congestion spot which was near Nutfield. By the time I realised that forward progress had basically halted, it was too late to go back to the previous turn off. Several things happened during the over 30 minute to reach the top. I called Christophe who was a couple of miles behind to warn him, but without a map of his own it was impossible to divert him around it. Cherry walked past me up the side of the queue carrying her bike (I guess I passed her on my last diversion) - a tactic I soon employed.

I phoned Sparky to find that, along with Tanya and Quentin, he had arrived in Brighton before 10am, skating it in 3h45. At this point I had covered 20 miles in 2 hours and my plan to arrive in Brighton in time for the 1pm F1GP start was looking like a fail.

Finally we reached the top of the hill. The queue was caused my having to cross the A25 and the marshalls had to alternate traffic and cyclists. The route went straight across, but I turned left, then right and rode about 3 miles on another deserted road before rejoining the main route.

I caught up with Cherry after about 27 miles and we rode together for a while as we approached Turner's Hill, the second biggest climb on the way there. I had planned to stop at the top, but it was so crowded I changed my mind and pressed on.

The next section of road was mainly downhills and somewhere along here I hit over 42mph and also came across a few skaters, Angee who was sitting by the side of the road, Paul, who I slowed and chatted to and finally Ash as we approached Ditchling.

The climb up Ditchling started well and I was feeling better than the last time I tried it. However, with half the road covered with people pushing, my lack of a real low gear meant that by about 2/3rds of the way up I ran out of steam, and unlike last time, restarting wasn't really an option and I joined the walking hoards. Once at the top, I had half a powerbar and realised it was the first thing I'd eaten since breakfast. I set of again but had to stop almost immediately as my chain came off changing up to the big ring. That fixed, I set off again and Brighton was in sight. Ignoring the bike/car lanes signs I weaved through the traffic (safer than weaving through inexperienced cyclists) turned onto Madiera drive and crossed the finish at 1.20.

I then joined the crew of spectators that had come down from London to cheer the skaters and this crew gradually grew as more of our friends finished. Cherry finished just before 2 and Christophe shortly after that.

I had planned to start the return leg at 3, but as we'd arrived later in order to have a decent rest and get some food, we ended up leaving after 4. Our return route was different to avoid those still on the way down but ran basically parallel and slightly to the west of run down.

We hit the first climb up the A23 toward Devil's Dyke almost immediately and I was regretting the loss of my cap and gloves soon after as the sweat poured into my eyes without the cap to soak it up or the gloves to wipe it away.

Cherry reckoned the route home was more uphill, but I think it just felt that way due to tiredness. There were definitely some decent downhills as I hit 46.34mph on one of them. Most of the route was quiet roads, with the only really unpleasant stretch being the A272 between Botley and Ansty being a narrow main road with a long slow climb which made it difficult for motorists to pass.

We stopped for drinks just before Reigate and Cherry showed the elevation map on her GPS. I was puzzled as looking at it we appeared to have a mountain to climb. I was a bit puzzled, as when planning the route, I avoided Reigate hill as I knew how evil that would be, but I thought that the route I'd found round it was a relatively easy climb. Anyway we continued and the climb we took did indeed turn out to be too evil for me and I had to walk about 200m of it. Lovely view at the top though!

As we set off again, I finally realised what had happened. We hadn't gone the route that I had planned. Cherry had entered it slightly wrong on the GPS so we were now at the top of Reigate Hill. Oooops. Oh well, we carried on and were soon back on course riding along the lovely High Rd and then Portnalls Rd.

Before long we were into single figures of miles to go and our last obstacle to clear was the hundreds of Pakistanis in Tooting who were out celebrating their country's win in the Twenty20 cricket world cup.

We finally arrived at a now deserted Clapham Common at about 9.20 before heading back to the car and then home to showers, baths, food and recovery.

My figures for the trip were 112.96 miles, 8h17m53s, max speed 46.34mph, total climb 6672ft.

Essex Countryside

52 Miles ride as a bit of a preparation for next weekend's L2B. Joined by Simon on his fixed, along with Cherry and Christophe.

Scariest bit for me was when I realised that the buzzing I could hear was the sound of an insect that had managed to fly into my shirt and was trapped there. Still don't know whether it was a fly or a wasp, but it definitely freaked me out for a bit.

Radio LeMans

OK, granted this has nothing to do with cycling, but it does have everything to do with somewhere I've gone to 7 times in the last 7 years (only once for the cars though).

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June 7th - Norwich 100

Ouch. This was tough. Not because of the course, that was great. Really well signposted (didn't need to look at my map once!)with good surfaces and no major climbs this should have been a lovely ride along the Norfolk coast, but unfortunately the elements combined to make it a whole bunch harder.

I travelled up with Christophe and Cherry in Christophe's car on Saturday and we stayed at my sister's in Lowestoft where we had a top barbeque thanks to my nephew Graham. At this point the weather was cool and overcast, but dry. Earlier in the week Christophe had seen a forecast for heavy rain and had needed some persuasion (coupled with some improved forecasts) to come so it was encouraging that it was still dry as we loaded the bikes up the following morning to head to the start. It was still dry as we parked up in the carpark, but then the heavens opened. However, it was only a shower and as we made our way to the start I decided it wasn't even worth putting waterproofs on for. I'd been given a start time of 7.20 but it was already gone that and as the other 2 still had to register we ended up setting off at 8am. It was still spitting with rain so I decided to take it easy for the first couple of miles until my legs had warmed up and the pack of riders had thinned a little. For the first 24 miles or so the route was shared with people doing the 50 mile route so the pace of riders was quite varied. About 2 miles into the ride I'd stopped at a set of lights and as I was at the front of the group that were stopped there, I decided that I'd take advantage of the clear road ahead to get up to speed. That was the last I saw of Christophe and Cherry until the finish. The rain was alternating between drizzle and slightly heavier showers interspersed with the odd break where it would stop. My bare arms were feeling the cold but otherwise I felt fine and although I saw quite a few riders stop to put on jackets I kept mine rolled up in the rear pocket of my jersey.

The first refreshment stop was after about 13 miles at Reepham but I decided to continue as I felt that I had a good rhythm going and 1 hour in saw me pass the 20 mile point. The rain was pretty consistent now and to keep my mind off of it I was working out target distances like 31.25 miles which would be 50km and I hit that in 1h33, and then 33.3 miles which would be one third distance.

At 28 miles I had gone straight past the refreshment stop at Hindringham and, although I didn't spot him, Ray from LSST saw me as he was leaving the stop. It then took him about 10 miles to catch me and we exchanged pleasantries before I again pulled ahead to reach the "half-time" stop at Sheringham at 10.28, with 44.6 miles completed. Here we had to make a 20 minute compulsory stop with timecards needing to be signed in and out. There was a big queue for food so I just had a Powerbar and a bottle of Lucozade sport. I was quite anxious to get going again to avoid stiffening up so did a bit of stretching as by hamstrings felt quite tight and I tried to dry my feet a bit as they were feeling the cold. Just as I was about to leave there was a quite heavy downpour so I waited an extra 10 minutes to let that clear and for the first time I put my jacket on. I sent Christophe a text to say I was going on with a view to stopping at Cromer.

By now the rain had eased quite a bit but the wind was head-on and although there were no huge climbs, the coast road was quite undulating and I was unable to find a group riding at a similar pace, so the going was pretty tough. I decided not to stop at Cromer and instead went back to setting intermediate targets with the next being 62.5miles (100km). Shorthly after Cromer I became fed up with the way my loose jacket was flapping in the wind so stopped briefly to remove it, preferring to get wet rather than suffer the additional wind resistance. 100km occured just past Walcott and my time of 3h48 showed how much the headwind had slowed me. I had some more lucozade and a couple of energy jelly blocks and carried on.

Despite the roads appearing to me to be in great condition, there did seem to be a large number of people mending punctures or mechanicals on the road and I always try to offer assistance if they appear not to have the situation under control. Somewhere near Waxham I came across such a rider whose seat/seatpost had come loose so I stopped to lend him an allen key. While he was fixing this, Ray and his friend John caught me up and we rode together to Horsey Mill where we stopped to get a coffee and some cakes. I called Phil to check on the progress of the Turkish GP as well.

Leaving Horsey Mill, the rain again got harder and the three of us joined with another group of five and I got was was to be pretty much my only pack riding of the day. Unfortunately it only lasted for about 5 miles before one of the five punctured and we were back to 3.We were heading back inland now and the loss of the headwind meant that we were cruising at over 20mph. John did about 5 miles at the front and then I did the same. Just as I was hoping for Ray to take over the lead he punctured and we stopped. It was the rear and it took us about 10-15 minutes to fix before heading off again. John lead but immediately Ray noticed that his front was also flat. John didn't hear our cries so the two of us remained and another 10 minutes passed as we mended the front. Setting off again we took turns at the front, forcing the pace to repass all those that had caught us thanks to the flats. I dropped Ray with about 10 miles to go as he got caught at lights over a narrow bridge and I finished at 3:05 for an elapsed time of 7hr5mins and a riding time of 5hr33mins which gave an average speed of 17.89mph - very pleasing. Christophe finished about 1hr 10mins later and Cherry about a further 10-15 minutes after that. We all agreed that it had been a tough ride but there was a great feeling of satisfaction at completing it.