I'm writing this while I still feel virtuous and the pain hasn't kicked in. So with Martin Collett, Ed Gretton and Oli Canning I set off from C4 this morning about 8am bound for Newhaven on the route we'll be using for May 31st. Martin had dodgy, slipping gears and was limited to 3 speeds - which felt a bit like a golf handicap. Oli is quite fit and was quite fast. Ed had clearly been drinking the night before or hadn't done any training for a while as he was even slower than me - which is quite shocking (more for him than me to be honest - he's known me for 38 years). The first half was a bit slow - the route out of London was good but it took us 3 hours to get to Turners Hill for a Mars Bar, bread roll and isotonic drink. There are a few grim hills. The total climb from London to Newhaven is over 1000m - and you feel it over the North Downs. But the views at the top are stunning and the downhills are fun. The second half was better - 2 hours to Newhaven. We could have gone quicker but we were quite tired. 5 hours is a good target for the day anyway - it means we can leave around 3pm. Martin and I had a brief lunch at Padella D'Oro which we have booked out for our dinner before jumping on the ferry. I popped a couple of Nurofen, swigged two beers, scoffed penne bolognese like my five year old has and we got the train home. I would thoroughly recommend this ride - Martin has worked out a great route with some great views. Of course being a Krishnan training ride we did encounter a few small dry flakes of snow - but nothing like either last weekend or Boxhill. On May 31st we will only have to do another 130 miles after we've done this ride...oh sure, it is going to be a breeze.
No comments:
Post a Comment