It was my (yawn) duty to marshall the club 25 yesterday. I did not mind this at all as it did not, for once, clash with the superb CTC ride and I used it as a good excuse to ride down to my designated roundabout. In fact it was a lovely morning to ride and I went out via our club hill climb. About 20 riders from the end (having correctly guessed the winner just from his split) another rider came up and we had a long chat as a hot air balloon meandered overhead. As the last rider obligingly shouted his position I packed away my tabard and headed for the HQ. Then it struck me, I was very close to the furthest point of the reliability trial I am organising for the end of October. So after a quick cuppa at the HQ I rode the whole route of the RT back to the start, getting lost a couple of times but enjoying one of the last glorious days of the year on the top of Ashdown Forest.
After I got home it was back to the other end of the Forest where I spent a brief 10 seconds marshalling the Tour of the South en route to Crawley, very scary, even more so as they had already been up the Forest twice and were still flying.
Absolutely. Riding in to work this morning with autumnal sun, blue sky, not too cold and a large home-baked spicy apple cake in my left hand, it was only the brewing cold that put a slight damper on the day. But so far so good..
I prefer really early mornings in midsummer when the sky is clear and the normal people are still in bed.
normal people seemed to be in bed until about 0830 on Sunday; then the floodgates opened. Car Boot sales maybe? having the shops shut until 1000 is also nice.
Notice how most of our big rides happen on a Sunday but in France they are on Saturday.
I never know what to wear in this in between weather. Trinnie & Suzannah are no help.
I recently invested in some knee warmers and used them for the first time this morning. I'm sure they're old hat to many cyclist but were a revelation to me. Knees nice and toasty but without the bulk of my Bikesters. And they take up almost no room when you take them off. Unless it's exceptionally hot or cold on Martin's Mid-Sussex hilly, they'll be with me there.
