Into the great unknown...
The first local event of the year to test your early season
fitness was the VBCC Hilly Lane Reliability Ride 2008,
starting in Hambledon Village Hall.
Somehow we managed to get slightly
lost on the way over, but arrived at approx 9-30am at the
hall to see the car park and hall itself buzzing with “intrepidation”.
A sea of green from the VBCC riders who had turned up to
ride the event met me on arrival in the hall. My excuse for
not riding was that it was my “recovery day”. It was
good to see some new faces to put the names too, and also
the same old faces of Pat & Graham!!
With signing on completed and with a start time of 10am, I
went outside to get it all started. As usual the I-Team had
somehow managed to force
move themselves to the front with the dynamic trio of
Dave Sinclair, and the 2 Sam’s ready to head the field
(from start to finish). The cyclists were sent off in groups
with 5-minute intervals in between, into the great
unknown… well a 56-mile hilly course devised and
signposted by Richard Pearman! (Who couldn’t ride the
event as he was working)
From here on in there was not much
else to do except drink copious amounts of tea and try and
fathom out some of the writing on the start sheets, in
particular Jack Wallace (VBCC).
The time in the hall was spent drinking tea, eating cakes,
drinking tea, chatting, and throwing water bottles around
for Mike and Tina’s pet dog Calley to chase in a comedy fashion on the slippery floor.
We had a number of guests to entertain us as well; Steve
Walklin (AC3RG) who has currently been unwell popped down
for a chat and pleased to be informed of his workload for
Tuesday from Mike.
Anyway, back to the serious business of cycling.
First person back was……….lo and behold, Dave Sinclair
in an amazing time of 2-53 mins, problem is though, he
finished it too fast, so we cant count his time. He managed
to drop the 2 Sams’ at the top of Mercury (not the planet)
and came in a bit dirty, but looking fresher than I do after
a 10 hour sleep. Then approx 7 mins later the 2 Sams’
turned up looking a bit grubbier but smiling none the less.
It was then a steady stream of riders, looking either
grubby, tired, hot, smiling, grumbling or all those emotions
put together who finished the event and then made a beeline
for the tea coffee and cakes which were on offer.
After about 4 hrs of the start we were still waiting for
about 8 riders to finish, not knowing if any had decided to
go straight home, or had got lost, Mike & Tina decided
to hand around so myself and Mandy could make a move.
The last couple of riders finished after about 5-30mins, to
be fair they were using mountain bikes though.
All in all, from the feedback we received it was a
thoroughly enjoyable few hours. The course was well liked,
and the riders were impressed with the amount of lanes and
hills Richard was able to find in the locality.
Many thanks to Tina and Mike for organising the event and
making sure the hall was set up and ready for 9am.
Again,
many thanks to Richard for putting in the time to devise a
route put out the arrows and then go out again on Sunday
morning at 5am to make a few adjustments. (you mad fool). |
