Thirteen men, good and true , turned out on Tuesday evening because of the promise of an OPEN pub serving food and beer, for the first time in 4 months: namely the Links in Liphook .
1. Johnny the Plastic
2. Slash
3. Tonka - DRM
4. John the Tarmac
5. Ghengis
6. Smashie
7. Dobbie
8. Chuff
9. Captain Fracker
10. Faff cheeks
11. Nurse Brown
12. Slumpy
13. Big Ring - RM
Tonka is appointed as DRM in a cunning attempt to try and slow him down a bit, in actual fact, he ended up cycling up and down most hills twice rounding up the troops.
The ride began, with a spin around the golf course which included the compulsory shower of sanitising fluid as we crossed the county border into Sussex . This was followed by a short single track footpath Bridleway section from the top of Milland hill to the Church, (deliberately planted with shin high nettles and neck high brambles, by the Ramblers association).
We followed the route of the old A3 to Rake, relatively flat so far, then along the base of Rake Hanger to Rogate Bike park, we stopped to admire the new impossibly difficult tracks of the DMR Line, and the peloton all wanted to have a go on the lethal looking jumps, but time did not permit - oh what a shame!
Next the first hill of note on this route, bit of a lung buster, then road section to Bordon wood hairpin. Followed by a lovely downhill all the way to Chithurst monastery. Second hill of three to Robins farm, and down to Tentworth.
A short technical downhill where Fracker takes a tumble due to lack of brakes, luckily Smashie is on hand to fix the problem by replacing the offending brake pads with formula one type speed.
Fortunately Fracker only suffers bruised pride, but the ‘Bird ‘ maintenance dept. will be receiving a firmly worded letter .
The RM also suffers an ‘off ‘ at the base of the same slope, and may have got away with it, if Chuff and John the plastic hadn’t noticed.
Gentle up hill all the way to ‘Titty hill’, always a nice place to stop and admire the view. Then the fast track to Milland .
The RM lost control at the ‘Push me Pull you’ farm in Milland , where the peloton split because some guys needed to take photos . RM Quote ‘its all gone pear shaped’.
The final hill was a bit mushy due to the previous days rain, so the front of the peloton took the dryer track to the summit of Milland hill, the remainder of us made it up the Strava segment, aptly named ‘oh you bugger’. Slumpy thought that filling his tyres with Helium might help .
After a short road section, all the merry men arrived back at the Links safely and in time for an anti socialising dinner .
17 miles for all
Meal points for all but Nurse Brown
T- shirt points for, Ghengis, Smashie, Dobbie, Chuff, Fracker, and Big Ring
Mechanical points for Fracker and Slumpy
Unintentional separation from vehicle points for Fracker and Big Ring
What fun , see you next week chaps
BR (Bigus Ringus)