london to brighton

Hi chaps,
i know a few of us have done this ride before and i know a few were talking about it, so this year i am being more proactive and i will initiate the call. I am setting up a team to ride the london to brighton british heart foundation bike ride that is happening on Sunday 20th June, the registration is on the Team entry

To help your chances of getting a place follow these simple steps:
Before Registration opens you should:
Think about a team name : Ampthill Mountain Bikers

Decide on a team leader who will need to register and pay on Tuesday 2 March 2010: Me
The team leader should set up a BHF website account : which i have done

Prospective teammates should all set up BHF website accountsas well as this will save time later on : anyone wishing to enter will need to do this

Everyone needs to add internet@bhf.org.uk to their address books to help prevent BHF emails being sent to your junk folder.

When registration opens on 10am Tuesday 2 March 2010:
Your team leader should log onto the BHF website
They then need to register themselves for the London to Brighton Bike Ride, pay their £31 entry fee for the event and then reserve places (up to 20) for their teammates.

Your team leader will then get several emails, including an invitation to register.

Forward the invitation to register email to your prospective teammates. who will be able to register and pay for their place in the Bike Ride by clicking on the link in the email.

Team members have until 4pm on 5 March 2010 to use this link to register for the Ride, or until your reserved places have all been used.Make sure everyone has the right team name, and their credit or debit card details handy to pay the £31 entry fee.

I hope you are all up for this let me know before the 2nd March so i can get an idea of interest.
Cheers
dave

Its been a while...

...since I had any mechanical failures so it was bound to happen sooner rather than later. Well last night Paul, Chris and myself set of on our normal route with me as has been the case recently rather slower due to a combination of poor fitness since I stopped cycling to work and the tyres on my bike which drag an awful amount. Things were fairly without incident until I reached the bog and after trying to get through and failing I went to change up from the granny gear at which point the gear cable failed leaving me stuck in the granny gear. This meant that the chain was under extra stress and about 2 miles later it snapped leading to a walk home and no pub visit for me! Hopefully this is the only damage although with all the mud I need to give the bike a good wash down and inspection to see if anything else has been damaged! Hopefully Ill be back out on Tuesday and hope to see some of the others out as I think it has just been the 4 of us since Xmas!

Old Sun Bikers Sunday 31 January 2010

“Come out for a leisurely Sunday ride”. Having not been out for a while (Grimsby) and with the new tyre safely on the rear rim I jumped at the opportunity to be entertained by the ‘Old Sun Bikers’. 10 o’clock meet at Nick’s and we set off up Oliver St (Nick, Lewis, Monty, Shorty, Colin and Paul and myself) over the road and down Station Rd, a quick cut through the woods and around the field next to the ‘Ups & Downs’ (or ‘BMX Track’ depending upon your age) bringing us out onto Woburn St by the rugby club. From here it was out to Millbrook via the church and the test track “in reverse” (for those regular riders of this blog that is the ‘right way’ round the test track). The first stoned climb was cleared by all albeit Paul and I on foot (better part of valour and all that).

The first piece of gravity and I decided to take advantage rounding 2 or 3 riders on the outside whilst in pursuit of Nick who obviously jumped the start! Was going well until the gradient started going the other way whereupon I was passed by virtually everyone.

At the next piece of gravity I was given the honour of leading on down, I’d like to think that it was due to my earlier gravity assisted performance rather than the groups hope I might ‘collect’ Taff, who was on his way up towards us, and we all spewed out into Lidlington.

I was nicely pleased when we turned right by the church, heading down to the level crossing rather than up the hill, left just before the rail tracks and followed the road as it turned to track and into the fields. At this point the single group split into three I will call them A, B and C although no indication of speed, stamina or ability should be read into the labelling. Colin, Shorty and myself (B) crossed the rail tracks and continued to follow Taff, Nick, Monty (C) whilst Paul and Lewis (A) had mysteriously disappeared!

Group B crossed the field out the back of ‘Amazon’ and came out at the timber bridge over the new road leading up to junction 13, cross the bridge and up into Ridgmont with a view to meeting up with Group A only to find that by the time we got there they were back in Steppingley and heading hard towards the pub! Group C were last seen as specks in the distance heading off in the general direction of Brogborough and landfill!

Past Ridgmont old church, over the fields, cross the M1, a quick pause for Colin’s puncture, Steppingley woods and dash along Woburn St and safely back to the Oss saw Groups A and B united at somewhere just gone one o’clock. Group C arrived about a couple of pints later with Nick sporting a lovely shade of ‘mud’ down one side!

Skip’s chilli burgers gained general praise from all, washed done with beer, then the bulk of the group moved on to the Sun to continue Lewis’ birthday celebrations, I managed to make my excuses and escaped for home at some point in the middle of the afternoon have, I hope, upheld the honour of this blog.

Great ride and good beer, thank you to the ‘Old Sun’ bikers. We must do it again.