A great day out, thanks Tom.
Had 'A great night's sleep guaranteed' at Premier Inn on the A2. Except for the pub car park and then couple of people chatting at my window for an hour. Where do I claim my money back?
There seemed to be a higher than usual ratio of whippet/strong looking people around at the start, so that there was a couple of TCR folk and someone who wants to break LEJOG this year in the mix is not surprising. Or perhaps that's just Kent. More hills, more people on expensive drugs. Come to Essex where the drug of choice is beer and lean muscle mass is optional....
I had entered late and this was my first ride of any length since LEL so I knew there would be trouble ahead, slow trouble, but I really needed to kick-start the season after a long time off looking after knees and avoiding the winter. Completely accidentally there was a good show from ACME so, because I had my ACME shirt on they couldn't reasonably refuse me their good company and I spent most of the day in their midst. Literally, third wheel most of the way.
It's a cracking route and I spent more time than last year just looking around and enjoying the countryside. It's well thought through - varied terrain and sights, challenges but nothing ridiculous. This year the added bonus of sun meant the Folkestone coastal playground diversion was dripping in censorious parents and massive tattoos; great people watching. And the five of us sleek young things cutting through the foot traffic like sharks through a school of seals...
And just a lot of bits of lovely riding, perhaps my favourite being dropping down to Deal on the gravelish path...
At Herne Bay at 7pm I realised I was going to have to get a move on if I was going to catch the last train from Meopham at 11:30. 80ish km in four hours is not a struggle when you are feeling fresh but as this was my first long ride in over 6 months (how did that happen) it was touch and go. I left at 7:10 after saying my goodbyes to the ACME massive, who were arrayed around massive sundaes like sharks looking at a school of seals, and set off into the sunset.
A pair from Hub Velo caught me up just as you go up that lovely quiet long valley, and we chatted for a while before they shot through. I was having my late-innings struggle at that point, hardly a surprise, and was just hoping that it wouldn't last too long..... The service station control threw me - I was sure it wasn't there last year (turns out is really wasn't) and then sidling around the hill and down to the motorway, at which point I really felt better and was able to kick up the final rise back to the Control where I arrived at 11:10.
A quick round of thank-yous and then down to the train with ten minutes to spare. Arriving in London into pouring rain and thunder, I rode the CS2 (my commute) over to Liverpool St to catch the 1pm train back out to Walthamstow. I was the only sober person on the train and spent twenty minutes trying not to look at people having arguments. Ahhhhh, London.
Sore hands and bottom from a lack of conditioning but otherwise not too bad. Thanks for the ACME crew for nursing me through and Tom once again for the route and hospitality. This is a ride well worth getting out of your region for...