Sorry about the weather lads
We ended up with 28 entries and 22 starters on Saturday.
It was persistent rain as they set off and I was quite glad I wasn't riding, we were cold enough in the hall, bloody freezing actually as the heating didn't work.
I actually drove in to Tonbridge to buy some extra layers of clothing for us all, we grabbed some sleep and then around 7pm started preparing the food for the returning riders cooking pasta and tomatoe and vegetable sauce, laying out bowls of fruit cocktail, peaches and rice pudding
Luckily one of the Hall regulars came in and delved in a dark room for a small convecter heater, it wasn't much but it just took the chill off the air
First rider back on lap one was Robert Royston at 8.26pm [over an hour and a quarter before the next rider] and by 10pm we were getting the constant flow of tea, coffee and food to a bunch of soaking wet/freezing randonneurs.
Dave [pushbikeman] phoned to retire with a broken front mech and made me laugh saying despite still having 18 more gears than me he couldn't continue.
For some the cold damp air had taken it's toll on their joints and of the 22 starters only 14 ventured back out into the cold wet night.
Pat C soon phoned lost on the A26 and at first I couldn't see on the map where he was, I think he had the right idea to retrace to the B-road and try again, even with his off route trek he still made it back in good time for 419km.
We only had one other abandonment on lap two as my friend Mike Friday suffered a broken 1/8th chain on his fixed at Sittingbourne.
At about 2am we all grabbed some sleep in the hall until about 6.30am when some that retired were leaving.
I got up and did some more tea and started breakfast for some still there, then a quiet spell until 9 when some of our DA riders turned up for the ten percent ride of 40km, more tea and rice pudding.
By 11 I was starting to worry where they all were but Robert rolled in soon enough with tales of horrendous cold headwinds across the flats at Seasalter and they all gradually rolled in with Lantern Rouge Mike Beauchamp by the skin of his teeth again
Then pasta was so popular that beans on toast never sold so guess what I have the rest of the week.
Expect a slightly warmer wind from the South east in the near future
Well done to all the finishers hope to book better weather next year