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@Oliver Schick
OK, that was a recce and a half. Got to Hyde Park Corner to find Des waiting. We waited until about 10:25am but no-one else showed--did we miss you somehow, Michael? Hope you're OK! Lockring issues?
Anyway, doing the recce as a two-up was ideal, especially as Des had a lot of local knowledge from previous L-B night runs. I feel as if I've now well and truly got my bearings.
We did 66 miles from HPC to Brighton (the actual night run should be shorter). Ditchling Beacon, which I hadn't ridden before, turned out to be doable (quite short, as well), but yeah, don't put your gearing up too high. Lovely descent into BTown.
No ice or snow anywhere yesterday, when apparently just a day before that it had been well sketchy in places according to Jonny. Even though it was actually quite warm, it didn't feel all that warm, but we were fine and didn't get too cold.
Conclusions:
The route that we should take should certainly avoid that ridiculous hill (White Hill Lane) after Caterham. Also, the best place to have a stop is clearly Gatwick Airport, which has shops open at night. Both of these are received wisdom from the Friday Night Ride to the Coast, which has done the Brighton run many times. We even found a decent way out of the airport. The route out of London goes via Reigate Hill, crosses the M23 after Gatwick, down via bypassing Hayward's Heath on Slugwash Lane, and it's very straightforward and not very far down to Ditchling. We did quite a few additional miles owing to recceing things, so don't let that fool you.
Great run, thanks to Des for fab company.
**Given that we've changed the date, could people from the original list perhaps re-affirm that they're still up for this?
**
As far as I'm aware, this is everybody who's indicated that they're up for the 21st/22nd (in no particular order, I've just been through the thread to pick them out). Please have a look to see if you've fallen off the list and stick yourself back on there if you're coming.
Ha, looking forward to this.