2009-07-04 Sat - Dunwich Dynamo 2009

That was ACE. I owe several beers to the guy on the Cervelo who lent me the brake bolt (Alby I think?), you have saved me countless hedge injuries. (I did slightly deliriously announce 'oh well, maybe I'll get really good at riding brakeless and be able to ride my Panasonic to Herne Hill' but after the first downhill was massively steep and had a lovely sign saying 'blind descent' or something I changed my mind and decided throwing myself into a hedge was a preferable option.)

I totally loved the last 60 miles, though whoever told me it was flat was LYING - but I ended up having all kinds of fun whinging that my gearing was too high, walking up all the hills and then overtaking everyone who'd passed me a couple of minutes later, so it worked out quite nicely. No leg pain + drunk on energy gels = definitely good for morale.

The only problem was there was absolutely no shelter left by the time we got to Dunwich at about half seven - ridiculous queue for the cafe and every single beach hut and under-boat space was taken, so we ended up sitting on the beach in the (pretty heavy) rain for ages and I went all pale and had to be revived by a kindly man's whisky flask. And yeah, they definitely need to sort the train situation out. There was all sorts of bribery and corruption going on on the beach with people trying to get hold of coach tickets.

So, yeah, didn't quite manage there and back but it was a bit tricky with no GPS and our terrible senses of direction (and Scott didn't mention that I actually got off my bike 5 miles out of Dunwich and tried to go to sleep in a layby, though I blame that on the rain breaking my ridiculously good mood cos I was well up for riding back as soon as we'd got to the beach at Dunwich). Next time.

Well done everyone who did it, especially both ways or part of the way back.

Got there 40 minutes before you, having attached myself riding with Radius to two unknown Bianchi riders, one of whom had Garmin. Found unlikely shelter in the the cafe food storage room which had at least 4 giant freezers, all kicking out welcome massive heat! Remember for next time! We had serious problems with route finding, and got very lost 4 times.I wonder if the route can be printed on an ordinary map from bikely, or similar. However, epic experience all told, would not have missed it. Belated congratulations to Oliver, the only forum member I never saw.