2009-08-29 Sat 10pm - Overnight to Brighton Take 3

Well done, Naomi, as long as you've now got the bug for LOOONG night rides, it will all have been worth it. ;)

Firstly, MANY MANY thanks for organising the ride, Oliver. And to everyone else for not sneering at the back-end loiterers, and to those lovely backstops who [strike]persuaded me to keep[/strike] kept me going.

We've all been there! You did very well!

I did want to kill someone about that slight slope at the end. Not ditchling (totally expected) but the extra one that no one ever talks about AFTER that.

Not mentioning that terribly prominently was definitely not unintentional. ;)

I MAY have cried then. What can I say - i had nothing left! Note to self: 5X10mile training rides = unprepared for 60m through the night on 4hrs sleep. Grrr.

Sleep some more next time and you'll enjoy it even more. Have a look at the excellent Southwark Cyclists page on the Dunwich Dynamo, which gives you a lot of info that is useful for night rides in general:

http://southwarkcyclists.org.uk/dunwichfaqs.shtml

Anyway - in reference to the stop (but not quite search) at Gatwick, I'm gonna put all the Plods' numbers here. *'s indicate those who exhibited more w4nkerish behaviour.

CS287 - Alan Shave
CS351 - Slater
CG001 - Gann
GL165 - *
CO726 - *
CK147 - *
DP326
DB461
CF152 - Farley (one of the fella's who saw us off the Gatwick private property).

CG1 was OK, you could talk to him, but I think towards the end he was told not to be friendly any more. He didn't look too happy.

Which one was that obnoxious woman who turned into a main actor? Her name should be S Leaver. She wouldn't give it but had a card pinned to her vest that gave that name. When I said 'so your surname is Leaver? you couldn't make it up' she did a gulp and a double take and went 'it might be' in a very different, almost comedy, voice and quickly flipped the card over. I didn't see the purpose of the card, but I assume that that is her name from her reaction.