New Years Day ride

Hickey Nude Ear....oops too much mulled wine at lunchtime, lets start again.....

Happy New Year to all Belles!

We had two clowns, a purple Quality Street, two fairies, a Christmas pudding, a rheindeer and a french lady. The prizewinner was the Christmas pudding - Angela, who recieved a set of Cath Kidston hand creams. Thanks very much to the landlady and the manager at The Fox Goes Free for their wonderful mulled wine...hic...burp....and we'll be back next year for more!

We had a fun ride today, meeting outside Goodwood Hotel, not much cycling but plenty of photos to enjoy.....

Helmets in the pub....

On leaving the pub we split into two groups - one went back home the easy way - without any hills (obviously the reason being they had rather too many glasses of mulled wine!) and there was my group who took on Charlton Hill - well done to Mercy and Claire for their bravery!

Thanks to all the Belles who came out today - Elise, Claire, Angela, Sandra, Tizzie, Gill, Mercy, Nikki.

All the very best for 2012.

Christmas Eve ride

Great to see everyone this morning.....Elise, Claire, Mercy, Sandra, Nikki, Angela, Steph, Tizzie and welcome back Leyla!

We all decorated our bikes in a Christmas theme, Tizzie brought along her wonderful singing teddy.....

A new type of water bottle.....

The Jingle Belles......

With much enthusiasm from Tizzie, it didn't take her long to repair her flat tyre....

Steph's bike with pretty christmas tree on the handle bars....

From here we made our way to our cafe in Bosham where the tide was starting to come in....



A swan having one of our mince pies

On leaving Bosham we were all admiring this lovely apricot coloured cat sitting watching the world go by.......unfortunately Lelya turned around to look at the cat and.....

oops, over she goes......!!

She was fine. We then made our way towards Chidham for a glass of mulled wine and a mince pie at The Old House at Home pub - a place we'll have to visit again on another ride as we see they do cream teas!

Not much cycling today, but it was fun. We all cycled back to the start and said our goodbyes and Happy Christmases. Good to see everyone today.

Happy Christmas and Happy New Year to all Belles!!

Saturday, December 17 - Maratona ride

We met at 9am this morning, another cold yet sunny winter morning. Welcome new Belle - Alison, Elise, Mercy and Steph were also out.

We cycled up New Barn Lane towards the East Dean crossroads, turning right here when it suddenly started to sleet, which was not expected. Just further along this road approximately 6 deer shot across our path, looked like youngsters, rushing over into the woods. We carried on along towards Benges crossroads but unfortunately, Alison had a puncture on her back wheel. Within seconds Alison had the wheel off and busily found the culprit - which looked like a thorn - new tip for everyone....she always carries within her puncture kit a pair of tweezers which were perfect for pulling out the thorn.

We changed from cycling to Petworth, over to Midhurst and back via Cocking due to the wet and cold weather, instead we cycled our 'Heyshott route'. Good testing ride this and we all made it and were even encouraged on the Cocking hill by a 6 year old who was helping his dad clear part of side track on the hill.

Down into Cocking we then made for West Dean cafe, the weather had improved by this time and it was now dry and sunny again.

After mince pies, cake, tea and coffees we decided to go back home via the Centurion Way rather than up Charlton hill this week. We said goodbye to Steph and Alison at the Lavant point as they were going on towards Chichester. Mercy, Elise and myself carried on via Lavant and cut through Goodwood and back to the hotel.

Mileage - 32 miles - hilly and testing.
Speed - I gather Alison hit 34 mph going down Duncton hill!!

Good to see everyone today.

Maratona ride Saturday, December 10

We met at 1pm, which worked out well as there was a frost first thing. No time to take photos today as we were busy cycling up and down hills ...and trying to keep warm!

We started off at the Godowood Hotel, went up New Barn Lane, past Sculpture at Goodwood, straight across towards East Dean and down the hill, turning left at the pond and then on up Charlton Hill. I did this a couple of times, mainly to keep warm. From here we went back down Charlton Hill turning right towards East Dean and cycled up the East Dean hill - we all did this twice. Going down was much colder than going up.

After cycling the hills twice I found it was easier the second time around!  Not many miles in distance but in gradient, it felt quite far.

Next week we are cycling a much longer ride - meeting at 9am.

Elise, Angla, Fiona, Mercy and Sandra were out.

Sunday, December 4

Another good turnout this morning - congratulations to Angela for completing the Kenya womenVcancer charity ride and she successfully completed the Gold section, so very well done to her! We think its the BB's training programme which helped get her there!! And welcome back Fiona whom we haven't seen for a few months. Sandra, Caroline, Steph and Elise were also out today and all wearing our brand new spotty windproof/showerproof jackets which look great and received them in record time.

We met at Goodwood Hotel, cycled through to Lavant, passing the Royal Oak and made our way to Chilgrove cycling via the back lanes and eventually coming out by The Fish House. On up the Chilgrove hill instead of turning left I carried on and took the following left hand turning, a new way and I think a little bit better.

From here we went up the hard short steep hill, it not very long but it always gets you, even one of the farmers along the route said 'bet that's difficult!' - it was. From the top its the best bit, a long smooth downhill run almost all the way to Compton. Our favourite tea shop was open and we all sat down for the usual tea and cakes.

We said goodbye to Sandra and Fiona as they had to get back home, we all carried on towards Funtingdon then to West Stoke then to Lavant, the same way we came and eventually ending back at the hotel around 1pm.

Elise and myself cycled back to Tangmere

The previous night most of the Maratona Belles met at my place for a strategy meeting, the conclusion is that we all have booked our flights - departing Gatwick on Wed, June 27! Lots of very useful tips from Malc last night. We have lots to do in preparation, but we'll do it, I have no doubt!

Maratona Ride, Saturday November 19

Elise and myself caught the 10.25 train from Chichester to Cosham, we bumped into Leyla and her friend at Chi station, she was off cycling to West Wittering and promises to come out riding with us on a Sunday very soon.

At Cosham we met Mercy and we all cycled to the Mountbatten Centre in Portsmouth, took us about 10 mins. We met up with Caroline and Gill arrived shortly afterwards.

Their outdoor track was most impressive with inclines and a super smooth surface. Take a look at Mercy's tracker....you can see the circles around the track....

We all warmed up by cycling a few times around the track, then Paul started us off initially with some basic handling skills, individually leading what was the main focus and then safe group riding. Out on the track, he set up a few slalom courses to negotiate. From there we looked at a few techniques for safely moving within a group of riders using the course he set up, riding in pairs, remembering to communicate with each other.

Very worthwhile morning and we are planning on going back for another course in mid January. Anyone interested please let me know.

We started at about 12.15 and finished two hours later. Elise, Mercy and myself cycled back home, dropping Mercy off at Chi station. I arrived home at about 4.15pm - a fun day and for once no hills!

Easy Belles ride - Sunday November 13

Tizzie kindly offered to lead this ride for me today.

Setting off from the start point at 10.08 were myself, Sally, Lynn and three new Belles – Leona, Laura and Denise (very nearly ‘L’s Belles!).  Passing the Spinnaker restaurant, we almost got to the sea lock when I had a call from Nikki who had arrived a little late.  After a few calls to and from, and still no sight of Nikki, we had to push on, it was nice and sunny, but the wind had picked up.  We made a quick de-tour to Dell Quay for a little peek before heading back to the Salterns Way.  We had brief moment of concern when Lynn took a tumble just outside the entrance to Fishbourne church but were quickly able to get going again. 

We went past the front of Chichester College where some of the Belles were surprised to see half an airplane parked up!  Our last ‘hurdle’ before stopping for tea and cakes was crossing the very busy road outside the train station, but as the railway gates were down, we got across easily.  On to the ‘tea shop’ and while we were parking our bikes, I spotted a lonesome cyclist sat outside … Nikki!  We enjoyed a good chatter but despite the sunshine, the wind got through our clothes and we decided to move on. 

We waved goodbye to Sally at this point as this was where she had started from, and Nikki who headed off home as she had more or less done the ride in the opposite direction!  The canal path was not as busy as usual, I would imagine it was the cold wind putting people off.  We stopped by the Selsey Tram crossing point to give a (very brief) history lesson and found myself being heckled by a local who told us that was all rubbish and “no one knows anything ‘cos there was no records”!  

Having decided this was not a good time to mention to the other Belles that the Selsey Tram route could be resurrected as a cycle route, we said a cheerful goodbye to our heckler and bumped our way along the (increasingly muddy) towpath.  On reaching the Donnington crossing, we decided that, as the next section of the towpath was a bit worse, it would be a good idea to do the last leg of our journey on the road via Wophams Lane arriving back at the marina about midday having done about 10 miles.  

After a brief discussion, it was agreed that this had been a very Easy Belles ride, and that we would be keen to do about 20 miles next time.