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2016 ESCA RELIABILITY TRIAL
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Worthing Excelsior is affiliated to ESCA (East Sussex CA).
The presidency of ESCA is done on rotation by club name alphabetically. In 2016 it was our turn and Robert Downham was president for the year.
One major responsibility is to organise the annual ESCA Reliability Trial and so Robert, ably assisted by many helpers, did just that.
The presidency of ESCA is done on rotation by club name alphabetically. In 2016 it was our turn and Robert Downham was president for the year.
One major responsibility is to organise the annual ESCA Reliability Trial and so Robert, ably assisted by many helpers, did just that.
As a club we last won the first six of these events, the last one being in 1991. We show no signs of adding to that tally any time soon though. Given the efforts put in by our club in organising the event it was disappointing that we managed only 8 entrants as opposed to Eastbourne Rovers 47 and Lewes Wanderers 32. Even Sussex Nomads managed one more than us.
As it turned out only seven of our riders started and just two managed to meet the qualifying time. These were Ken Gormanly and Phil Frean (with a 4 hour target). All of the more ambitious 3.5 hour entrants missed their declared target time: Rick Hughes, Rocco Sepe and Steve Feest by 2 minutes, Pete Logan by 7 minutes, and Rome Bhamra by 35 minutes.
As it turned out only seven of our riders started and just two managed to meet the qualifying time. These were Ken Gormanly and Phil Frean (with a 4 hour target). All of the more ambitious 3.5 hour entrants missed their declared target time: Rick Hughes, Rocco Sepe and Steve Feest by 2 minutes, Pete Logan by 7 minutes, and Rome Bhamra by 35 minutes.
DETAILS
EVENT REPORT
Thanks are due to Phil Frean for providing a report of events on the day:
Sunday 6th November, 2016. A beautiful, sunny morning. The day of the East Sussex Cycling Association Reliability Trial, organised this year by Worthing Excelsior. The event HQ was the Downlands Community School in Hassocks. The weather was chilly, but the autumn colours were spectacular.
With recent form dictating that the 4 hour ride was the sensible option for me, I set off in the 8:30 group with WECC’s Ken Gormanly, a couple of Sussex Nomads, and a handful of Lewes Wanderers for company.
It didn’t start well when the rider at the front turned left instead of right out of the school gates! However, that sorted, we set off at a brisk pace and averaged 18 mph for the first 10 miles to just south of Newick. My Garmin was indicating -2.0 degrees Centigrade so I was glad I was wearing winter kit; particularly glad of heavy duty overshoes and thick winter gloves!
At Plumpton, a Lotus owners’ club run came towards us, with around 20 Lotus and Caterham 7's, plus a smattering of Lotus Elans. Not something you see every day…
By Newick the group had split and Ken and I rode the rest of the way round together. Though Fletching, a beautiful village and a familiar name of a Bonfire Society that attends Littlehampton’s bonfire celebrations on the Saturday before Bonfire Night; northwards towards Wych Cross and past the entrance to the Llama Park (I’m sure the site used to be the fruit farm that I had a summer job at as a teenager, earning one shilling and 10 pence per basket for picking blackcurrants).
Turning west after Wych Cross, the first check point was just north of Sharpthorne (at around 26 miles). By this time my Garmin was reading a positively tropical +2.0 degrees Centigrade! With our cards stamped, it was on towards the ultra-steep climb (19% max) at Cob Lane. This was never going to be easy with a standard chainwheel. I made it to within 30 metres of the top, however I was going so slowly at this point that I was in danger of toppling over, so I unclipped and walked the final few metres. Between Ardingly and Balcombe the road undulated between two arms of the Ardingly Reservoir (created in 1978 by damming a tributary of the River Ouse).
We reached the A23 at Staplefield where we stopped a while to let the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run through. It’s a testament to the dedication of the owners and their mechanics that so many of these vehicles are still running, given that they are all pre-1905. I’d assumed that there would only be handful of vehicles (perhaps as many as 50) taking part. A check on the event website afterwards revealed 436 entries and 341 finishers!
It was a treat to see so many classic cars parked by the roadside. It resembled a scene from ‘Back to the Future’, with cars ranging from a 1920's Morris Oxford bullnose to plenty of Morris Minors from the 1940s and 50s. I was particularly impressed by a beautifully presented 1930's Morgan 3 wheeler (the one with the v-twin engine at the front and the single wheel at the back) in British Racing Green.
Having had our cards stamped at the second checkpoint at Slaugham (at 37 miles) it was on to Warninglid and back on familiar Sunday club run territory.
A brisk ride back through Wineham; Albourne (birthplace in 1830 of James Starley, inventor of the tangentially spoked wheel amongst other things, and father of the bicycle industry); Hurstpierpoint (familiar to me from schooldays); to the crossroad with the A273 just before Hassocks. Here we met the Veteran Car Run again. The traffic was backed up for half a mile at the junction, but we were able to pick our way to the front of the queue, cross the road, then swoop down into Hassocks town centre. Here groups of riders were hanging around, waiting for their earliest permissible finish time. We reached the HQ’s gates at 12:10, waited until 12:20 then rolled up to the finish line to clock 3 hours 50 minutes for the 50 mile ride.
Recent editions of this event have used small village halls as the HQ, so it was a welcome change to have a large car park and a spacious canteen area with plenty of room to sit down and eat after the ride. Thanks very much to Rob Downham and the team for organising such an excellent event.
With recent form dictating that the 4 hour ride was the sensible option for me, I set off in the 8:30 group with WECC’s Ken Gormanly, a couple of Sussex Nomads, and a handful of Lewes Wanderers for company.
It didn’t start well when the rider at the front turned left instead of right out of the school gates! However, that sorted, we set off at a brisk pace and averaged 18 mph for the first 10 miles to just south of Newick. My Garmin was indicating -2.0 degrees Centigrade so I was glad I was wearing winter kit; particularly glad of heavy duty overshoes and thick winter gloves!
At Plumpton, a Lotus owners’ club run came towards us, with around 20 Lotus and Caterham 7's, plus a smattering of Lotus Elans. Not something you see every day…
By Newick the group had split and Ken and I rode the rest of the way round together. Though Fletching, a beautiful village and a familiar name of a Bonfire Society that attends Littlehampton’s bonfire celebrations on the Saturday before Bonfire Night; northwards towards Wych Cross and past the entrance to the Llama Park (I’m sure the site used to be the fruit farm that I had a summer job at as a teenager, earning one shilling and 10 pence per basket for picking blackcurrants).
Turning west after Wych Cross, the first check point was just north of Sharpthorne (at around 26 miles). By this time my Garmin was reading a positively tropical +2.0 degrees Centigrade! With our cards stamped, it was on towards the ultra-steep climb (19% max) at Cob Lane. This was never going to be easy with a standard chainwheel. I made it to within 30 metres of the top, however I was going so slowly at this point that I was in danger of toppling over, so I unclipped and walked the final few metres. Between Ardingly and Balcombe the road undulated between two arms of the Ardingly Reservoir (created in 1978 by damming a tributary of the River Ouse).
We reached the A23 at Staplefield where we stopped a while to let the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run through. It’s a testament to the dedication of the owners and their mechanics that so many of these vehicles are still running, given that they are all pre-1905. I’d assumed that there would only be handful of vehicles (perhaps as many as 50) taking part. A check on the event website afterwards revealed 436 entries and 341 finishers!
It was a treat to see so many classic cars parked by the roadside. It resembled a scene from ‘Back to the Future’, with cars ranging from a 1920's Morris Oxford bullnose to plenty of Morris Minors from the 1940s and 50s. I was particularly impressed by a beautifully presented 1930's Morgan 3 wheeler (the one with the v-twin engine at the front and the single wheel at the back) in British Racing Green.
Having had our cards stamped at the second checkpoint at Slaugham (at 37 miles) it was on to Warninglid and back on familiar Sunday club run territory.
A brisk ride back through Wineham; Albourne (birthplace in 1830 of James Starley, inventor of the tangentially spoked wheel amongst other things, and father of the bicycle industry); Hurstpierpoint (familiar to me from schooldays); to the crossroad with the A273 just before Hassocks. Here we met the Veteran Car Run again. The traffic was backed up for half a mile at the junction, but we were able to pick our way to the front of the queue, cross the road, then swoop down into Hassocks town centre. Here groups of riders were hanging around, waiting for their earliest permissible finish time. We reached the HQ’s gates at 12:10, waited until 12:20 then rolled up to the finish line to clock 3 hours 50 minutes for the 50 mile ride.
Recent editions of this event have used small village halls as the HQ, so it was a welcome change to have a large car park and a spacious canteen area with plenty of room to sit down and eat after the ride. Thanks very much to Rob Downham and the team for organising such an excellent event.
And thanks to Robert Downham for the photographs:
