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Day 1 started with a team briefing in rendezvous cafe, it was energy bars, maps and bananas all round. Well, with the exception of Matt who opted for, according to him, "the cyclist's secret weapon" of a sausage butty!
last minute bike checks and a few safety wees later we were ready for the off.
Not since the Olympics had London seen such crowds, as we emerged from the office car park it seemed the entire building had turned out to cheer us on our way! It was a close to being pro cyclists as any of us will ever get!
And that was it, off we went on the first leg between Richmond and Brockham!
Surprisingly it was a fairly uneventful trip, well apart from Greg, Dan and I (Jamie) getting a little lost. We are sticking to our story "we took the scenic route".
Nutrition was again the focus at the first stop. Craig joined Matt and unveiled his own secret weapon, a prawn sandwich, apparently it's what Wiggo eats!
In other 'first-stop' news, Neil was getting well into the van driver stereotype, he bought himself a copy of The Sun and has apparently been honking at girls, but that's unconfirmed.
Like the first, the second session went and before no time we pulled into our Cuckfield petrol station for a refuel on gourmet Ginsters sandwiches.
It wasn't all plain sailing though, Joe announced that he had been suffering severe overheating issues throughout sector 2 with his crash helmet. The general consensus seemed to be "that's what you get for wearing a silly girl's pink hat".
Feeling revitalised we set off on our final leg of the day to our overnight stop in Lewes. Unlike the previous 2, this one proved a little more challenging in many ways.
Firstly, all 3 teams took completely different routes. The most notable detour being Deb, Matt and Greg's group, they somehow ended up in the middle of a housing estate with the only way out being a 3 mile backtrack. Needless to say they took the 'easy' route out, scaling a 6ft fence (with bikes) in order to rejoin the desired route!
We might be good at organising exhibitions, but it seems map reading is not one of our strong points!
Shane also suffered the 1st puncture of the trip, although that is also unconfirmed. My group, Joe, Craig and I think it may be a cunning excuse, as we came in first for the day!
Oh and Debs was the first faller of the trip, not at speed though so don't worry she's fine! She won't be the last!
However, all of those incidents seemed very minor indeed when we pulled into the White Hart Hotel just before 6pm.
Van Man Neil was waiting for us and quick to inform us that there had been "a slight mix up". The polite way of saying "Matt has cocked-up and booked double rooms, not twins!"
You can imagine our delight, we are a close bunch, but spooning with a colleague seemed a step too far!
We managed to sort a couple of twins, but Graeme and Shane took one for the team and stuck with a double! Of course then enduring much micky taking from the group!
The evening consisted of a few pints in the sun and dinner at pizza express.
Neil and Shane were operating a strict drinks policy refusing to order me and Matt and lager top. However later in the night Graeme managed to get away with ordering a Rose Spritzer!
During dinner we all discussed our favourite moments from day one, the clear winner seemed to be the point in the cycling where a few of us were flagging, still expecting Lewes to be at least 15 mile away, then out of nowhere came a "Lewes 5 mile" signpost! Absolute result!!!
So that's it for day 1, check out some of the photos and videos! There will be more to come tomorrow from The Reed Wheelers!
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