Saturday ride in Kent

I took the opportunity of a 3 hour respite from the rain to go for a ride on a route I have not done in a while
When its summer, we are on our carbon wonder bikes, I am 10lbs lighter and 40 watts fitter this ride can be an attack-fest
Now it was just an achievement to get to the top of these hills !

We start by taking the country lanes around Farnborugh that lead to Biggin hill. Here there is a very cool replica of a RAF Hurricane that was used in WWII





This is Pligrims way - if you are feeling fit you can absolutely smash it along here and not see a car for miles



Triathlon anyone?



This was definitely a day for the winter bike, with 25mm tyres and full mud guards. The only problem was whenever it went uphill (and this here is 15%) I felt like a bag of cement...



The classic 2 hills of the area are Toys and Ide. You can climb both from either side and they meet at the top, so if you are feeling frisky you can make patterns of 8 as you did your hill work


This is the reward you get from the South side of Ide - in the distance is Bough Beech nature reserve



This is the last climb of the day - Star Hill



I swear the photo does not do it justice - for some reason I seem to find this hill far worse than 'harder' hills in the area. some of the racing snakes do hill repeats up Star - the most I have done is 3 before I gave up. To me the whole idea of climbing quickly is to get to the top so its over (and your friends are still suffering) - I cannot seem to push as hard if I know I am just going to do it again !