Cycling Weekly: CW rides, Ashford with Ian Field

Somehow the comic made a mistake this week and decided not to write a feature on a ride in South Yorkshire.

Instead they went on a ride with Ian Field (great name for a cyclo crosser) around Ashford in East/South Kent.

I used to work in Wye, a village up the road, so am familiar with riding from Rupture Cove to Wye, and know some of the roads around there.

But I hadn't cycled up Wye Downs for at least 10 years, until Saturday. Depending on where you measure it from, the climb is 1.5 -2 miles long, climbing about 480 feet, which won't make any list on great British climbs, but is substantial for round here.

Its about the same gradient as Mt. Ventoux if anyone's interested, but you'd need to ride it 8 or 9 times to get the same effect!

The weather was good and perhaps because of the comic's write up there were loads of cyclists around. They were all vocal and welcoming, absolutely all.

What confused me was when I got over the top. I'd looked at a map before I went out and knew I had to go north east to head homeward, but somehow I made a few unwise decisions. Instead of the couple of small steep climbs I was expecting before I got back to roads I know well, I ended going up 6 or 7 steep narrow lanes through tiny hamlets, whose names I was unfamiliar with. There were plenty of cyclists even on these back roads.

Then I started remembering doing a couple of reliability trials round there with Thanet RC in the mid 90s, oh how I suffered then and suffered on Saturday.

Eventually I got to Stone Street and recognised where I was, about 5 miles further north than expected.

From then on it was a pleasant ride home, though I was tired. There were loads of cyclists about near Rhodes Minnis and everyone seemed very cheerful.

Its surprising how different a ride can be by just going a few miles outside of your usual routes. Although I'll wait till my climbing's back on form until I do exactly that route again.

Incidentally the comic and Ian Field missed a trick by not going up Whitehill, north of Wye between the A28 and A251, its a longish steep climb which has been used in the Tour de France(94), the Prutour and Rochester classic, a fine climb.

Its a good area to ride in, if you're looking for somewhere quiet in Kent

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Invicta

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