It also provides welcome relief for rider and/or machine with refreshment and general facilities.
For a few brief hours on the Sunday morning, the school car park became a busy workshop and service station. It was an opportunity for support crews to catch up with their charges, to re-fuel, perhaps a bit of fine-tuning, maybe some running repairs, although some were ambitious in what constituted this last category.
Many riders deliberately missed the stop. Inevitably, this year’s warm weather brought out the traffic, adding plenty of unwelcome hazards to the Epsom-Brighton journey. By late morning, Handcross village became badly congested. For others, it was on the pragmatic basis that: ‘If the bike’s going – why stop?’
Inevitably, for a few, Handcross marked the end of the road, throwing in the metaphorical towel. Bike preparation is one thing, but there’s always an element of luck in arriving on Brighton’s Madeira Drive.
