The Gong Ride, great fun, great day out. Had said less than 3 hours, so scored a 6am start, the first wave. Lined up with about 10 NSCC. Pedestrian pace 19kmh for the first 5k stuck in bike traffic with lots of traffic lights. Then it opened up a bit and Alan got on the front at ~35. One of our guys fell over, stopped at lights and I was stuck behind him. So struggled up the first hill and was losing sight of the front guys when they pulled over at Loftus for a muffin. Stayed there for about 10 minutes an regrouped and off up the hill again. Held on OK up to Waterfall and then came the second main hill. This was a struggle and had to work very hard to hold on. Stopped for another regroup at the lookout - awesome day for it and could see the Gong in the distance.
Waited a fair while for the police escort down the hill and then it was a team time trial. Passing lots of bikes on the left (including one guy walking his bike up one of the hills) and then at around Austinmer we were passed by a group of "young guns" who were hammering quicker than us. Latched on and it was a war of attrition from there into a strong headwind, but managed to finish with the front group - a couple of favourable lights helped. Unfortunately then had to wait another 2 hours for my bag to arrive on the second truck.