The Level to Rottingdean, via Falmer and Woodingdean, and back to Palace Pier
On the day Chris Froome retained his title for the third time, Clarion cyclists gathered for a Sunday morning Tour de France homage outside the Level’s Velo cafe. Angela and Sean’s route then took us up to Falmer and over the Downs to Rottingdean for lunch.

The weather was overcast and warm for most of the of the day, with some welcome light rain as we reached the top of the Downs. Nick, Fred, Angela, Helen, Rob, Julian, Henry, Corinne (who joined us at Rottingdean), Prudence, Chris and Richard were the 11 Clarionista participants.

Our first stop was the Falmer village pond, which was home for a number of gulls, ducks and geese. We assumed the light brown birds were geese, but nobody seemed to be totally sure.

We had a quick look in Falmer’s St Laurence church and discussed the merits of the two Fellowship of the Holy Spirt paintings by Sue Barnes, which some of the cycling art critics found a little intimidating.

The steepest part of the route was the ascent to the Downs, where we stopped to take in an excellent panoramic view across a large corn field.

We also met some ghurkas stewarding an Oxfam 100km walk.

The downhill ride to the lunch stop in Rottingdean’s Coach House was then only a few minutes away.
The protracted messy aftermath of the Tory Brexit referendum was discussed at length over lunch, while some of us also found time to comment on the quality of the chips served at the Coach House and added a few more chip photos to the Clarion Flickr food portfolio.

After lunch, those of us who needed to return to Brighton took the always rewarding undercliff route to the Palace Pier. This was a varied and thoroughly enjoyable ride, so thanks to Angela and Sean for organising. I hadn’t been on a Clarion ride since last October and really must try and take part in another one soon!
Nick
More photos on Flickr.