Long hot weekend ahead

So I'm told.
Every year (we're a bit like that) Barney does the London to Brighton Cycle ride (in aid of the British Heart Foundation).
58 miles of insanity. I am one of the support team...that is to say, having got Barney, Adam and two bikes to Clapham Common at 6.30 in the morning, I escape from enraged stewards (because the blokes persuaded me to park in a plainly non parking spot) and drive down to Brighton. Where, after a two or three hour traffic jam, I hang about for many many hours in the boiling sun, occasionally diving into jewellery shops and cafes for sustenance, interest and shade.
then I troop over to the start line together with other support group members (the Pot Kiln have a nominal team together) and we all wobble about trying to get the definitive finishing line picture as the team swoop to the end. They're pretty relaxed by then as they all wait for each other at the top of the Ditchling Beacon (it's a killer going up the north face) and then freewheeel down the 8 miles hill into Brighton.
It's a kind of major charity event...a bit like the London Marathon but without the telly presence...Roads are closed for several thousand cyclists to fill, and the cyclists themselves start leaving at 6ish and are fired off at 15 minute intervals (in groups of lots) till about midday. The first arrivals are the maniac tour de france types and arrive an hour or two after the start. The rest arrive in surges and dribbles till about 9 or 10 pm by which time there's probably only a couple of stewards remaining to verify that they did it!
On my comparatively peaceful and pleasant drive down, I cross over the old A23, once or twice and glimpse a seething mass of cyclists twinkling in the sun like a million of those very shiny beetles. Little legs pumping and heads down. Only it's not quite like that...the cycle route is so crowded, they have to wobble around each other and overtaking isn't so much a matter of choosing the right spot as of finding a momentary gap in the crowd. New collective noun...a seethe of LB cyclists.
I must say, on my journey down every year, I surge over hills and downs and near the end of the journey, from the top of one high ridge I can see Ditchling Beacon like a giant wall across the horizon. And I know my beloved ones will struggle up it (there's a good deal of cachet in riding all the way up instead of getting off and cheers and congratulations for every one who does it for the first time on pedal power alone) and I have to say I look at the cloudless skies and the hot sun (or once or twice at the howling winds and sheeting rain) and offer up a little wish for them to get safely up without breaking a leg or a heart.
I know there are longer, hotter, faster and harder rides. But I'm proud of them all the same.
and I do love to spend a day wandering around Brighton and shopping and, well, stuff!
If you're even slightly interested,here's a link to some pics of last year's ride.Pictures speak quietly: London to Brighton Cycle Ride June 2005
But there will be pics of this year naturally :)

I find the post looks half dressed without any pics so I just slipped these in...storm warning on one side of the house and sunny and flowery on the other :)