22 riders arrived at the Plough in Bletchingley!

The thought of a pint after a few miles made it that much easier to get out of bed and also brought along some new faces. Connor (The Bringer of Rain), who’s ride last week inspired me to order some sunshine! This thankfully did come and broke through the clouds, which was very welcome after all the rain! Our ride commenced toward Outwood Lane, turning left at the pond, into the very wet and muddy trails. It was not long before we had our first puncture of the day.

Unfortunately, Lance had to retire early due the severity of damage to his tubeless tyre, so we were now down to 21, but not for long. My phone started to ring and Matt was hunting us down trying to follow our tyre marks in the gloppy mud. Matt decided 22 miles was not enough, so set off at 7.30am for some extra miles but was late back to our meeting point, something about stopping for a fry-up? Who can blame him! Nothing quite like a good fry up! Matt caught us up on a nice bit of single track between South Park Lane and Tilburstow Hill. At this point, I thought I would let a few riders go on ahead as there is a very large water logged area which I tend to walk around!!! I stepped back giving the front runners the option to ride or walk and two took the option to ride and only got half way through the lake! I turned up to see Simon knee deep dragging his bike from the lagoon! A missed photo opportunity! After a quick climb, we came to the best down hill of the day, the slippery conditions made this slower than normal, but judging by the whooping sounds from behind; (Matt) and the big grins at the bottom, everyone enjoyed it.

We pulled into the tea stop at Knights Oxted and were greeted very well from all the staff even though we were covered `head to toe` in mud, but with a few borrowed chairs from inside, the patio became a RCC only zone! Especially for the muddied! By this time Simon’s trench foot was setting in! After tea we made our climb up to Tandridge Hill Lane, turning left onto a steep offroad section, A quick stop at the bomb crater at Marden Park (we would have all done it but someone has only gone and put a fence round it!!!!), then a drop down to Woldingham, where Terry and Cheryl left the pack, up to View Point, one last downhill to Church lane, up past the golf course and back to The Plough for a well deserved pint. Jon, Matt and I then rode back to Caterham taking in one of Matt’s twisty single tracks from View Point, thanks for that Matt and thank you all for a great ride; hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did! Colin.