The route was View Point, A22, up and down to the girls school, up and round Haliloo valley golf course, up to the ridge, down from gangers to Knights for tea, up long hill, down past Al Fayed's and back to Godstone.

The weather was forgiving, with warm sun even poking through in places. Lots of standing water meant a lot of riders looking semi-fossilised by the end!

The terrain was challenging in places and hilarious in others. More people clawed their way up the slippery slope from Woldingham to the north downs than I'd expected, some nice wide muddy corners resulted in some (mostly unintentional) foot out drifting action and a few near misses with trees, Conor ended up looking like he'd been to a posh spa for a mudpack and the Al Fayed's descent included some dubious lines, big grins and threats of sending me the bill for worn out bearings.

The mood was good, the cake was good, the tea was welcome if or when it turned up. A nice way to start december.

Mat