Colin's Return part 2

As I rode up to Bletchingley for the start of my ride, two things struck me. I wasn’t wearing a jacket for the first time this year and the bridleway up to Rabies Heath Road was mostly dry. The third thing (there’s always a third thing) was that the sun was shining.

I arrived at the car park behind Lawrences Auction Rooms and was soon joined by Mike, Stuart, Cheryl, Graham and Colin who was back from his second broken collar bone (actually the same one twice). I felt the weight of responsibility for ensuring that it wasn’t third time unlucky. We were also happy to welcome two new riders – Annalie and Ian. Very conscious that the last time I led a ride from here I lost two people within the first 100 yards,  I kept double checking that everyone was still with us until we’d made the extremely gnarly trip (Colin nearly mown down from behind by a bus) down Bletchingley High Street the whole way to the left turn down Church Lane. We made our way up the N21 Sustrans route to View Point where we stopped for a breather. Colin and Ian were missing and it was quite a while before Colin appeared on his own. Ian is on his way back to fitness following a back injury and , finding that the climb past Kitchen Copse was too much for his current abilities he’d decided to turn back. However, he sent me a very nice email afterwards thanking Colin for his encouraging words and promising to be back when he is fitter. We carried on down to the bridge over the Caterham bypass. Some of us took the left hand line beside the second set of steps and had a few issues. I took the pro line down the right side (as approved by Aled) and was fine….. Over the bypass and the next set of steps have to be ridden or walked – no easy option available.  Various methods were employed, including stopping for a rest half way down. Colin (mind that collar bone) cleaned it easily.  We carried on past Woldingham Girls School , past Woldingham station and up the easy, apart from the first 50 yards, climb alongside the golf course to an early tea stop at Chelsham Knights. Graham and I succumbed to the temptation of the giant Danish pastries while everyone else had something a bit more modest. We sat outside in the Spring sunshine little suspecting the Mark Watney (see this week’s homework below*) moment that was to come. We were about to continue the ride when Graham discovered that his front brake had jammed on and no amount of  fiddling would free it. This is the kind of moment when you ask yourself what Mark Watney would do. Unfortunately no one had his phone number and he’s a fictional character anyway, so that wasn’t much help. Colin had the much better idea of trying NorthDowns Cycles half a mile down the road in Warlingham. So, Graham went to the bike shop, Colin set off for home, having decided that Warlingham to Bletchingley and back was probably enough for his first ride back, and Cheryl wanted a more direct route home and set off back on her own. That left four of us to continue the ride back to Bletchingley. We set off down the deceptively steep and fast descent of High Lane to Butlers Dene Road and then climbed Upland Road to the B269 and down the rooty fun descent beside Titsey Hill. Up Sandy Lane, through the woods and over the A25 to Wolfs Row then across the common and down Icehouse Wood towards Broadham Green and Tandridge where we turned up Jackass lane and then along the bridleway to Godstone. As we arrived in Godstone we met Sue Evans who, had just finished her ride. She’d gone to the wrong starting point and missed us at the start. Conscious that we’d already done about 20 miles and climbed about 2500 feet, I chose an easy way back to Bletchingley up North Park Lane then along the sandy track to Place Farm Road where Annalie turned off to head for home. That left me and Mike and Stuart to finish off the last couple of miles to the car park. However, Stuart had picked up a thorn and a change of tube was needed before we could continue. This was done to the accompaniment of the usual nerdy chat about tyre choice and that perennial favourite – going tubeless. It didn’t take long to get back to the car park where I left Stuart and Mike and headed off home. *Homework this week is to read “The Martian” by Andy Weir where you will learn all about Mark Watney.

Gwyn

Event / Article Type
MTB-Intermediate Bletchingley 07/03
RCC Bletch 7_3_2015