No hills ,no mud (well not quite) equals 29 miles and back by 1.30 A new start point today from Earlswood Lakes attracted about 20 riders. The route, down the N21 towards Horley and looping back to Smallfield was on good tracks at a swift pace. A new track (to most of us) brought us to the north of Smallfield and after a couple of zig zags brought us to Outwood where we met with three riders who missed us at the start.
Feeling slightly jaded and still suffering from (man flu) I made my way to the Inn on the Pond to lead the twenty one attendees to Westerham on this bright morning. Starting with my usual route we took the N21 towards Brewer St but continual on past the golf course and down Outwood Lane to join the Greensand way towards Tilburstow Hill. Focusing on the time I tried to keep the pace fluid and group together, and with Richard acting as back marker we where making really good progress towards Limpsfield Common.
Silver and Bronze but no Gold. 10th February 2007
Dave Peacock, Gareth Ashton and Dave Rickets were the only Redhill cc members foolish enough to enter the latest round of the Evans Trailbreak race at Bramley near Guildford. The roads to Bramley Village Hall should have been enough of a clue as to what to expect on Saturday morning. More sensible ‘would be racers’ had looked out of their windows and gone back to bed!
200 of the 225 riders who had booked a place on the start line turned up to what was going to be a muddy slog.
I was on my way to the Club Night on Friday when Jon called to say we were leading the ride from Westcott. So Jon and I had a breakfast route meeting before cycling to the Church meet point. In persistent rain there were 9 riders ready to roll.
It was just above zero degrees when fourteen of us set off for a ride that promised the Ashdown Forest as our destination. Though dry the air was full of mist, which chilled to the bone so a brisk pace, and a few climbs seemed to be in order to get the circulation working. Unfortunately for Eric the therapy did not work and he left us at Charlwood with frozen extremities and the rest of us carried on through the lanes to Faygate followed by the climb up to Colgate.
22 of us met at Reigate Hill. It was a really bright sunny morning which seemed so welcome after all the rain and gloom of recent months. We went past Colley Hill, over the M-Way,across the golf Course,up Tye Lane, around the edge of Headley Heath and past Nower Wood Nature reserve. The ground had really started to dry out at last and this enabled faster progress instead of having to plough through deep mud or battling against wheel-spin. Across the Mickleham Downs and past the base of Box Hill where Sue turned off to do a shorter ride.
Twenty three riders arrived at the Angel PH. This was the largest group of on-road riders I have seen since I joined the club five years ago. Two guests from Kingston Wheelers with a friend who lives in Reigate; three new riders who came as a result of our link with the YMCA and three other new riders and I never found out how they made contact (Web site perhaps?). The rest of the party were familiar faces. Perhaps the sun brought everyone out; certainly we had the best weather to date this year.
Reigate to Epsom
This being my first Club Run for quite some time, it was good to see some new faces on the Sunday morning; namely Alex with this being his first ride with Club. Mike led the group out from the Angel at a steady pace and we rode over to Brockham and crossed the Dorking road, down Pixham Lane. Followed the dual carrigeway and climbed up to Westhumble - this is where all the fun started. We must have climbed several hundred metres in a very short stretch which was a real eye-opener for me, at least!
Our destination last Sunday was the RSPB bird sanctuary at Pulborough Brooks famous for its fine café and lots of birds. The nine of us who set out from the Angel included the club’s multi-champ George Roux plus Andre and newcomer Rory who was seeing if our club rides were better than Addiscombe’s. With an easterly wind at our backs we fairly flew along to Rusper and on to Horsham. At some point before Horsham a rider from VC Londres who soon struck up an animated conversation with Steve Walter joined us.