A Group 9 June

Dorking - Cranleigh - West Horsley

There was a good turnout at Dorking, considering the number of absentees due to Dieppe and the need to save legs due to the rigours of Wednesday evening racing.

Present were Vic, Jeff, Toni, John M, John B, Neil, Will, Ed, Brian and Rob. The day’s lunch destination was Cranleigh, and our route took us through Westhumble and up onto Ranmore, the leader’s claim that we were in fact due to cover the route of the Hilly 50 being rightly met with universal scepticism.

The usual rapid descent of White Down was followed by a section of the A25 through Gomshall and into Shere, and then some climbing to Farley Green and Shamley Green. Shortly after Shamley Green en route to Cranleigh, we encountered a fine body of cyclists travelling in the opposite direction, which proved to be ‘B’ group heading for lunch at Shamley Green.

Lunch was taken at Little Park Hatch, and met with general approval being long on quantity and quality and short on price. Interestingly, we also found out at lunch that the garden benches had just been painted with green wood preservative, a fact only discovered by Toni, when he sat on one, and found his new cycling top had miraculously been transformed into a pleasant shade of ‘Cuprinol Green’. Vic got off comparatively lightly with green hands. When we asked how we were supposed to know the benches had been painted, in the absence of a ‘wet paint’ sign, the answer was that the seats had been placed at an angle, the significance of which however seemed to have escaped the next punter about to sit down, who we saved in the nick of time from a similar fate by some raucous yelling.

The landlord was very apologetic and offered to wash Toni’s top, (the paint was fortunately water based). So after this excitement, we completed a very pleasant lunch whilst basking in the sunshine, and, Toni’s jacket having had its service wash courtesy of the Little Park Hatch Pub and Laundrette, we continued on our way.

We carried on for a bit due South to Alford and Dunsfold, then headed North through Hascombe before heading down Lodkin Hill and through Thorncombe Street, looking at its best on a sunny June afternoon. We passed through Shalford and then Guildford, when the necessity of getting to our tea stop at Horsley precipitated a sudden burst of acceleration, ensuring we arrived in good time.

Despite the forecast of heavy showers, I’m pleased to say we had no rain at all, apart from about three drops at the top of White Down. It’s always good to beat the rain, and even better to see as I arrived home that there had been an earlier cloudburst judging by the amount of surface water on the roads, which again we had fortunately missed.

I covered 69 miles in all.

Rob