B Group - 9th July

Fifteen of us took off from Leatherhead at 11:15 and turned under the arch into Mill Lane to pass the nature reserve and head along Lower Road through Bookham and Effingham. Calvert Road and Dirtham Lane led to the A246 and thence into Green Dene which is always a joy to ride despite the coolness of the air in the shade of all those trees. From the top we descended Juniper Hill and Combe Bottom then across the A25 into Shere. We followed a fairly direct route along Sandy Lane, Hook Lane and Pursers Lane to Hoe. We followed the ups and downs of Hoe Lane, mostly down, to the Horsham Road for Sutton Abinger then rode up Water Lane and Sutton lane to the Abinger Hatch by Sutton Common. Irene came up to me with a smile and said that during a lifetime of cycling she had never come that way before which I found quite hard to believe.

The weather was kind enough to permit us to sit outside in the sun where we enjoyed our beverages and an assortment of soups and sandwiches and other things from a very decent menu. We were well looked after by the staff who were probably relieved that I didn’t turn up with the 33 people who came on my ride to this pub last year.

I would very much like to go to the Stephan Langton sometime but on this occasion I thought that the haul up to Leith Hill from Friday Street after lunch might finish some people off.  But from the Abinger Hatch this was a gentle climb and further supported my intention that this ride would involve a lot of climbing but over moderate gradients. Although my gps doesn’t yield all the statistics which can be produced by Garmin owners I see from my route plans that the morning ride involved 1241 feet of ascent and 863 feet of descent over 14 miles. The afternoon provided a further 1132 feet of ascent and 1435 feet of descent over 16.4 miles.

After lunch Pam, Gill and Irene left us so that they could collaborate over plans for a ride they are doing soon. This wasn’t prompted by any concern about riding up Leith Hill; Gill said that they went up White Down on their way home. Out of the frying pan and into the fire!

We wound our way to the top and around past Windy Gap and Coldharbour. On the way down towards Dorking nobody overshot the turn into Logmore Lane by any serious margin so we bumped and bobbled our way down this rural lane to Westcott where we crossed the A25 into Westcott Street and along Springfield Road to the cycle path through Milton Court Farm, one of Terry’s little discoveries. After Milton Court Lane Terry took us on another excursion, along Calvert Road which leads off from Ashcombe Road and then over a footbridge, across a corner of a vineyard and through a hole in the shrubbery to descend abruptly onto the A24 cycle path.

Jamie and his colleagues welcomed the six of us who arrived at Bike Beans and served large cups of tea and coffee with good cyclist’s portions of cake while we watched the last half hour of the gruelling ride across the cobbles in northern France.

After Tea four of us took a scenic route towards Chessington via the Ashtead and Epsom Commons then, after the old site of the West Park Hospital, through Horton Country Park.

Many thanks to Terry for riding as back-marker and to everyone for their very good company on a wonderful day out.

~ Tim

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