B Group - 20th May

Sixteen of us left from the New Haw DC at 11:15 for the 2 hour morning ride of 18.5 miles.  We headed South through West Byfleet towards Pyrford (Pyrford Village, Golf Course, Place, Place Farm, Lock, Green etc) and turned off Warren Lane through a gate into the small lane which leads to Walsham Lock and Weir. During my recce in April I had turned off a little earlier, by the golf course, to pass Home Farm to connect with the Wey Navigation at Pigeon House Bridge. My intention had been to ride down Wharf Lane to Ockham Mill and through to Mill Lane. However there were warning signs on the junction of the canal path and Wharf Lane to advise that a bridge along that route was on the point of collapse. Hence the route through Walsham Lock. At the lock I had a ‘jamais vu’ moment, despite the recent recce but Gill pointed me in the right direction and we crossed the weir and bobbled along the bumpy footpath, across the Ockham Mill Stream and through to Ripley, encountering a certain amount of mud as we went.

We turned SE out of Ripley into Rose Lane, then Guileshill through Ockham, Martyrs Green and to Effingham by Effingham Common Road. At Great Bookham we turned South up the Dorking Road, a gentle climb before descending Bagden Hill into Chapel Lane. Ray Wren left us at the A24 where we turned up the Old London Road to ride up the Zig-Zag.
 
At The Tree fourteen sat down to lunch which was pretty good, the only complaint being that the starter portions there are quite small and not enough to satisfy the appetites of cyclists. However those few who suffered from this setback set out after lunch with a strengthened resolve to tuck into a big piece of cake at afternoon tea.
 
We stepped out of the pub into the cold and assembled on the lawn for a photo. We took the Dorking Road to cross the M25 and at Walton on the Hill we took off down Ebbisham Lane, which started off well but deteriorated into a mix of puddles and poo, sticks and stones and mud once we got into the Walton Downs. We stopped on the narrow lane to let three horse riders through but fortunately the horses were the loveable old farm horse types and didn’t go mad when they came across us, unlike the more neurotic, frisky thoroughbreds we met earlier in the day. We took the Walton Road (if it can be called a road) through to the race course on the Epsom Downs and crossed to the grandstand and linked into Chalk Lane to zoom down into Epsom.
 
From Epsom we rode along the Thames Down Link through Epsom Common and out onto the Christ Church Road and through Malden Rushett into Fair Oak Lane. There was a bit more mud and a few bumps in New Road through to Claygate, after which we meandered through the posh parts of Esher, into Sandown Lane to meet the High Street almost opposite our Tea destination, Giro, after an interesting 13.2 mile ride.

At Giro we drank their most excellent tea and coffee and ate the great big wedges of cake which most of us had been thinking about all afternoon. Their food and coffee is of the very highest standard and they have definitely earned the “Best Coffee Shop for Cyclists, 2015” blue plaque which is mounted on the wall.
 
Thanks to everyone for coming for the ride over such a mixed terrain route. And many thanks to Terry for riding as back marker.

~ Tim