A group ride 18 May: New Haw-Puttenham-West Horsley

What a gorgeous day for a ride! The sun sparkled off the leafy lanes...   Oh, wait: that was Monday.   In fact, it was every other day this week, except today.   Today's weather forecast improved from dire to merely awful and so seven of us braved the steady rain, taking a fairly direct route from New Haw via Old Woking, Jacobs Well, Worplesdon and Normandy to Puttenham.   It wasn't the prettiest of routes, but we were keeping our heads down to avoid the rain, which did ease up around noon but never completely stopped.

The magnificent Eight outside the Good Intent
(Mark taking photograph and John still fettling his bike)

The Good Intent at Puttenham was busy and food took a while to arrive, but we didn't mind.  Mark had taken his own route and joined us for lunch and the afternoon's ride, where a menu of short/medium/long routes was offered.  As it was still raining a bit, we compromised on medium, heading south to Shackleford and Hurtmore, skirting Godalming and then up Littleton Lane, where John's tyre lost an encounter with a staple.   After a short delay, when the rain briefly paused, we were off into Guildford, up the High Street, which is being relaid, and along the usual route to West Horsley for tea.  In the end the rain was pretty light in the afternoon, not too bad.  Thank you to the select few who joined me for today's ride.   Only 30 miles from 11s to tea.