A's hot ride

A big thank you to the 14 brave souls who joined me on such a hot day.

The first climb of Box Hill saw me cranking slowly up being shepherded by Simon and Dave Vine, I thought that was the start of a very hot and slow ride for me, thank goodness that changed as the day went on.
Passing Epsom race course I noticed my Garmin had stuck on the Box Hill road, this lead me to taking the wrong roundabout leading down towards who knows where Janice who lives in the area soon had us in exactly the place I should have been, many thanks Janice.
A gravel path a puncture and people running short of water before Nonsuch Park needed a redirection to fill water bottles and missing out another little climb. Thanks to Dave for leading out of the park.

We have done the tarmac and gravel now for a bit of concrete that led us finally through to Worcester Park and into Green Lane. Following some tarmac paths through to NewMalden we then had a short sharp climb to Cannon Hill Lane. Martin Way soon had us in Lower Downs Road and we were then on the final climb of the morning up The Downs and across Wimbledon Common, then the final back roads to Wetherspoons by Putney Bridge.

A quick game of Where's Pete for you to play.

A decision was made that we should continue the ride on the North side of the river, so over Putney Bridge and into Bishops Park, and along the ThamesPath, I'm pleased to say we did not encounter many pedestrians so a quite east ride. Chiswick Bridge crossed we were on our route to Sheen, once negotiated we headed into Richmond Park and out through Ham Gate.
By this point our numbers were depleted as many had chosen to head home.
After Ham Gate Avenue we decided as some of the remaining group had said they would also be breaking away and had no need to go to Esher apart from those needing to use it as their route home we should end the ride and go our separate ways.
Many thanks go to all who braved the heat of the day, corner marked, helped me out and to Simon who backed marked.
I hope you all had a safe return home and will see you next week for a cooler ride.