Wednesday, October 16, 2019

A ride and freewheel competition 16th October


Most of us arrived in Dorking in the rain but large slabs of bread pudding cheered us up and added ballast for the competition ahead. For those looking for a lighter alternative, the entrance to the church hall had the above delightful display of knitted cakes, sandwiches, teapot etc.

14 A group left Dorking for the start of the top secret freewheel competition. Much surprise all round to find ourselves at the top of Roothill Lane.

Mike Reynell managed to take 1st prize by less than a bike length in front of Dave Bartholomew. In the ladies competition there was less of a nail biting finish as Jennie Jackson was way ahead of the competition, with myself in second place.

The awards ceremony took place in Brockham and beautiful trophy’s which had been carved by Ed were given to the winners and inner tubes to the runners up.












The rain had stopped and the forecast was now hopeful so A group headed the 10 miles to The Star at Rusper where lunch was quickly served. There was some debate about whether to head straight back North but as the weather was fine 10 headed off on the planned route to Horsham and then back via Wimlands Hill, past The Frog and Nightgown and towards Lambs Green. Heavy rain started within minutes of us leaving Rusper and Keith having earlier suffered an exploding tyre decided to head for home. It dried up after an hour or so and indeed some roads after Lambs Green were totally dry. 

We stopped at Denbies before heading home in glorious sunshine which emphasised the beautiful autumn colours. 

37 miles and 1,900ft elevation from Dorking to Denbies. Thank you to Mike Barrett for back marking despite being on his ebike and to all corner markers. 

It's worth mentioning that our mileage paled into insignificance when compared to Dave Ward's as during the ride he (quietly) turned over 300,000 miles since 1987. What an amazing note-worthy achievement, very well done Dave!


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