B Group - 2nd June

It was already pretty warm by the time we’d finished our morning tea at The Bakery and Caffè Capital and departed for the countryside. The teams all left more or less on time and although the ride down to East Clandon was only imagined as a prelude to the main events it was in itself a wonderfully pleasant part of the day. There was a long stretch of fresh gravel which wasn’t there during the recces but even Clive on his tiny-wheeled Brompton made light of it and our group (team 4) was soon being lured around the corner by Terry who wanted to show our new riders the whacky garden fence in the Old Epsom Road cul-de-sac.

Staple Lane was the only hill all day and possibly a revelation to those of us who had never cycled up it before. But the pleasure of the grand vistas to the North and the view of the hazy towers of Woking in the distance outweighed the pain of the slow grind to the top. Team 5 caught up with us half way up the hill but they stopped too to take in the views.

 

Christina and team, Annette, Paula and Stephen

Steph, Terry and Clive

Clive, Brenda, Terry, Tim and Steph

We took a break in the car park and then cycled off along the North Downs Way to Newlands Corner, quite relieved that all the huge muddy puddles we’d encountered during the recces had disappeared. We whizzed down Trodds Lane at high speed and traversed the Merrow and Burpham suburbs on a pleasant route and picked up the Clay Lane Cycle Path through to Jacobs Well. Salt Box Road was a bit too busy but once on the Worplesdon Road there were cycle paths of varying quality through to our Lunch destination, Rokers Farmhouse Café.

Lunch was excellent in the opinion of most. Some had to wait a little too long to be served I understand but the sunshine had brought all the normal people (out in their cars) to have lunch there too. The manager, Florent had informed me that we he would probably accommodate us all under the marquee but we arrived to find that each of our groups had it’s own table and umbrella out on the lawn which was brilliant.

Liz, Pam, Gill and Ray

Paula with Annette and Christina

After lunch we queued up to pay and sensed that there was a little bit of rain in the air but although this sat heavily in the afternoon atmosphere it came to nothing. We rode to Fox Corner along the Rickford Cycle Path and then headed down Malthouse Lane which although it had dried out a lot was still pretty rough in the middle. But we found our various ways through, avoiding the furrows in the mud by sticking to a minor path along the side of Brookwood Heath. The Brookwood Pales brought us to the Basingstoke Canal which we followed all the way to Scotland Bridge, stopping only to take numerous photos of a pair of swans with their brood of six cygnets.

 

Paul had forewarned us that the toilets at Wilde Brunch Café by Walton Bridge were not open. When we arrived the entire establishment was closed so most of us pressed on around the corner to The 1955 Club where we could lock our bikes and enjoy our afternoon teas at the pavement tables. Their coffee and cakes are very good and if you can ignore the vehicular traffic in Hepworth Way it is an ideal place for Tea. One group had tried the Riverhouse Barn but it closes at 4 p.m. so they were a bit too late. 

We were pleased that Paula introduced her friend Annette to B group. She enjoyed herself and survived intact after experiencing a bit of every conceivable sort of terrain. Welcome back to Arwyn who has been away in Wales hiking and cycling in all weathers. A huge thank you to Sue Foster who made her debut as a subleader, thus helping us to address the need for new leaders in B Group.

On Staple Lane

Arwyn, Sue, Anne and Tony

 

Thank you to all sub-leaders, Dave Cullen (unisprocket), Sue, Pam and Christina. Thank you to everyone who joined the ride.

18.2 miles to Lunch, 17.5 miles to Tea

~ Tim

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Team Dave, report and photos

Our Vanguard quintet left Cobham at about 10.15am. The 5 cyclists who glided out were Jasmine, Jacqui, John A, Tim G, & Dave C.

Outwards up Plough lane, towards Staple lane, which all of the group were looking forward to. From there we turned into and through the car park, leaving the cars behind us, along with the noise of their engines.

Onwards to our lunch at Rokers, which was a pleasant place. The return leg brought us to Walton, our afternoon tea stop was inconveniently disrupted by refurbishment works going on, at our schedule stop. So we all decided to head home.

Leader and back-marker with peloton

Nothing untoward occurred during our ride today, not even rain?

~ Dave
 

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