Report for B Group ride - 11th August

There were 14 riders in three groups who set out from Caterham for a lovely but challenging route into Kent. We were very fortunate with the weather. Thank you to Tim G. and Dave F. for being sub leaders.

John A.

Next to the pub in Ide Hill Inder came across the local library

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Dave Ferrett’s report for the third group:

As I found the initial A ride offer quite a bit longer and hillier than I fancied on a door to door basis, I offered to sub-lead a combined "A/B” subgroup on John’s not insignificant 45 hilly miles ride from Caterham. With no opportunity for me to recce the route, I was working from John’s .gpx and hazard warning notes and a bit of virtual online route familiarisation the night before. My group included Brian, Gina, Ken and Chistina. We set off from Caterham around 11:00, a bit later than scheduled, but still adequate time to complete the course. John’s route out to lunch was widely applauded by my group with some excellent Kentish scenic lanes and as promised, quite a few hills. The pub for lunch had good reasonably priced food and drink options which we enjoyed from front garden tables where we could keep an eye on our bikes and observe the arrival of some late comers who had got separated from a previous sub group. Setting off after lunch we briefly greeted Dave Vine’s A ride sub group before facing 24 miles and quite  a few hills,  including the longest and steepest up to Crockham Hill. We paused at the top to re-group, take a drink and admire the splendid view. The route from there to Merstham included a longish section of the busy A25, which was the least popular section of the outing.  Between Godstone and Merstham , Ken elected to continue solo on a direct shorter route home. So he was fortunate, with his E bike, in missing the unusual but interesting rout through Merstham which included a stairs only non inclusive pedestrian footbridge over the railway. From there it was the familiar route to Banstead but a couple of variations. The route from the high road was to descend via Castle lane, from experience a steep and narrow route. As there were "road closed" notices in place at that junction and not wanting to risk having to double back, we kept to the more usual route. At this point Gina parted company and the residual band of three pushed on to Banstead via Park Lane where  Christina. who had been completely unfazed by any of the various ascents, bade farewell. Brian and I had a brief look in Pistachios, but not seeing any other bikes decided to sit very comfortably in the sun at the cafe on the corner, waving as the final A riders came by, still looking remarkably fresh after their much longer ride. My thanks to Brian for being an excellent back marker (as well as almost door to door company on our total 65 mile 4500ft ride) and providing navigational reassurance (sat navs can get particularly confused where outbound and inbound routes meet and then diverge). 

Caterham - Ide Hill (The Cock Inn) - Banstead

(with some variations after Merstham)

 ~ Tim