Report for Easy Riders - 27th October

A lovely autumn morning for our meet-up at North Cheam; Sue B kindly led 10 of us via Kingston and through Bushy Park to coffee at Teddington. How lovely to be welcomed back to Elleray Hall; their choir was in full song as we arrived, and the coconut sponge with jam as delicious as I remembered! Bernard, Don, Bill and Eddie joined us there so we were 14 cycling via Richmond Park to lunch at the Telegraph on Putney Heath. The roads were very quiet, I can't remember the last time there were so few people about on the approach across Ham Common, and hardly any vehicles parked along the lane through the woods.

About half our group took the Pembroke Lodge route past Richmond gate and then down to Roehampton. The rest of us crossed the park via Pen Ponds and the ballet school; we saw a some large groups of deer and on our way down from the school, pausing while a herd of roes crossed the road ahead of us, we were lucky to observe stags locking horns in a brief skirmish while we waited.

Alas our peace was rudely awakened as we witnessed a traffic incident at the crossroads up to Roehampton village. All of us were stopped at the traffic lights; as they changed to green we moved off but only three of us were on our way across when the lights changed back to red. There was a loud bang, and a cyclist who'd been approaching the lights quite fast downhill from the opposite direction, was stopped by the driver who'd been next to our group at the lights, turning right into his path. It was shocking.

We all stopped and two of our group went over to help. Ed picked up the bike and brought it over to the side of the road. The driver got out of the vehicle and he and the cyclist talked to one another, then he drove off. We stayed with the cyclist about 15 minutes, but he called someone to pick him up and insisted he was ok to wait by himself, so we continued on our way.

Lunch at The Telegraph was good and after initial confusion, so was service. Afterwards, most peeled off, with a few of us heading to Wimbledon Park and then home via the Wandle trail through Merton Abbey Mills and Morden Hall Park. A shorter ride than in recent weeks, with no tea stop. I was home by 3 pm and only 16 miles from coffee!

~ Helen