A Group ride to The Angel for Christmas Lunch

Eighteen of us met at the Claygate Day Centre for our ride to The Angel in Thames Ditton for our Christmas Lunch.

Dave Vine led away the first group and here is his report - 

Firstly many thanks to my group for being such excellent company today, and especially to Fluorescent Mike as ever-visible back marker.

The day started well with Claygate DC’s finest coffee & home-made bread pudding as appetiser for the lunch to come. My attempt at a prompt start was thwarted by DavidJ borrowing Mike’s e-Orbea and being so impressed he was reluctant to return with it.

Once under way we made good progress on Neil’s route which gave us a taste of everything, town, country, quiet roads, fast roads and off-road, all arranged around a cycling history lesson.

Our own contribution to the cycling history lesson was to remember the late Ray Dare as we cycled past the house in Fetcham where our good friend once lived.

Thankfully the ride was “uneventful” with only a couple of close passes to remind us that not everyone had grasped the peaceful intent of the Christmas message.

At The Angel we paused for a historic photograph, as inspired by Frank Patterson, before sitting down to an excellent lunch. Thanks Pam for organising everything, and for your infectious laughter to keep us in good spirits throughout.

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Here is another historic photograph of The Angel taken in the 1890s and you can see how little the building has changed. 

The building on the right, which is no longer there, was the workshop of John Keen where he built bicycles. In the 1870s he was reputed to be the fastest cyclist in the world.

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After giving Dave a ten minute start my group left and headed through Claygate before turning right into Esher Park Avenue to take the quiet rise up to Esher. Here we crossed over the Portsmouth Road and headed down the hill to West End to look for more quiet roads. After a short section of Portsmouth Road it was left into Fairmile Lane to head for Stoke d'Abernon and over the hill to Fetcham.

Then it was through the quiet residential streets and up to Lower Road. In Bookham it was right at the strange four-way stop and down to Bookham Common. The route across the common was fine and at the Isle of Wight we passed the volunteers having their Christmas Party.

Emerging onto Downside Common we saw Dave's group who were adding bonus distance. Once back in Cobham and onto the Portsmouth Road I stopped to give a short history lesson to my group and then sent them on their way - "The Angel is six miles that way, on the right."

I then waited for Dave's group to pass so I could repeat the lesson, but after a while I realised Dave had sensibly decided to claw back his bonus distance by cutting through the back streets of Cobham thus avoiding me.

So I put my brain in Victorian Sporting Gentleman mode and raced off along "The Ripley Road" towards The Angel. By the time I got to the Scilly Isles all three groups were mixed together and shortly after arrived at the pub for a fine Christmas Lunch.

More history of the Ripley Road can be found here -https://roadswerenotbuiltforcars.com/ripley/

Click on the first video and gain a bonus point for spotting someone you know.

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And some words from Steve D who led the third group - 

We all enjoyed the exercise and had a good lunch into the bargain. 

The day was a bit of normality in an increasingly careful and dismal world. Like many others on the ride I did a lateral flow test to confirm that I was free from covid. I hope everyone stays free of it also.

Thanks to Janice for back marking and to Mark for his excellent Xmas card.

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A good time was had by all at the lunch and someone even took a souvenir home.