A Group Ride on 6 July - From Cobham to Warnham. The Ride with "The Tree".

After poring over the maps looking for inspiration, and failing, I decided to repeat the ride I led in September 2020 to The Sussex Oak in Warnham.

Two recce rides were completed, the pub's menu sampled, tables booked and an afternoon tea venue overlooking Box Hill decided on. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, I had failed to allow for the large tree that had chosen Wednesday morning to fall across Combe Lane, completely blocking the road.

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

Many thanks to Neil for re-running this route. It was reasonably undulating without being 'challenging' but there was also plenty of scope for the rouleurs, plenty of delightful scenery (especially the Peaslake valley, one of my favourites), no off-road excepting the unauthorised traverse of the Coach Road I accidentally slipped in at the end, and plenty of other roads we rarely cover, so all boxes were ticked!    

Mike R, Dave B, Steve W, Frances, Janice and I made stonking progress until we were stopped dead in our tracks by 'The Tree' (which will surely go down in 'A' group legend). Admittedly we had been expecting it having been tipped off by a passing motorist, but it did turn out to be rather more of an obstruction than we could have anticipated, especially in fine weather at high summer!    

Fortunately, Neil's group arrived while we were still making our risk assessment, and many hands made light work passing bikes over the various fallen branches. 

     After that we made steady progress to the pub.  Once we arrived there, although the food was good and the portions very generous, progress was less steady!   

     No worries, we made up for any delays with a rapid and incident-free ride back to Dorking, the   only slight niggle being the rather nasty long drag up to Rusper.    

Many thanks to all for your company, and to Janice for volunteering to back-mark, although, in truth, this was scarcely needed!

My group of Mark, Richard, Dave and Jennie J and two Pete B's was the next to leave Cobham. We made good progress until encountering the tree where we joined in the obstacle course and human chain. Here I found out some bikes are much heavier than others.

The rest of the ride to the pub went to plan and after a light lunch (pie,mash and veg for me) we lined up for photographer Pete. Richard was being a bit camera shy.

Not much more than an hour later we were sitting having afternoon tea at Hillier's Garden Centre in Dorking. Thanks all for a memorable day out.

Dave V was leading the third group, and he writes -

Thanks for a great route, and for excellent cycling weather. Our group of Sue Foster, Gina, John B, Dave F, Keith and Peter Suchy had a great time. The tree incident provided plenty of original conversation on why trees fall over.

Dave F finished his lunch in perfect time to catch his train from Warnham. Warnham tip was a delight. Lastly we varied your route by taking the Coach Road from Brockham which provided an ideal opportunity to split the group between tea lovers and home lovers. A great day out.