The Queen Stage* in Effingham is not a venue the B’s have started from before. Primarily it's a pub and a café for cyclists and walkers; long may it continue, it's a brilliant venue for us!
Sixteen riders in two groups, separated by 15 minutes, avoided the temporary lights by walking through the yard then got on our bikes and travelled down towards Leatherhead. We took the quietest route possible and were soon into the lanes south of Brockham. Weare Street was the usual mixture of a good and terrible surface, but everyone coped with it and by around 1 o’clock both groups had arrived to the Punchbowl Inn at Okewood Hill.
The landlady at the pub was serving on her own so it did take a while for our food to arrive, but it was dry and with periods of sun, it wasn’t too much of a hardship.
The first group set off on the return leg at about 14.00 hrs, and taking quiet lanes made their way via Ockley and Capel towards Denbies, managing to take a photo opportunity at The Gin Kitchen in Punchbowl Lane, hoping for a ’tipple’ but unfortunately it was closed.
The second group didn’t leave the pub until 14.30 hrs, so getting to Denbies for tea at 16.00 hrs was going to be an ask. Pleased to say that by taking the travelling speed up just by one mph and the general decending terrain, all those that wanted to stop achieved that goal. Of course, whilst sitting there enjoying our refreshments we saw that the hatch didn’t close until 16.30 hrs!
Sitting there, enjoying some late sun and discussing other things as well as the ride, the phrase ‘as the ride went on, things got slacker and so did Bob’s chain’, a reference to his mechanical issue, which affected his afternoon ride, Very apt.
Thanks to those that back marked for the ride, and thank you to everyone that made it such an enjoyable day out.
Jennie & David J
P.S. Pondering where the name of this splendid venue may have originated and arriving at a notion that it might refer to a theatrical venue in Shakespeare's time I came across this in their website:
L’étape reine, or the queen stage, is the phrase signifying the most critical day of a stage race, generally the one with the most climbing or the most testing mountains. It’s generally believed to derive from chess, where the queen is the most mobile and, therefore, the most powerful piece on the board and, as a consequence, tends to have the greatest impact on the outcome of the game. Of course, the queen stage doesn’t always deliver a clear-cut verdict, but any day of racing that includes, for instance, two passes over Mont Ventoux as the étape reine of the 2021 Tour de France did is sure to provide a captivating spectacle.
~ Tim C
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| Munching away ... |
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| Group 2 in Weare Street |
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| Group 1 in Weare Street |
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| 'Twixt Lunch and Tea, Jennie leads her team astray |
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