Pete writes for the first group, The Lumps and Bumps:
We had a lovely ride to lunch, the tracks were dry and a pleasure to cycle along. However the weather got very unpleasant when we left the Surrey Oaks after lunch, and both Paul and Geoff suffered punctures and we were getting cold and wet, so we had a vote on whether to head home from Newdigate. The vote was unanimous, so it was homeward bound for my group.
Paul writes for the second group, The Undulations:
Everyone knows it’s windy
The weather forecast was not the best but we only had a couple of withdrawals from The Undulations, and one late applicant, Julie, who to my surprise (she is a regular Saturday All Day rider) was making her B Group debut. Beginning her training for Land’s End to John-o-Groats. Our grandson Rufus was also making a B Group debut, but he only went as far as Dorking with his grandmother.
Sure enough, the wind was against us as we turned up Bookham Road towards the common; it was an ambitious ride for October which I had recced in good weather on Monday, and the thought occurred to me that no-one from the peleton would be taking turns at the front!
The ride over Great Bookham Common is always a pleasant one, but Tim Court’s route through the woods south of Leatherhead between Guildford Road and Young Street was for most of us a new delight, and the crossing of Young Street went better than I had feared; it had taken me ten minutes on Monday across something resembling a two-way Formula One track.
The Scrubs and Norbury Park are wonderful rides, even to someone who does not fancy woodland trails, but in finding my way through I had failed on the recce to notice just how undulating was the terrain and was surprised at one point to see how many bike-pushers I had behind me. The forested descent to Westhumble is surely one of the rides of the year even if, like Julie, you lose your chain!
Thing is, all that grass and gravel is quite hard going and you feel you have already done a ride as you regather on Bookham Green and your team ask how long is it to lunch, because on the dot of the BBC forecast the drizzle has started, and you have to say nearly an hour. And they know, and you know, that the afternoon includes a serious hill.
I’m afraid the leader lost his discipline a little as the wind rose and the rain came down and though we regathered regularly, and marked the corners, we became stretched out on the long southerly stretches as we rode into the teeth of the fierce weather; some of us eager to up the pace and get to a warm, dry pub, others needing to linger a little longer over the pleasures of cycling in a gale.
The Surrey Oaks was as good as ever, though there was nobody in the garden!
The leading group had a puncture with which to contend, so we left before them for the dice with the A24 and then the climb. Back marker Tim observed that the skies were clearing as on Trig Street we passed one of the A Groups travelling in the wrong direction, as they often do. As we turned into Henhurst Cross Lane I had just convinced myself that I was beginning to dry in the wind when the heavens opened. There were those in the group who believed (hoped?) that Henhurst was the threatened afternoon hill but they soon found that it was merely the hors d’oeuvre. Anstie Lane compares with Tanhurst as a way of ascending Leith Hill from the South, and it is an especial treat if a rivulet is tumbling at you down the tarmac. But if you are aiming for Dorking it cuts out much of the undulation after the climb itself, and it affords a terrific view from the top. The ride planner (who pretended to have Covid when he saw the weather forecast) had failed dismally to get the ancient hill fort opened for us but our resident historian Tony told us it had been abandoned long ago because the Saxon tribes had become tired of cycling up and down to the shops.
We all made it, the usual suspects in the saddle all the way, and then it was the long dash down a tricky, leafy, conkery, Coldharbour Lane and up the A24 path to coffee in the Italian Café on the High Street, opposite Amici’s.
A great ride, despite the weather, and a particularly good first hour; thanks Tim C. And for holding the group together like a good drummer or double bass player as the rhythm threatened to get ragged, thanks to back-marker Tim G.
It’s the Hilly Fifty route in the snow next Wednesday. Sign up while you can!
~ Paul
The Blue dotted line shows Pete's route with The Lumps and Bumps
The Red dotted line shows Paul's route with The Undulations
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