David Jackson wrote:
First thing is to say thanks to Simon for taking over the leader's role at the eleventh hour due to Jennie being unable to ride due to illness, much appreciated.
For the ride, we left Leatherhead and started doing what we would be doing for the rest of the day; when we weren’t descending we were climbing.
The weather gods were very kind to us, not too cold and although not sunny it was thankfully dry, that together with the drier roads were a definite plus. The roads we used were all ones we have used many times before to and from Warnham, so I won’t give a list of places, rather just a couple of other points.
Neil Warland must be praised for basically giving up on his natural instincts to stay at the back and make sure that anybody at the rear always had someone to ride with and and was free with giving encouragement.
I was somewhat disappointed with the pub, they had requested pre-ordering, which was done, yet two in our group were left waiting for their food for a considerable time.
How can it take so long to prepare sausage and mash and even worst a sandwich, they really did not appear to have control of the situation.
Lastly, ‘chapeau’ to Diane, it was her first ride with the A Group, she did herself proud! Sign up for more!
I was unable to stop for tea in Leatherhead but I know that most decided to take well deserved refreshments after a challenging ride.
A personal thank you to all members of the group for such an enjoyable day out.
~ David J
Simon wrote:
It was a great ride, with some reservations. A lovely route took us down (and up, a lot of up) some of the most beautiful lanes in Surrey, long and flowing and remarkably free from traffic. Excellent pub which took our orders very efficiently and delivered most of the food very quickly – one or two had to wait for some of the more difficult dishes, such as soup and chips?
If there was a teeny bit of constructive feedback, I would say that the off-road was very disappointing. There was almost no mud, except a rather squishy pub garden / bike parking area. And another thing: the floods were almost non-existent. We only saw one signposted flood, and it barely reached a foot away from the verge. It was really just a jumped-up puddle. I was so disgusted I didn’t even stop for a photo. This was all very poor after the high standards reached in recent weeks.
I had a lovely group who rode extremely well – no disciplinary measures were needed at all. Gill was back-marking and perhaps she kept everyone in check. If I had to make just one criticism of my group, it would be that at the top of the hills, when I was hoping for a rest while I waited for them, they kept on being right behind me. Not quite rude but perhaps a little insensitive.
Also, the weather hardly lived up to expectations. There was supposed to be rain all afternoon, but in the end there were just a few spots here and there. Not even enough to put rain jackets on. What’s all that about?
Despite all those quite serious limitations, we all had a lovely day out. Thank you very much to David and Jennie for organising, to my group and especially Gill for back marking.
~ Simon
Photo of Brian's group:
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