Numbers were rather fluid for this ride right up until departure when we were eventually down to 14 in two groups of 7.
Dave Ward led the first group:
The first group (including new member, but old-hand, Guy) set off a little late from New Haw. Hans had kindly offered to back-mark. With the aid of a bit of the almost lost skill of corner-marking from Patrick and others, we were soon making up for lost time. As usual when I attempt to lead the less-slow group, I just about managed to keep up with the others! The weather, at least before lunch, was rather pleasanter than we had expected, despite the sand-papering wind! Brian's excellent route gave us the chance to cruise along smoothly, and it was nice to be back in parts of Surrey the A's have not frequented for some while.
The sky looked a bit more threatening as we arrived at The Good Intent, but we forgot about that as we tucked into our capacious lunches Having ordered a side-order of fries, I remembered too late that these must surely be the most generous sandwiches in Surrey! Never mind, I managed!
When we set off on Brian's intriguing route back to Guildford via the aptly-named Hurtmore, it still wasn't raining. However, the wet stuff gradually set in and we eventually succumbed to the lure of waterproofs! Shortly after that, my front tyre succumbed as well! It would have made an unseemly public spectacle for the rest of the group to be standing around shivering and dripping while I fumbled around, so I waved them on, and huddled in a bus shelter while I got myself roadworthy again (joke!). While this was in progress, the second group went by. Was I showered with words of encouragement and offers of help - no, they didn't even notice me! Fortunately, I was just about re-inflated by then. I set off but the sight of a very ominous-looking black cloud on the horizon was not encouraging and I decided it would be prudent to dodge the encounter with Warwick's Bench and head straight for home. The rest of the group, I understand, had a close encounter with a hail storm, so I count myself fortunate to have punctured and got back bathed in sunshine!
My group of Sue C, Gill, Karl, Richard, Clive and Simon set off shortly after Dave. We stopped near the Pirbright Institute to update the pub of our changed numbers and then pushed on the lunch. The long drag down the Pirbright Road led to some nice lanes through Tongham to the pub. We were supposed to be the "slow" group but it has been gently hinted by several of the group that my pace was a bit faster than that (!) which probably explains why we arrived at lunch at my planned time in spite of a our later start. We were as usual well fed and watered and left to find that there was rain in the air.
The double right turn to Hook Lane went very smoothly and it is a nice run down to Shackleford. The rain increased from Hurtmore to Farncombe but we missed what seemed to have been an earlier downpour approaching Shalford and by Guildford it was dry with blue sky back to Cobham. Four of us stopped for tea thus missing the hail that afflicted others and emerged to find just a few spots of rain on our bikes.
Thanks to Simon for back marking and all for their company.
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