A Group 2nd July: Cobham - Oakwoodhill - Denbies

After the showers of the Dieppe Raid weekend (which we largely avoided), Wednesday was forecast dry and warm: perfect.  A good turnout at Cobham despite many regulars still returning or having a day off after Dieppe.  We mustered 15 riders for the A ride and set off promptly at 11.10 for a gentle stroll through the downlands of Ockham and gently up to West Horsley.  The warm-up completed, we headed up Shere Road, a less gentle way up and over the hill to Shere, sporting a chevron both up and down.   In the process, chemical energy, otherwise known as cake energy from Peter Bett's birthday cakes, was converted to potential energy at the top of Combe Lane, and shortly afterwards into kinetic energy (40+ mph according to Mark's graph) and then transferred into heat in our brakes and grins on our faces.   I'm not sure that grins are an official form of energy but hey, never mind.

Through Shere, onwards and upwards again, more gently this time through sun-dappled lanes, to reach the summit of Barhatch, from where we plummeted into Cranleigh.  This was the main hill-climbing finished for the day, but being in Surrey, we still had a bit of a climb to Ewhurst Green before a mainly flat ride to Oakwoodhill, or Okewoodhill, or Okewood Hill depending on which map or sign you read.  Good food was provided by the Punchbowl Inn: after a worrying wait, it all came out together so in the end we weren't waiting too long, and after all we were sitting outside in the sunshine.

After lunch there was an immediate right turn to get to Weare Street: in our experienced group it seemed most knew this except me, leading to a U-turn about 200 yds after the junction.  "We wondered if you might be heading to Weare Street".  Which we were ... up Weare Street to Ockley and across to Capel and Newdigate.  For a bit of variety we came home via Parkgate and Root Hill, meeting a couple of rather aggressive motorists on the way.  I couldn't see that we had done anything wrong but they clearly could and let us know their annoyance.  No harm was done and we cycled on thinking what we would say to them if we met them in a queue just up the road.  

Tea at Denbies for most of us rounded off a very enjoyable day out.   Nobody was lost, thanks to Mike Barrett our back marker, and we completed 36.7 miles and 2400ft of ascent from elevenses to tea.

B Ride Wednesday 2 July 2014

Our Leader

View from the A25

The group

Teatime

A Group 2nd July

Summer's here, and Simon led us on a pleasing ride over the Downs to lunch at the Punchbowl, Oakwood Hill.  37 miles from elevenses at Cobham to tea at Denbies, rolling average 13.3 mph.

A good day out.

Mark

Two Go Back - A Tandem in Provence

Maggie and I have done Chris Ellison's CTC Tour in Provence a couple of times.  It's based on Buis les Baronnies, in the Drome, which is a fine, sunny, old-fashioned sort of place, in the middle of wine and lavender country. It's a good area for cycling.

For this year Chris offered the novelty of one week based on the hotel in Buis and one week touring from place to place, with the luggage being transferred by van.  This sounded good to us, and so it was.  We had a group of a dozen, all experienced tourers, and things rolled along nicely.  The big hill is obviously Mont Ventoux, but we've been up it quite a lot and gave it a miss this year, as the weather was mostly pretty warm - more than 30 degrees on many days.  We couldn't miss the Signal de la Lure, which we have also done before, as it was on the route.  It's a pretty similar mountain to Ventoux, so we made an early start to make the best of it.  In the event it was hot lower down but cold on the top.  We scuttled back down to lunch at the bottom, and warmed up like lizards.

We stayed in a variety of hotels, some good, some, well, interesting, but it all worked well.  We were made welcome, the bikes were looked after and we ate and drank well.  About 500 miles and a bit over 40,000 ft of climbing.

Recommended for a sunny cruise.

Mark

B Ride Wednesday 25 June 2014

View from Farthing Down

I was a bit preoccuped so I largely forgot about photos, just one: our lunch!

A group ride 25 June: Caterham - Horley - Denbies

Today's ride was an adventure as the planned leader, Jeff, needed to be at home with his wife, who had taken rather longer than expected to recover from a hospital visit the day before.

So we were at Caterham without a leader and without a plan, since I was unable to remember any of the details of Jeff's planned route, much less able to follow it.   Luckily teamwork produced good results and a couple of maps:   Pete Jesson had the relevant Surrey cycle routes map and Dave Vine had the OS map.   Dave and I conspired to make a route to Horley Wetherspoons where we knew we would not have to book, and then I utterly failed to enter it into my GPS, confirming all the advice that route planning with a GPS is best done at home on a PC.

The adventurers set off around 11.30 towards Woldingham station, where we chose a road beside the railway called Church Lane.   What could possibly go wrong?  The road soon turned into a rough stony track (this was not mentioned on any maps) and to make matters worse turned into a very steep uphill.  I later noticed that the nearby railway went into a tunnel at this point.   We wished Jeff had been there to enjoy the route, or even better to lead us on a different route.

Once on the top of Oxted Downs the tarmac returned and we followed a bit of Paul's route in reverse, down the very steep Chalkpit lane into Oxted and continuing south along lovely quiet lanes towards Crowhurst.   Peter Betts punctured just after Oxted so most of us had a leisurely wait watching a light aircraft doing some sort of acrobatics.

Our regular photographer was unavailable, and the stand-in
missed most of the group leaving the pub.

We were running a bit late so Dave and I decided against going via Lingfield and cut the corner, heading down Tandridge Lane, reversing a route recently led by Mark, and across to Smallfield and the Jack Fairman in Horley.   John Scott elected to return by train from Horley so ten of us returned on more familar roads through Norwood Hill, Leigh and Brockham to Denbies.  

Thank you to Peter Betts our back marker, to Pete Jesson for the loan of the map, and to my co-leader Dave Vine, and our best wishes to Mrs. Tollerman who I hope is fully recovered now.

A very enjoyable day out: 32 miles and 1815 ft of ascent from 11s to tea.

Lunch with Mad Pierre in St Valery.

Easy Riders - 18th June

With the absence of Lynda (due to an eye infection) I agreed to lead a select few from the Leatherhead centre. Sandy, Brian, Norman, Cliff, Mary & Mike, Fuzz and myself set off in the Dorking and Brockham direction.

Our destination was Leigh, where we stopped for a pleasant lunch in the garden of the Plough.
 
Tea was at the Ashtead Garden Centre. I think we covered just over 30 miles (my speedometer is defective at present).

We all wish Lynda a speedy recovery.

- Liz Scrivens

Wednesday 25 June - reminder

Next week is the annual swimming day. The 10 day forecast (which is never wrong) is 23 degrees C. Usual rules.: lunch and towels provided, bring your own bathers. If it's more convenient to come straight to my house, rather than via Caterham, please do so, 8 Sydenham Ave. London SE26 6UH.

B Ride Wednesday 18 June 2014

Our leader

The group

B Group June 18th

I was expecting a modest group especially after early morning drizzle but ended up with 21 leaving Henfold. Just as well I had picked a pub that could cope. Deciding to avoid Weare Street for  a change we went to Ockley and then along Standen Lane to Walliswood before taking the Horsham Road through Rowhook to Warnham for an early lunch at the Sussex Oak. A few left to meet early commitments and the rest of us headed back in the sunshine to Rusper and along Partridge Lane to Park Gate and Strood Green. Here we stopped at the village shop to break the long run back to Ashtead for those in need of an ice cream or other refreshment. About half the remaining group left for home from the Denbies roundabout while the rest of us toiled up through "little Switzerland" to Headley and then down to Bike Beans in Ashtead where eight had tea.

B Group - 18th June

Maps for Brian's ride with B Group

Bright Pink for Henfold to Warnham (14.4 miles)
Lurid Turquoise for Warnham to Ashtead (Bike Beans) (23.2 miles)

THE LOIRE VALLEY - CHATEAUX & WINERIES

On Sunday, 1st June, nine members of the Midweek Wayfarers (Frank, Françoise, Cliff, Maureen, Tim, Alan, Ian, Pam and Gill) met up with 25 French cyclists to participate in a 7-day tour of the Loire Valley from Nantes to Chambord/Blois and return.  Brilliantly organised by Gérard and Guy of the FFCT whom we had met in Brittany last year, we cycled 50-60 miles per day;  we were on the road at 8.00 a.m. each day and the two leaders took it in turns to drive the sag-wagon which carried our luggage and provided teas and coffee at breaks en-route, plus picnic lunches.  The terrain was flat beside the rivers but hilly away from them and the weather was great apart from a couple of showers and a deluge on the third day.

We travelled eastwards for four days, mostly following the Loire but also its tributaries the Vienne, Cher and Indre.  We visited the Château de Brézé, Fontevraud Abbey and the two really famous châteaux – Chenonceau and Chambord on this half of the trip.  On the return, we visited Amboise, Villandry (wonderful gardens) and the 15th Chateau Langeais.  As for the ‘oenology’ part of the trip, we had wine-tastings at:   Montlouis, near Amboise, followed by a picnic lunch in one of their caves; at la Haie Longue – Coteaux du Layon – at coffee time; and finally, on the last evening before dinner, Muscadet wines, which made for a party atmosphere.

On Monday, 9th June, we said farewell to our French friends and spent the day being shown around Nantes, riding on a huge mechanical elephant and on a 3-tier carousel of sea creatures!  All great fun!  The next day was Departure Day and we were transported to Frank and Françoise’s home where we had a magnificent lunch, before cycling back to St Malo to catch the overnight ferry.  All-in-all, a wonderful trip.

- Gill Finlay

  (For the full story, see the Sou’Wester.)

 

More photos at http://tinyurl.com/lg5a2gc

On a less happy note...

The eagle eyed of the A group may have noticed a blue police sign in Bookham asking for witnesses to an accident on Tuesday afternoon. Tragically a man of about our age cycling along Lower Road was killed, apparently by a car turning out of a side road. The fact that the car had to be lifted off the cyclist says a lot about the impact.

Keeps safe and dont take anything for granted.

Brian

Bike Beans summer opening

Bike Beans in Ashtead are staying open later for tea during the summer with midweek opening to 5.30, probably until the end of the school holidays.

Easy Riders June 11th

11 Left Weybridge D.C. on a beautiful hot morning to ride to Lower Sunbury.

We turned left from D.C. to R/A and then right going towards and up Woburn Hill.

We then travelled to Chertsey Bridge via alley way and across Chertsey Meads to the bridge.

Left over bridge along river Thames to Laleham and Shepperton R/W station into Sunbury to the Flower Pot.

3 decided not to stop for lunch, 2 had sandwiches which they ate sitting by the river and 6 lunched inside.

We then went to Hampton Court via Bushey Park where 5 had tea at “5 on the bridge”

It was a lovely day and I was really pleased that Mark was able to keep with us due to his MAGIC bike.

Thank you one and all for a really pleasant day and Thanks to Lynda for being a T.E.C.

 

Irene

A Group 18 June. Henfold Start.

My last ride was one for the Time Trialers. Lots of long flats and a rolling average of 14.4mph to lunch.

A little bit different this time - one for the Puncheurs. Plus, given the Henfold start and the long day, a few extra miles to the far bounds of Wayfareres' normal terrain with lunch at Ardingly



 No long and nasty hills but lots of little testers - and no flat bits!

22 miles to lunch at the Ardingly Inn and a total of 42 back to Fanny's for tea.
Total climb a reasonably modest 2500ft

A fairly prompt start from Henfold please.

Paul Kelly

'A' Group Ride - 11 June 2014

As a late sub leader, today's route was something of a mixture of 'ones I'd prepared earlier'. A round dozen hardy folk reported willing and able on a glorious early Summer day.

Escaping from the environs of Weybridge via the A245, Pete B had our first puncture of the day just out of West Byfleet, which meant a pleasant snooze in the sun for the rest of us while repairs were carried out.

We then had to negotiate the closure of Newark Lane near the Priory, where work was being done on the bridges over the Wey Navigation. We were pleasantly surprised by the lack of hassle here, with the construction team being helpfulness personified.

On our merry way through Send, the A3 cycle path and Merrow, our first climb of the day took us up Troods Lane to Newlands Corner, an ascent much preferable to the A25. After that, it was a breeze through Albury and Chilworth to the Grantley Arms at Wonersh, where a soporific lunch was enjoyed on the pub patio.

More arduous terrain awaited post lunch, as we made our way via Shamley Green, Farley Green and Shere, to Combe Bottom, which we climbed at a pace appropriate to the temperature. Lower Road took us into Leatherhead, for tea at Annies, which, having undergone a refit, is currently without wc. Shortly before tea, Brian collected puncture no. 2 of the day, though the rearguard were not unduly delayed in arriving at Annies.

Thanks to Simon for keeping an eye on the rear, and assisting with puncture repairs.

Rob

A Group, 11th June 2014

Wonersh

My ancestors remember their ancestors

Nine

Ten

Full house

Watch the birdie

Our Leader ...

... took us to:

Here we are: 

Those who trained it from Windsor were treated to this: