B Group - 28th January

The weather forecast was terrible: strong and gusty winds from the north west and squally showers. We assembled at The Greeno Centre, Shepperton. The usual suspects turned up, so there was no getting out of it; the ride was on.

The weather was as bad as forecast and 12 riders set off battling against the wind for the most part. We set out for Windsor going via Laleham, Staines, Wraysbury, and Datchet.  Almost at our destination, Pam sustained a puncture (that is to say Pam’s bike did) beneath the walls of Windsor Castle. None of the Royal household came out to help but we all duly arrived at The Windlesora, a J D Weatherspoons pub in William St at about 1pm.

The meals at The Windlesora were well up to JDW’s usual standard. The Wayfarers had been there before a few times previously.

After lunch the weather improved a lot (it was quite sunny even). We set off through Eton, then went back to Datchet,   then to Horton, Poyle, Stanwell Moor, Stanwell, Ashford, Charlton and Halliford where a few of us stopped for tea at the Squires Garden Centre. We had the wind at our backs and we more or less flew along the whole way from Windsor.

Finally, I am very grateful to everyone who backed up the group or did some marshalling throughout the day. Having this kind of support is essential.   

Peter Carpenter
 

Photos of the riders who made it to Tea at Squires after Peter's ride out to Windsor:

A Group 28 January

Shepperton - Windlesham - Brooklands

  Captain Simon with a full team (+ reserve) after lunch, ready for a full afternoon's play

 

Seen at the Mercedes World Centre, Brooklands

 Every one a winner

A group 28 Jan: Shepperton - Windlesham - Brooklands

Well, I would just like to say it was a wonderful day's cycling.  Except that would only be half true.  

We had been promised heavy rain clearing to sunshine and cold winds.  The worst of the rain seemed to happen just before eleven and so fourteen hopeful riders set off in the dry, heading through Chertsey, up Holloway Hill and through Lyne.  Just before crossing the M3, Ralph punctured, and while Geoff and Ralph were attending to the puncture we had a sharp rain shower.  A repeat puncture within a minute of getting started again, and another rain shower, meant that we were getting quite cold, and late, so we took a serious short cut, missing the winding, wooded Wentworth avenues, and heading straight into the wind for several miles to reach our destination, the Surrey Cricketers at Windlesham, a few minutes early.

Generous portions of food arrived promptly although there was a scandalous lack of the advertised salad garnish with the sandwiches.  Apparently the pub had been conducting an experiment, since so many people left the salad garnish, and nobody had mentioned it until we arrived.  As we discussed the pros and cons of garnish, the sun came out and thoughts turned to cycling.

The afternoon was a lot better: well, compared to standing around in the freezing wind and rain on a bridge over the M3, it wasn't difficult.  With the sun shining and the wind at our backs, we breezed south through delightful lanes to West End and on to Chobham, where we had a bit of a blast up the slight inclines of Stonehills and Foxhills Roads.  Across the main road at Ottershaw and down (and up) to Woodham and New Haw, which was a rash of 4x4s, mummies and schoolchildren all over the place. Ignoring the canal towpath, we went the longer way round to the old test track and airfield at Brooklands, where we parked our bikes next to a clutch of Maybach limousines, outside the Mercedes World centre.  Valet parking was advertised but nobody trusted their bikes to the staff.  Inside, an aircraft-hangar sized temple to the motor car - well it could have been a bad choice for cyclists, but it was warm, there was tea and cake, and there were exhibits of vintage cars as well as a Formula 1 car to inspect and admire.

Top marks to Geoff and Dave for back marking, and a warm welcome to Peter Bowles on his first outing with the As.  Good company and bad luck with punctures.  A pathetic 27.6 miles from elevenses to tea, and an unimpressive 1030 feet of climbing (that's just 314 metres), left us all wishing for the good old days when we used to do hills....

Oh, the joy of owning an old banger!

In my last blog (21 Jan.), I mentioned that instead of sailing to Spain on Sunday morning, we were stranded in New Malden due to exhaust problems with our car. 

We now have to apologize to our faithful 15 years' old Honda Accord which has never been much trouble in the 13 years we have owned it and has not yet behaved as a "banger" really.

The problem is not mechanical at all but theft. The catalytic converter, a sensor and part of the exhaust system were dismantled from underneath the car and stolen whilst it was parked right in front of the house. Apparently, according to the local garage and New Malden police, it has become a fairly common occurrence and several such incidents have been reported on various types of vehicles. The pattern for the thieves is to "work" in an area before moving on elsewhere. We thought we ought to share this information with you - although there is not much that can be done to protect cars unless they are locked away in a garage...

For the good news, we are now booked to cross to France tomorrow night and we shall make our way to Spain leisurely.

See you in the spring and "Au revoir"!
F & F

First come first served

I am getting rid of three boxes of old cycling magazines (Cycling plus, Cycling Active and the CTC Cycle). I was going to take them for recycling but thought someone may want to have them for free. Could I ask you to circulate on the blog otherwise it's off to the tip.

Rgds 
Neil

Neil Guild

07768 99 1624

A Group Jan 28th

Read the weather forecast carefully, very carefully, and you will see the icy blast is only going to reach Scotland, and North America, by Wednesday.  We will have mild temperatures, perhaps a little rain, and probably some sunshine.   The As will be wimbling their way to Windlesham, stopping at the Cricketers for lunch, and heading back to Brookwoodlands for tea.   (That's the whole of January without any significant hills.  Something Should Be Done.)

"B" Group - Dorking to New Malden - 21st January 2015

On a dank January morning, I led the B Group to the Watchman in New Malden. My original plan was to go to the Anchor in Hammersmith, but having seen the weather forecast, I thought a shorter ride was in order. Approximately 15 started in Dorking but only 11 of us ended up in the pub.

Leaving Dorking, we climbed little Switzerland and headed towards Headley. We skirted Chessington and Worcester Park to arrive at the Watchman just after 1 o'clock. Although the pub is local to many of the cyclists, most had never been there before. Considering the numbers and lack of warning, we were served promptly whilst enjoying the warmth of the log fire.  It is a relief for the leader that Wetherspoon pubs do not ask for pre-orders (except for Xmas lunches), and usually can cope with any numbers.

The inclement temperatures were not conducive for a long ride and I hope the group still enjoyed a short winter ride. If I lead in June, we shall make up for it as I am thinking of the Little Hatch in Cranleigh via the woods....

Frank H.

PS. Today (Monday 26) by now, we should have been well on our way to Spain but the car's exhaust "conveniently" packed up outside our house just as we were about to depart to catch the ferry to Santander. Oh the joys of owning a 15-year old banger!

 

Important issues of concern

We have learnt very recently that the career of Chris Juden at CTC has ended with redundancy after 31 years first class service and that CTC has made the role of Technical Officer redundant. Chris was widely respected in government and official circles for his understanding of cycle design standards.

Whilst there have been many concerns about the changes in direction and governance of the CTC in recent years, with emphasis drifting away from Cycle Touring, losing a source of such experience has provided a focus for and triggered a new round of discussions from among the national membership. This was launched by an open letter from David Wood and Angela Byrne at West Surrey CTC.

Their letter is available here.

Note that it is not necessary to have a Google account or sign in to read these documents.

Further to a vigorous round of email correspondence amongst your committee members we wrote a letter of support to David and Angela which you can read here.

In a response to the original letter Paul Tuohy has advised, without being specific, that much of the content of the letter is “factually incorrect” and he continues to summarise the recent staffing and other changes along with the rationale for these changes. Read his letter here.

The date of the CTC Council meeting (17th January) has come and gone. Our chairman, Dave Vine had planned to be present but in the event he wasn’t able to be there. However it appears that the business of the meeting didn’t allow time for the discussion these topics of interest, as we understand.

For the most part the continuing conversation is taking place online. If you use Facebook the best forum for further reading is on the public Group called “Where should CTC be going?” It was created by Chris Jeggo of West Surrey CTC.

Apart from being a member of Facebook to read the content you will have to ‘join’ the group to contribute to the discussion. If you are not a Facebook user you can see two of the best articles from the forum here:
From Chris Jeggo of West Surrey CTC
From Mark Waters, former CTC Touring Officer

There are also many contributions to the discussion on this CTC forum, 279 posts at last count.

For a full account of Chris Juden's activities in the CTC see this.

~ Tim, on behalf of the committee
   (CTC South West London)

Tommy Godwin Record

A few days ago Tony put a useful link on the Blog about this record - here's another.  There are three riders bidding for it at the moment:  Steve 'Teethgrinder' Abraham, CTC and AUK member; Kurt 'Tarzan' Searvogel , and William 'Iron Ox' Pruett.  The latter two are American and are accomplished endurance riders, and all are going well.

This link is to an unofficial spreadsheet that shows the daily mileages of the riders, so it's easy to see how they're getting on.  LINK  

What is less easy to understand is how they're doing it ...  Steve's water bottles froze today, which hasn't yet happened to Kurt, who is riding in Florida.

Mark

A Group, 21 January 2015

Iron's Bottom

Soon to be under new management

After lunch the sound of chattering was dental not lingual

'A' Group Ride - 21 Jan 2015

'In the bleak mid winter' goes the carol, which would be a fair description of the grey, raw conditions we met today. At least the wintry showers forecast did not materialise, to the relief of one and all.
Fourteen of us set out, with the welcome inclusion of Ingrid, preventing us being a monopoly of mamils. We headed south through Newdigate and Rusper, before bearing left to Lambs Green. There was a fair bit of surface water here, being in the vicinity of the Upper Mole valley. We passed through Charlwood, before encountering Norwood Hill, where we found the usual freewheeling technique did not do the job at all, a tad more effort being required as we ascended.

After that, a gentle descent took us to our intermediate goal at the Three Horseshoes, Irons Bottom, where Dave V joined us for lunch. Most went for sandwiches, which, with chips and salad thrown in, not to mention a decent range of beers, met with general approval.

The way back took us through Leigh and Brockham, with our by now much reduced number stopping for tea at Annies at Leatherhead.

Thanks to Neil for back marking. I covered a modest 52 miles in all.

Rob

Cycling Colombia - Part 2

After 6 days of hard cycling in Colombia the rest day on Saturday 17th January came as a welcome respite. A group of us set off to downdown Medellin to replenish bike parts, visiting the bike shop established by the famous Colombian climber, Ramon Hoyas Vallejo, now run by his son, who was happy to serve us.
Leaving Medellin was a delight: on Sunday's the main highways in the city are closed to traffic and we joined the throng of cyclists, joggers, skateboarders, and dog-walkers having a car-free fun Sunday. We soon climbed out of the rim of mountains surrounding Medellin, with cable cars whizzing overhead providing access for the ramshackle neighbourhoods clinging to the hillsides high above the city.
The day provided 2,137m of ascent, over 54 miles, reaching the mountain top town of Santa Rosea de Rosas in late afternoon.
Monday saw the greatest descent of the tour, my computer registering 3,531m loss of altitude, (but also accompanied by 1,215m of gain). The descent from the highest point in la Cordilera was exhilerating, my hands aching from braking for over an hour, as I peeled off the layers with the temperature increasing nearly threefold from 12 degrees to 34 degrees.
On Tuesday a change of hotel required a route change, with a bus transfer to avoid the worst of the hot coastal Savannah. Our destination, after 60 miles of cycling, was a lively seaside resort on the Caribbean - dipping my wheels in the sea followed by a welcome swim to cool off.
Our last cycling day was a long hot slog of 113miles to the delightful Spanish colonial town of Cartagena, a World Heritage site. Finishing the tour led to hugs and congratulations all round, followed by a beer or two - most recognising the tour as probably their toughest cycling challenge.
Today was spent boxing bikes and enjoying the hot and steamy ambiance of Cartagena, and preparing        for flights to Bogata, and hence to London.
Bring on the Surrey hills!

Easy Riders - 21st January

Mole Hall, Molesey - Woodies, New Malden

It was a bitter day and didn’t get any warmer as the day progressed, but not disheartened 10 toughies turned up for the day's ride. 

First of all Fuzz had his 84th birthday on Monday to celebrate so Tea and Cakes were the order all round. Thanks Fuzz.

We set off for lunch at Woodies; we proceeded up Central Avenue to Island Farm Road onto Molesey Park Road and Walton Road, turning left over the river Mole to the level crossing in Summer Road and on to Portsmouth Road, turning right at the lights and on to Fleece road. Then we took the first right in to Ditton Hill Road to the A240 where straight over took us to where Lizzie grew up; we even passed her old school  ( I didn’t realise there were buildings that old still standing). We then continued to Windsor Avenue to Woodies where Ron & Doreen joined us for lunch, after which we all made our own way home (and still freezing)  I gathered Pam up at Five at the Bridge where she was having lunch with Liz and off we went home.

Thanks everyone for a lovely day and CONGRATULATIONS to Lynda for becoming a GRANNY to TWINS.

~ Irene

B Group - 21st January, 2015 (map)

Frank and Françoise took us to The Watchman in New Malden. A very convenient destination for some of us and strangely enough it is the first time I have ever been to this rather good JDW pub which is only half a mile from home.

~ Tim

A Group 21st January

A ride appropriate to the season from Rob today - not too far, not too hard and home in the light.  31.2 miles from elevenses at Dorking to tea at Annies; lunch at the Three Horseshoes, Iron's Bottom.

A cold day, though, lowest temperature 0.6° at Blackbrook, highest 1.7º at Leatherhead.

Mark

ONE YEAR TIME TRIAL

Starting on January 1st 2015 Steven Abraham commenced an attempt to beat Tommy Godwin's record set in 1939.   He has to cycle more than 75,065 miles in 365 days. That is an average of over 205 miles a day, every day, for a year. 

You can track his progress here. Steves Progress  

Peter Betts - exercise bike?

I visited Peter today who is recovering well, but slowly, from his broken leg after taking a tumble on the way home from a ride in November.   He is able to walk without crutches now but his consultant has helpfully advised him to 'avoid falling off' until the bone has regained its original strength, which might take 12 months.

So Peter's involvement in cycling will be limited this year, and he's hoping to borrow an exercise bike so he can do some safe indoor exercise.   Does anyone have an exercise bike they would be prepared to lend him, either now, or during the summer months?   Please contact Peter or myself, details on the contact list.

"B" ride - 21st January 2015

Due to the inclement forecast for tomorrow, I shall lead the "B" group from Dorking to The Watchman (Wetherspoon) in New Malden for lunch.

No tea stop is planned.
Frank H.

'A' Group Ride - 21 Jan 2015

This Wednesday's ride from Dorking is the latest in our series of Winter pootles, designed to keep us ticking over, pending the looming brutality of our Spring training regime.
The plan is to meander through Newdigate, Rusper and Charlwood to lunch at the three Horseshoes, Irons bottom, near Reigate, with tea at Leatherhead - pretty much a hill free ride (the Appeals Committee discounted Norwood Hill). 29 miles from elevenses to tea, with wintry showers a possibility, so snow tyres are optional.
We should be able to manage at least some of our homeward journey in the light, for the benefit of those who haven't eaten enough carrots to keep their night vision up to scratch.

Rob

Easy Riders - 14th January

It was a strong wind getting to Walton Day Centre but we were rewarded on our return trip to the Cap in Hand at Hook for lunch with a tailwind. Sonia joined us; Mark had a puncture on his way to the day centre but came in to see us at lunch. Fuzz made his own way to lunch, missing the hills.

Judy, Jane, Les and Sonia rode back to Cheam then three of us tried the new Crepe café in the village.

~ Lynda