Central London CTC blog

Ride south young man I thought today as I set off for Victoria from the top of north London. Victoria Station was busy but I was able to spot the knot of cyclists by the timetable boards on the concourse and spotted some of the usual suspects, namely, Camille, John and Nick but they were eager to inform me that they were doing the 2* ride led by Mark Knox. Mark was in evidence as were other familiar faces and several unfamiliar ones but as I was doing the 3* ride the temptation to hit the roads in Kent was not that great and as I expect to be in Kent next week when John will be doing more bits of The Pilgrims Way. I had to look round a bit before I spotted another candidate for the long ride into West Sussex.Eventually the two groups took shape and the dozen or so for Mark’s ride definitely outnumbered those that we of the same mind as myself and were waiting for Nick Dean to arrive to organise our departure. Eventually six set off for the train to Sutton and the long ride over the North Downs through Surrey. At Sutton we became seven as Roger Cline had cycled out to meet the train.

The ride was pretty much as Nick had described it to us while we were on the train. There was a fair amount of traffic on roads for the first 20 – 30 Km but that is often the case when a ride starts within the M25. Eventually we found quieter roads and one or two longish inclines which were appreciated rather than shorter and steeper climbs but there were also some nice downhill sections to ease counterbalance the climbing. I do recall one very tricky bend at the start of a descent which had be grabbing for even more brake than I already had on but my personal favourite was the descent towards Shere just before we crossed the A25.

By that time it was becoming evident that lunch was likely to be later than usual and Nick seemed to have decided that we should continue all the way to The Haven and the lovely Blue Ship which was the original lunch venue and get the benefit of daylight and nicer roads and cut short the afternoon and head for a station once it got too dark after lunch. However, it appears that hunger pangs got the better of some and so we eventually stopped for lunch at Cranleigh. At that point we had completed just over 40K.

Over lunch, after phone calls were made to check which stations would give us the best options for the return trip it was decided that we would head east and then pick up a train at Dorking or maybe Reigate or even Redhill. I think those were the options but as it was not my ride I was happy to follow and see where we ended up. The good thing about the ride post lunch was that we were likely to be getting the benefit of a tailwind having spent most of the morning battling into a stiffish breeze.

The return trip eventually took us to Redhill over territory that I began to realise I had ridden over several time s so it was nice to spend time riding on roads that I was vaguely familiar with. The only thing of note, apart from the tailwind was a technical failure after about 55K. I say technical failure as my brain went walkabout and I ended in a leaf covered gully off the side of a nice lane and in trying to recover ended up falling and causing Robert, I think, to take swift evasive action to avoid being brought down. Fortunately no harm was done as I fell on one of the least valuable parts of my anatomy, not my head dear readers, but it was just a simple fall onto my upper thigh which is well padded.

That is it for the ride apart from an unexpected meeting with Kay and Roger, who had been on a race riding session, while we were waiting for the train at Redhill.

Thanks all who were there, Angela, Geraldine, Sally, Nick Dean, Robert and Roger. Especial thanks to Nick for leading and Roger for being reserve leader and doing most of the post-lunch navigation.

Details from my computer
Distance travelled 77.14K
Fastest speed 60.9 Kph