Penshurst

A 9:30 start from Three Bridges Station saw four riders turn up – Barbara, John V, Bob and John C leading. The weather was overcast but warm enough and after waiting around for 10 minutes in case anyone else turned up, we set off. John chose an ‘unusual’ route going along St. Mary’s Drive and past Tesco’s into Three Bridges before using the Industrial Estate to get onto the NCN 20 through Gatwick…..
Once again I’d fixed a camera to my handlebars with the intention of taking a few snaps and videos as we cycled along. Here’s a shot showing the newly resurfaced path by the lake in Horley:

We went past Horley railway station and out on the Smallfield Road. Passing through Smallfield we continued east on Plough Road before taking Bones Lane across to the Newchapel roundabout. A quick run along a B road took us to Lingfield and on past the racecourse before we turned left onto a quiet yellow road that took us through the grounds of the National Centre for Young People with Epilepsy. Barbara and I had a discussion about epilepsy, what impact it has, what causes it and how to deal with it and before we knew it we’d reached Haxted Mill. The conversation was halted by the effort needed to climb the short hill after the mill and, with the clouds now starting to thin, we shortly arrived in Edenbridge.

Heading south then east on the Hever Road, ignoring the signpost to Hever Castle, we took the next left turn and headed towards Chiddingstone. The village was choc-a-bloc with cars as we passed through – I think the church there is well attended. Resisting the temptation to stop at the village pub we continued on and soon emerged on the B2027 where we turned right to go to Penshurst railway station. Here we hoisted our bikes on our shoulders to use the footbridge over the railway as way of avoiding a climb on the road – looking at the map I suspect that carrying the bikes needed more effort than riding them over the short hill that we avoided!

Five minutes later we were in Penshurst and parking our bikes in a compound at the back of the café. Our four bikes were the most varied group there – a mountain bike, a hybrid and two tourers. All the others seemed to be ‘club racer’ style with varying amounts of carbon fibre involved!
We ordered our lunches and settled back in the sheltered and sunny garden to sup our tea and chat about this and that. We talked about the trip that the two Johns are making to Luxemburg and Belgium next week, the DA Event picnic on Sunday 1st August and Antons recent buckled wheel – he was 300km into a 1000km ride when he had a spoke break on a severe downhill and by the time he’d managed to pull up, his rear wheel was severely bent and he couldn’t continue! Fortunately it hadn’t thrown him off the bike, but it did get us talking about the relative merits of different spoke counts, wheel building/trueing techniques and riding styles – for instance, I know I’m a bit of a porker but I do have a light riding style – I think this comes from off-road riding a hardtail bike for so long: you can’t keep control on the rough stuff unless you’re constantly shifting your weight around and I think I do this even on the road. This would explain why I’m such a cr*p road cyclist – I waste energy unnecessarily but I’ve never broken a spoke!
Anyway, having added further to my girth by indulging in a slice of ginger cake for pudding, it was time to get back on the bike (having settled our meal bills). Leaving Penshurst in a south-westerly direction we turned right and headed uphill past the Penshurst Off Road Cycling circuit where a round of the Mountain Biking Championship was underway – perhaps we could do a ride to that next year? A few miles later we went through Cowden which, as ever, was completely dead – I’ve never seen anyone walking around in this village even though I’ve ridden through it half a dozen times in the last few years!

From here, we travelled on lanes parallel to and north of the A264 before passing through Dormansland and then on back into Lingfield. From here we retraced our morning route until, just short of Smallfield we headed south along Dowlands Lane and Cross Lane before the long drag up to Copthorne Bank. John V set a cracking pace on this gradual climb and I sat in his slipstream (because I’m lazy). At the roundabout we used the old road back to Crawley and parted company on reaching the Balcombe Road – John V to go south, John C to head north and Barbara and I to continue on to Three Bridges station. There I said goodbye and a few minutes later I was home with 54 miles on my speedo and a back garden full of family members enjoying what was now a nice sunny afternoon.

Our next ride is from Horsham Park Pavilions starting at 10:00 on Sunday 1st August. Barbara will lead us to Wisborough Green for the Picnic DA Event. Please come along on what will be an easy ride of no more than 35 miles (OK, there is a hill in the middle, but it’s not very long). My challenge will be to cram my picnic in my bumbag (or fannypack as the Yanks call them) but there’s always the option of a pub lunch at The Cricketers just over the road! Alternatively, if you’ve got plenty of space in your panniers, I’d love to see someone bring a picnic, a folding chair and a marquee!! Come on all you Horsham and Crawley members, let’s have a good turnout and earn the club some much needed points in the trophy competition!

The Bat and Ball

The Runs List said:
Date: 18th July
Ride: Bat and Ball, Newpound Common and tea at Capel
Distance: 50 miles - medium
Leader: Mick

Let's see what Mick writes:

Starting at Horsham Pavilions in the Park were Anton, Barbara and Norman. Heading out down the Brighton Road I nearly swallowed a fly, just managing to close my mouth in time. Turning right into Kerves Lane and Hard’s Hill just to warm things up. After this we headed for Maplehurst via Copsale. John V caught us up by the Camelia Botnar Garden Centre. On through Littleworth and Partridge Green the wind got up and slowed us down as bit. We turned right into Golden Lane and on towards Dial Post.

Crossing the A24 took some time but we managed it without incident. Through Dial Post and past The Countryman where Barbara peeled off to head home. The remaining four of us headed south along Coolham Road and right onto Harbolets Lane towards Adversane. It was along this road I realised we were going to be early so we decided to head for The Blue Ship at The Haven for lunch, arriving at 11:45 with some meandering.

As we had changed our lunch stop Capel at 15:00 was a problem so we decided to head home via Slinfold, Broadbridge Heath and Robin Hood Lane instead.

One interesting thing about today’s ride was five attendees and five types of bike;
Me Tourer
Anton Audax
Barbara Hybrid
Norman Mountain
John Racer

So today’s ride was really The Blue Ship at The Haven and 40 miles.

Next weeks ride (tomorrow as I post this) is a 9:30 start from Three Bridges Railway Station to cover a 40 mile loop out to Penshurst in Kent with lunch at a cafe (or a pub) on the Green there.

World Cup Ride

Whoops - forgot to post a blog for this ride!!

The start was from Three Bridges Railway Station at 09:30 hrs. If my memory serves me correctly, I (Bob) was joined by Norman, Anton, John V, Jeet and Seb.

I called it the "World Cup Ride" because it was on the same day as the World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands - I had hoped to go through villages/past pubs that would fit into that as a theme but failed miserably to come up with any ideas to suit! As we headed through the northern parts of Crawley and then past the airport I could have pointed out that some of the planes were going to Spain and that some of them were painted orange (the Dutch team colours) but I didn't. After an uneventful passage of Gatwick the most noticeable thing was that the path between the river Mole and the lakes on the approach to Horley has been resurfaced with a compacted grit material - hopefully this will make it cleaner to use during the winter months.

Rather than use the subway, I took the bridge past Horley Railway station and then picked up NCN21 (or is it 20?) to head north out of the town. Those riders on the more 'delicate' machines took a slightly more easterly route to stay on smooth tarmac, but Norman and I toughed it out on the bumpy track (I was mistakenly under the impression that it had been resurfaced).

Meeting up again, we headed uphill and then left to go past Redhill Aerodrome and then used the intriguingly named Philanthropic Road into Redhill. Heading due west we reached Woodhatch and crossed the A217 at the traffic lights. We next used Sandcross Lane and Slipshatch Road before taking a little northern loop to go past the Police Dog training school and the deer park. We passed the Anchor at Betchworth a good hour before opening time and then the Plough in Leigh not long after - that meant two of my lunch options were written off! That's the trouble with a group of fit(-tish) blokes - they were riding too damn fast :-)

From Leigh we headed off towards Newdigate and used the very quiet Hogspudding Lan
e to emerge opposite the Six Bells (still too early). The boys were flying now and we made good progress south to arrive in Rusper bang on opening time. John Jeet and Seb decided to continue on back home leaving Norman, Anton and myself to enjoy a leisurely lunch sat outside the front of the Plough. The beauty of Rusper is that there's a nice downhill glide towards Crawley for the first mile or two (and then it's flat), so I was home just before two. Norman had a (different) downhill before a small climb back to Horsham and Anton clocked up yet more miles as he carried on back to Haywards Heath.

At this point I would normally put in a plug for the next ride, but as I'm writing this retrospectively it's already happened!

Two Weald Ride

The Two Weald Ride is an annual West Sussex DA event, organised by the Horsham and Crawley Section. The event comprises of four circular 25 mile routes starting/finishing at Wisborough Green which effectively box the compass. Points are scored for starting and finishing any one of the routes and riders are free to ride whichever of the routes they like and however many of them as they want. This effectively gives the options of a 25, 50, 75 or 100 mile day. Horsham and Crawley man a checkpoint and provide refreshments (tea, cordial, cakes) during the day. Riders wishing to tackle multiple routes are advised to download the route instructions/map from the DA website so that they can make an early start as the control point is only available between 10:00hrs and 16:00hrs – if it were open longer, some poor cyclist(s) from our section would have to spend the majority of the day not cycling! With a 6 hour window we’ve normally got enough members present for us all to share the task.

Previously we’ve erected a little marquee under the chestnut tree by the green and last year we also had the use of a mobile home to provide somewhere to shelter and brew the tea, but this year the weather was fine enough to forego both and just place the table and chairs in the shade of the tree. Arranged on the table were printouts of the route instructions, maps, a fruit cake and two Victoria sponges – the cakes were baked by Mick, Barbara and Bob respectively.

Leading up to the event, various members arranged the details by phone and e-mail –printing of the maps/route instructions, provision of gas stove, table, chairs, tea, coffee, squash, cakes, water, a monetary float and arranging to transport all of this to Wisborough Green (along with our bikes of course). So, just before 9 am three cars assembled at Barbara’s house and items were carefully packed in next to each of our bikes. As we unpacked at Wisborough Green, so the first riders started arriving and Barbara’s thoughtful idea of bring hot water in flasks allowed us to get the kettle boiling very quickly so that everyone could have a pre-ride cuppa. Barbara and I (Bob) took on the first shift and had soon waved off some 13 riders from the various West Sussex Member Groups. Not long after, Bob Harber, going for the big 100, finished his second loop, had a short break for refreshments and then set off on his third loop. Colin was next to arrive having cycled all the way from Bognor – he too partook of the refreshments before setting off on a loop. Shortly after, Pete S arrived having just completed the Southern loop. He kept us company for the next hour or so and, when John V and John C completed their loop, took on the Western Loop with us.

Sitting around for a couple of hours hadn’t taken the edge off Barbara’s pace and she set a blistering speed as we headed off to Kirdford – Pete and I could barely keep up!

After Kirdford the western route goes through Ebernoe then Lurgashall and Lickfold before the climb of Leggatt Hill followed by a descent and stiff climb to River.

At the next junction the official route goes right and down to join the A 272 but in practice most people go left to stay on a quieter road, enduring a climb but with good views to the south. Then following a right turn there’s a nice downhill run through Upperton and on down to Tillington. Here we stopped for lunch at the Horse Guards Inn. The menu wasn’t really that cyclist friendly but we snacked on spicy nut mix and bread and oils in a pleasantly sunny courtyard. The beer was absolutely superb and it was hard work dragging ourselves away to continue the ride.
Emerging onto the A272 we turned left and headed into Petworth but avoided most of the town by passing to the south before going up through Byworth and then past the Welldiggers Arms and onto the long uphill drag north. Crossing the A272, the road goes downhill and we made good time back through Kirdford and on to Wisborough Green.

By now it was half past three and most of the riders had finished their rides and were heading home. We packed everything away and ensured we left the Green as we found it whilst we waited for the remaining few riders to come back. Colin turned up and waving goodbye, headed off back in the direction of Bognor, then at exactly four pm, our lone 100 miler turned up having just completed his fourth and last loop – he’d managed each one in just about 2 hours and hadn’t really taken any breaks – pretty impressive. I was glad to hear that his car was parked just around the corner and that he would be driving home as I could see that he’d put in a lot of effort and I was worried he’d be too tired to ride home.

So finally, at about half past four on a sunny but fairly windy day, we packed our bikes away and went back home. The day seems to have been a success with some 18 riders taking part clocking up something like 600 miles between them! All the fruit cake had been sold and most of the two Victoria sponges as well.

The next DA Event also involves food – it’s the Picnic on Sunday 4th August and, because it’s central to all the sections, it’s at Wisborough Green.