NCN21 - Greenwich to Crawley

In order to keep our regular schedule going, we have to plan our organised rides several months in advance. So I had scheduled the NCN21 ride some time ago and well before when I arranged to stay with my daughter and partner, and occasional CTC Riders, Kendra and Chris, in Canary Wharf on Saturday night. This meant that I had to get up early on Sunday and ride across London to Victoria to start the ride that would have its first stop back where I had first started! But this did give me the chance to try out one of the first ‘Cycle Super Highways’ from Canary Wharf to the Tower of London. I didn’t want to go to the Tower of London – that is where the route terminated, rather abruptly. Apart from that it was fine.

The next mistake I made was not to publish a meeting point at Victoria. So I met Anton at Victoria station at 8.35 by WH Smiths. We had a pleasant coffee and then set off at 9.05 thinking that no one else was joining in Victoria. But Norman and Richard had, unbeknownst (is that a word!?) to us, been lurking down near the Southern arrival gates, subsequently to leave at 9.10, separately. Anton and I had a pleasant ride south of the river, mostly following the NCR4. This is the fourth time that I have led this ride and I think that this is also the fourth version of the route from Victoria to Greenwich – some parts seem to remain constant, but in some others the signs run out. But overall an interesting route through the old docklands. At Greenwich we became quorate when we joined Bob, who had ridden directly from London Bridge, and Norman and Richard, who had taken a more direct route from Victoria, giving a total of five riders. The forecast was for rain all day, which undoubtedly had put some people off and John and John were away touring with some CTC friends.

We left at 10.20 in fine weather and made good time. The route seemed to work better this time and we reached Croydon very quickly. Bob had researched the route in this area, where we got somewhat disoriented last year (ok, lost) and lead us with conviction the correct way, although there was not a sign to be seen. [Aside: Where would we be without Bob!????] And Richard’s GPS helpfully informed us if we strayed from the one true Sustrans path. Although we have ridden this route several times now it is always surprising how much green we pass through, without apparently passing through the city to arrive, suddenly, in the countryside.

So the White Bear at Fickleshole (http://www.bigginhill.co.uk/bear.htm) appeared at 12.15 – a bit late for 12.00 but earlier than usual; this was a bunch of hard (er) riders! We had our lunch sitting outside but, as we got ready to leave it started to drizzle lightly. We exchanged a few words with Neil Morrissey (Men behaving badly) and his two friends as we prepared the bikes to leave – they seemed very impressed by our journey and suggested that we would need to consume another seven pints if we were to get back to Crawley on schedule (based on our distance so far and consumption so far).

The NCN21 after Fickleshole seems to become mainly off-road tracks. After the rain in the last few days these tracks regretfully became a little too much for the clearances on Anton’s new bike and so he headed off on the road at Warlingham, while we rode serenely through the grounds of the public school there (why are they called ‘public’ when they are anything but that?!). The rain got a bit more serious for a while, but eventually lost interest. I think that this is the first time that we have had anything but hot sunny weather and it gave our off-road aficionados the chance to prove that their mudguards were either a) absent or b) inadequate and cover themselves in mud! They managed to do this quite successfully.



Richard easily won the ascent of the single chevroned hill north of the A22 before we arrived at the glorious view from Caterham hill. It was a bit murky on Sunday, but it still feels great to get there. We were back on to familiar territory as we descended down towards Redhill and the route was then flat to Crawley. Norman caught the train in Horley to return to Horsham (good to have a Horsham contingent) and we arrived home in Crawley at about 16.30 after 54 miles (Victoria to Crawley) or 45 miles (Greenwich to Crawley). Average speed a little under 10 mph – mainly due to quite a bit of off-road and one or two quite stiff climbs. Oh, and one puncture which Bob fixed very quickly.

This really is an interesting and fun route, with lots of interesting and unexpected nuances – you would be most welcome to join us next time. Thank you to everyone that made it this year – I think that we all enjoyed it.

Peter S

Bob adds:

my wife took this picture of my two tone legs - ahhh, the joys of riding offroad in the wet!!

Next weeks ride will be led by Anton. Starting from Horsham Pavilions in the Park at 09:00 hrs it will be a medium rated 50 miler with lunch at the Limeburners Arms, Newbridge.

If you'd like a ride on Bank Holiday Monday (30th August), Mick will be leading a ride from Horsham Pavilions in the Park at 10:00 hrs out to The Sussex Oak at Warnham which is having a beer festival. Mick says this will be a 30 mile medium ride and I'm guessing most of those will be done before the pub!