Sunday 28 April 2013

The Castle, Chiddingstone

Frank led a very pleasant ride out to Chiddingstone - more detail to come.

Sunday 21 April 2013

Winkworth Arboretum

AM: A cold but sunny start with Anton, Babs, Bob, Gordon and me. Over the golf course and through Warnham. Babs left us at the A29. After a p stop we headed north then west. Went round Cranleigh into new territory. A quick break in Shamley Green and then on to Wonersh and over the A281. Arriving at Winkworth Arboretum at 11.
















PM: After sandwiches, cake, cream tea, scone and drinks we headed off down a 10% and on to Cranleigh using the Downslink to bypass the High St. Then through Cox Green and over Rowhook. 33 mph! Over the A29 and back to HPP via golf course. A nice MEDIUM ride of 40 miles and 2232 ft of climbing. B-)

Our next ride, on Sunday 28th April, will be a 09:30 start from Three Bridges station and will be a relatively easy 40 mile round trip to The Castle at Chiddingstone led by Frank.

Sunday 14 April 2013

Easy Ride

An easy ride today but only experienced riders turned up. Shame, as it was actually a very pleasant and mild day which would have suited everyone.
Pete S led Marian (no choice, she was stoking his tandem), John V, Gordon and Bob off through Three Bridges, Northgate, the industrial estate and on to Gatwick. As we travelled through the airport we met a young Chinese lady on a bike, looking lost. We couldn't understand her very well but thought she was trying to get to a building near the north terminal. Pete altered our route so that we could guide her to the north terminal, but as we got there I was trying to find more detail from her and realised that the building she wanted was near the Hilton Hotel ie. back near the south terminal but the other side of the railway! We explained this to her and suggested she used the lift to get into the south terminal and then cross over the railway from there.

We carried on out of the airport at Povey Cross to continue north and onto Horse Hill. This took us to Ironsbottom where we turned left onto the A217 for a few hundred yards before we turned left again to head through the southern outskirts of Reigate and arrive at Reigate Garden Centre for refreshments.

Unlike practically every ride of the last few months, going back outside wasn't an unpleasantly cold experience, in fact it was warm enough that we adopted thinner gloves and tops for the ride home. In keeping with the easy label for the ride, we headed back on a fairly direct route done the ever-enjoyable Lonesome Lane into Horley. From here we rejoined NCN21 back to Gatwick and then spent a few minutes watching the planes struggling on their final approach as they fought a fairly stiff crosswind.

It didn't take us much longer to get back to Three Bridges where we all headed off home in our different directions.

Our next ride starts at 09:00hrs on Sunday 21st April and will go to Winkworth Arboretum (National Trust). We will have enough time to visit the gardens, so bring your membership card if you have one. There is a small cafe just outside the gardens. The weather forecast for Sunday looks good, so come on out.

Sunday 7 April 2013

DA Event - Freewheel

Today we rode to Nutbourne for the Freewheel competition - basically everyone takes it in turn to just roll downhill (no pedalling) and see who can go the furthest. After several years of trying, and being a leading contender, JC finally managed an outright victory today. Well done.

I made a video of my descent during which I managed to hit 38 mph but I couldn't translate it into distance and came about 4th or 5th or something.....


Next weeks ride is an easy ride starting from Three Bridges Station at 10:00hrs and will either be an out and back along The Worth Way, or a gentle road route to Redhill Aerodrome - it all depends on who turns up and what kind of ride they want!