The second Sunday of each month we have a nice easy ride aimed at those new to riding or new to riding with a group or even just those who fancied an easy couple of hours in the saddle.
This month I decided we'd use The Worth Way, hopefully as far as East Grinstead for a cuppa but tailored to whoever turned up.
I was pleasantly surprised when on arriving at Three Bridges station I was met by a nice large group of riders, all looking forward to clocking up a few miles on what had turned into a nice sunny day.
As well as club members Barbara, Michael, Norman, Sandra, Val and myself, we had guests Carol, Claire, Christime, Sharon and Paul.
The traffic light sensors didn't sense us, so we had to wave a car forward to jolt the electronics into operation and we were off..... Up Billinton Drive and then onto The Worth Way. The dappled sunlight and shelter from the wind made for very pleasant riding and the surface was firm enough to make good progress yet comfortably soft at the same time.
As we passed Worth Church we acquired another rider as John V joined us, making our numbers up to a round dozen. Everyone was chatting and getting along really well making it a very enjoyable ride.
There was quite a broad variation in average speeds amongst the riders so every now and again I would stop in order for us all to regroup but it still didn't take long to get to East Grinstead.
Crossing over the railway I was disappointed that there wasn't a steam engine at the station, but we carried on up the hill to pull up at the Bluebells cafe for a break. Even though there were so many of us the cafe coped really well and we were grouped together so we could continue our various conversations. The cafe offered to stock leaflets advertising our club if we want - I'll have to print some off and go back there sometime soon. Everyone seemed to enjoy whatever drink and food they ordered and after about 30 minutes or so we were back outside ready to start the return journey.
It's slightly downhill from Grinny and we were making rapid progress, but I stopped at the pond by Crawley Down in order to regroup.
The rest of the ride was uneventful and we were soon back at Three Bridges station and saying goodbye to each other.
We carried on and continued to make good progress until one of the bikes had a puncture. I adopted my Bicycle Repair Man guise and got stuck into mending it. The puncture had announced itself with a loud bang so I was expecting to see a large hole in the tube, but it wasn't that big. The tube contained some puncture prevention slime and I wasn't sure whether that would prevent a puncture patch from working but the rider had a spare tube anyway so we fitted that (after checking the tyre for thorns, stones, splits etc.).
The rest of the ride was uneventful and we were soon back at Three Bridges station and saying goodbye to each other.
Next weeks ride is a Horsham Pavilions in the Park start at 09:30 for a 30 something mile loop south of Horsham and across to The Half Moon at Warninglid for lunch.
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