Anyone for Coffee?

Michael had a nice little route planned for today with long or short options to cater for whoever turned up. Due to a party on Saturday night, I'd only managed about three hours sleep and only had 20 minutes to get to Horsham. Just as I was deciding I would have to miss the ride, Anton phoned to see if I needed a lift! So it was that Anton and I joined Michael, Val and Norman in the cafe at Horsham pavilions. Have I mentioned that it was raining hard and that the temperature was only a few degrees above freezing? Well, we all had a coffee and sat there chatting, no-one seemed keen to get out into the lousy weather. We each came up with reasons not to get all cold and wet (mine was that I needed to get back to bed and catch up on my sleep!) and the time ticked by. If anything the weather was actually getting worse and we were enjoying our chatting and coffees so eventually we all decided to forego cycling for the day and just head for home. We'll try and run the ride later in the year. 

The Green Man at Horsted Keynes

I rated this ride as Easy/Medium on the runs list because it would be easy in terms of mileage but medium because there would be some hills - you just can't avoid hills if you go south of Crawley. After the wet and miserable weather of recent, it was a pleasant surprise to wake up to a nice sunny day, albeit a tad nippy. The sun brought out four other riders - John C, Val, Michael and Norman.

I avoided the Pease Pottage climb and didn't use the Turners Hill one because I don't like it. Instead I led everyone through Maidenbower and then up the Balcombe Road as far as the bridleway which took us east to Whiteways Lodge. From there we headed on through Worth Abbey before turning south into Back Lane. This lane gave us a nice two mile plus, generally downhill, quiet, run before launching us steeply down to the reservoir. There was a lot of water running down the sides of the road and at the bottom it was obvious that the road had recently been completely flooded. It was clear enough for us to get through though and then we had the second climb of the day. There was a lot of clear running water cascading down and in some places, across, the road.

Having reached Ardingly we turned right onto the Lindfield road for another downhill run which continued as we turned left and then right and up to Horsted Keynes railway station on the Bluebell Railway. The railway station is over a mile away from the village which gives it its name and is the location of our lunch stop. However, we'd made good time so we stopped on the way into the village  in a sun trap of a spot with a convenient bench. 

As the pub was about to open, we got going again and covered the last few hundred yards to the Green Man. As we locked up our bikes Anton arrived and as we settled down inside the pub with our beers, Pat and Frank turned up. Not bad - eight cyclists out on a cold January day!. We spent a pleasant hour eating and drinking as well as discussing future rides and some facets of a planned end-to-end ride Anton, Norman and myself will tackle in 2016. 

The homeward route took us east then north away from Horsted Keynes then, near Birchgrove (where Harold Macmillan used to I've), I tried to take a debris strewn downhill corner too fast and ran out of road! Luckily I got away with it and managed to regain the tarmac without falling off :-)  Next, one of my favourite lanes took us through a ford and then presented us with a short sharp climb. Continuing north the next Lane took us gradually up as did the following lane, which is called Chilling Street. At the top of the street we turned left and headed through Sharpthorne then West Hoathly and on to Turners Hill. This meant that the last few miles of the ride were all pretty much downhill.

Getting back to Three Bridges station I could see that we'd only covered 24 miles - although Norman reckoned we'd climbed something like 20 hills!

Our next ride should be a bit flatter. Michael will be leading us from Horsham Pavilion in the Park at 10:00 hrs and take us to lunch at either Kirdford or Barns Green - depending on who turns up. It's rated as an easy ride and should only be about 30 miles - sounds enjoyable to me, perhaps I'll see you there.

North and West of Crawley

The first ride of 2014 was preceded by the news that two of our riders had fallen off their bikes in recent days. One due to ice and the other due to a pothole. Both riders are recovering but won't be riding for a few weeks yet. Get well soon gents.

Weather wise we were lucky to have a nice clear day. There had been a light frost but with a 10:00 hrs start all the roads were ice free. part from myself, today's riders were Barbara, Val, Frank and Gordon. 

I'd produced a nice easy and relatively flat route which took us up NCN21 through Gatwick and then out of Horley via Meath Green Lane/Lonesome Lane. We took the bridleway across to the A 217 then headed south to Black Corner where we forked right towards Ironsbottom. From there we headed to Charlwood then Russ Hill and finally Rusper. We were the only people in the pub for about half an hour and our food arrived really quickly.

The weather forecast suggested rain in the mid afternoon so we headed straight back home from the pub