Easy Ride - suitable for Beginners

The second Sunday of the month means that our ride is an easy one suitable for anyone and everyone.

The funny thing is that we seem to have more and more of our members turn up on these rides, this week was no exception. In total there were eleven of us!! In addition we had two guests as well.

Pete S (with Marian) had the pleasure of leading Barbara, Sandra, Val, John V, Michael, Ken, Norman, Pete E and myself as well as guests Malcolm and Rob. I had hoped that we would be going for a jaunt along The Worth Way, but the consensus had leant toward winging our way to Redhill Aerodrome instead. As Pete E was still on the train, I let everyone else start riding whilst I waited for him to arrive. We were only about15 minutes behind everyone else, but cracked along at a fair pace. I thought we would catch up with the "peloton" somewhere in the Industrial Estate but, even though we streaked along the Gatwick straight in excess of 20mph, we didn't manage to make the join until the traffic lights in the middle of Horley!

As we crowded along the shared use foot/cycle path leading north through Horley, we had a minor incident where one of riders was so engrossed in looking out for motor traffic as we crossed a road that she didn't notice a bollard and rode into it! Fortunately we weren't going fast and although she came off, she wasn't hurt. We carried on and Pete made sure we avoided the bumpy bridleway and took the smooth tarmac route along Orchard Drive. The end of this road has an unusual feature insofar as, where it joins up with Cross Oak Lane, what should be a T-Junction is instead a limited access junction. For some (stupid in my opinion) reason, the road layout and signage prohibits anyone from turning right onto Cross Oak Lane. I'm guessing some combination of Surrey/Horley/Salfords road planners and local Nimby residents got their knickers in a twist about the possibility of people driving through the local lanes rather than the choked up A217. What this means for cyclists is that, rather than break the law and ignore the no-right turn signs, we have to ride past the junction then turn right onto a strip of the old road surface that takes us east along the lane in the direction we want (the A217 is no place for cyclists if they can avoid it).

From here, we just had to ride up Picketts Lane, then Masons Bridge Road before turning right onto Kings Mill lane which took us to Redhill Aerodrome and the Chef on the Road cafe for a brunch stop.

It was quite crowded but we managed to get a table outside, where we could sit, eat, drink, chat and watch the various light aircraft and helicopters that were taking off and landing.

Our return journey exactly retraced our outbound route and I would like to say that it was pretty uneventful.

Our next ride starts from Horsham Pavilion in the Park at 10:00 hrs on Sunday 16th March. Bob will lead us on a fairly easy 20 mile route to the cafe at Reigate Garden Centre and return on a shorter but just as easy route. Come along - the weather forecast is really good, I reckon it's going to be a great day out on your bike.