Pootle to Partridge Green

Happy Birthday to us! Our club was formed at this time of year some thirty odd years ago, so it was good to see a couple of founder members out riding with us today. In fact, I was pleased to see eight riders joining me for today's ride: Mick, Val, Norman, Malcolm, Pete E, John V, Pete and Marian S.

I'd made a tactical error in setting up the runs list in that I had two consecutive Horsham starts that headed in the same direction. Anton had given us a good ride to Maplehurst a fortnight ago and there was a risk today's ride would use a lot of the same roads, so I deliberately worked out a zig-zaggy route to avoid that. 

We left Horsham by crossing the golf course, going under the A24 and onto Robin Hood Lane. Broadbridge Heath was very quiet and we were soon negotiating the new road layout at Newbridge. From here we took the next left to Christs Hospital and on to Two Mile Ash. Next we went up Bonfire Hill to Southwater.

Here I outsourced the ride leader role to Norman and he skilfully guided us through the avenues and alleyways of deepest, darkest Southwater. We crossed over the A24 near the RSPCA HQ then headed south from Newfoundout to use Jackrells Lane/Polecat Lane on to Copsale. I'd forgotten about the little hill on this Lane but huffed and puffed my way up it all the way to Maplehurst. We regrouped for the final two hills before lunch but, as we hit the second, Pete and Marian's tandem was making some horrible crunching noises from the area of the bottom bracket. Shortly after we crossed the A272 their bottom bracket gave up the ghost and the chain kept coming off, meaning they had to walk the last mile or so to the pub.

We had a lovely lunch at The Partridge in Partridge Green, all of us opting for one of their range of baps. The pub is run by the local Dark Star brewery I believe, and between us we sampled there excellent brews - I had a delicious pint of brown ale from the local. Pete and Marian arranged for their son to come and pick them and the broken tandem up, whilst the rest of us remounted and headed back home hoping to beat the rain which was forecast for 3p.m.

I'd considered using the Downs Link to avoid some hills but looking at the map I reckoned it would be shorter by staying on the roads. So we retraced our morning route back to Copsale, with Jon V leaving us to head back to Crawley via Newells Lane whilst the rest us headed up to Kerves Lane. This took us on up to Horsham where we split into two groups, one heading back to the start and Norman, Mick and myself heading for the Roffey area.

From Roffey I used the Forest Road, but just short of Pease Pottage the rain finally started. As it was fairly fine rain I decided to keep going and not bother stopping to put on my waterproofs. The rain got heavier as I raced down Pease Pottage Hill so I decided to go through Tilgate Park in order to get some shelter from the trees. I took my usual diagonal route across the grassy slope but it was very slippy - a combination of my slick tyres and the extremely wet ground conditions.  Here's a video of the trip down Pease Pottage Hill and through Tilgate park (it's speeded up a bit):



If I'd had my knobbly tyres on I'd have been quicker through the park but would have been absolutely covered in mud from head to toe, so maybe carefully skating along on slicks was a good idea? It certainly helps hone your concentration!!  As you can see, the track alongside the golf driving range was badly potholed with an expanding selection of muddy puddles of indeterminate depth but I was soon home and amazingly not too covered in crud either. I chucked a couple of buckets of water over my trusty bike and then sprayed it with light oil before putting it away having checked to see how many miles I'd ridden - 46.

Next weeks ride is an Easy ride aimed at beginners and will start from Three Bridges Station at 10:00 hrs, come along, enjoy riding your bike in good company.