Saturday was just about OK - mainly sunny but with the wind whipping up a bit towards evening. Saturday night was wet and windy, Sunday morning, well, it looked like it might just about be OK.
It was an Easy Ride aimed at anyone new to cycling or not wanting to bite off too much of a ride, but as usual only club members turned up - six of us in total: Pete S (leading), Anton, Norman (back from his Silk Road adventure), Barbara, Malcolm and Bob. After a discussion we decided not to use the Worth Way but to head for Reigate Garden Centre.
Pete led us through Three Bridges and Northgate to the Industrial Estate using NCN21 and we stayed on it through Gatwick and into Horley where the heavens opened. Barbara and Norman decided the call of Horley Station and a nice dry train back to Horsham was too strong a call to ignore and the rest of us rode on. We used Meath Green Lane and Lonesome Lane to Reigate and then a couple of residential roads to arrive at the garden centre.
We tidied ourselves up a bit before sitting at our table in the cafe but there were soon several puddles underneath (mainly fuelled by the rainwater draining from Malcolms sodden shoes). The service was good - friendly and efficient - and after a mere half hour or so, we were heading back outside.
It had stopped raining by now and we zigzagged through the houses and out onto the A217 before turning right onto Ironsbottom. This lane kept us away from the traffic until we briefly joined the A217 again before entering Gatwick through the back door and following the NCN21 back to the Industrial Estate. This time however we used Tinsley Lane and the footbridge by the Hotel before cutting behind Tesco and passing under the railway to follow St Mary's Drive down to the traffic lights near Three Bridges Station. Now we went along Billington Drive and onto the Worth Way for a short distance before wriggling through Maidenbower to arrive at Frogshole Farm for lunch and then our Q4 Runslist Meeting.
Pete was unable to attend the meeting but our numbers were made up by a waiting Val and later, the arrival of a freshly-dried Barbara. The meeting was successful and, along with earlier e-mail contributions, we managed to produce a nicely rounded programme of rides for October / November / December. Thanks everyone.
Our next ride is one of my favourite rides. We meet up outside Evans Cycles at London Bridge by 09:45 to ride over to The Cutty Sark at Greenwich. We leave there at 10:15 and follow NCN21 all the way back to Crawley. The morning is almost entirely on tarmac paths through the parks and countryside(!) of South London before we stop for lunch in the North Downs at a very nice pub called The Bear at Fickleshole. After lunch, the first few miles are quite hard with a lot of off road tracks and a couple of tough hills (although I believe Ros has an easier onroad route out of the Downs and over the M25 in mind) before we negotiate the flatlands of the Nutfield Marsh area, pass East Surrey Hospital and then cruise through Horley and Gatwick back to Crawley. We should finish at about 16:30/17:00.
Come on - it's a challenge and, if the weather is nice, it will be a memorable experience.
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We are a group of cyclists in the Horsham and Crawley area belonging to the national Cyclists Touring Club (CTC). We meet every Sunday to cycle along the quiet lanes of West Sussex and Surrey and occasionally have days or weekends away to explore new areas. Each ride we try to produce a report on what we did and where we rode. This can give a good idea of the pleasure of riding in this beautiful part of the country as well as how easy it is to get around it by bike.
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