Muddy ride with Gordon

Want a complete cycling experience?  Come out on one of Gordons Rides.


The day started with breakfast at Gordon and Jacqui's before an enjoyable warm up ride along Parish Lane and down through Tilgate Forest. Gordon, Ken and I did a bit of exploring through Furnace green and sued the northern tunnel under the railway - recently extended and refurbished with excellent lighting and a good smooth surface, this tunnel offers an excellent and (in some instances) shorter alternate link between NCN20 and NCN21. However, we were on our way to Three Bridges Station so we turned left onto Billington Drive and rode past a long stream of waiting traffic to arrive at the station for 10:00hrs. Here we were joined by Michael and Malcolm, then Mike, an acquaintance of mine.


Gordon led us back up Billington Drive and onto the Worth Way. Conditions were muddy but grip was good and I soon had a splattering of mud over me. Someone suggested that the Irish called the weather conditions "Soft" - an excellent description - the clouds were indistinguishable from each other and seemed to reach the ground without quite making things foggy, the vegetation looked somehow soft - even the branches and with big fat knobblies on my bike, the ride was pretty plush as well.


We were riding at an easy pace and I was having fun along the way, practicing hops, taking detours up banks. At Crawley Down we took the slope up to the B road and then used it up to Turners Hill. Never an easy hill, I realized that none of the cyclists waiting near the top had actually ridden the entire hill (all the way to the crossroads) - so I told them so, and claimed King of the Hill for myself!!


From Turners Hill we headed west along the ridge through Worth Abbey to Back Lane. Here Mick decided to head for home (via the Cowdray Arms I think), having assured me he knew where he was and how to get back to Crawley.


Meanwhile the rest of us enjoyed the long glide south and west before the short, sharp climb into Balcombe. Gordon had recce'd the route a few days earlier and was in the process of telling us about some ice he'd encountered when, as I shot down a tiny lane he'd led us to, I realised there was ice all the way across it!!  Not a problem though, I didn't need to turn or lean or brake or accelerate and just floated uneventfully across it, shouting out a warning as I did so.


Other features of this lane were:  (i) the smooth, new tarmac  (ii) a conversation with some chickens and (iii) a couple of hills (granny gear for the use of).


A right turn onto a busier road took us up to Cuckfield where we headed West then north to Staplefield and a quick visit to The Victory. What a great pub - warm welcome, warm fire, good beer (we went for the Wilmington Brewery Long Man) and good food. Actually, the good food observation was based on previous visits, as today we were going to lunch at Gordons, so it was time to get back out in the cold.


From Staplefield we carried on west, under the revamped A23, to Slaugham and thence the bridleway up to Handcross. As we were starting to feel hungry, we took the shortest route back to Gordons where he and Jacqui treated us to a delicious lunch. An hour or so later, after some good discussions about life, the universe and the CTC, we all headed off home.


Next weeks ride starts from Horsham Park Pavilions at 10:00hrs and will be a fairly easy loop to the south of Horsham led by me - unless anyone else wants to volunteer? -  with a lunch stop at The Bax Castle.

Easy Ride with Michael

Time for another attempt at a poem methinks:

Cold day, cold nose, cold in the head.

Hard climb, hard wind, hard to make the time.

Warm legs, warm welcome, warmed up ready to go.

Through Horsham, through the tunnel, through the slippery mud - oh!

Over Newbridge, over the old bridge, over the Itchingfield climb.

Wait for the ladies, wait in the sunshine, wait - Michael, make up your mind.

Cross over the railway, cross over the B road, don't cross the A 272.

Pick up the pace a bit, pick up the ladies, pick up a tailwind too.

Back through Barns Green, back past Dog Barking, Bax Castle for a stop.

Plenty of eating, plenty of chatting and plenty of juice of the hop.

Before braving the cold, braving the traffic and braving Tower Hill to the top.

Hmmmm.   That crashed to a halt!  Unlike the ride which was actually really enjoyable. Thanks to Michael for leading, Barbara, Christine, Frank, Norman and Pete E for riding.

Our next ride is a Crawley start and is styled as "Muddy Ride – offroad on bridleways – nothing extreme".   The official start is from Three Bridges station at 10:00hrs, although if you wanted to meet up with Gordon at Pease Pottage a bit earlier, I'm sure it could be arranged.

Chiddingstone

Frank normally leads the Chiddingstone Ride later in the year but I thought I would throw one in now as it's a fairly level,  35-40 mile tarmac ride on generally quiet lanes.


It was cold but not freezing as we gathered together at Three Bridges Station. Norman had ridden over from Horsham but was so cold that he'd decided to have a warm up in the station café and then just head back home. That left six of us (Frank, Pat, Eric, Malcolm, Ros, Bob) and we headed off, up through Pound Hill then down The Hollow to Copthorne. Here, Val joined us and we went via Copthorne Bank and on past Rede Hall. Next we used Cross Lane and Dowlands Lane to lead us east as did Smallfield Road and Croydonbarn Lane. A quick right then left took us further east before we had to use a short stretch of the A22.


Once again we headed east, along the Eden valley (a tributary of the Medway I believe) as far as Edenbridge where we stopped at the supermarket for a coffee (and comfort) break. Those of us who stayed outside had an energetic debate about the merits of parking and traffic regulations in the UK and Canada - we had to keep warm somehow!


Continuing on, we still headed east although we had a couple of little hills before finally pulling up at the lunch stop, the Castle Inn at Chiddingstone. The pub was really good, with wooden chairs and flooring along with a couple of real fires. Most of us had soup for lunch and we had soon all warmed up.


For the return trip, we retraced our outward route but said goodbye to Ros as she turned south for East Grinstead after a couple of miles.


Next weeks ride is an easy ride aimed at Beginners. Michael is leading it from Horsham Pavilions in the Park at 10:00hrs. It will use some gentle offroad tracks and quiet lanes - hopefully the weather won't be as bad as the forecast suggested last night!

Mince Pie Ride

The Sunday after Christmas saw four of us have a jolly nice, short ride around Horsham and then a stop at Barbara's for lashings of mince pies. ken and I had ridden over from Crawley, Pete and Barbara met us at Horsham Pavilions in the Park.


Pete led us west, then south through the Horsham suburbs before crossing the A24 on the Tesco bridge. We then turned north and rode through Broadbridge Heath and on up to Warnham. Next we headed east, over the railway at Warnham station and then south, up Rusper Road to Barbara's.

Rendezvous Ride - The Plough at Lower Beeding

The trouble with winter is that it can be cold, wet, dark, gloomy, slippery or all of them at once! You just can't predict what it will be like, so when planning our December rides I thought I'd throw in a Rendezvous Ride to a pub not too far from either Crawley or Horsham. My thinking was that with people being able to choose their own start times and routes, we would all be able to maximize or minimize our mornings exposure to whatever conditions we faced on the day. For myself, I was thinking about possibly meeting up with Anton somewhere south of Handcross (Staplefield perhaps) and riding over to Lower Beeding with him, but a chat with Anton on Saturday evening revealed he wouldn't be riding due to him suffering from a cold. So I decided on a straightforward route, up Pease Pottage Hill, down Grouse Road, left and the Hammerpond, turn right onto Church Lane and then turn right to arrive at Lower Beeding. It was actually so straightforward that I arrived at the pub a full 50 minutes before it was due to open - what a fool!  I hung around for a while but the clock was ticking so slowly I realized I need to do a bit more riding. I rode into the close of new houses that had recently sprung up doubling the village population overnight, but that only wiped a couple of minutes off the clock so I headed south, down and up past (another) hammerpond before stopping to read a noticeboard at the side of the road. The noticeboard described the Sussex Ouse Valley Way and seemed to suggest that the hammerpond was one of the sources of the Ouse. Looking at that, and checking my mapping app on my phone whiled away some time. The I carried on riding down to the junction with the A281 where I turned right (I bet not many people turn right there). I was riding gently along, letting the clock tick away but I was soon turning right and still only a few hundred yards from the pub, As I got close I spotted Norman waving at me and we went around to the pub garden to lock our bikes up. More to come.


More to come - I wrote that nearly two weeks ago! I'd better finish this entry off.....


Neither Norman nor I were expecting anyone else to turn up but as we waited, so we were joined by a new chap who's seen our runslist on the web and then, once we were snugly located in the Saloon Bar in front of the fire, so more and more club members turned up - Pete and Marian, Gordon and Jacqui, Pete E, Frank and Pat, and Ken. Everyone really enjoyed themselves and we spent the best part of two hours there chatting, eating and drinking. What a nice way to prepare for Christmas and all the chatting, eating and drinking that would entail!!


Eventually, we pulled our warm outerclothes back on and headed for home. Together we went down Church Lane to Bucks Head and then Norman and Pete E carried on along Hammerpond Lane as the rest of us went up  Grouse Road back to Pease Pottage and then Crawley.

Christmas Dinner

Today's ride would act as an appetite improver for the main event, the Christmas Dinner.

We decided to have starts from both Horsham and Crawley. Pete E, Norman and Frank left from HPP, Gordon, Jacqui, Anton, Ken and myself started from Three Bridges, whilst Barbara and Sandra travelled independently via Colgate.

It was cold but not too nippy and the roads seemed to be clear of ice. The Crawley contingent headed north on the NCN21 as far as Gatwick. There we turned west, under the A23 and I then noticed I had a slow puncture. Trying to save time, we just pumped it up and carried on, through to Povey Cross and then left to Charlwood. Here we took the third left and headed up to Russ Hill where I had to stop for about the fourth time to put air back in my tyre. As I was doing so, Pete phoned to say that his group had reached the rendezvous point at Rusper. I reckoned we were about 5-10 minutes away, but a couple of minutes later Pete rang again to say that they were going on and to meet at the pub. This meant we could cut out a hill and head straight to Faygate.

My phone rang again just as we were climbing the last hill up to Wimlands Lane and for family reasons I had to head straight home and miss the Christmas dinner.


However, I'm told that the food was good and hot and that everyone enjoyed themselves.

The Queens Head at Barns Green

Some days riding a bike is as easy as riding a bike, other days it just seems like hard work - I was having a hard work day riding over to Horsham today. I blame the wind as it was in my face all the way. The rain was just about holding off and arriving at HPP I was pleased to see several other club members all congregated ready for the ride. Michael was leading Christine, Barbara, Norman, Ken, Sandra and myself on today's easy ride. We headed out of Horsham on The Pedlars Way which, in spite of the recent wet weather, was firm enough for even my slick tyres. Ken was having trouble with one of his shoe clips, so we stopped and managed to straighten it up with some well-aimed pressure from a multi tool.

Michael now led us through Newfoundout, to and through Southwater and across the A272 to Shipley. Now we turned North and recrossed the A272 into Dragons Green. The rain tried to put in an appearance but failed and as we approached Barns Green, so the sky cleared.

We were pretty much the first people in the pub but almost all the tables were reserved. However we managed to find one big enough for all of us and settled down to a nice lunch with plenty of food and drink (I gave the free cheese and crisps on the bar a good going over as well).

When we got going again, the sky was still blue but the temperature seemed to have dropped a couple of degrees. We headed back past the Bax Castle, up Two Mile Ash Road and on to Tower Hill. Reaching Horsham town centre we all split up to head our separate ways home - Ken and I going back to Crawley via Roffey , Colgate and Pease Pottage.

Next week is our Christmas Dinner - you should all have booked and paid your money to Pete by now. We've arranged two rides - one starting from Three Bridges and one from HPP. They both start at 10:00 hrs with the intention of meeting up at Rusper at about 11:15 before heading on down to Faygate having worked up an appetite for dinner.