Cutty Sark Ride 2015

I thought I'd organize this ride for a Bank Holiday Weekend so that it would only take up 1/3rd of peoples weekend freetime - that should guarantee a good attendance!

I met up with Michael at Three Bridges station and we caught the train to Blackfriars station. We had fun fitting ourselves and two bikes into the lift but we managed it and as we emerged onto the Southbank we were met by Eric. That was it - I'd had a few messages from people saying they couldn't make it but nonetheless we stopped at the start point outside London Bridge Station until the specified start time.

We rode over to Greenwich and took a couple of photos whilst waiting for the second start time to arrive, then we were off.

We've become very familiar with the route now and in many ways it makes the riding easier. We were chatting away and even the couple of minor route detours didn't faze us. With so few riders we weren't wasting much time stopping for regroups and we got to the lunch pub, the White Bear at Fickleshole, before 12:30.

The rain was holding off and it was warm enough to sit outside and share our lunch with a few lazy wasps.

As usual the afternoon started off  with an offroad blast downhill with soggy mud and nettles to avoid, followed by a lungbusting drag up the hill and onwards to Chelsham. My favourite part of the day was next with a nice rapid descent through the trees to Woldingham Golf Course - made a bit more exciting by the gully that has developed in the lower parts of the track! We were back in the pedalling groove as we made our way up the quiet valley past Woldingham school and then along Quarry Road - this bit is always annoying as it takes you down part of the scarp slope before forcing you to climb back up it on a rough track. It does mean however that the crossing of the A22 is safely via a bridge. The road climb just beyond required the use of granny gear but shortly after we had the usual breather at the top of Gravelly Hill. The view wasn't as good as on previous occasions - the weather was muggy and reduced the view to a vague expanse of slightly misty green hills.

Remounting, we had the fast descent through the woods and under the M25 to emerge by the sand quarries. The path zig zags between the pits and was quite peaceful - until Eric swallowed a fly and proceeded to emit the loudest coughs I have ever heard! We carried on, past a cricket match and across Nutley Marsh. Passing a gent walking his dog the damned thing jumped at me but fortunately was prevented from making contact by the owners strong grip on the lead - I  suspect his Rottweiler often tries to play with unsuspecting body parts within range!

We passed through Redhill and then past the East Surrey Hospital. I took a short cut through the housing estate and we stopped at the newsagents for a chocolate bar and drink before having a quick blast along the track and down through the woodland.. We met up with a couple of cyclists riding from the London Eye to Burgess Hill and guided them through the badlands of Horley as far as the station. Eric had a puncture so decided to catch the train down to Three Bridges leaving Michael and I to carry on, past Gatwick Airport. As we went into the industrial estate we met a German cyclist and guided him as far as Northgate Avenue where we pointed him in the direction of the town centre. We then rode on to Three Bridges Station where Michael would meet up with Eric to drive back home and I carried on up and over the final hill to get home having clocked up just over 50 miles. The actual distance from the Cutty Saek to Crawley was about 45 miles and I reckon we should rate the ride as medium rather than hard.

Next weeks ride is the last DA Event of the year - the Arun Crossings. It starts from Pulborough Station at 09:30. It involves crossing the river on tracks and bridleways so is easier on a mountain bike or strong hybrid. 

The Cutty Sark Ride 2014

The timing of this weeks ride was determined by three factors - normally we run it in early Autumn, but I wanted to make it more of a Summer ride; we needed to be able to get to London by train (so we had to avoid engineering works - such as the closure of London Bridge Station); we had to avoid other London cycling events (so we would be able to get on the train with our bikes). This Sunday ticked all those boxes, so it was just a case of hoping the weather would be good.
My day seemed to be running smoothly - I was up and about in plenty of time, my bike and all my gear was ready, I'd pre-booked my rail ticket - but I still managed to miss my train (by seconds).  Fortunately the next one would get me to London on time but I had to wait 40 minutes before it would come.  After a while I was joined by Michael and when the train arrived, he and I got in the second carriage. I then received a text from Anton to say he was in the fifth carriage, so there were three of us that disembarked at London Bridge and made our way to the rendezvous point outside Evans Cycles. Michaels son, Eric, met us there, then Ros arrived and finally Pete S (he'd just spent some time in a coffee shop having successfully caught the train I missed). As it was a little bit chilly and I knew that there were no more trains arriving from Sussex until gone 10:00 hrs, we started riding off along Jamaica Road.

Here's a video of the start and end of this section (click me)

This was the second rendezvous point and within a minute or so of pulling up we were joined by Norman. A couple of us popped into a nearby coffee shop for a bit of breakfast and as I was mid way through my coffee and pain-au-chocolate my phone rang. It was Ken. Still at London Bridge he had missed us and didn't know the way to the Cutty Sark - I told him the route to follow and Anton rode back along it to meet him.

Once Ken had arrived and had some refreshment, we took a team photo or two:

And then we were off,




As you can see, the route mainly follows a couple of rivers (hence it's called the Waterlink Way) and most of the time it doesn't feel as though you are riding through the London suburbs. As you approach Croydon it starts to get a little hilly but then, all of a sudden you are in the countryside and pulling up at the pub for lunch.

Our timing was almost perfect and we enjoyed our food and drink outside on the patio before popping inside the pub for s second drink just as it started raining! By the time we'd finished supping and were ready to ride, the rain had cleared, so we didn't even need to put on waterproofs.

The afternoon section of the ride goes straight into a tough little off road section and it was here that we said goodbye to Ros who wanted to stay on the road and would head across to Warlingham station for a train back to East Grinstead. The rest of us bounced downhill on a bridleway and then most (not all) of us had to push our bikes up the second part of it before enjoying a nice ride through the woods. A couple of roads later and we turn onto another bridleway for one of my favourite bits - the downhill blast out onto Warlingham golf course. Here it is at normal speed:

 

I enjoyed that!

We were now deep in the heart of the North Downs and we headed up through Warlingham School and then onto Quarry Road before turning right onto a horrible little bridleway climb up through some woodland. Next we crossed over the A22 and climbed higher on a couple of lanes until we reached the viewpoint at Gravelly Hill. Here we stopped for a short while to look out over the Weald and watch aircraft as they made their final approaches to Gatwick.

Eric left us at this point, to head north, down the dip slope, to the station and a train back to his North London home. For the rest of us it was off-road time again and a nice fast descent through some scrubby woodland and under the M25.

NCN21 zig zags its way westwards using a combination of minor roads and bridleways until it pops us out in the middle of Redhill. From here it uses a couple of residential roads, skirts by East Surrey hospital and tries to lose us in a housing estate. But, being the seasoned campaigners we are, we know the route and that the housing estate hides a shop that opens seven days a week. We stopped there for cold drinks and/or ice creams before launching ourselves into the easy last few miles of the ride.

First there are a couple of enjoyable single track bridleways and then into the flatlands of Horley. Gatwick whistled past, the smell of aviation fuel bringing memories of plane spotting there as a kid, and then we were into the Industrial Estate where we decided to leave the NCN21 and use Tinsley Lane instead. Not far now - over the footbridge, down behind Tesco's and then St Mary's Drive all the way to Haslett Avenue and Three Bridges Station.  All done, with less than 50 miles on my speedo (Ken had almost double that as he had ridden from Crawley to the Cutty Sark at the start of the day!!!).

If you've got nearly 40 minutes to spare, here's a video of the afternoon section of the ride - I speeded up the action and cut out most of the stoppages, but it should give a good flavour of what the route is like:

Click on this for 40 minutes of "action"

Our next ride is led by Frank and takes us to the Castle Inn at Chiidingstone - a very nice, National Trust owned village not too far away. The ride is rated easy/Medium and will be about 40 miles long. Meet at Three Bridges Station at 09:30 hrs.

Cutty Sark to Crawley using NCN21

Since its introduction a few years back, this has become one of our signature rides. The basic idea is travel to The Cutty Sark at Greenwich and then ride back to Crawley along National Cycle Network route 21. This year we had the uncertainty of the bike provision on the trains due to London 2012 Olympics restrictions. One rail operator, FCC, managed to give us a definitive "Yes, we can carry your bikes*" answer a couple of weeks before the ride, but the other, Southern, just referred us to their ambiguously worded website and then, only a couple of days before the ride, deciding to go back to the normal cycle restrictions. All these rail operators get on my wick - they take more money off me through my taxes than British Rail ever did and then mug me again with their lack of provision for cyclists and intricate fare entrapment methodologies. The cheapest fares are for people who can book up several months in advance, on a particular train for a particular journey with only 5 shoelace holes in their left shoes - OK I made the last requirement up, but you get the picture.  Try booking a long way ahead when the same rail companies can't give you a definitive answer to the question "Can I take a normal bike on your trains on Sunday August 19th?".

In the light of Southern's tardiness with an answer, I'd moved the planned rendezvous at Victoria Station (served only by Southern trains) to Evans Bike shop just outside London Bridge Station (regularly served by FCC trains). This meant that one train in particular ended up with five of us travelling on it! Sod's Law meant it was one without any proper cycle facilites (or at least, none that we could spot as it pulled in), so two of us got into the front carriages and the rest in the rear carriages. Fortunately the train wasn't busy and standing our bikes in the entrance lobbies didn't present any problems at either Gatwick Airport or East Croydon. We walked through the station, across the walkway and regrouped outside Evans. Here we were met by Mike's son Eric. We waited a while, but in spite of a number of cyclists milling around, no-one else was joining our ride.

It's a relatively short and direct route from London Bridge to Greenwich and I shot off along it, not noticing I was spinning along at 17 - 20 mph! However, everyone managed to keep pace and we soon arrived at The Cutty Sark where we were met by Norman - he'd come up on an earlier train and had enjoyed a pleasant ride north of the river before reaching the start point. We took the opportunity to have some refreshments before finally setting off on NCN 21 at about 10:30.

 

The first part of the route heads up the valley of the Wandle (I think it is) through Orpington and eventually to Croydon where we skirt New Addington with a long climb alongside the tramway. We continue climbing through the suburbs and thence into the North Downs abd the lunch stop at the White Bear in Fickleshole.

 

Here we dined on some very nice sandwiches (and a couple of oints of ale - we needed the calories, honest!).

 



After lunch the character of the ride changes and takes on a rougher aspect with a succession of bridleways. It's for this reason that I always use my full offroad tyres for this ride.

 

My favourite section is a one mile downhill track that bursts out of the trees by the clubhouse of a golf course - I love the look on the faces of the golfers sat outside the clubhouse as I come rattling and banging into the sunshine at about 25 mph scattering stones and dust everywhere, wearing a smile as big as their largest sandtrap!

 

An offroad hillclimb is followed by a long uphill drag (on tarmac) through the grounds of a school and shortly after by a very tough offroad uphill - this photo shows it, but doesn't really give away how hard it is!

Yet another tough uphill, but on tarmac eventually brings us to the scarp of the North Downs and a lovely sunny viewpoint

Micheal took the opportunity to have a quiet lie down:

Once off the Downs the surface of the route improves a bit and, in spite of being tired, the average speed started going up again.

Near East Surrey hospital there's a small store where we stopped for chilled bottled water and other refreshments before finishing off the ride on familiar trails through Horley and Gatwick and back to Three Bridges Station.

Fifty something miles with a nice group of fellow cyclists and taking on several challenges en-route - perfect!

Cutty Sark to Crawley on NCN21

I, ride leader Peter S, met Richard at Three Bridges station in time for the 07.55 stopping train to London Victoria. We could have got the 08.04 faster train but Richard had pre-ordered his ticket on the internet at a cost of £3.30 (using a network rail card). I bought my ticket on the day from the ticket window and paid £11.30. For the same ride – how does that work!? We arrived at Victoria in time for a coffee, before heading off down Victoria Street towards Parliament Square and Westminster Bridge at 9.15. There was very little traffic about and we made good time in nice weather with blue skies, although with a strong south-easterly breeze. There were large numbers of tourists around the Houses of Parliament but as we turned eastwards on National Cycle Route 4 alongside the Thames the streets got quieter again. At times it felt as if we were cycling through a movie set, for one of those films where some disaster had killed everyone off and we were the last cyclists left alive! It is quite interesting to try to follow the NCR4 – mostly you need to find the blue ‘stickers’ on lamp posts etc, and there are one or two locations where care needs to be taken as the turns are not always obvious, as you wind through the former docklands of our industrial heritage. Fortunately Richard had a Garmin GPS in which he had plotted the route which bleeped at us if we diverged from the allotted route. I had all of the TFL paper maps as well, so we didn’t actually get lost this time. I think that I had visited the whole route in the past, but this journey was the first one where we had followed the route precisely in its entirety. It was also pleasing to note that some sections had been improved since we last passed this way.

This is a view looking upstream from Greenwich - the tall, thin chimney-like object in the middle of the picture is in fact The Shard at London Bridge, about three miles away!


We arrived at the Cutty Sark but barely recognised it as the whole area appears to have been dug up and cordoned off for some major works; not quite sure what the outcome will be but hopefully it will improve this lovely spot by the river. Shortly after 10.15 we departed south on the NCR21. This is the route that originates in Greenwich and heads south, via Gatwick Airport and Crawley to Eastbourne where it terminates. Our plan was to follow it, almost to the letter, as far as Three Bridges and home. We have done this a few times now and know the sections that are tricky to navigate, as well as a stretch through New Addington that is well worth missing out, so we set off confidently.

And we had no navigational problems at all, passing a pleasant couple of hours in the company of many other cyclists and walkers – the route was quite busy in places – to arrive at the Bear in Fickleshole. I was able to text home – ‘Arrived at the Bear. No Men Behaving Badly. Except Bob, of course.’ On a previous visit we had talked with Neil Morrissey who frequents this popular pub, but no sign of him today. Although we were sitting outside in pleasant sunny weather, the sandwich bar was not open and we had to select leek and potato soup from the starters menu. It is a shame when pub’s stop doing sandwiches on Sundays. But the beer was first class and only 3.8%! We had a pleasant lunch watching the executive jets taking off from nearby Biggin Hill – it was just like being at home in Crawley!



The afternoon’s ride had a lot more off-road riding and gradually exposed us to the full strength of the wind. So it all got a bit tougher especially as we climbed across the A22 and up the north downs to the magnificent viewpoint north of Caterham, where we took a short break to update Facebook status etc!!! We could see the planes landing and taking off in the distance – strangely going the ‘wrong way round’ due to the easterly winds. It was here that the battery expired on my phone so the automatic tracking of the route ceased at about 33 miles.

From the Downs the route back is pretty straight forward as we regained home ground, and it also gets flatter, but with more exposure to the wind.

We dutifully stuck exactly to the NCR21 all the way to North road in Three Bridges where we followed the NCR20 to Furnace Green and Maidenbower. Total distance was 54 miles so a bit less than the advertised 60 miles arriving back at about 16.30. But the route did exactly what it said on the tin taking us through parts of central London and then, seemingly magically, to the countryside again. It was quite hilly in places and made harder by the wind, although we were lucky to have sunshine and pleasant temperatures all day. Thank you to everyone that joined the trip. We hope that we will see you all again soon. And if you fancy this very interesting, unusual and varied route watch out for it.

Here's a link to Google maps that shows the exact ride route from Victoria Station to The Cutty Sark and then down as far as the North Downs:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?mpa=0&ctz=-60&mpf=0&vps=4&jsv=375b&ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=205480741451912466805.0004affdccd87ff212dc8

Next weeks ride (Sunday October 30th) starts from Horsham Pavilion in the Park at 09:30 hrs and will head West from Horsham with a lunch stop at The Foresters Arms in Kirdford. Don't forget the clocks go back on Saturday night/Sunday morning so you'll get an extra hour in bed.

NCN21 - Greenwich to Crawley

In order to keep our regular schedule going, we have to plan our organised rides several months in advance. So I had scheduled the NCN21 ride some time ago and well before when I arranged to stay with my daughter and partner, and occasional CTC Riders, Kendra and Chris, in Canary Wharf on Saturday night. This meant that I had to get up early on Sunday and ride across London to Victoria to start the ride that would have its first stop back where I had first started! But this did give me the chance to try out one of the first ‘Cycle Super Highways’ from Canary Wharf to the Tower of London. I didn’t want to go to the Tower of London – that is where the route terminated, rather abruptly. Apart from that it was fine.

The next mistake I made was not to publish a meeting point at Victoria. So I met Anton at Victoria station at 8.35 by WH Smiths. We had a pleasant coffee and then set off at 9.05 thinking that no one else was joining in Victoria. But Norman and Richard had, unbeknownst (is that a word!?) to us, been lurking down near the Southern arrival gates, subsequently to leave at 9.10, separately. Anton and I had a pleasant ride south of the river, mostly following the NCR4. This is the fourth time that I have led this ride and I think that this is also the fourth version of the route from Victoria to Greenwich – some parts seem to remain constant, but in some others the signs run out. But overall an interesting route through the old docklands. At Greenwich we became quorate when we joined Bob, who had ridden directly from London Bridge, and Norman and Richard, who had taken a more direct route from Victoria, giving a total of five riders. The forecast was for rain all day, which undoubtedly had put some people off and John and John were away touring with some CTC friends.

We left at 10.20 in fine weather and made good time. The route seemed to work better this time and we reached Croydon very quickly. Bob had researched the route in this area, where we got somewhat disoriented last year (ok, lost) and lead us with conviction the correct way, although there was not a sign to be seen. [Aside: Where would we be without Bob!????] And Richard’s GPS helpfully informed us if we strayed from the one true Sustrans path. Although we have ridden this route several times now it is always surprising how much green we pass through, without apparently passing through the city to arrive, suddenly, in the countryside.

So the White Bear at Fickleshole (http://www.bigginhill.co.uk/bear.htm) appeared at 12.15 – a bit late for 12.00 but earlier than usual; this was a bunch of hard (er) riders! We had our lunch sitting outside but, as we got ready to leave it started to drizzle lightly. We exchanged a few words with Neil Morrissey (Men behaving badly) and his two friends as we prepared the bikes to leave – they seemed very impressed by our journey and suggested that we would need to consume another seven pints if we were to get back to Crawley on schedule (based on our distance so far and consumption so far).

The NCN21 after Fickleshole seems to become mainly off-road tracks. After the rain in the last few days these tracks regretfully became a little too much for the clearances on Anton’s new bike and so he headed off on the road at Warlingham, while we rode serenely through the grounds of the public school there (why are they called ‘public’ when they are anything but that?!). The rain got a bit more serious for a while, but eventually lost interest. I think that this is the first time that we have had anything but hot sunny weather and it gave our off-road aficionados the chance to prove that their mudguards were either a) absent or b) inadequate and cover themselves in mud! They managed to do this quite successfully.



Richard easily won the ascent of the single chevroned hill north of the A22 before we arrived at the glorious view from Caterham hill. It was a bit murky on Sunday, but it still feels great to get there. We were back on to familiar territory as we descended down towards Redhill and the route was then flat to Crawley. Norman caught the train in Horley to return to Horsham (good to have a Horsham contingent) and we arrived home in Crawley at about 16.30 after 54 miles (Victoria to Crawley) or 45 miles (Greenwich to Crawley). Average speed a little under 10 mph – mainly due to quite a bit of off-road and one or two quite stiff climbs. Oh, and one puncture which Bob fixed very quickly.

This really is an interesting and fun route, with lots of interesting and unexpected nuances – you would be most welcome to join us next time. Thank you to everyone that made it this year – I think that we all enjoyed it.

Peter S

Bob adds:

my wife took this picture of my two tone legs - ahhh, the joys of riding offroad in the wet!!

Next weeks ride will be led by Anton. Starting from Horsham Pavilions in the Park at 09:00 hrs it will be a medium rated 50 miler with lunch at the Limeburners Arms, Newbridge.

If you'd like a ride on Bank Holiday Monday (30th August), Mick will be leading a ride from Horsham Pavilions in the Park at 10:00 hrs out to The Sussex Oak at Warnham which is having a beer festival. Mick says this will be a 30 mile medium ride and I'm guessing most of those will be done before the pub!