High Beeches

Today's A group ride was again a large group of members heading southwards into Surrey & Sussex. The clear sky & bright sunny morning ment I was sqinting with no sunglasses to hand. This was my excuss for, when riding too close to Andy's back wheel, I rode into his quick release, with the concequence of breaking a spoke. The campag wheel stayed quite true and I thought I would still be able to complete the ride down to High Beeches tearoom.

When we arrived I recoignised the lonely bike leaning against the wall outside as Simon Neave's. He had ridden out from his new home in Sussex against the headwind to meet us.

As normal Simon Howard was on fire, tearing off the front when every he could, although it was Andy Hicks who won the sprint for the Newdigate sign.

It's your ride

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tun5CmMNQhc

A Fixie fix

the joys of organising a Surrey League Race

Petworth

Saturday's A group ride could have been another washout but that didn't stop 9 riders turning up at Cobham carpark for a ride across the North Downs to Petworth.

On the way down we bumped into occasional clubrun rider Jonathan Thomas who's excuss for not riding more with us, was that he is spending most weekends cyclo-cross racing.

Here is the group in Kirdford.

Jonathan, Ken Dolman, John Harris, Niall Clutton, Richard Gordon, Simon Howard, Andy Hicks, Trevor Lenthall & Mark Packman.

I felt rather tired and spent most of the morning chaseing wheels and was last to arrive at the tearoom after Simon had managed to tear the group's legs off. Luckily the food on offer was excellent and I devoured more than I should have, hoping the increased sustenance would see my energy levels increased for the ride home. Unfortunatley this strategy didn't work as I was soon off the back in the company of Ken for the ride back in the drizzle.

post ride chat

La Marmotte 2010

Is anyone thinking of doing La Marmotte next year?  Just wondered when you might be going, how you might be getting there, and where you might be staying... thanks Ann

R + R

Loch Chaim Bhain


Taking a month off the bike at the end of the season to rest and recover and only ride the bike once or twice a week, it's the most time I've had off the bike in the past four years and I felt like I needed it after what has been a long and arduous racing season.



One week was spent in the Scottish Highlands on a little inlet on Loch Chaim Bhain just near Kyleski Bridge, (although the exact spot I have been sworn to secrecy!) this is only 25 miles south of Cape Wrath so a 500 mile journey from the Midlands meant an overnight stop after picking Mick up at Tebay services in the Lake District. We camped on the way up in a rain storm which did not auger well for the week as we only had 'bivvy' bags and a 'basher' tarpaulin for cover and no Ray Mears to help out!


We called in at Inverness to do a bit of a shop at Morrison's and had to wait until 12 o'clock to buy some beer for the trip, and then Ullerpool for chips our last prepared meal of the week as we would be cooking over an 'open hearth' although with so much food we were hardley going to starve as we had all brought 'private' supplys of jam and treats for emergencies!


It's a long time since I've done this sort of thing (Scouts?) but Adrian was pretty prepared and does this thing regularly with his son Ben on the outskirts of Upminster (in the snow!) all the time so I'm told. Also along is my old drawing tutor Mick (from Poly days) and Adrians dad so three generations of the family. They have been coming to this spot (known only as the 'Special Place' on the sat nav) for 25 years, Ben he's only eleven but still on his third trip so I'm honoured to be asked along


The camp is on the Loch by a river in a secluded valley populated with Birch and the odd Rowenberry tree, there is plenty of dead wood but it is all pretty damp and does not burn well so we hoard pine driftwood for kindling and move the fire three times to avoid the smoke settling for a separate 'kitchen' in order to have a bigger fire under its own 'tarp' our supplies of wood dry out and make the fire easier to control



To augment our supplies we find a recently dead rabbit on the road 'for the pot' and the discovery of lobster pots in the bay the lure of some fine dining, we bate the traps with rabbit skin & innards. Out in the Loch a Salmon farm has a daily visit and the gulls sit on the rails of the netted pontoons waiting for one of the leaping fish to make an escape and an easy lunch.
The days pass with a couple of squally days and one a real misery when we visit the local village of Drumbeg to make calls back to civilisation (postal strike) and buy supplies of whiskey! Long haired highland cattle are indifferent to our presence and at dusk a stag by the road makes a striking pose in his habitat as opposed to by the road in Richmond Park
Two days are bright and clear and we go walking in the sun and scatter the sparse sheep on the dense heather strewn hilltops, we only meet one ranger & see the odd car heading over Kyleski Bridge to NW Sutherland and the tip of Scotland. It still rains on and off but as the week progresses we ignore this as we become more attuned to our surroundings



To be fair we eat like kings as most of our energy goes into the meals and we build an oven between two stones and have roast lamb (done overnight) under a mass if wet moss. We make flat bread with rosemary (nearly everything is tinged with rosemary!) to go with our lamb curry and the rabbit stew a real treat as all free meals but no success with fishing or with the pots apart from crabs which we leave to the gulls
Soon the week is up and we take our gear up the hill leaving this private place, soon all trace of our visit erased and nature will do its thing in this beautiful part of the country.

Kyleski Bridge

The Expanding Waistband

Here is a short taster of the SWRC Jazz night that took part at Fetcham village hall and featured the Expanding Waistband together with the fabulous South Western Horns. Thanks goes to Ant Frend (Guitar and lead singer) and Ted Collins for organising the gig, with a little help from Geoff on the maracas

After leaving the others ,with thanks to Mike Bates in particular for sticking my 21 year old Puegeot together again and to Trevor for first class navigation to get me to Odiham for 12 where I was meeting my wife to drive down to Dorset ,near Sherborne we came across a good dozen members of Sherborne cycling club >

Above are the views that most saturdays I realised I am giving not receiving.I managed to stop my wife giving them the horn -after we sat behind them riding is that 2 or even 3 abreast for what seemed like 5 minutes .....

Extreme weather clubrun

Only a few riders turned up at the carpark this morning as presumably the extreme weather warning must have put a few people off. What you all missed was a great day on the bike, as we all joined together for a ride to Seale via a northern loop through Farnborough.

The group were stopped in their tracks leaving the car park when Nick's rear mech disintergrated. After a quick search around, we found the pulley wheel that had decided to go AWOL, and then it was a case of how many riders it takes to fix a bicycle.







We took a rather flat route, but the headwind there were times when the speed dropped to single figures, but everyone seemed to enjoy them selves as the miles ticked by. Here was the group riding under some beautiful autumnal tree that were trying to keep hold of there leaves in the windy conditions. Notice Mike Bates utility bag, useful when Nick's bike keeps breaking.

We all made it to the teastop and heartily tucked into tea & cakes, and warmed up a bit before heading home.

'A' Group go to Penshurst

With the Betchworth start being 17 miles from home and a puncture on the way - the final minutes were ticking down before the rest of 'A' group would be starting. With the wonders of modern communication technology, I was there in time to grab a bite before we all set off to Penshurst. The ride down was flat, combined with a tail wind, we were able to keep a reasonably steady pace. Whilst at the Penshurst tea stop we were joined by Alan and Colin Parkinson which saw our numbers swell to 10 - a group size not often seen since spring. The ride back was much more lumpy, but we even managed a mini-chain-gang (a first for me!). By the time we got near to Reigate I was finished, and I chose the a more direct route back to Guildford finishing the day on just a little over 100 miles.