C Group, Tanhouse Farm, 27 February

The weather was wet and windy at Cobham as SWRC assembled in the car park for the Saturday club run. I think however we were all grateful for the milder temperatures compared to recent weeks. Tanhouse Farm was the objective and David Jordan was our leader for the day. The pre-departure chatter was cut short as a more persistent shower started and the C group, numbering 11 or so and with the welcome return of Mandy, set off down Plough Lane along the first of many puddled, potholed and mud strewn lanes. All good fun of course.

David and Mandy

John fixes a puncture with help from Bob, Plough Lane, Downside, Cobham

We all regrouped at the top of the North Downs after taking in a little used route that included West Clandon and the Shere Road which meanders to the top with some short steep sections along the way. Then it was down Coombe Bottom, through Shere, onto Peaslake and Newdigate where David bid us farewell after successfully guiding us through the lanes and left us with the final direction that the Farm was just a bit further down the Rusper Road. We arrived at the Farm with about 30 miles covered from Cobham so we were ready for hot drinks and food. The Farm shop was in semi darkness with candles on tables and a generator humming away in the background as the sole source of power during a power cut that had lasted over from the previous day. After hot soup, mugs of coffee, and cakes we returned to the Rusper Road and a north bound direct route for Dorking, and with the benefit of the southerly breeze behind us. At certain points the sun came out and what with snowdrops and crocuses being spotted we decided spring was on its way.

L-R John, Maggie, Bob, Mariana, Kirsty, Laurie, Mandy, Aubrey

The C group re-gathered at the turn off for Westhumble, where Laurie, Mariana and myself turned off for a return route via Polsden Lacey, while the rest returned via Leatherhead. I finally reached Kingston with 66 miles on the clock. A good ride and thanks to David for leading it. Finally not forgetting Peter Dewis who took a tumble on the ice last week and we hope to see him back with us soon.

Saturday swrc ride

So far this year each time and Jane decided on a road ride, Gary calls and says 'it icy and we're meeting up for an mtb ride'. :)

So we ride down to Rykers to meet the others and we pick up Gary en route.

At Rykers we have a dozen riders and some amazing bikes ranging from the dawn of mountain biking to the present day! It's soooo cool like a living mtb museum :) There are hardtails, full sus, fully rigid, singlespeed. Many with kit that I'd forgotten existed - canti's, v brakes, six speed, seven speed. I'm not being a gear snob, it's great to see that we don't need at least six inches of travel front and rear and a two grand frame to have some fun off road :)

Anyway we had a great couple of hours pottering around the trails and stopping for tea at Newland's Corner.

Mountain bike ride in North Downs

With freezing overnight temperaures, a road ride would have been a foolish idea this morning
So the next best thing is to get out on those fat tyred mountain bikes that a select group of SWRC members possess.
Raymond & Jane led Kaye, Taxi Bob, Eric, Paul, Gary, Niall, Andy, Mark, Nick & me away from Box Hill and across the Downs to Newlands Corner.

End of year quiz - The answers

Pinarello

Sabbath

Gocycle

Ben Wilson Design / Brooks saddles

Viva

Moulton (Space frame)

Pashley - where are the cotter pins?

Seven

Focus

Cube

Specialised

Basso

Cav's Scott

London cycle hire

Colnago

Ceepo

Bianchi

Wilier

Argon 18

Condor - 60 years old

C Group – Cranleigh 13th Feb 10

A cold raw day saw eight of the C group set out from Cobham for Cranleigh led by Peter Dewis. I class the Cranleigh route as a bit of a tough one since it includes the rise onto the North Downs via Effingham, some lumpy bits around Holmbury St Mary, and the final treat of Coombe Bottom on the way back. I was hoping to see improvements in my fitness compared to when I last did the route on 27th December. The early signs were promising. Reached Holmbury St Mary OKish, as was the rest of the way to Cranleigh. By the time we had parked up our bikes at the garden centre outside Cranleigh we were all well chilled and ready for a hot drink and food after 25 miles from Cobham in the cold.

David, Toby, John,Mariana,John McGhee,Peter.

The return route to Shere was quite hilly and by the time we reached the turning for Coombe Bottom above Shere my legs were chilled through and cramping up, so I waved farewell to the group as I had decided to take the easier option of crossing the Downs via Newlands Corner. Down the other side to West Clandon and turned east for East Horsley and a quick route back to Cobham and Kingston. 62 miles in total, not much sign of fitness improvement – I blame the cold weather.

Applegarth Farm

Saturdays ride started like many others with 9 riders heading out from Cobham C.P. all wrapped up in their winter kit. The destination was to be Hindhead, so Trevor lead us on a route through Send, Worplesdon, Normandy, climbing up the Hog's back towards Puttenham, Elstead, Tilford and the long long drag upto Beacon Hill & Hindhead. I have thought that the National Trust teashop at Hindhead was not upto the usual SWRC standards for ages so suggested a little detour to Grayshott and another tearoom I had recently visited at Applegarth farm. With our numbers reduced to 6 by this time as Sabin, Nick & Matt had chosen to have a shorter ride. We had an interloper for the ride with Mark Bixley from the Festival Road Club turning up at Cobham wanting a Saturday ride instead of his usual Sunday outing.
Trevor, Richard, Mark, Andy and Mark (Festival R.C.)

Inside there was a roaring log burning stove to warm us, and for drying out Mark's gloves. Food wise they had a typical lunchtime menu of soups, baguettes and cakes, enough to fill us up for the return ride. Our only puncture of the day came courtesy of our guest who quickly fixed it and we were soon passing Hambledon, Bramley & Coombe bottom.

Tuesday MTB ride

Roger is on holiday this week, so I thought I'd join the othg at Betchworth. But with the threat of a hard frost and the possibility of icy roads Gary called and said a few were going out from from Ryker's on the mountain bikes.


Me, Gary, Martin, Eric and Andy set out from Rykers and headed up over Polesden Lacey. This was Andy's first ever mtb ride and he'd bought a nice new Scott Scale to do it on. Gary had chosen a fairly smooth route for Andy's baptism, so we stuck to wide open trails. On from Polesden, we headed across the North Downs Way and dropped down past Colekitchen Farm. This took us around the back of Shere, out to Park Road and up Water Lane for tea at Newlands Corner. The remnants of the othg were already having tea and cake.



We came back across the Roughs with a bit of a burn up towards the end.

Andy did very well on his first mtb ride, not shirking any of the descents or muddy bits. Well done Andy!

A's & B's mash up

Apocalypse SNOW

Despite receiving the rather cruel monicker of Bitchworth from some of our Guildford residents ,Saturday saw a good turn out -even from those who have to take the long winding road from the west to get there.

With some of us wanting or needing to be home early or not wanting to stop in a cafe ,with the prompt of a puncture ,the group broke up .

This allowed Alan -I've got a Garmin just follow me -Parkinson to guide a group of 5 of us past Chartwell ,to Westerham . We had a mix up coming into Westerham .waiting at the bottom of the hill ,not the top ,which was I fear my fault ,so the off shoot group fractured further.From there with its magnetic pull we had to repeat the trip from a few weeks ago up White Lane ,the scene of the Clubs Hill climb championship in the autumn. Just when we thought we would receive a snow free ride -here was a surprise at the top of the hill climb.

Mark ,having observed when WATCHING the Hill climb championsip ,"it does not look that tough" ,now having discovered how right he was in finding it a real breeze.

Andy Mckie having enjoyed the climb enormously and wondering what all the fuss was about and trying to remember just how many mince pies he ate over xmas.

While Niall -on an earlier part of the ride ,manages to eat some -flapjack -home made mind,while he ponders why the gardener always comes on saturdays.......

From the top of White Lane three of us headed back through the never ending sprawl of south London past Addington Golf courses to Crystal Palace and Wimbledon and Wandsworth in the heavy saturday traffic to be home -and hungry -for 1.30.

Nick A

C Group Southwater 6 Feb 2010

SWRC assembled at Betchworth for the first Saturday ride of February. The pre-departure chat included heroic tales from those who braved the icy Surrey lanes the previous Saturday morning. Thankfully the weather was milder a week later but remained damp, chilly and misty along the tops of the Downs.

Around 12 of the C group regulars set off from the chapel car park, heading south, led by Paul and Linda. The group stayed together, more or less, most of the time though we did manage to lose Gordon somewhere along the way. The steady climb into St Leonard’s Forest after crossing the A264 south of Feygate split the group up but, as always, we re-grouped once the gradients flattened out. The last few mile before Southwater included some short sharp ascents through wooded lanes and it was on one of these that Ben’s chain snapped while applying a quick crunching gear change. Fortunately Paul and Linda were close on hand and Paul carried a chain splitter in his tool kit (how many of us do the same ?). A successful roadside repair to the broken chain and we were able to rejoin everyone at Southwater.



After refreshments we turned back north and a steady ride back, with the exception of the usual fast blast along the Rusper Road past Tanhouse Farm with Ben, Laurie, Steve and Toby up front mashing the big gears .The group re-gathered at a junction just north of Newdigate where there was a split for those returning to their cars at Betchwork and for the others who were riding all the way back home via the Dorking Gap.

take 3 hills

Even in the sheltered confines of SW18 the weather looked too dodgy to us for the proposed run to Barns Green so Alan and I elected for mtbs.Sabin went back to bed and Mark W went for a run so that was the Wandsworth chapter accounted for.

When we arrived in Cobham the sunshine and vblue skies had enticed out a very respectable number of riders who when we arrived were all deep in earnest conversation about the conditions.Mark P pointed out with relish a patch of ice in the car park that you could just about have covered with a 50p piece.But that was enough for him but not for Marianna who ,made of sterner stuff ,set off on her ride ,while Mark went home.

So Alan and I set off to ride up to Leith Hill and then come back by more or less the same route but on the way back taking in Polseden Lacey.However,riding straight up to Leith Hill with one very short stop we were there in good time and after a drink and some cake ( for me at least ) we decided to go on to Holmbury Hill and see how things went.This decision was made easier by the superb weather which made up for a bit of mud that we came across on the lower lying tracks.
After the sandy soil on Holmbury Hill giving us a perfect fast surface we then went across to Pitch Hill affording the third wonderful view across to the South Downs .

Back to Peaslake where we were interested to see a new MTB shop opened .Then to Shere and a chance for me to struggle once again on the climb up to the N Downs way.4x4s had made the track v difficult to ride with 2 narrow channels and no real option down the middle.Alan made a good fist of it leaving me wallowing behind.

Back to Cobham and 33 miles done on a very fine day.It does not beat being on a road bike for me but it is very good fun and great to have different views to the ones we all know so well from the roads over the Downs.

Our enthusing must be having an effect as now even Andy has bought a posh looking MTB ......

Nick A

Hillingdon #10

Paul & Richard mix it up on Saturday






Photos here 3/4 c/o Londoncyclesport.com

And here 1/2/3

Chilli at Hilli-ngdon...

I arrived at Hillingdon at Midday on Saturday with the temperature struggling to get to 2 degrees - it was going to be another cold one for race 10 of the Imperial Winter Series. I surrendered my yellow cat4 number of '123' and was presented with my white cat3 number '118' much to my amusement !!
I had originally planned only two races from the Imperial Series, but having been promoted I wanted to get my first cat3 race out of the way.
Gathering at the line, the riders around me looked a little more 'handy' than the cat4s but before I knew it we were off. The cat3 bunch was a lot more fluid with a lot of mini-breaks etc to keep things lively, and before I knew it I realised I was being swept along at 24.5 mph average. After about 20 mins I gave it a go around the front of the bunch to make me feel like I had taken my shift. I then retreated into the pack for some shelter - only to find I was suddenly at the back of the pack!!
Before I knew it the '3 laps to go' marker was out and the pack began to reel in the final break aways and prepare for the final sprint for the line. It all began to happen very quickly from this point on, ambition began to overcome tiredness and ability which lead to a little bit of closer than normal racing but lucky I was able to steer clear of it.
I positioned myself in the shelter for the final sprint, but wasn't in a good enough position to stop me getting a little squeezed in the final 200m, but I was delighted with a 7th position finish.

For me the Winter Series is over as I begin to concentrate on all manner of other things including a 1/2 marathon and the start of the Surrey League....yes - I'm bitten by the road racing bug!