Anyone remember the Croydon to Brighton Off Road Route?

[Neil S]

I'm planning on dusting off my mountain bike soon to re-trace some of the Croydon to Brighton off road route. I can remember most of it but am having a bit of a mental block on how we got from Ranmore Common to the Downs Link?

Can anyone remember?

Thanks

Neil

[Dr Frigo]

Will has sent me this:

Place Distance Time Trip distance Trip time Comment
East Croydon BR 0.0 7:30 0.0 0:00 Start
Banstead BR 7.0 8:40 7.0 1:10 At Banstead BR (to West Croydon)
Epsom Downs 1.9 9:00 8.9 0:20 Near to Tattenham Corner (to East Croydon)
M25 3.0 9:30 11.8 0:30
Rykers Café (14.9) 3.1 10:01 14.9 0:31 Cafe; near to Dorking BR (to West Croydon)
Ranmore 2.6 10:27 17.5 0:26
Gomshall 4.0 11:07 21.6 0:40 At Gomshall BR (to East Croydon via Redhill)
Peaslake 1.9 11:26 23.4 0:19 Village shop
Cranleigh (13.5) 5.0 12:16 28.4 0:50 Supermarket
Christ's Hospital BR (9.5) 9.5 13:51 37.9 1:35 At Christ's Hospital BR (to East Croydon)
Southwater 2.2 14:13 40.1 0:22
Partridge Green 5.9 15:12 46.0 0:59
Henfield 2.3 15:35 48.3 0:23 Near to Henfield town
Truleigh Hill (17.9) 7.5 16:50 55.7 1:15
Devil's Dyke 2.5 17:15 58.2 0:25
Palace Pier (8.5) 6.1 18:16 64.3 1:01 Finish; near to Brighton BR (to East Croydon)

[Elliot M]

I think we did Ranmore > Peaslake offroad, presumably dropping off the North Downs and crossing the A24 somewhere near Westcott or a bit further W. Then road to Cranleigh which is where we joined the Downs Link.

The strictly off road route would have taken us from Ranmore along the top of the North Downs past Newlands Corner and to the intersection of the North Downs way and Downs Link at St Martha's Hill. But lopping off this corner, much of which is hard going on sand, kept overall time reasonable.

[Neil S]

Thanks guys

i can remember it all now after your prompting. Fingers crossed the weather will be as good as when we all did it last.

Cheers

Neil

[Will]

There are lots of different ways you can do the Ranmore to Downs Link section. It's best to go along the bits you know, and just piece them together.

It's kinda tricky to describe the route we did, but we went along the top of the hill (on the NDW I think) aiming for Gomshall, then crossed over the A24 and went towards Peaslake. At Peaslake we went up Pitch Hill to the upper car park, then over the road and up the next little bit of hill to the windmill, to join the road. Then we pretty much took the road all the way to Cranleigh so as to save time. (We were 6 minutes behind schedule at that point and I was starting to get a bit worried... )

Elliot's suggestion is a good one, easier to navigate, although longer. But with the rain we've had recently, the sand should be firmer so not too tough.

Also, I vaguely recall thinking that the Downs Link could be pretty tiring in the wet (as the surface is made up of mud along many parts of it) so might be worth thinking about that!

More than happy to chat through some route options if you want.

[Elliot M]

any plans forming for the official 06 Coastal Freeride Assault?