Back from the ToSH

[George]

Oh what a ride!
Seven of us started out on the ToSH. or should I now call it the ToSoFF.
Jonathon, Jim, Matt, Andrew, Hal, John I think and me George.

The roads were a bit damp but the day was great with clear skies and sunshine although a bit nippy.

Jim peeled off at Dorking to watch the Ball buster over at Box hill, we’d be passing there but not for 4 or 5 hours, six of us remaining.

Top of Leith hill first casualty, Matt with a puncture, he soon put in another tube only to find out that he hadn’t got round to repairing that one either so it didn’t inflate, there I was blaming Jonathon’s impressive chainsaw action pump! We got cold waiting, agreed to rendezvous just up the road where the loop reconnected at the top of Leith, after the loop no sign of Matt? Five of us remaining.

The road conditions were good but the corners could be littered with debris from the rain.

Climbing White down hill it seemed to be a lot easier from previous attempts, I don’t know why, maybe it’s the new bike. Andrew was climbing strongly on his old knackered bike.
Jonathon punctured near the top.
Descending the ridge down into Staple lane Andrews (frame snapped) the right chain stay had completely sheared and was rubbing on the wheel, also the left stay was cracked right through oopps.
We wished we had Marco with us for help with an ingenious bodge up solution. We chaperoned him slowly to the closed railway station (Horsey) for an early ride home. Four of us remaining.

Lunch stop at Newlands corner and time was already flying by, we left there at quarter to 2 and decided that the full ToSH was not an option if we wanted to get back in daylight.
Up the steep Shere climb which we weren’t expecting to be so steep around the blind corner.

Speeding down Ranmoor we couldn’t help but stop to help a young lady who had mashed up her rear mech. Addiscombe Club mechanics soon had her back on the bike, turned out she was a competitor from the ballbuster going home.

Boxhill was a breeze and after some high speed group work made it back to Croydon at 4 just as it was getting dark.
This ToSH is now named the ToSoFF (Tour of Surrey & one F*&$$* Frame)

Cheers George

[Mike I]

I was in there somewhere too. I'd like to say that we completed the whole course in record time, but the shorter days and some fairly complex mechanicals put paid to that. I still managed 80+ miles - some of them quite lumpy - and felt reasonably strong at the end of it. Back home at 4.03pm, just three minutes later than estimated, so brownie points and a juicy steak for one lucky Godfrey!

[Jonathan B]

Had a great but extremly tiring day. I new it was going to be hard but I wasn't prepared for how hard it really was. Thanks to everyone for being patient and waiting for me at the top of each hill. I will have to work on my climbing skills for next time.

[Grahame]

Or duct tape and a couple of allen keys will get you moving again.

You can never have too much duct tape. In fact I'll let you in on the bike-bodger's mantra - "If you can't fix it with duct tape, you're not using enough."

[MattD]

Hi Guys,

This ride did not go as planned !! . After being cajoled to riding the TOSH by Monty , I eventually got into the swing of things when the first puncture hit after 30 odd miles . School boy error with the spare inner tube … only decided to start re-cycling my inner tubes last week ( note to self - don’t bother ! …or if you do - remember to repair the original puncture first ! ) . The group stayed together until they all realised they were riding with an imbecile !! .

So , as a compromise we all agreed to meet up a bit later on , either by me catching the guys up ( always the optimist ) , or meeting when the course switches back on its self .

For the next hour or so I rode on the limit , blasting up the hills , descending in the style of Bettini, missing food stops, all in the hope of catching them up, HOWEVER . I’m very familiar with the TOSH, and began to realise that maybe we were riding a different route and wouldn’t be meeting up !!

First loop to Shere I stopped for a well deserved lunch , but I have to admit on the second visit , I was very tempted to bail out , but with the added motivation of realising this ride might be discussed on Monday , I thought otherwise !!

The TOSH is a challenging ride at the best of times , but the conditions today were particularly treacherous ; leaves , mud , and lots of loose tarmac certainly focused the mind on the descents , and with climbing totalling over 2000m this was quite a training ride !

Towards the end , I started to debate on whether to catch the train from Dorking back to Clapham ( at that stage I would already have ridden 100 miles !) , or cut out the last 5 miles of the TOSH , and head back home . This I did …. BUT it was not as straight forward as it should have been .

I had one spare patch, no spare ( puncture free !) inner tube - so obviously the inevitable happed; I punctured in Morden, then punctured again in Tooting ( too tired to check tire properly ?! ) no spare patch , ahhhh

As you can imagine I was not in the best of moods - I had 2 miles to walk home, I was cold , wet , very tired , and I’d spent all my spare money on lunch !

So, desperate to get home quickly I thought I’d try my luck in asking for a lift from a friendly Bus driver - but I have never seen such a confused look on a bus drivers face - and then he said no !!

However , after a very slow walk up a very busy Tooting High Street I realised the very same bus driver was flagging me down , and so, after another confused look when I told him I had no money I was allowed on, and preceded to block the bus corridor all the way to Clapham !

As I said , this ride did not go to plan !

Stats for the day
Left home at 8.45 – back in flat for 5.15
Miles 115 !

Cheers, Matt

[siwickm]

Matt, that sounds awful, but funny when you look back. Look on the bright side, next week you will be flying after that training, and if not at least you have made friends with a bus driver in your local vicinity, you never know when that could come in useful.

Cheers

Marek....

[adrian]

Yes, that sounds like a grim day - you did well not to throw in the towel.

A few years back, when I lived in Oxfordshire, I ran out of tubes on an early Sunday morning ride and had to walk about five miles back to Abingdon, from where I could (I hoped) get a bus the remaining three or so to where I lived. Amazingly, although the bus was empty, the driver wouldn't let me on. The funny thing was, his route was a short loop and my walk was so long that he must have passed me - still empty - about five times.

[Richard (Apples)]

Or just ring up the missus and tell her to come and pick you up.....

[George]

Sorry Mike lost your name somehow

Matt that sure sounds like an epic ride.
I don't know how we could have missed each other because we waited a while at the Leith Loop then Johnathon had a puncture at the top of White down, we were there for 10 mins.

Then Andrews frame snapped in half just before the turn off to Shere and we were scratching our heads for at least 10 mins trying to come up with a soloution to get him home

You must have ridden alot more of the route than us, big respect for caring on.

[MattD]

Sounds like it was a War of attrition out there ….just a shame we somehow missed each other …. I’ll be riding the TOSH a few more times over the winter if anyone is still interested after this episode !!

Winter tyres at the ready …..

[Mike I]

I think we could have done with a support vehicle - but possibly not this one...

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq3b8565bjM&feature=RecentlyWatched&page=1&t=t&f=b[/url]