Where were you Mark?
What a beautiful day, clear blue skies and no sign of the ice age that according to the doom merchants was supposed to have descended upon us overnight.
13 of us set out from CSS for my little meander through some hills in the Surrey/Kent borders. I switched the start as we were due to go up to Selsdon and then through some little lanes, but these can be a bit sketchy so thought they’d be best avoided early on in case of ice.
We headed to Purley and then I took us up St.James Road instead
. It’s quite short but I think it’s about 25-30% and you join it with a tight left hander that doubles you back on itself, so you have more or less a standing start.
Carl is simply phenomenal on hills and shot off up it. I think a few in the group haven’t ridden with Carl before as there were a few noises of shock amongst the swearing at me.
From here on via another climb to take us past Warlingham and out to the countryside. Next up Slines Oak Road for more pain before the long run down Titsey before dropping down to Four Elms.
As we got to Limpsfield Chart we started pulling away from someone, sorry I don’t know your name, so we stopped by the National Trust car park for him to catch up. We had a quick chat and he said that he wouldn’t be able to hang on, but knew where he was so was happy to head off on his own loop.
Down the wonderfully named Pootings Lane to Four Elms and then off to play with Toy’s. Usual form here with everyone winching themselves up at their own pace before a full regroup on the other side in Westerham. My legs were starting to get going by now and I felt pretty good from here on in.
On Polhill a couple were starting to feel the strain though and were dropping back further on the climbs. At the regroup at the top Andy said he knew another little hill we could go via to drop in on Shire Lane rather than have to stay on the main road down to the second roundabout. Good call as we turned off at the fist (Cudham) roundabout and went over a nice little climb which had the added advantage of being a one way road so no cars heading towards you on a narrow road.
At Shire we noticed that we had lost Eric (on a tricolour Roberts). He’d been one of the riders suffering but no-one had realised he had slipped off the back. We waited for a little while and I looped back up the hill to see if he was stuck at the top with a puncture but no sign. Sorry and I hope you got home okay, but please remember everyone if you are suffering on one of these rides do shout out. I can then make sure we all ease off a touch until we get to a point where I can point you off on a shortcut back as there are normally plenty of bail points on the route.
I did this ride a couple of weeks ago with a few chaps, one of whom was Kasper who was going great guns and making us suffer at times. Today Grant, Ant, and I got a bit of payback as it was his turn to suffer and we were all going well (particularly Ant who’s riding very strongly).
What makes this a tough loop is that in addition to all the hills and drags the last section is nearly always in to a headwind, and we’d now turned in to it. The drag along Shire, and climb up to Downe really strung us out a bit as the accumulation of effort started to take its toll on some.
At Biggin Hill there was the sound of cracking whips and some of our number had to head back to their homestead. They turned off as the rest of us headed up the drag through the village towards Tatsfield.
A bit of fun in the centre of the village as a removal van had over loaded in a drive and then grounded out as he came out blocking the whole road. Chaos for the cars, and the remaining six of us just nipped past on the pavement, power to the cyclist
.
The continuing drag strung it out again before turning off for the small climb/drag up to Tatsfield and the café stop.
A very welcome tea and bacon sarnie at the Reptile Zoo, Kasper looked tempted by Beaver World but his smile faded when I explained what it was.
The final fling now via Beddlestead and up Hessier’s Hill, just to torment the legs a bit more, before heading for our various homes.
Good ride, good weather, good group. Quality nice.
No CR next week for me, but see some of you at the Swan in West Wickham at 7:15-7:30 on Sunday for the Old Ports Reliability Ride.
) at CSS
.
have a good one
