Croydon to Coast off-road # 3

[JayneToyne]

i have spds. and always, well mostly always very glad of them.

[James Cushtie]

I feel awful for wussing out, but I guess I'm just too cowardly... plus there's all these things to sort like stopa and ikea etc...


Marco, what do you reckon is wrong with my forum? I haven't got access to the machine to do anything useful (although I can access the db) so I'm not sure how we could fix it

[jeffmesie]

Join at Riddlesdown?

I'm planning to come along but I thought I may as well join at Riddlesdown since its only at the bottom of my road (and probably finish at Christ's Hospital)

Does anyone know what the entry point to Riddlesdown is to be used. Would it be a good idea to be at Riddlesdown car park at 8.00am to join the group?

[Will]

Er, where's Riddlesdown?

[Will]

Right, just looked on a map...

I wasn't planning on going that way.

I was going to do the first five miles pretty much on road, heading over towards Banstead Downs via Waddon, South Beddington, Carshalton On The Hill, Carshalton Beeches.

[Steve]

What do you mean - fix my forum - ? It seems to be working with posting replies. What else is there?

Regarding starting location: as I am not from Croydon (NW London) and I have to drive to a start point - do you suggest I park somewhere else where there's no parking costs? I've heard South London's a bit of a parking mare.

[jeffmesie]

Riddlesdown?

The Riddlesdown reference came from sylvian's suggstion that by leaving at 7.30 "This means that we would get to start with a nice off-road bit going through Croham Hirst, Kings Park, Riddlesdown and onto Farthing Downs, instead of a 5 miles boring stretch of road to Coulsdon."

Looks like I'll see you at East Croydon after all.

[Will]

Ah, I see. Sorry about the confusion. This post has grown so long it's difficult to remember what's at the beginning of it!

Sylv was, I think, gonna lead the first part, probably out towards Boxhill, and then I was gonna do the rest. But as I mentioned above, he's not feeling too well at the moment, and doesn't know if he'll be able to make the ride...

So I'll probably lead the whole thing. I pre-rode the first bit to Boxhill this evening to make sure I could guide it ok, and managed to put together quite a fast direct route (thanks Aodan!), mostly off-road. We do start on the road - for just under 4 miles - but I figured that would be a nice treat for the roadies.

I'll post up something tomorrow with the final details.

[higg]

Hey Will, I've been stupidly busy at work right now so haven't gotten around to answering your mail.

The EC to Wallington route is as follows

Follow the tram tracks down thro Croydon, after the Church Road tram stop stick to the cyclepath/footpath under the flyover, straight on then right onto Waddon Road. At the traffic lights at the end turn right over the humpback railway bridge. Straight through at the next lights (thro the Purley Way) brings you to the start ofthe Wandle river cyclepath. Follow your nose here for a mile or so, there is one little stretch of residential road but keep going until in the same general direction until a pedestrian crossing , again straight thro following the river, over a little footbridge, diagonally across the field over a few roots and diagonally across the next field over a little bridge and then diagonally thro the next field. This will bring you to the corner of Beddington Park. Work your way thro this, then thro residential roads to Wallington where I guess you're original four road miles would bring you to.

After this I think you might know the route through the small holdings of Little Woodcote, skirting around the Oaks park and then roughly parallel to the A2022, past Bansted prison towards Epsom. At the junction with the A240 go up the Epsom Down road to the downs proper , thro the racecourse and away.

I'd really want to do this but will be working again this Saturday ... mind you if you are leaving so early I could do the first section as far as Epsom and then head into work.

The EC-Wallington part of the route is more interesting than the main road but maybe a bit too much for a big group especially at the start of a long day.

[Steve]

As previously requested, does anyone know any streets where its easy to park near the East Croydon station without having to pay?

[Will]

I'm not a local either - from Putney - so can't help!

[Dom]

Think if you head down Cherry Orchard road there are some backstreets that only have parking restrictrions Monday to friday , but although I work in EC fraid I dont drive.

[JayneToyne]

my road is a cheap parking option, 1/2 mile from EC station and i think its £2 all day on mon-sats. free on sundays. Radcliffe road, although maybe if you drive up the road towards the posh end there might be somewhere you can park for free.

[Kuang]

guys, I'm pulling out the ride
my knee is still suffering as i tried to clock in some miles last weekend
sorry for late notice
have great fun
i shall join you all for the regular mtb rides in the coming weeks

[Steve]

"We leave on Saturday 19th June from East Croydon railway station at 7.30am"

Just discovered some train times online: I live in outer NW London, and theres a train service running 6:21 to 7:07 no changes. But there aren't any back again that don't use the tube (that I can see) May well have to be car.