Longer rides but not as fast as Mr Green jr

[Amy]

I was thinking about doing a longer ride about once a month, Saturday or Sunday.

Any interest and any suggestions for routes?

I'd thought about aiming for a place where we can eat for lunch - ok, a pub... keeping the pace fairly easy, something along the lines of Pete S's rides, making sure we all stay together - again unlike jr

Amy

[Phil H]

I'd definitely be up for some longer rides. Although if we're talking pub lunch, I would rather do long ride then lunch then short ride home.

[Jon C C on a Bianchi]

Hi Amy

definitely up for this - i have a lot of routes I could suggest/lead on - how long is longer? need to get some idea. Now if only I could get Sam out of the bathroom in under two hours...

[Amy]

[quote="Jon C C on a Bianchi"]Hi Amy

definitely up for this - i have a lot of routes I could suggest/lead on - how long is longer? need to get some idea. Now if only I could get Sam out of the bathroom in under two hours...

[Rob Q]

I am up for this, but just depends on what else I have going on in my busy social calender . The more variety the club members offer the better as far as I am concerned. We have the usual cr, Pete S alternative cr, the odd Mtb cr, Marco's night rides, Amys long cr with Pub stop (try and keep Marky Mark and I away form those ) And of course all the other rides that get advertised.....bring it on!!!

[Jon C C on a Bianchi]

[size=200]70 miles?[/size] is that a longer ride? give me a steer on this, Amy.

[Amy]

How about 60-70 it being winter with either 30/35 miles to lunch or other suitable stop (garden centres with cafes?) and back or c40 miles, lunch and then back? A windy twisty route out and then the straight route back sort of thing.

I only suggest pubs as one possible lunch stop - there not being many others - as they are warm and dry and most do food though my experience is that especially on Sundays they often go in for the full-on roast and don't want lightweight cyclists only ordering soup and sandwiches

Sorry I'm not very good at the leading rides bit but I'm very good at the aiding and abetting and generally knowing where I am... with a map.

Does that help Jon?

[Jon C C on a Bianchi]

Nice one. I'll come up with something. Typically I won't be able to do Sat 12th. I could do the sunday (13th) or the Saturday of the following weekend.

Jon

[George]

Amy why don't you ride to Sumner ponds in Barnes Green which is just past Southwater near Billinghurst so you can ride the lovely Weare St.

This has got to be the best cafe stop ever, great home cooked food coffee and tea on tap
http://www.sumnersponds.co.uk/faci.htm

[Andrew G]

That area is very nice, head for the Greens .

I've done a very nice ride or two round "the relatives". Out through Betchworth and on by Strood Green, Dawes Green, and then via Lambs Green before going west to Ellens Green, Barnes Green, Brooks Green, Goose Green, Dragons Green, Partridge Green, Twineham Green, Doomsday Green, then east to Twineham Green, and Whitemans Green and then home via Ardingly and Turner's Hill. Yes I did overdose on Greens a bit but when I saw how many there were in a small area of the map I just had to head there .

Maybe one for later as it tops out around the ton mark.

[George]

Andrew my ride would start with a ride over through Richmond Park to Brentford then through the borough of Brent stop off at the Mcdonalds in Brent Cross then heading east round the north circular road into Essex and to Brentwood

[Amy]

I think I was looking for that cafe last winter - I'd been told there was one in Barnes Green. Thanks for the info on where it actually is!

Yeah there's some lovely areas that I never get to nowadays - if you guys don't mind waiting for me, I'd love to learn your routes.

The Over the Hill Gang have some cafes that we could head for - Wisborough Green is a nice area to head for.

Tell you what I need - one of those poster maps of OS 18? with pins in where cafes are to stick up on a wall...

Go for it Jon, either date you mention will work for me.

[Andrew G]

George, there's a Brent Rd in Selsdon .

Amy - I should be able to get on CRs with some kind of regularity now Amy so can do an alternate route here and there to break things up - I expect I'll be be riding CRs on fixed so a steady 18s group effort/pace if that's okay. CRs so I'll keep CR etiquette.

To be honest I often don't do the same route from one ride to another, I don't get lost as such as there's no correct road to be on a lot of the time, just a different one.

My general approach is if I head towards a nice area then I can't normally go far wrong. I just keep a photocopied sheet of OS map in my pocket as a reference so that if I'm somewhere I don't know I just check for a nearby village/area and head towards it, make a mental note of two or three ahead and check the map for future ones on the hoof and it's rare you actually have to stop to map read. So long as you aren't tied to set distances or time then it's fine, for most of my rides it doesn't matter if I'm a few miles or 30 mins out on my original estimate.

[Jon C C on a Bianchi]

[quote="Andrew G"]That area is very nice, head for the Greens .

I've done a very nice ride or two round "the relatives". Out through Betchworth and on by Strood Green, Dawes Green, and then via Lambs Green before going west to Ellens Green, Barnes Green, Brooks Green, Goose Green, Dragons Green, Partridge Green, Twineham Green, Doomsday Green, then east to Twineham Green, and Whitemans Green and then home via Ardingly and Turner's Hill. Yes I did overdose on Greens a bit but when I saw how many there were in a small area of the map I just had to head there .

Maybe one for later as it tops out around the ton mark.

[Jon C C on a Bianchi]

[quote="Amy"]
Go for it Jon, either date you mention will work for me.