Report of the latest rides:
Saturday's ride (17/11/07) was lead by Leigh Smithers, although physically it was lead by the Read "twins" (Paul & Keith)who set a strong pace on the front around the usual Leigh based Surrey League circuits.
Six turned up to last Sunday’s ride (18/11/07) Nathan, Paul, Keith, Tim, Gavin and Duncan. The morning was pretty dark windy and cold and Duncan sensed that everyone wanted to get on with it to avoid what looked like an inevitable soaking. Both Nathan and Duncan were feeling a little worse for wear due to slight over ‘refreshment’ at separate social engagements the night before – plus some of the guys had ridden quite hard on the Saturday so the pace was somewhat steady to begin with. The route was deliberately hilly and took us from Dorking up to Coldharbour with a descent down to Ockley, returning up Leith Hill via the club hill climb route. Holmbury St Mary was the next destination, where we cut across to Peaslake where Tim and Gavin headed back to Reigate. Then there were four. Climbing out of Peaslake we rode up the seemingly endless drag to Houndhouse Road and on to Shere. The next installment of upward gradient was Coombe Lane with it’s infamous kick for the last 100m. Legs were getting tired and we were grateful for a good long descent before the penultimate climb of the day to Ranmoor. Regrouping along the ridge, Paul and Keith said there farewells at the fork and headed down to Dorking. Then there were two. Nathan and Duncan decided that a ride up the Zigzag to finish the morning was a marginally better scenario than riding along the A25 to Reigate.
Overall; a good test of the legs and certainly a good hangover cure, albeit not exactly steady aerobic base building ! Distance approx 50 miles, duration 3 to 3.5 hours
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This week we have Roland leading the Saturday ride (24/11/07): 7.30am from the bus shelter in Leigh village (opposite the Plough Pub) - usual Surrey League based circuits until Ro gets lost and then make it up from there.
Sunday (25/11/07) will be Nathan leading a 40-50 mile ride around a local loop (tbc), with hopefully a few less hills than last week. Pace 17-20 mph and around 3 hrs duration, 7.30am from Leigh bus shelter again.
Richard