With all the rain we have had I was expecting a wet ride so after many years of ribbing riders with rear mudguards and the fact this was going to be my first ride on my new Canyon Nerve AM 9.0X (oooh, hark at him- Mat) I set off sporting a 5 year old mud guard which looked brand new!
Knowing most of my ribbed victims were in Wales I knew I would get away with it! Mark H you missed your chance!!
I pedalled into the Plough car park not expecting a large turnout as many riders were in Wales but to my surprise the gorgeous morning sunshine had brought out 14 riders all eager for a good ride.
It was good to see Jon back on the saddle after a good 5 months off, now getting some training in for our London to Paris off road ride at the end of June. (Sponsorship welcome! http://www.justgiving.com/Scanprobe )
We set off at a good pace with Jack doing his usual back marking from the middle!
It took only 5 miles before our first puncture, Cara being the victim but the rest found a good sun spot to soak up a few rays (gave Holly a chance to try out her new pink cool sunglasses) while Robert helped out.
We rode the loop and headed towards Moors Wood, this is where Jack gave up on his back marking and Rob took over his duties. We waited for the back markers to catch up but were missing 3, Bruce volunteered to go back to find the missing riders and the rest headed off to our tea stop across Hopgarden Wood and up Jackass Lane where I took the opportunity to take a good snap shot of Jack!!!!! If you look closely you can also just see the mudguard on the Canyon!
As we arrived at our tea stop at Knights Oxted the 3 lost riders also appeared taking the short road ride in after Robert had to repair his puncture.
After tea we headed up to Marden Park and around to Quarry Road where we had our only spill of the day, Cara attacking a tree stump but coming off worse, luckily no broken bones but a few cuts and bruises (no video this week).
At view point we had a lone rider join us, Mike Williams had got up late from a heavy night out so joined us on the last few miles.
A good blast down from view point to the Plough, bikes propped up outside the pub and riders propped up at the bar, 23 miles, great weather and a few pints after! What more could you ask for?
All the Best
Colin