A Group Ride Invitation - 21st October from Effingham

This ride starts at Effingham Vineries and from there we’ll take a lovely ride through the Surrey Hills and lanes to the Scarlett Arms in Walliswood. After lunch we’ll take a slightly longer route to Leatherhead for tea. 18.45 miles/1512ft to lunch and 24 miles/1031ft after lunch.

If need be, after lunch the route can be cut short by turning L to go via the more usual route home through Capel. 

All road surfaces were poor but particularly on the L hand bend in Ruckmans Lane immediately before Weare St (which was also fairly shoddy). Let’s be careful out there!

If you’d like to join myself and sub-leaders please let me know by 5pm Monday 19 Oct. Please respond using Spond, if you have it, otherwise email at janice.dawes@gmail.com.

The Scarlett Arms requires a pre-order for lunch so please also let me know your order, preferably using the event comments in Spond. Please also say if you have any preference for a slow, medium or fast group and I’ll do my best to accommodate you.

Due to being away on holiday it’s likely to be Sat 17 Oct before I’m able to obtain and post the sandwich menu (the menu changes).

Here is the route:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/520356720

Invitation to B Group Ride 21st October

Elevenses will be at Layla’s café, The Street, Effingham KT24 5LQ

This is the same ride route I had last October, enjoyed by those who joined it.

The morning ride into deepest Surrey Hills, will be 16.5 miles with about 1,700 ft of elevation but that elevation is concentrated in a few challenging hills such as Row Lane, Winterfold Heath road and Raynor road but we will be rewarded with lesser -known scenic heaths and woodland areas including the iconic Jelley’s Hollow. Lunch will be at The Royal Oak, in beautiful Holmbury St Mary.

The afternoon ride will be 14 miles and about 1,000 ft of elevation, concentrated in a few big hills as we head back up to the ridge at Green Dene via Hoe Lane, Purser’s Lane and Combe Lane/Bottom.

Tea will then be a short ride away at Café Barbera, Stoke D’Abernon.

I shall be joined by my two intrepid co-leaders, Mick A and Tim G.

The Royal Oak pub requires pre-orders so I need to know your lunch preference before 5pm Monday evening at the latest, so I can email the pub that evening.

You can see the menu below. There is a wide variety to choose from, including sandwiches.

If you would like to join the ride, please email me fdsilva82@gmail.com directly before 5pm Monday evening. Thanks.

Look forward to seeing you on Wednesday.

Francis

Starters:

Homemade Soup of The Day with Bread & Butter £7.50

Mixed Olives with Bread (v) (vg) £5.95

Salted Padron Peppers (v) (vg) £7.50

 Halloumi Fries with Sweet Chilli Dip (v) £7.25

Pate of the Day with Toast £7.50 

Calamari with Garlic Mayo £8.50 

Special Prawn, Crab & Smoked Salmon Cocktail with Beetroot Coulis & Lemon £10.50

Mains :

Traditional Beer-Battered Cod, Chunky Chips, Tartare Sauce & Crushed Minted Peas £18.95 

Sirloin Steak, Chips, Grilled Mushroom & Tomato with Peppercorn Sauce £34.95

Classic Chicken Caesar Salad (va) £17.95

Butternut Squash Risotto with Sage & Shaved Parmesan (v) £16.50

Pie of the Day with Mashed Potato & Greens (va) £18.95

Gammon Shank with Pineapple, Roasted Tomato, Fried Egg, Peas and Chips £19.95

Beef Burger with Smoked Bacon, Cheese, Tomato, Baby Gem, served with Fries £18.50

Seasoned Chicken Burger with Tomato, Baby Gem, Avocado & Garlic Mayo £17.50

Plant-Based Vegan Burger, with Vegan Bacon & Cheese, served with Fries (v) (vg) £17.50

Lunch: all served with Fries.

Steak Sandwich on Ciabatta £15.00 

Goat’s Cheese Sandwich on Brown Bread with Beetroot, Rocket, Fig & Pear Balsamic (v) £12.50

 Classic Club Sandwich on White Bread £15.00 

Smoked Salmon & Cream Cheese on Brown Bread £13.50

 Beer-Battered Fish Fillet Sandwich with Tartare Sauce on White Bread £15.00

Classic BLT on White Bread £12.50

Sides: 

Chunky Chips or Fries (v) (vg) £5.00

Mixed Leaf Salad with Pomegranate seeds & Wholegrain Dressing (v) (vg) £4.95

Tomato Salad in Port Vinegar Sauce (v) (vg) £4.95

Truffle, Parmesan Fries (v) £6.95

Desserts Home-Made Fruit Crumble with Custard (v) £7.95

Coffee & Walnut Sponge with Rum & Raisin Ice Cream (v) £7.90

Desserts: 

Home-Made Fruit Crumble with Custard (v) £7.95

Coffee & Walnut Sponge with Rum & Raisin Ice Cream (v) £7.95 

Cheesecake of the Day (v) £7.95 

Sticky Toffee Pudding with Vanilla Ice Cream (v) £7.95

Cheeseboard Platter for 2 to Share (v) £15.00

Boozy Chocolate Brownie Sundae \(v) £9.50

3 Scoops of Ice Cream (v)(gf) £7.25

PLEASE MAKE STAFF AWARE OF ANY ALLERGENS

V=VEGETARIAN VG=VEGAN GF=GLUTEN FREE VA=VEGETARIAN AVAILABLE VGA=VEGAN AVAILABLE

Freewheel Competition 2026: Official Results

Congratulations go to Sue C and Guy who each produced a fine performance to win the Lady's and the Gentlemen's Freewheel Competition, respectively.

Congratulations also to Sue F and Chris M who were runners up.

And thanks to Fixie for getting everyone rolling at the start.

Click this link to see some more photos, courtesy of Tim C.

Ride report 14 October Freewheel Competition, B group

On a chilly but sunny October morning 14 Bs set off to complete the challenge of the Freewheel Competition followed by a relaxed cycle through Surrey. 

First off John’s group of Tim C, Sabina, Bernard, Francis, Dave and Lillian.

John writes - 

Well done to this group for providing such a large part of the ‘officials’ for the morning event. We then regrouped and cycled to lunch, arriving just in time to avoid some rain, and leaving just after it had stopped! 

Gill’s group of Sue F, Chris M, Steph, Mick, Julie, Tim G and Grant followed on.

Gill writes -

With the variability of time taken to complete the freewheel and the vagaries of road closures in mind, I had confounded everyone by issuing three GPS route options in the hopes of covering all eventualities. The Freewheel Competition was great fun with Fixie pushing us off very skillfully.  Sue and Chris did us proud by being 2nd lady and 2nd gent down the hill. Well done! Also well done Sue C and Guy from the As who gained firsts. 

Being such a lovely sunny morning we didn’t rush things but our group decided by a show of hands that we may have enough time to take the slightly longer route option to lunch, as long as we could get through the roadworks on Leigh Road.  No such luck, so we reverted to the shorter diversion route which actually turned out to be spot on time-wise.  There was a hint of rain as we approached The Plough at Leigh but luckily it did not fall in earnest until we had parked our bikes.  This pub is excellent for our group.  No pre-ordering, area set aside for us, very relaxed about timings and tasty food served quickly with a smile! 

Paula managed to join us for lunch and the afternoon ride, so we were a merry band of 9 who set off for tea, so relaxed that our trusty back marker Tim G almost set off without his helmet!  A lovely cycle in the sunshine through Betchworth, on to a familiar route via Pixham Lane through to Leatherhead for tea at Lucios, along with the As.

Thanks everyone who participated in the day, particularly to the organisers Clive and Dave C, the corner markers and photographers, award maker Tony and our excellent sub-leader John and our back markers. 

The final route

~ Gill H

 

Ride Report 14th October Freewheel Competition

 Thirteen A group riders attended the Tilehurst Lane Freewheel Competition.

Andy C kindly offered to lead a group and this is his report.

f there is ever a perfect Autumn day then surely today must qualify - a mostly sunny, crisp chilly morning giving way to light winds & beautiful light bathing the Surrey countryside.

My group - Ged, Brian, Sue C, Dave F & Karl.

It's the annual freewheel competition, this year at Tilehurst Lane.

Your correspondent managed a distance of 0.639 mile, which is basically just past the Tanners Brook humpback bridge where the majority ended up probably because of the gradient rise in this location.

After the prize giving, Clive joined us for Steve's sensible, conventional route to lunch at The Jack Fairman (Horley).

A very brief shower (& solitary wasp) sent me & a couple of others scuttling inside but we were back on our bikes within the hour.

Steve's route back to Leatherhead for tea included a favourite of mine - Lonesome Lane.

I decided to go 'off piste' taking the newly resurfaced road past Norbury Park Farm  - no mud/cow dung or potholes anymore!

Thanks to Steve for the route, Ged for backmarking & everybody else for their company.

I did a recce of the route in lovely sunshine, but cold temperature. As Leigh Road was closed completely for roadworks I altered the route and posted on Spond. On the day the sunshine was still there, but now 5 degrees warmer. After a dubious coffee at the Dorking Community Centre we set off for a short ride to Tilehurst Lane for the fun part.

The problem was the small hump back bridge ar the bottom of the hill. The road ramped up slightly, but enough to stop most riders shortly after. Nevertheless we had two clear winners.

Guy went the furthest (he said because of his weight).

Sue C won the ladies trophy because of sheer skill at nodding along.

From here it was a short pull to lunch  with Guy, Patrick, Dave E, Neil W and Peter, where we sat under the canopy outside at The Jack Fairman and had our lunch. It came over very dark and we experienced a short shower, but on leaving the sun appeared once more.

The route back to Leatherhead for tea was via cycle tracks through the Brookwood and Greenfields housing estates and then north to Dovers Green and Lonesome Lane. Then west to Brockham and finally the coach road past the golf course to Pixham Lane, where Peter left us for home and then the A24 cycle path to tea. 

Lucio's was packed! We met Terry here which was nice. Everyone enjoyed themselves largely because of Clive and Fixie Dave who organised the event and the corner markers who kept us all on the straight path to success. My thanks to Andy C who, as always, stepped up to do a top job of leading a group, and to Peter S for back marking my team.

Steve D.

Ken's funeral - some pictures

On a cool but sunny autumn day we gathered at Leatherhead crematorium to say goodbye to Ken.  About 25 cyclists joined a good number of friends and family for the service, and many of us went back to Ken's house for refreshments and chat afterwards.  Ian W led the cycling contingent and we were made very welcome with tea and home-made food sufficient even for the appetites of us cyclists.

Ken's wife Maggie, their children Jacqui, Andrew and Paul had filled the house with photos of Ken and some displays of his racing days, and then filled it a bit more with food, and then all of us took up the remaining space. If you could find your way through the throng of people there were some of Ken's cycling club jerseys on display too.  It made for a lot of discussion of happy times spent with Ken.

As we were riding to the funeral, our long line of Sou'Westers was overtaken by the hearse, followed by Maggie, waving out of the window.   Later Ian W remarked that even on the way to his funeral, Ken was still able to overtake us on the road.

Thanks to Neil W for these photos which were part of the display.

 B group ride from Dorking, 14 October, including the Freewheel Competition 

Our ride this week will include the Freewheel Competition along Tilehurst Lane. Elevenses is at Dorking, St Martin’s Church Community Centre, and each group will ride straight to the competition, approximately 4 miles. Afterwards there will be a prize giving in Brockham. From there we will stagger our departures to lunch at The Plough in Leigh, approx 13 miles. No pre-ordering is required. Overall an undulating route with just over 1000ft of ascent.

The afternoon ride will take us back to Leatherhead for tea, approximately 11 miles. This includes a well known off road section through Betchworth Park Golf Club to avoid most of the busy A25. Otherwise all on road. 

If you feel inspired to win one of Tony’s lovely awards or just fancy a nice Surrey ride with a slightly competitive element please sign up for the ride by Monday, 6pm at gillholder9@gmail.com 

Hope very much you can join this enjoyable club event.