A Group - Ride Report 28th January 2026

We were very fortunate with the weather. This Wednesday was the only day in the forecast which was dry and sunny. It was surrounded by days and days of wet, grey overcast. So, 13 A Groupers turned up at Banstead for the ride, plus Dave B who joined us for elevenses.

We split up into two groups, one led by Brian and the other by me. Brian’s group set off first.

We started off by rolling down the hill from Banstead towards Chipstead, then along the road to Coulsden heading for Farthing Down. 

As we approached the summit of Farthing Down, we could see Brian’s group stopped ahead of us at the top. I don’t know why they had stopped, but they gave us a good bit of applause and Allez! Allez! Allez! as we went past.

Possibly to take this picture

My group stopped shortly after, for a comfort break - at the Water Closet block in the car park (the general consensus is that these are by far finest public toilets in the South West London area!). Whilst we were there, Brian’s group went by to resume their designated role as the lead group.

We got going again, on towards Chaldon. As it was quite a nice day, I was very tempted to stop at the church to have a look at the wall mural. But I suspect everyone else has seen it a million times, so we carried on towards the descent of Hill Top Lane and then Spring Bottom Lane (don’t these places have wonderful names!).

When we got to the junction of Spring Bottom and White Hill Lane it triggered memories of the ‘WETTEST RIDE IN LIVING MEMORY’ back in October last year when there was a 'legit' torrent of water flowing down White Hill Lane.

We bumped into Brian’s group again, and leap frogged them at Bletchingley. This time we didn’t need to stop for any comfort breaks, so we arrived at the Jack Fairman in Horley only a few minutes before them. The Jack Fairman is a regular for us when we go to that part of the world and it had been closed for refurbishment for 2 or 3 months towards the end of last year. We were trying to figure out what had been changed during the refurbishment: new carpets is all we could come up – possibly some lighting. Anyway, the usual very good value for money and prompt service was experienced.

Brian's Group

My Group

How many cyclists needed to power up a Garmin?

After lunch we rode along some typically pretty lanes through the 'Surrey Flat Lands'. However, I wouldn’t say the ride back to Leatherhead was just pretty.

I stopped at the junction of Crutchfield Lane and Irons Bottom (another wonderful name) and looked behind me to see if we were all still there; no, only Fiona and Andy were with me. We waited for some minutes. There was still no sign of the others so Andy volunteered to turn back to find them. 

Shortly after, Brian’s group appeared and informed us that Patrick had had a puncture some way back. Soon after that, Dave and Steve returned and informed us that Patrick had had to abandon and was going to catch a train and that Andy got a puncture while checking on him but he told us to continue to Leatherhead without him (hope you can follow that). Off we went; six became four.

Fiona left us, just before Leatherhead and so four became three that arrived for tea at Lucio’s where it was a very pleasant surprise indeed to bump in the B Groupers who were also just arriving for some well earned tea and cake. It was only later that I learned that Fiona also had got a puncture, shortly after leaving us. Three punctures in a group of six! Is that a record I wonder (someone must have done better than that)?

Thanks to everyone for coming along, especially to Brian (whose route I used) for sub-leading and to Dave V for back marking.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/427882335