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