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.