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Well if this is anything to go by, we are nearing 10 people interested already just off of this post.
I’m sure there is plenty more like us who was a more adventure/exploring focused rides as opposed to like you said “sportives”
With a little asking around once we get it all planned out we could bring more people to the rsf due to having more accessible rides from London, even as far as ride or so each month even!
Qebrus-
If you really want to go mad, I have a 100+ mile ride based off this route, with over 1700m of climbing (probably closer to 2000m). The route then dips down past Horsham (good place for lunch) to join the Downs link and manages to follow it uphill (which is a challenge as it's an old railway line), then comes up and over Leith Hill (off road), crosses the ford at Shere twice (because why not?) and then creeps up and over Epsom downs before joining the river for the run to home. That's a full day of pain and suffering.
You could also go south on the Downs link to Shoreham for a day by the Seaside as well for a much less challenging ride.
Alex_B
I'd be totally up for this. It's a real struggle to find a group that want to go exploring off-road, but not just to focus on gravel "sportives" - which just seems wrong to me (we should not be racing on public bridleways - we had enough of those arguments back in the 90s when mountain biking was getting started).