2018-05-13 Let's ride to visit Murtle in Horsham

I will try to come if the ride is still on. Just need to get up on time...

Do you know the way Oliver?

No. Should I?

Cancellation is not an option. :)

As I said further up, let's do another one soon!

Very much still on. I mean, you can try to stop Aroogah from riding, but I wouldn't recommend it. See you at 9 (if I manage to get up early enough :) ).

Yah. See you around 9ish. I will check the thread in the morning to see if there are any late runners.

Is there a GPX?

if you don't, what sort of timeish might I expect you 'orrible lot?

Oops, forgot. The aim is lunchtime. It's only about 32 miles so at TWTNRC pace we should really make it in two hours, but I think the last time we took nearly three. Sometime between 12 and 1, I'd say (punctures etc. permitting).

Is there a GPX?

No, I don't do any of that GPS shit. It's not exactly a very complicated route. Most of it is in London, too. After that, there are about six turns (depending on which of the two options, for neither of which anyone has expressed a preference, we do).

Cool. See you at the startline.

Preparing the bike now. See you at the C&H @ 9am

I am at the C&H

@Tadpole were at the malt shovel

That was a lovely day. Thanks for organising and leading us out Oliver. Some lovely lanes.

Good to see you Murtle. We should do that again soon.

Lovely to see you lot too. And please do. X

Thanks all for a lovely day and Oliver for the great route.

Sorry about the trains, hope you all got back ok.

I had a lovely time riding back (despite getting lost once, and rather stupidly to boot). I think it was probably about a century for me (in two parts, natch). I'll post a longer report later. Just quickly, today's theme song, as expertly picked by Murtle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QkjkRiZKnA

I mean, it was a very close toss-up between this and Paul McCartney's Fog Song, but the good won out. :)

Sorry you couldn't make it at short notice, Tadpole, I've replied separately to your PM.

Provisional thread for the next one--please click 'Yes, I'm attending' or 'No, I can't make it' so we can see if it's any use going on that day (17th June).

https://www.lfgss.com/events/4039/

Belated report--loved the company and prolonging the afternoon with Murtle. The ride back was quite lovely, gorgeous evening weather, dapples of sunshine under partial leaf cover, not very much traffic. While I really like the lanes in the area, the carriageway surface is really very bad in most places, including very hazardous broken-off verges. I didn't check the time when we called it an evening so have no idea how long I took. As usual, the difficulties for me were the climbs, although this time because my back was playing up. The legs were fine even on Reigate Hill. I had to push up the climb to Rusper, which is a doozy geared. On Reigate Hill I had to briefly stop four times near the top, in the space of only about two hundred metres, to rest my back. More yoga and swimming called for.

As mentioned previously, I got lost, which added a good few miles--nearly ten, I think. This was because I didn't realise the sign just after Newdigate that I was looking out for had been pushed to the side and didn't point to where it was supposed to. I was having so much fun riding that I never noticed until I saw a sign to Faygate at the other end of Partridge Lane. It then took me another two passes of the junction to realise what had happened to the sign. Not quite on a par with hippy's exploits but definitely not my most glorious navigational moment. I didn't mind too much as it was such a lovely evening and I enjoyed riding a lot.

Oddly, I found descending Portnalls Road quite difficult despite no car traffic. I think it was because of the parked cars all over the place. After the difficulties with Reigate Hill, I expected the long uphill on Woodcote Lane to be another climbing problem, but strangely I found that very easy. After getting annoyed about the new traffic scheme in Mitcham, I finally diverged from the route to ride up the A216 towards Streatham and then back up to Clapton.

I think this was just about a century all in, albeit in two parts with a long break in between, and only courtesy of a lot of extra miles being lost.