Ride Report - Sunday 9th March

Sunday's ride started in glorious sunshine at The Queen's Stage in Effingham, a venue which was sadly not so glorious as it kept various cyclists waiting for / chasing up / cancelling their drinks orders. 

The route was a simple enough pedal along some of my favourite lanes around Farley Heath and Shamley Green to land up in Guildford for lunch in 'Spoons, and then on another 10 miles via Mayford and Send to Pinnocks in Ripley. Ride stats as follows:

Cyclists at elevenses - 19! Graham did not continue, Terry joined for the first few miles

Groups needed - 2. My thanks to Simon for jumping in to sub-lead the 2nd group, overcoming various technical challenges to download the route, and to Jennie, David W and Andy for back-marking

First-time C&M riders - 3. Audrey and David have often met us for elevenses, but this week joined for the whole day. Karl joined as far as lunch where he discovered a puncture and headed home to fix it without an audience

Previous abandoned route attempts - 1, in 2023 when there was torrential rain 

Percentage of time spent actually at the front of my group - maybe 70%, as they sped past me on both the uphills and the downhills

Incidents - only 3 that I know about (my chain coming off, the puncture and a kerfuffle on the A3 footbridge) 

Uphill sections - potentially 3? (Greene Dene / between Shere and Farley Heath Road / Littleford Lane) 

Wrong turns - at least 2 from me, supplemented by inordinate amounts of faffing

Sub-groups deviating from the route - 1, according to photographic evidence on WhatsApp! (See below)  

Photos taken - loads, but none with everyone in as they kept scattering like kittens 

Hours of sunshine - 6 (from arriving at elevenses to leaving tea plus more either side)

Cyclists having fun - I think everyone judging by the comments, and I hope to repeat the route another time in warm weather 

Some of the group before we left Queen's Stage

Some of Group 1 in action

Group 2 doing their own thing!
(photo credit: Simon)

Group 1 obscuring the view from Park Road

Miscellaneous group members after lunch
(photo credit: Andy)

Miscellaneous group members at tea

Thanks to everyone who joined for all or part of the ride for making it a great day out.