We’re off to meet an angel, with some nice Kent lanes thrown in and a decent pub. Quite a lot of you will have seen some of these roads and lanes before and it will come as no surprise that since we’re leaving from Otford train station we’ll set out along the Pilgrims Way, which rather wonderfully hogs the bottom of the North Downs. Of course, this being one of my rides you will have to climb them at some point.

After that, we’ll check out an ancient burial site, say hello to the angel, and then head for a tried and tested pub.

No Valentines Day theme – sorry.

Total distance a mere 31 miles – lunch after about 20. Pace decidedly moderate but we’ll try to stick together. Days getting longer but as always (advisable even in summer) bring lights.

Ride suitable for any bike.

Meet ticket office at Catford railway station at 8:40 for the 9:02 train to Otford, arriving there at 09:37  – arrive early to maximise your chances of a Groupsave discount - if you get one, return fare only £3.00.

NB: NOT Catford Bridge. Catford is the one of the two side-by-side stations closest to Forest Hill, just opposite the Halfords in the retail park. To get there from Greenwich, head round the South Circular or go straight down the Waterlink Way. Check it out on old London Cycling map 15 or numbers 10 or 11 of new ones

More info from Paul: 07957 209322 – NO TEXTS - I love your voice

Report

photos

Just myself and Rosanna at Catford, though we did get a call from Jane who had ventured out at some ungodly frozen hour and said she’d meet us at Otford.

Train to Otford where with Jane we found Andrew, William and Jo. Off to amble down the Pilgrim’s Way, through Wrotham, a bit of twiddling and then on to a wonderfully quiet bit of the Pilgrim’s Way we haven’t ventured onto before. Loud screeching complaints from Rosanna’s bike turned out to be the metal of shot front brake blocks against rim. So we stopped while William swapped a slightly less worn back one over – most of the braking force is on the front.

More twiddling through rather nice and slightly hidden Trottiscliffe, apparently long-time home of Graham Sutherland of burned Churchill portrait fame, then it was off to find the ancient stones and burial mound of Coldrum. About 4,000 years old apparently and when you find them you’d hardly guess you were so close to the M25.

Climbed over a gate to head down towards a farm, then looped back to Trottiscliffe where I detoured into a pub car park to check out a beer garden – always nice to find good pubs. Encountered a couple with a rather impressive recumbent tricycle tandem who were extracting thorns from a tyre. Debate between William and Jo about its merits as a means of wedding transport. Jury out on that I think.

Then off up a hill where before I punctured on four thorns we passed a couple of horse riders led by a dog with a warning triangle. My usual careful self with the repair, certain grumblings from the general Jane direction about getting hungry and wondering why I was set on a loop away from a Stansted lunch stop which signs told us was only two miles away. Short answer – I’m leading the ride.

Off through a particularly cold patch, snow still on the ground from a week before, managed to get us lost twice (hadn’t had time to reccie the ride due to ice) but recovered with a bit of my map reading and a lightning fast bit of William’s. But we only added two or three miles and saw some more nice hidden lanes.

Off down a small road/track signed as a dead end, but I assured Jane that it was a through route and that the surface wouldn’t get any worse. Right on the first one, pretty spectacularly wrong on the second as we were reduced to walking/scooting through mud.

Wonderful scenery but folk getting a tad fractious. Then for my second ride in a row we hit a flooded road and I hesitated, considering a detour. After all, it looked damn deep and up to the bottom of the skirting on cars. But, and this is one of the reasons I like our rides, the field seemed determined to tackle it. I wimped through last (tempting of course to turn round and force them to come all the way back through) to much mockery as I managed to ignore shouted instructions about the line to take and drowned my feet.

So we saw the angel after all, in the curiously desolate Ridley – nothing there except a farm, a church and an angel.

Then off to lunch at the rather nice Black Horse at Stansted where we settled in with a large bunch of cyclists from Sevenoaks for good beer, decent food and socks dried on radiators.

Then outside for a couple of pics. Thought I’d better not caption the pics* as this but Jo, William and Jane suddenly felt the self-confessed urge to pose as three sperm. A homage to a by now rather old Woody Allen film. Won’t put the title here at the risk of pushing the traffic at www.lewishamcyclists.net even higher, so if you are so inclined, check out this link with extra added info on what folk apparently get up to in Travelodges:

www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article782120.ece

Only about ten miles after lunch but in a somewhat perverse ride all of the hard work comes towards the end. Certain pleadings to go to Otford instead of Shoreham but flogged folk on and all seemed to agree that it was worth it for the wonderful descent. Rosanna even made it without any flaming or collapsing rims.

Took us a fair while to do the 33 miles or so but we took our time, had some fun, spent time at a pretty obscure ancient site, climbed a fence, descended a muddy trench, sailed through a flood. A pretty good day and we all came through with good humour– we tend to really. Well, generally :).

Paul Taylor