We’ll take mostly minor roads, face the challenge of Ditchling Beacon (everyone will be waited for and it’s no problem if you choose to walk it – we’ll be glad of a breather at the top) and return by train, probably after a drink/fish and chips or whatever by the beach.

Pub lunch but as always bring snacks.

There is a short off road bit unsuitable for full on racers but if anyone does turn up on a racer we can adapt the route and miss this out. If you do have another sort of bike please bring that as the off-road bit is nice and misses out a fast road.

Total distance – about 60 miles.

Report

Bill advised me not to write this ride up - what the hell.

Usual apologies if I’ve garbled any names.

Eight of us at Cutty Sark Gardens. Sheltering under the entrance to the Greenwich foot tunnel Sulit had come prepared with his super lightweight bike and sandals for the beach.

Slightly different route than I originally planned to go by the Laban where apparently Mr Ritchie is shooting a follow up to his gangsta flic but despite a street full of large trucks no signs of him (not that I’d recognise him) or even Madonna on a drizzly Deptford morning.

Then off for our usual routine slow dawdle down the Waterlink way. Bang. Rear wheel puncture – turned out to be a wrecked tyre. Sidewall gone and no hope of fixing it – I do carry a tyre boot but it may it may not have lasted all way to Brighton. After initial Oh F***, I realised that we’d actually been pretty lucky – it had gone at Catford Bridge, virtually the best place for it to happen. Dashed home (er, thanks to Abizer for asking me if I had my keys with me – not in bum bag as I may have thought but in bag on my immobilised bike) on Bill’s bike to grab new tyre. Lost about 45 minutes I think – thanks to everyone for their patience.

All pretty uneventful eventful if a bit slow down through Croydon and Purley towards Caterham. Just short of Caterham Jo and Bill decided to drop out and take the train back – maybe they knew what was coming. Hope to see them again – maybe initially on a shorter ride.

Climbed over Caterham, then through Bletchingley to Outwood and its windmill where I got the maps out. We’d made fairly slow progress until now and I didn’t want to race to planned pub stop in Turners Hill so we detoured to the Jolly Farmer.

The rain was now pretty continuous with dry bits but not heavy. As we approached Turners Hill, our original planned lunch stop Bill decided to make a break for home along the Worth Way and then train it back from Three Bridges. Now we were 5.
Rain pretty continuous by now but light – almost refreshing. Somewhere short of Brighton it became heavy so we contemplated the climb up Ditchling Beacon in pouring rain. As I arrived at the top amidst wind, driving rain and something like fog, the ice cream van left – a wonder he’d stayed so long.

Then the long descent into Brighton under near continuous braking to clear water from the rims. At this point the weather was so grim that I got a fit of the giggles. Tempting as it was to go straight to the station, we pushed on to the prom – if only for a pic to prove that we’d done it.

I often end my reports with a little homily about how pessimistic weather forecasts are and how bad starts to the day usually turn out pretty clear. Well the weather definitely got worse on this one. Exception that proves the rule of course.

Two top tips. 1: always have a spare tyre around – got that one right. 2: As John Franklin says in latest edition of Cyclecraft (brilliant book on road sense and staying safe) “Check not only the tyre tread but also the sidewall. Many tyres fail from a split sidewall long before the tread is worn away.” I’ll get it right next time.

Thanks to everyone for coming and especially to those who saw it through. A beautiful route– honest folks – though a bit hard to see the scenery through misted up cycling glasses. Maybe repeat in September.

Paul