Bus replacement of trains means that the planned Otford Loop Goldng Hop ride (now moved to Sunday May 17) cannot take place. Instead, it's Weybrdge and back - a ride you can check out in the gallery for June 2008.

Meeting Points

Meet: 09:30 Cutty Sark Gardens and 10:00 Peckham Rye Station ticket hall. We may be a bit late but won’t move on before 10. If you are planning to join the ride here, it may be as well to call me.

The Ride

We will cut across town to Richmond Park, drop down to the river, then follow the Thames Cycle Path all the way to Weybridge.

Pub lunch at a canal-side pub after about 30 miles. The ride to lunch will be pretty pootly/easygoing as the pub has long food serving hours. In case we go particularly slowly, bring snacks to keep you going. After lunch, if you want you can take a train back to town from Addlestone or Weybridge (please check for engineering works though).

Although the trip to Weybridge will not be fast, if you do want to do half of the ride, please bear in mind that others in the group doing the full ride need to get back to town by a reasonable time.

For those wanting to put more miles in, the return will be through town (though still scenic in places) so the return trip should be a bit faster. Opportunity to stop at another pub (by the river?) if people are up for it on the way back. If you want to cut the return ride short, we pass various train stations, including Walton on Thames, Hampton Court, Kingston, Raynes Park.

Total distance – estimated maximum of 60 miles.

We are riding along the river on the way out but the surface is reasonable – not hard off-road – and I’ll be doing it on a narrow-tyred fast city bike. You may not want to come on a full-on racer though – your choice.

More info from Paul: 07957 209322 NO TEXTS – talk to me

Report

photos

Nine of us altogether by the time I’d picked up at Peckham Rye – a mixture of regulars, new folk and occasional visitors.

A strangely uneventful ride, though we did have a couple of punctures. The first didn’t actually delay us up as one of our party had looked up to find us gone after a stop and decided to cross the river in search of us. Retrieved after a call, by which time the puncture was sorted. Friendly hint – any decent leader will usually wait at any odd turn to check that everyone’s there. So if in doubt best to just go straight ahead (by the same token, not a great idea to race too far past turns ahead of the leader – they may be about to turn off). The last person we lost on a turn was Bill though it was rumoured that for good reasons of his own he wanted to bail.

Once we’d crossed town to Richmond, we drifted pleasantly along the river towards Weybridge and, lest my underserved reputation for tough rides (but see below) becomes too well entrenched, I even slowed folk down once or twice. Colin, a welcome returnee, can vouch for the fact that it was a genuinely tootly ride I think.

Lunch at the Pelican – an odd pub in an industrial estate but facing the Wey Navigation with visiting narrow boats for company. And always plenty of seats outside. Food decent and some good beer, and it turns out that until further notice Saturdays are Pudding Club with all puddings just £1.50. We discovered this after we’d eaten our mains or it may have been tempting to dine on a smorgasbord of sponge.

Usual rambling conversations – nothing too controversial or actionable as I remember though today was probably the closest Lewisham Cyclists will ever come to having two prime ministers and motley MPs along for the ride. No truth in rumours that we are handing out receipts claiming our rides cost £28.50. All free, economical train fares, sometimes none, pubs chosen for beer, general appeal and decent prices. And the company is about as cheap as it gets.

Lost three folk just after lunch, chased one down breaking for Weybridge station and the other two were then located. Forsaking the river for the return trip, we made faster progress, though still at a pace suitable for our mixed crew.

Pretty uneventful return from what I remember, encountered again the bizarre part-time cycle lane between Hampton Court and Kingston. Particularly bizarre as it’s unclear just what drivers can do with the extra sliver of space opened up to them in off-peak times. Maybe a clever ruse by a cycle planner to assert cyclists’ right to just cycle in the road in the prime position anyway.

Returned through Dulwich Park, one shot off to work and another waved us goodbye. The rest of us went for a swift pint in the Young’s pub at the bottom of Barry Road.

Paul