From Monday groups of six were allowed
to meet in the open and ride together for the first time in more weeks than we
care to count, so on Wednesday the Committee (minus Jeff, still confined to
barracks) took up a ride hastily prepared and recced by Tim and me and designed
for use by B group out of Leatherhead, in order to test on the road the
distancing and outdoor meeting and lunching arrangements which form the basis
of the plan for Wayfarers' rides in the New Normal.
The first ride of the month is usually
out of Cobham, so how to adapt in two days a ride designed to start at
Leatherhead? Simple, send the leader out the day before to recce an extra
bit and ride from Cobham to Leatherhead before doing the prepared ride.
Thus we met on Wednesday morning
outside Fego's coffee place on Anyard Road, armed each with an electronic
version of the route, hand cleansing material and a packed lunch, and sporting
a variety of Lockdown disguises including a new beard and a huge white frizzy
Einstein barnet. We had a socially
distanced coffee, relieved ourselves, one at a time, in the loos behind the
British Legion (which we knew, thanks to Jennie's sterling survey of every
toilet facility in the Northern Hemisphere, would be open) and set out down the
Stoke Road.
The Met Office had promised thundery
rain but all we got was a grey day at temperatures well below the recent balmy
ones, and spots of drizzle at inconvenient moments. We rode through Leatherhead
and a sparsely visited Little Switzerland and had a socially distanced lunch on
Banstead Heath with only a hint of rain.
This was followed by an
adventurous afternoon negotiating tree roots in the paths south of Ashtead, a
descent into south Epsom, a climb up Chalk Lane and tea at Tattenham Corner
standing socially distanced as the drizzle came with increased persistence.
On the way we had tested how group discipline
works when each rider is at least ten metres away from the others, how we could
hold the discipline up some fairly steep ascents with members wanting to travel
at different speeds and all this in a range of weather. The New Normal
had, in the end, worked rather well once we had remembered to get unused to
riding solo and to signal road surface hazards to those following behind.
Strict corner marking was necessary because the distances between us were
greater, but up the steep and narrow lanes we were leaving enough space for
drivers to pull in safely between us. We also decided that it was more
important in the New Normal rather than the old than the back marker had to
stay at the back, giving the corner marker confidence that the whole group had
been accounted for. To some extent the
rider can manage his own risk on the road because he or she decides how close
is ten metres and can hang back if behind a cougher, sneezer or spitter. In the morning there was a little
"catching up" on the hills but we discussed this at our lunch stop
and concluded that conversation on the road is best ruled out in the New
Normal. As a result we held formation
better in the afternoon. The two snags were the need to use natural
toilet facilities (the bushes on Banstead Heath are thin) and the plain fact
that lunching could have been pretty miserable in the pouring rain.
Next Wednesday the leaders will be
invited to try riding the New Normal, and the week afterwards we will further
open up the rides. Despite the downturn in the weather it was a delight
to be riding in a group again, a real mood-lifter, and a joy all Wayfarers will soon be able to share.
My door to door stats were 72.62 Kms
and 684 metres of climbing at 16.7 Km/h. Ged's Strava recorded, of
course, from a different door; 84.92 and 654 metres; 18.1 Km/h. You get
the picture, including how much faster Ged rides when he does not have to
follow me!
