Paul writes
It was my turn on the rota to lead the short ride but there were not a lot of takers at Nonsuch as many believed the latest Atlantic weather front would put a windy dampener on the afternoon's pleasure.
It was no coincidence that the short ride I had been volunteered for is the hilliest short ride that Nonsuch Beginners regularly do, and there was a small breakaway group who opted for an unscheduled, shorter, flatter ride but we had seven souls willing to undertake the ride and so on a grey day Stephen P, Nigel C, Roger, Anna, Maggie and Colin all followed my mud-free variation of the standard route, which I had recced in the morning so that I knew it would work.
We avoided the off-road bit of Nonsuch Park but worked our way up the long, slow incline that took us around Cuddington Golf Club to Banstead Station and thence up Nork Way before turning up the slightly steeper inclines of Beacon and Tumblewood to approach Pistachio's cafe from the west along the splendidly newly tarmaced Garratts Lane.
The dreaming spires of the Big Smoke in the distance, the leader waits patiently for the team to complete the Hillary/Tensing Tumblewood route onto the infamous Banstead Ridge. Back to the traffic, the photographer, Colin, twice nearly got run over taking this masterpiece.
The thing about the Banstead ride is it takes an hour to get there and ten minutes to get back, down past the prisons and back into Cheam.
No Audax credits, then, but a nice day out, a bit of air in the lungs, and good company.
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