To Hampton Court and back via Weston Green – my first
ride as leader
by Anna
As this is my first official ride as leader, I am hoping for
a small group; we are twelve altogether.
In a moment of bravado, I reject the idea of two groups of six and
decide to take the whole group together.
Paul is convinced I know where I am going, whereas I don’t
even know how to get out of the park, but he tells me to follow the Ride with
GPS instructions and sure enough, it takes us out of the park to the correct
exit.
There I stall all the traffic by encouraging everyone to
block the road, as I expect the traffic to move more quickly than it does and
we end up in a muddle, but eventually reach the other side of the road, in line
and facing the right way. I am now at
the back of the group of riders so quickly whiz to the front to reclaim my
position as leader. We make it safely to
Worcester Park.
When you ride an electric bike and there is no one in front
of you, you tend to go at maximum speed, which is usually at least 15.5mph,
because that is the point when your motor cuts out. Mindful of those toiling behind me without
electric assistance, I try to keep the speed to between nine and eleven miles
per hour, but it feels extraordinarily slow.
The GPS seems to repeat some commands, so when it says to
turn left onto Central Road for the second time, I assume I am on the right
track but miss the left turn after Worcester Park station, so we go off
piste. Nigel saves the day by leading us
down some nice quiet backstreets until we are back on the right road and we
continue, only going off course a couple of times.
Even though I have been on this ride several times with Paul
or Nigel leading, I don’t recognise some of it, which is a bit of a nuisance
when you are supposed to be the leader.
All twelve of us make it to 8 on the River and we enjoy some
lovely tea and cakes, marred only by the worry that my phone will run out of
juice before we get home, on account of the cable from the energy store I
borrowed from my son is not charging the phone. Better go home at top speed to
get there before
the phone dies! Not to
worry, says my son – turn it to airplane mode and all will be well.
Photo by Maggie, on Weston Green in the afternoon Autumn sun
It has now gone very cold, so we set off home and make only
one wrong turn, and I speed up a bit because it is very chilly.
At South Lane we all agree that no one needs to go back to
Nonsuch Park so we get back to Worcester Park and everyone cycles cheerfully
away, and Roger and I arrive home while it is still light, which is the big
advantage of starting a 1pm.
Cold and hungry, we are relieved to get into the warm and I
still have 37% left of my phone battery, so airplane mode has saved the day.
Thanks for the route, Paul, and thanks for back-marking,
Maggie. Thanks, Nigel, for saving us having to make a U-turn on a very busy
road. Thanks to everyone for not falling
off, not getting punctures, and for being good companions along the way.
I had a nice afternoon – let’s do it again sometime.
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