Report by Roger
The rides to Carshalton and Leatherhead did not appeal to
me, so when someone suggested having tea in “the Flying Cloud” we decided to
head for Teddington Lock.
Maggie Anna, Sharon Ken and Mark thought coffee at The
Flying Cloud was a good idea too and we were joined by Jenny who usually rode
with CTC Portsmouth but had ridden with the Saturday riders when she had been
in the area previously.
We set off up the track from the Mansion leading out to The
London Road and to our dismay, found that it had been dressed with a deep
loosely gravelled surface that made for uncomfortable and unstable cycling.
At the park gates Maggie announced that she had suffered a
puncture and blamed the new dressing on the path. Sharon sympathised as
that the same path had been responsible for her suffering two
punctures only the week before.
Maggie decided to abandon the ride and make her way
back to the mansion.
We crossed into Sparrow farm road and made our usual way to
Cheam Common Road and the junction at Worcester Park.
Stopped on an adverse slope at the lights by the junction
with” The Hollands” we pulled away up the incline slowly gaining momentum.
I was alerted by Anna shouting that someone had come
off their bike and on returning found that Jenny had ridden into the back of
Sharon who had been forced to slowdown to avoid coming into contact with Ken.
Jenny complained of a sore shoulder and a strained neck and superficial
damage to her bike but she was otherwise unhurt.
It was accepted that in this case there was no time to shout
a warning of “Stopping” as evasive action took priority. Perhaps the lesson
here is to ride with longer gaps between bikes when starting off on inclines,
or to ride offset to the bike in front in case they have to stop without a
warning. [* please see comment
below]
Jenny opted to abandon the ride and return to the mansion,
so Anna accompanied her, saying that she would catch us up later.
So now the seven that started out had reduced to four. We
cycled into a headwind with the occasional heavy gusts hinting at the several
short showers later
We carried on up the cycle lane on the London road, turning
into South Lane through the underpass and turning left at Thetford Road onto
Windsor Avenue and past the sportsground and along the trail past Berrylands
alongside the Hogsmill and the sewage treatment works to Kingston.
Making use of the signposted cycle routes we made our way to
Kingston High Street, turning left before the bridge to ride alongside the
riverside walk and parallel to the Thames Path we picked up Barge Walk which
for once was not seething with walkers and other cyclists and carried on until
it became Three Cranes walk.
We crossed on the suspension bridge next to the weir and
made it to a rather quiet “Flying Cloud”. The cakes were as lovely as always
and we had barely been handed our coffee when Ken spotted a flash of” Dayglo
orange” travelling at speed and a few seconds later Anna joined us having
barely broken sweat and extolling the virtue of her Giant “Anytour” electric
bike.
As it was by now becoming gloomy and threatening more rain
it was decided to take the quickest route back to Kingston, so we exited the
Flying cloud and turned immediately left down Ferry Street leading on to and
ultimately across on the cycle lane over Kingston bridge. We retraced our steps
back to Worcester Park where we went our separate ways. This was a short but
eventful ride of about 20 miles which when the sun shone was delightful,
especially alongside the river, but at times was a damp reminder that winter is
not far off.
