Report for the 2-o-clock ride on 9 August

 

From Stuart Allen

Report for 14:00 ride on 09/08/25

I was unable to go on the All Day ride today due to family commitments but I was able to go on the 14:00 ride. I suspected that it could be a leisurely ride so I opted to take the heaviest of my four bikes. When I got to the Mansion House in Nonsuch Park, there were a few cyclists there already including Sue, who I had bumped into earlier in the week in Worcester Park. She told us that since she and I met, she’d lost the sight in her right eye! Her vision had returned a little but it was blurry and she was due to have an operation on Monday to improve things. There was also a lady there called Jenny. She was from a CTC group in the South West and was visiting relatives in Mitcham. She sussed out our group and came along for a ride.  Alas, her chain had broken and we were unable to fix it. She may ride with us in the future. 

Youngsters ready to depart Nonsuch on the shorter ride

I offered to lead the ride and asked if there were any preferences for the destination. The consensus seemed to be Eight on the River at East Molesey, as we know a fairly flat course. Five of us set off out of Nonsuch Park but by the time we got to the Sparrow Farm Road exit, there was already consternation about the state of the path, which is lethal for cyclists in a few places. They've recently "improved" the path and it’s mostly OK but there are about three stretches where the shale has not been compacted and your wheels slip about all over the place. On behalf of CTC, I am going to report it to Hannah, who is a local councillor at Epsom and Ewell Council and lives in my road, to see if we can get it fixed. (I’ve got form having recently got double yellow lines extended by Sutton Council at a junction near where I live where there have been two accidents.)

Anyway, we continued our ride and I was right about the pace being leisurely. As we know, the speed we go at is dictated by the slowest rider in the group. Before we got to Worcester Park we’d lost our backmarker who'd decided to go his own way. Then there were four. I decided to forgo a backmarker and just kept an eye on the back of the group. I made my way to a cycle path that runs alongside the Kingston to Raynes Park railway, a lovely path free of traffic. We turned off just before the A3 and rode along the A3 slip road to the Robin Hood Gate of Richmond Park. Straight on and out through Ham Gate, then over Teddington Bridge. I’d decided to ask the group whether we still wanted to go to Eight or alternatively, The Pheasantry in Bushey Park or the Flying Cloud, just next door to where we stopped. We were worried that Eight would close at 16:00 and, as it was then about 15:30, we decided to go to the Flying Cloud. Grant, who will be 89 shortly but was by no means the slowest in the group on his “classic” bike, kept us amused by showing us pictures his father had taken of the previous Teddington Bridge in the 1920s! He has numerous bikes, the oldest being built in 1951, the year I was born!

We continued back on the “usual” route through Bushey Park, Hampton Court, Thames Ditton, Long Ditton, up Ditton Hill, Tolworth, Old Malden, Worcester Park and back to Nonsuch Park. I told the group in Bushey that I was going to give it some welly and that I’d see them at the exit of the park. I rode hard and got round the big roundabout near the exit and only one got to the exit before me. By the end, it was about 17:30. An enjoyable ride in lovely weather.