A Leisurely Ride to Teddington Lock; from Nonsuch, 25 October

 

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.