Group riding suspended

Welcome, everyone, to Tier 4!  Further details of the Covid-19 Tier 4 Regulations are awaited but the Club Committee's interpretation of the rules is that group rides are banned again.  You can exercise "without restriction" by yourself or with members of your own household or just you and one other person from Tier 4, so long as you stay within Tier 4 (which is a pretty extensive area).  However, solo or duo cycling trips to Oxford or Bournemouth and beyond are out for the moment.

Happy Christmas!

Culcha for the Sutton Six on 12 December

The temperature up a degree or two, the rain in the air but just about holding off, we met up in Sutton as usual at one, the better to be home while it was light.  When the leader announced that we were going to the White House, some thought it a bit far, but it was not, of course, that White House, but the one atop Richmond Park, which turned out to show the leader's ignorance; it's the White Lodge.  We were off for a tangential brush with culture, the nearest any of would get now to admission to the Royal Ballet School; a peek through the bars of the elegant gates.

We went through Worcester Park to the better of the two tunnels under the A3, the one that has a cycle lane through it and a rideable slope at each end.  The Traps Lane climb was the only real hill and the ride to the Park was a pleasant one.  Through Ladderstile Ride we got into the park with the polite acquiescence of a few pedestrians through the "airlock" gate that takes two bikes at a time and were soon enjoying the park itself, anti-clockwise on the perimeter road (so much the better for its traffic ban in several places) until we reached the cafe (and, vitally, the free loos) at Roehampton Gate.

Not all of us had a cup of tea but we agreed that there were sufficient seats outside to make the cafe a safe experience.  It was too cold to linger, however, and soon we were off, continuing our anti-clockwise progress until we turned up the hill past the rugby pitches to the Ballet School itself.

Les Sylphides

A quick photo opportunity for the four who stood in range of the viewfinder, and we passed the snack bar up there (our Plan B if the Roehampton Gate cafe had proved more crowded than we liked).  The leader dropped something and in picking it up was nearly decapitated by a cyclist who was powering through the 10mph pedestrian area at something like three times that speed but, hey, he missed!

Home past the wandering deer and Thelwell imitators at the riding school, through Robin Hood Gate, along the A3 cycle path, past Raynes Park Station, through Lower Morden and up to Rose Hill, where we went our several ways.

The rain held off; indeed the setting sun became a bit of a hazard, it was nowhere near as inhospitably cold as last week, and we achieved our goal of home in the light.  Altogether a well-spent afternoon; a few metres over 40 Km door to door.  We even saw an aeroplane!

Nonsuch to Epsom but home by train! Saturday Dec 5th

 From Ian Prince

So what did yesterday bring....

.......the delight of once again being (legally) allowed to group ride, even if our group dissipated to four, even before we left Nonsuch Park for Epsom. No challenges for the Brompton on the short ride to Epsom, even though our accompanied junior member found a hill too much even though he had a lot more gears than I did. Really good to see his Mum dealing out good roadcraft to him at the age of nine. 

I recall doing my cycling proficiency test at the age of eight and my own mum had to accompany me, as the instructor said if I crossed a busy traffic light junction on a main road by myself, I probably didnt need cycling proficiency. 

Mum therefore came along each week and I passed with flying colours, I think losing a point for doing a trackstand waiting for traffic lights to be changed.(I should have put my foot down!). 

Anyway, it did me no harm although it wasnt until much later and the need for independence before I could drive, did I get more seriously into cycling. 

When I started work away from home though that was the major breakththrough. I even bought my first long term girlfriend a bike, but she never caught the ‘bug’ even if she did come along when I had persuaded Yorkshire TV to film us and twenty others for National Bike Week. 

Strangely though she still has that same bike and rides it regularly so it cant have been a bad investment in the 1980s! 

Back to Saturday....after a food and coffee stop at I think it was “Esquires” in Epsom, sad to say our accompanied enthusiastic nine year old was a bit over enthusiatic on the down escalator (ironically a favourite song title of mine from a band I knew well in Manchester where I lived there in the 1980s...”up the down escalator”). 

Still you are only young once and on this occasion, I luckily went and summoned first aid from Epsom Library staff who were great and brought down two first aid boxes of gear to patch the poor lad up. 

Once outside, my Brompton seemed sluggish as I wheeled it through the pedestrianised shopping centre......ah ha, a flat. 

Obviously a problem with CTC rides as I sustained on in the back tyre in the summer at East Molesey boat club. 

This time it was the front. How anyone gets a puncture in a shopping centre carrying the bike is beyond me, but it must have been sustained earlier in the day on the way to Epsom. 

So default to Epsom station for a train ride back to Sutton (our little wounded soldier and his Mum deciding to do similar but to Worcester Park). 

Upon getting back to Sutton, it was straight down to Balfes (the erstwhile Pearsons) for the usual entertaining chat with Jim and a new inner tube. Unfortunately they had a special offer on a very powerful front light, so being the king of every possible lighting combination for nearly fifty years, I succumbed. Well 1600 lumens isnt bad for a bike (I hate bikers without lights), and cheaper than Amazon too. 

Brrr! Certainly not Kingston, Jamaica! The Sutton pod, 5 December.

We adapted our original idea, to go to Bushy Park, in order to see the Kingston lights this week, the first weekend since the second Lockdown.  We reckoned that if we left Sutton Library at one we should be able to make a round trip of it before darkness fell.

We took a familiar route through Worcester Park and Tolworth.  It was pretty cold and grey and I was very tempted by the coffee shop at Long Ditton but we carried on through to Hampton Court Bridge, and had coffee there, figuring that although it is traditional to get two thirds of the ride done before the break, Kingston would be crowded with newly-released Christmas shoppers.

Paul, Anna, Roger, Ray, Ken & Maggie in the cold garden awaiting the hot beverages!

In one way we were lucky to get the table for six in the garden but sitting still, albeit with company and a hot drink, was not keeping us warm and nobody was eager to linger.  The temperature had dropped a few degrees when we came out and there were indigo clouds that hinted at snow.  The theory was that if we got moving we would keep warm but the east wind blowing along the river cut right through you.  Isn't it amazing how that mixture of damp wind and impending sleet can make a few degrees above freezing in England more uncomfortable than much lower temperatures on foreign mountaintops, even if you are lucky enough to be wearing Merino wool.

It was perishing on the towpath and in that other delightful English phenomenon, the north easterly wind became a south easterly one as soon as we turned across Kingston Bridge.  So by the time we got to the centre of Kingston none of us was much interested in dawdling to see the lights; home became the priority.

The home route was past the cemetery and through Berrylands before we began to go our separate ways on the south side of Worcester Park Station.  Who should we meet at North Cheam Sainsbury's but Sue Bellamy, fresh from a long walk but grumbling about her Strava failing to record seven miles of it!

We did get back in daylight, just, and we felt we had had a really pleasant if bracing exercise.  Door to door just over 43 kilometres at something over 15 Km/H.  For us to linger at those lights the temperature will have to rise a touch!

Tea for two with no queue?

This week Ken and I decided to cycle to Wimbledon Common leaving a little earlier to try to get home in the light. Unfortunately everyone else, be it pedestrian  or cyclist new and old, had made the same decision! We left Beddington Park to join the Wandle trail at the Hack Bridge and apart from a short detour at Collier's Wood, where we crossed a footbridge dedicated to Gam Bahadur Gurung, of the Queen's Gurkha Engineers, we followed the trail to Earlsfield then briefly joined Garratt Lane before turning left and taking the back streets to King George's Park.

                            Ken at the the footbridge dedicated to Gam Bahadur Gurung 

Turning left out of the park  we began the ascent or so I thought! Ken showing me the way now we were soon on Wimbledon Park Road but before long we were going downhill and were outside my grandsons primary school in Putney and I had no idea how we were going to get to the Common.  Ken reassured me as we went up more and more hills but he was on an electric bike!  When we turned right from Keevil Drive I finally recognised where we were.

Soon we were on the Common looking forward to tea, but it wasn't to be. With crowds queueing for takeaway tea and not dispersing we decided it would be dark before we would enjoy our beverages. I remembered a lovely cafe in Earlsfield so we retraced our steps, only to find it closed.  Thankfully a woman walked by carrying a takeaway drink and she directed us to The Eclectic Collection, an independent coffee shop/cafe that we must visit again when we can sit inside.

Very pleased to have finally had tea we set off back along the Wandle trail. But not long after 4pm it began to get dark. Morden Hall Park was eerie and I was relieved the gates weren't locked and we could get out.  We parted in Carshalton to make our separate ways home. Thank you Ken for showing me yet another route to Wimbledon Common .

Tea for Two; Beddington Park ride 21 November '20

Ken and I decided to try to cycle to Chaldon Church today via Farthing Downs.  Two weeks ago the beautiful autumn sunshine meant that our planned route was curtailed at the top of the Farthing Downs climb by a roadblock of cars trying to get in to a full car park.  Not today, the cold and threatening rain was perfect for a clear ride.  We left Beddington park to cycle through the back streets of Wallington, waving to Ray as we passed his house.  

We crossed Foxley Lane and cycled down Millionaires Row to Woodcote Village Green where we stopped to put our lights on as it darkened and we were on the A237 down to Coulsdon.  Over the roundabout and we began the climb up Marlpit Lane before turning right and changing down several gears in my case slowly, in Ken's case rapidly on his electric bike, to ascend Ditches Lane.  At the top where the wind tried to send us into the ditches we continued past the car park as the road first became beautiful and leafy but deteriorated significantly to a wet, leaf strewn pot holed track at Chaldon church. We stopped to admire this Saxon church which was open for private prayer only. We'll visit the famous wall painting, dating from about 1200, and the earliest known English Wall painting, another time. 

                                                                     Chaldon Church

We turned back, admiring the Shard on the skyline, to descend Ditches Lane for tea in DD's in Coulsdon.  Or rather tea outside and across the road! 

                                                DD about to cross the road to serve tea!

The return ride started on Woodman Road where we crossed the railway line to tackle the second hill of the day, Grove Lane.

At the top we turned right to join The Bridleway through the golf course and then Meadow Hill.  Eventually we joined the A237 briefly before turning into the Woodcote Village Green and we retraced our 'wheels' back to Wallington.  A lovely afternoon and no rain !

All club rides suspended

The Prime Minister’s announcement on 31 October forbids anyone meeting for exercise outdoors with more than one person from another household. This means we can only ride either with members of our own household, or alone with one member of another household. This became law on Wednesday night, making group cycling illegal in England from Thursday 5 November until 2 December.

Therefore, until further notice, all Sou’Wester club rides are suspended.