The first chilly ride of the start of autumn. Four riders out this morning with some of our usual crowd missing due to taking part in the ‘London-ish to Brighton-ish’ off road ride. Bill Kent, Mick Curtis and Ed Pegg joined me for the ride to Leatherhead.
Nothing too exciting, out the back of Ewell, residential Horton, across Ashtead Common and dropping into the north-eastern side of Leatherhead for elevenses.
At Clark’s we discovered a full house, so I suggested our old cafe venue up in town that’s re-opened after mysteriously closing down in late 2018 without warning. On the plus side I can report that the sign post outside Clark’s has been replaced, so we can once again padlock the bikes to it. Those of you on that particular ride will remember upon locking six bikes around it the post snapped off, such was the amount of dog piss corrosion at the bottom of the aluminium column. You’ll be pleased to know the local council has been wise enough to used galvanised steel for the post this time rather than weak aluminium!
A very successful change of venue and Mick Curtis was heard purring like a kitten whilst tucking into a mega full English! One cafe definitely to put back on the runs list for inside eating venues on the winter rides to come.
The route back avoided riding back up the one way system in town by cutting across the park; after that we followed our usual residential ‘iggy-wiggy’ route with the up and over, down and under the M25, junction that is Leatherhead. The west side of Epsom Common was used to get back to Horton where I left the Clarencourt trio to head back to Cheam and home.
Good ride chaps,
19 odd miles for me.