Barry and I turned up at the leisurely time of 9.45 to begin a 40k trek from Shalford through the Surrey Hills. Some hard climbs excellent trails requiring some some sharp decisions. Plenty of deep ruts. The vicious 25% climb from Ewhurst to Winterfold defeated some but not us although the very chalky climb from Shere up the steep side of the north downs left us and all but one rider walking at times (not great if you have worn road shoes by mistake!). Andy and Alex were way ahead of us so we didn’t see them but it was a really enjoyable day and a well run event and reasonably priced.
Hi Caroline.
Andy & I set off at about 9am – layered up given the rain at the start – then promptly de-layered about 4 miles in after the first reasonable climb where it started warming up and Andy decided that he knew what a “boil in the bag” meal must feel like. I had some gear problems (new chain, old cassette, schoolboy error) which made some of the aforementioned climbs interesting if not murderous. The climb up Winterfold / Horseblock Hollow on the road was hard – I know it from road riding & at least the MTB has smaller gears, though the winter mud plugging tyres compensated for that well enough. The other climb from Shere up towards the top of Coombe Bottom was new to me, what can we say – long, steep, long, tiring, technical and long! We had to stop about a third of the way up to let some motorbikes through as they didn’t want to play fair and allow us to keep moving, cue some muttered profanity and damning of eyes.
Overall, I thought it was a really good event, a nice route from the far side of the North Downs, pretty well organised & very well signposted (though apparently there was an unmanned drinks stop part way round – we never even saw it) – the route profile was varied, lots of comfortable fast flowing trails and some nice downhill singletrack to put a smile on your face & reward you for the tough climbs. Andy & I completed in 2h30 for the Gold standard time bracket.
We’re planning some week night adventures into the Surrey Hills during the summer (I’ve got a couple of training loops around the Peaslake area) when the daylight hours are longer if anyone is interested.
Pleased to say we got the sliver time . Not too bad eh?
Cool