Well that was good, last night saw just 5 of us turn out for the regular Wednesday night ride (Toby, Joe, Mike, Duncan & John) and an indecisive bunch we were too as we tried to decide on which direction to head.
Joe eventually took control and lead us out along the Abinger Roughs with a vague plan of heading to Pitch/Holmbury Hills. George was hoping to join us later so we told him to aim for the Kings Head at Holmbury where we were planning our beer stop (that much we had decided).
By the time we got to Abinger Hammer, I had hatched a route out in my mind and took over the leading. We went round the back of Gomshall then up to Little London and over to Albury Heath. We did the fab singletrack loop there and thencut back over to Little London and using a couple of cheeky trails came out in the car park of the William IV th pub.
Mistake or not I'm not sure but surprise surprise, Joe, Mike and John couldn't resist the temptation and headed in for a pint. Not so Duncan and myself, we carried on at a very rapid pace making our way back over the railway line and up pond lane onto Pitch Hill.
We wound our way up eventually coming out near the bottom of 'Claw Hammer'. We headed up there (having to wait twice for groups coming down) and using other sections of singletrack eventually emerged at the top of 'The Gimp'.
This is one of my favorite routes off the hill and we blasted down 'The Gimp' then round to the bottom of the scout camp before taking the cheeky trail that comes out by a house where the women likes to have a moan ! From here it was accross the field of sheep and past the old Peaslake Recreation ground and into the village centre.
The next challange was the speedy climb all the way to the top of Holmbury Hill using as much off road as possible. There then followed a full on run round 'Park Life' and with time getting on a fast decent straight past Holmbury Cricket Pitch and down to the Kings Head.
Eventually, about half an hour later, John, Mike and Joe turned up having dragged themselves over the hills with a 2nd pub stop on the way at the Hurtwood Inn, and john sporting plenty of wounds were the beer had got the better off him as he took a tumble near the top of Holmbury Hill.
After a bit of banter and the clock hitting 10, Duncan and myself headed off for home. We took the 'old school' route of down to the Volunteer then the bridleway behind it, over to Paddington Farm then up to 'Cow shit field' and along the Roughs back to Westcott. A total of 24 miles covered with some great trials in perfect conditions and a full moon to boot. Top ride in the end and averging over 10.5 mph off road making it a fast one too.
