So what with the clocks changeing to BST overnight on Saturday, it made the Nirvana Saturday morning ride my last ride of this winter.

I had decided to cycle from home which means an approximate 10 mile trip half on road and half off to get to the start of the ride at Westcott.

Down on the road past Beare Green to South Holmwood then accross Holmwood common coming out at North holmwood. This is followed by a bit more road work round the edge of Dorking before adding in some more off road stuff from Bury Hill lakes to Westcott.

I found it hard work, my legs were feeling tired and didn't seem to have much in them to give. On arriving at Westcott I was very tempted to take a route home alone over Leith Hill which still would have resulted in a 20 odd mile round trip. However, once again Huw who traditionally leads the Saturday rides wasn't there and I was co-hersed into taking it on again myself.

So as we rolled off from Nirvana there was a total of 15 riders several of whom I had never seen before. Things didn't start too well either as within about 1/2 mile I got a puncture and whilst 3 of the guys stopped to help me do a speedy mend, Dave Lees led the rest of the ride on an elongated route to the top of the Rookery.

With my new tube in we all met up again and continued on our way steadily climbing up Wolverns lane. With a few diversions and regular regroupings we wound our way around the various trails on offer in this area and eventually to the end of Crocked Furrow.

A trip over to Redlands was next on the agenda so we headed back down the forest track then right down through the swampy area to the bottom of man friday. After another puncture stop for Matt this time we climbed up into Bury Hill woods and onto Cream Egg which is always a nice little roll in. From hear we crossed to the Redlands side of the road and with many of the trails taped off due to the filming we ended up doing wave of mutilation. This was fun as ever but was over too quickly and it was time to climb back up the hill.

We made our way over to Coldharbour then back down summer lightning. After that we did a virtual u turn and headed back up to the Cricket Pitch at Coldharbour via all the bombholes near Deliverance.

After a play around by the Cricket Pitch we continued on our way up towards the tower taking in some more drop offs and singletrack on the way. Once at the tower we decided to stop for tea which was most welcome.

Having refueled it was onto the main attraction of the day, that being all the singletrack on the other side of the hill which can be tied into an almost continous loop of loveliness. As before I have forgotten the names of lots of this stuff but it includes Chocolate Jesus, Pint Glass, Worth the mither, windy willow, caspers and wildwood which eventually pops you out at Friday Street.

For me that was enough and I opted to head back for home. This took me over the ridge to Broadmoor then up onto Wolvens lane where I eventually appeared opposite the Plough. The temptation of a pint at the Plough was too strong so having got my pint I sat outside in the sun with Tom and Jo. The temptation for a 2nd was just too much to resist so in I went to emerge once again with another pint of Beautiful South. Eventually it was time to go so I saddled up again to complete the trip back home with just shy of 39 miles on the clock.

All in all it was a very good ride, most enjoyable, lets just hope the weather holds out for Wednesday night.