It was a fast ride from the off, I was back leading a group of 11 Cocks on the regular Wednesday night ride from Nirvana. As we move into December and the nights get colder it was good to see such a big turnout. On arrival Simon, Antony, Tread, Mike, Michael, Peter, Huw and Jamie were all already there waiting and before long we were also joined by Charlie, Paul and Richard with Duncan, and Leo hoping to meet us in the hills.
With several single speeds once again on show the pace was quick from the off – I had a plan of doing a big circuit out to Shere by the Abinger Roughs then up onto Winterfold via Ponds Lane. Progress was fast with the group keeping together well just being slowed by few stops to regroup and another for Simon to put more air in his tyre. The trails all along this section are fast and generally in reasonable condition with pretty hard surfaces.
Once again I was hoping to ride the new trail on Winterfold but this time we arrived at it from the other direction. I think everyone enjoyed it and we then headed off back around to get over to Pitch Hill – our target there was the ‘T’ trails. These were also in surprisingly dry condition and as we entered them I spied a couple of riders up ahead – the competitor in my decided to have a go at chasing them down and that was achieved as my fully rigid single speed got bounced around all over the place and having just passed them the chain promptly jumped off – typical.
Once finished on the ‘T’ trails we went down to Peaslake shop and found Duncan loitering – he then joined us on the ride over to Holmbury and the Kings Head our chosen beer stop for the evening. Duncan and myself opted for a more off road route than the rest of the group to start with but we all merged together again by the time we reached the summit of the hill. From here it just had to be Parklife (Yogurt Pots) and then Peter suggested and then led us down a really nice twisty singletrack decent whose name escapes me for now.
On leaving the pub and heading up to Belmont school Duncan’s left crank arm decided it had had enough and fell off – now this is the type of mechanical we expect from George so he’ll love it when he hears about this. Anyway, we re-attached it and continued on our way only for it to come off again a few hundred yards further on. I agreed to stay with Duncan and see him back to Westcott and left the others to continue on their way. I think it only came off 2 more times before we made it back, let’s hope he sorts it out for next week. All in all it was a cracking ride – fast, covering about 21 miles and including a smattering of technical singletrack all of which was riding well, a great start to Decembers riding.
