Six Peaks in Surrey - or "How to fight your demons"

As a cold winter looms the prospect of stepping out on a 'hard' ride at 8am on a Saturday morning doesn't seem instantly appealing. Actually it doesn't seem appealing even if you think about it for a bit.

But 18 die-hard Wheelers - a pleasant mix of old regulars, occasional riders and a couple of totally new faces took the train to Epsom for what promised to be 50 hard miles up and down six hills in Surrey. This was a Wheelers ride. 'Hard' by our standards means two cake stops instead of five. Right?

It's worth mentioning your narrator has previous form, having test ridden the hills a few weeks earlier. Many regulars will know the story but suffice it to say, I had some demons to conquer.

After setting a Wheelers record for a loo stop just 100 yards from the start wee pootled off in cheery form, past Epsom General Hospital (having dismissed it's tea and cake selection on the test ride) alongside the unmistakable fences of Epsom Downs racecourse and in to the hills.

A gentle 400ft climb up Headley Common was not much of challenge for this crack team of cake eate... err I mean cyclists. If nothing else it warmed us up rather nicely. Of course for every up there's a down and we rapidly descended to the foot of Box Hill. Alex had led the Wheelers up this hill before so it was becoming familiar to a few of us with it's steady Z shaped ascent and tricky hairpin. Often frequented by far more serious cyclists than us, we passed very few on the way up. Precisely none in fact.

There was, however, a veritable gaggle of Lycra-clad club types hanging out at the NT cafe just before the wonderful Box Hill view point. A grey day it may have been but there is still joy to be had in cake in a car park. There are photos somewhere to prove it.

2 down (well up) and 4 to go.

There's a brief post-cafe climb to get off Box Hill, then down the other side for a 530ft descent in to Betchworth and a 7 mile circuit over relatively flat terrain back to the foot of Box Hill. But this time we turned to made our climb 650ft up Ranmore Common. Unquestionably a bit of a challenge - the elevation increasing all the way up with a sneaky blind hill to kick you in the teeth just as to reach the summit. But no one died - despite some protestations to the contrary.

Atop the hill we rested; helped out a pair of fellow cyclists who were struggling with a puncture; sniggered at a roller-skier doing lengths of the road and went on out merry way across the flat top of Ranmore Common, for a brief but very rapid descent through Greatlee Wood and straight in to a moderate climb through Mountain Wood, up Green Dene.

One more rapid descent later and we found ourselves in the picturesque village of Shere where we stopped for lunch at The Lucky Duck Tea Rooms - CTC-listed and cyclist friendly.

It's always hard getting back on the bike after a stop. In winter especially so. It wasn't a particularly cold day by December's usual standards but the cold, evaporated sweat in my helmet pads reminded me it was going to take a while to warm up again. Still, four hills done and only two to go.

The approach we took up Pitch Hill was 475ft and peaked at a moderate 6%. No one had bailed-out yet; we ploughed on through, ever prouder of our achievements, and very impressed with our speed. We were fighting the light on this short December day, not sure if we had the collective pace to make it to the end before the sun set.

With 15 miles and one hill to go, we made a rapid descent through Ewhurst to Gatton Manor ready for the ascent up Leith Hill. Tough but short, a steely determination to make it to the end saw a splinter group try to beat the light and head off ahead of the pack, up the 13% gradient and round the blind corner towards Coldharbour, where our last battle ended.

From here, light fading fast, we made a gentle 5 mile descent into the Dorking for a refreshments in a local hostelry. I don't remember much from this point. I was out of it.

Nick P