Surrey Pinewoods & Heathland
18 April 2004
"Colonel" Collins puts down mutiny in Surrey Lanes
A smaller bunch than usual met at the usual spot on the Green Bridge on 18-04-04 on an unpromising Sunday morning. "Colonel" Steve Collins, Owen and Ken who, after his aborted attempt to run 26.2 miles in the Paris Marathon had bravely decided not to watch the London event.
The ride leader informed us that he had a slow puncture from his ride in Kent on the previous day but expected to be able to make the short trip to Waterloo, for the train, before making a permanent repair in the warmth and comfort of the super South-West train. However, we only made it as far as Aldgate before the inevitable happened and a brief stop was required. Once the repair was completed the ride to Waterloo and subsequent train trip to Farnham were uneventful.
In spite of a well disguised but viciously steep, but mercifully short hill just outside Farnham the going was remarkably pleasant as the looming clouds had parted and gave us the only sunshine of the day. Due to the late start an early lunch halt was made at the Woolpack Inn, Elstead after only 10 miles. During the break the rain set in and we congratulated ourselves on a good decision, which was made to seem even better when some walkers came in soaked through by the heavy downpour that was now happening. Incredibly, once more, the ride leader had made an inspired stop for lunch as the food was excellent, especially the fabulous puddings. All too soon the lure of, a now very, wet road could be ignored no longer. By the way Steve, is it a good idea to leave your waterproofs on the bike when it is raining and the riders are inside keeping dry?
Almost the only good thing that could be said for the rest of the ride was, despite several changes of directions and a few too many testing climbs, the wind had died down. Five or six miles into the post-lunch stint, Ken and Owen seized the opportunity to speed away from "Colonel" Collins and make their own way. This mutiny was brought to a halt when the ride leader caught up with the advanced party and informed us that our indiscipline had taken us off route. The resulting punishment was 1000 lines for the guilty pair "I must not ignore the ride leader and pass him on the road unless I have received specific and detailed instructions". Let that be a lesson to you all. The alternative punishment was 10 lashes but both mutineers proved to be cowards, unable to take the physical punishment. Had they seen "The Passion of The Christ"?
Despite the continuing rain the remainder of the afternoon went smoothly and the group even turned down an opportunity to cut short the ride. Finally, within the last five miles of the ride we found a testing stretch of off-road which called for interesting bike-handling skills for those on, strictly, road equipped bikes.
Finding ourselves with 15 minutes to kill a short stop was made at an interesting local hostelry in Farnham. It is difficult to work out why every town, no matter how prosperous, and Farnham, certainly is, has at least one pub inhabited by people who appear to have a shortage of brainpower.
Many thanks, as usual, to all those who rode and a special thanks to Steve for leading.
Scorecard for the ride:
Riders: 3
Strays picked up: 0
Fallers: 0
Riders lost: 0
Deflates: 1 The "Colonel" claims that it should be credited to the day before's ride.
Breakdowns: 0
Detours: 0 only the Owen/Ken mutiny.
Enjoyment quotient: Very high despite post-lunch rain and unexpected climbs.
Wind chill factor: Low
Pub stop: 9/10 - the best roast lamb I have had which was made more interesting by the beetroot accompaniment.
Ken Peters - TWHW
(The Winchmore Hill Wheeler) when will he make up his mind and settle down somewhere?
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Customary start to a ride for leader Steve ;-)
A helping hand is needed to find our way out of Churt
Steve lays down the law after Owen and Ken's mutiny
Ken in the rainy Surrey lanes
Post-ride replensihment for Steve
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