Despite the British weather and British Summer Time both conspiring against us Emma, her man Steve, Lyndon and I all arrived ready for a hard cycling and some wet weather.
While the cycling was hilly and hard the weather smiled on us, lots of cloud but no rain. The previous day's rain had however soaked every inch of the countryside washing most of it into the road and making it a pretty mucky ride nonetheless.My attempts at keeping my 'best' bike clean were dashed and the poor old Brookes leather saddle also got a bit of a soaking and a thick coating of mud.
From the Bell and Colville Garage on the A246 we headed along the flat lanes through Bookham, past Polsden Lacey into our first climb before descending into Westhumble. We then crossed the A24 past the bikers begining to gether at Ryker's cafe before heading up the Zig Zag to the top of Box Hill.
While Lyndon restocked his larder Emma and Steve completed the climb and assessed the fit of Emma's bike. A higher seat and a few more gears could be the order of the day.
The tour then continued on to the, rather busy A25 and through Dorking to start the climb up to Coldharbour and the summit of Leith Hill.
It was hoped this long and harsh climb would be just the sort of training the team need to get ready for the gradients of Exmoor.It didn't disappoint. It also reminded me that last summer's training was a long time ago.
After enjoying the view from the top we started the descent stopping only to allow me to mend a puncture. This gave me the opportunity to find out how well my mini pump works and to see if I had remembered a tyre lever. All useful stuff for race day.
From there we headed back down Leith Hill through Abinger Common across the A25 and back up Whitedown towards Ranmore.
This is another nasty climb which even got the, lithe and muscular, Lyndon out of his saddle to push his standard road gears up the climb. Meanwhile I span my legs to produce a seated, if slightly slower, climb on my compact chain rings and 14-28 cassette combo.
From there we headed back down Leith Hill through Abinger Common across the A25 and back up Whitedown towards Ranmore.This is another nasty climb which even got the, lithe and muscular, Lyndon out of his saddle to push his standard road gears up the climb. Meanwhile I span my legs to produce a seated, if slightly slower, climb on my compact chain rings and 14-28 cassette combo.
Steve and Emma joined us at the top and we completed the 40 mile jaunt with promises of more meetings and talk of outdoor swim training.
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