Following the JW Epic / Christmas Lunch ride of last Sunday, out of which I funked owing to…. well, lots of things really (but not a sense of foreboding – I am no soothsayer sadly), a sense of duty urged me to turn up for today’s ride, not to mention the proximity of the start to my domicile.
Under lowering skies and temperatures more akin to Gaza than Godalming, we set off by climbing the dreaded Holloway Hill before joining what I call my regular training ride – I do it at least once every two years: Enton (Water Lane) – Witley (Church Lane) – over the A286, but not before managing to fall off grace à M. Hackman, but entirely my fault for being so close as to be half-wheeling him; then he slowed and swerved somewhat abruptly; that’ll teach me! Once over the 286 it was my favourite lane and track all the way to Hindhead.
We continued happily westwards through Grayshott and Headley to reach the Greedy Frog garden centre at Oakhanger for morning coffee and nibbles. This is quite a new stop for us and really quite pleasant – made even more so today because it rained whilst we were there – and stopped by the time we were back on the road. Another 20 or so miles brought us to Lasham aerodrome and a spot of lunch.
Once devoured we headed off once again homeward bound but those lowering skies finally decided that we no longer deserved to remain dry. From a few light spots as we left Lasham, the rain slowly but innocuously increased in that fashion which inclines one to refrain from stopping to don waterproof in the belief that it might just ease up. After all, I was wearing for the first time my new West Surrey club Gamex windproof so perhaps it was worth testing for ‘waterproof-osity’. And in fact it did very well indeed; however, such was the length of the ride home, not to mention the deluge that we rode through, that I doubt even my trusty old Freestyle Goretex would have kept the rain out. Thankfully the mildness of the day meant that it was almost impossible to get cold and so one reached home soaked but not frozen solid.
My ride from Godalming was a respectable 100.4kms with 986m of climbing; Julian’s from West Horsley was considerably more respectable! Details of the route may be found here: https://www.strava.com/activities/453478391
