Cheam and Morden Hilly 50 March 6th 'The Most Ridiculous of all the Classics'

[stevevw]

Mac Glad you got back Ok. We waited for you at the top of the first or may have been the second hill for an age, thought we must of missed you so carried on.

Had to get off twice even with the triple and mountain bike rear cassette. The first time was more that the front wheel kept jumping off the ground than the legs giving up, having said that they would have given out after a few more metres. The second time was on the hill with the pillbox this time my legs and worse my arms cried enough. In fact my arms hurt so much I had trouble pushing the bike up the hill luckily once back on the bike at the top they felt better. Had a bit of a Mouse moment at the end where we took the right fork instead of the left and descended the nice long hill in to Dorking at 41mph only to realise the error and then having to climb the 454' back up at closer to 4.1mph
I am glad we went wrong as waiting for us at the turn was the lovely Handbag with Tim Hall and User10571. I think it was Tim that pointed out that if we had turned left at Dorking we would have had a nice flat ride to the foot of Box hill. A few miles later half way up the Zig Zag the not so lovely handbag says "Gotcha" as she spins past on her nice new Condor, What pleasure she could have got from passing an Old Fat bloke going up a hill I have no idea. You wait young lady one day I will meet you on the flat then we will see.

 

[MacB]

Tim, User10571 and Cat must have been fair shifting round the course then, I was a fair way in when they passed me and I would have been a country mile(or several) behind you by then. Though they were a little rude, didn't even offer to help dig a shallow grave for me

I did notice that Cat seemed to have a rather svelt beast under her. But I couldn't have identified it, our relative speeds being what they were

 

[Tim Hall]

(already posted elsewhere)

A bit of a busy weekend. Camping Friday night, left the little darlings at early o'clock, rode a few miles home, found a clean pair of bib longs, go to the station. Train was delayed, but the connection to Deepdene had been held for us. Top marks.

Met, umm, mind's gone blank, a bloke from Cyclechat on the train and hooked up with matthew as we nipped up the A24.

Big hello from Simon as we swung into carpark. Lots of familiar faces, but I couldn't name them all. A pair of Pikes, hatler, Charlotte, MacB, Dave whom I met on the old cars run, I'm sure I saw Life of Brian too, plus Mark and Mags from the Tandem Club. Sadly not on their Flying Gate. Simon mentioned User10571 was running late so I thought I'd hang on. Wow hove into view, and then hove out again, at Wowfactor 1. Simon then confused things by saying he'd seen User10571 signing in. I searched around but no sign, so thought I'd missed him. I hung around for a bit more with a view to shooting off, when he and Handbag turned up. We set off about 15 minutes after the bunch.

When I first met Handbag she was making good progress on a nice hybrid on an FNRTTC. She's got an even nicer bike now, and makes even better progress. I did spend a lot of time behind her.

We caught Wow as we left Dorking, having waved to to Suzy and his Leggship. We exchanged a few words and slightly guiltily pressed on. The bits of up we encountered were made more entertaining by having a had time shifting onto the granny ring. A bit of fettling improved, but didn't fix, the problem.

It got hotter as we went on, catching MacB on the run into Holmbury St Mary. He was a bit knackered, but then he had ridden from Farnborough. Madness I tell you. We swept (FSVO swept) up a few more riders as we ground up out of Ewhurst and were soon inching up Whitedown Hill. And then my phone went. One of my customers had broken a widget, was working that weekend and could I help. Bugger. A Cunning plan was hatched.

We had a quick chat with matthew who was fettling with a Redhill CC rider and then bumped into Steve and friend by the church on Ranmore Common. They'd misssed the turn, taken the hill down into Dorking and then ridden back up. How pleased they were to hear they could have turned left at the foot of the hill and found their way to Ryka's without busting their lungs.

I said goodbye to User10571 and Handbag as we got to the A24 and off to Deepdene. Then into Redhill, into the factory, into the van, with a widget, to J8 on the M1. Handover widget, back to Redhill, onto train as far as Gatwick, ride to home, ride to campsite at Pease pottage, freeze nuts off in sleeping bag.

All splendid fun.

 

[Aperitif]

What Condor has Kats got, Tim? A blingy, Fendi, Mulberry coloured object, or a 'Bag For Life' Fratello sort of thing?

And 'Life of Brian' can only mean Mr Fassa Bortolo? I thought I saw him at the beginning of Charlotte's video.

 

[Tim Hall]

I could be wrong (ask Mrs. Hall - I often am), but I think it was a mulberry coloured fratello. No mudguards, seemed to go uphill extremely well.

And [mode=dame Edith Evans]a handbag[/mode] hanging from the handlebars.

Yes, Life of Brian is Mr. Fassa Bortolo. Although I think he was riding for another team on Saturday.

 

[Aperitif]

Ta. Let's all do a 'bag run' this year...it's cool for Kats!

 

[stevevw]

I did not notice Kats handbag on her bike but it did appear once we got to the Café, probably difficult to carry now with drops.

I can confirm the bike as a Condor Fratello. Very nice too.

 

[Wowbagger]

Charlotte - relieved to see you walk up Friday Street - I've never, ever ridden up that hill.

Blimey! I've done it twice now, once on the Mercian and once on the Thorn.

 

[Aperitif]

Blimey! I've done it twice now, once on the Mercian and once on the Thorn.

'Morden once' then Wow!

 

[MacB]

'Morden once' then Wow!

How hard did you say you hit your head???

 

[Aperitif]

I walked into the bookie's without thinking this afternoon - you can tell I'm getting a little better.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

my fracture is so much better I'm going to have a second crack at the route on Saturday morning.