We go to the Cabin Cafe near Faygate. Last year I had intended all kinds of high jinks south of Epsom, but changed my mind en route when it started to rain (but only lightly) and we saw that there was zero (as in none at all for 20 minutes) traffic on the A24. As I say, maybe we were just really, really lucky.
We did the Colgate road last year, but it's an additional hill. These routes have to be reasonably quiet, keep discretionary turns to a minimum, have a bit of romance about them, but (and this is the important thing) not be too arduous. If the A264 is safe, that's our best bet.
Whitstable is too tough for some of our regulars, and we're doing it three times this year, so, in a sense, I'm already letting people down. I want Bognor to be as easy as possible, because I think that there are parts of the route (through Newdigate, south of Horsham, and Jasper's delightful denouement) that are superb. Walking half a mile on the top of the Downs (at 84m above sea level), if it comes to that, is better than walking a mile and a half on the B2139/A284 (which goes to about 150m above sea level) - and it would undoubtedly come to that for at least one person in August.
And the North Stoke route has charm. I'm rubbish at birdsong, but there was a kind of
peep-peep-peep call coming off the downs that really hit that wide open spaces spot. The road to Stoke was sweet - you can just make out where it becomes a kind of green tunnel a couple of hundred yards down the road....
and the view on the way up to the top was inspiring, although this snap doesn't do it justice..
I'm also rubbish at off-roading (this is the cause of much amusment to the other members of my CTC section) but I managed the chalk and flint path without being too pathetic about it. So, if it's dry, I'm hopeful, although User10571, Adrian and Adam may put me straight when we do the recce.