Here's Sunday's ride report.....

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RIDE REPORT
Warlingham Lanes 07/06/09

Despite early morning rain, the sun was out for the start of the ride
and stayed with us all day. We had an ever-fluctuating number of
riders with a maximum of 8 at any one time. The route out of
Carshalton took us through Beddington Park on the Wandle Trail and
through Croydon towards the countryside. We stopped off at the Shirley
windmill, hidden up a side road but beautifully restored, although it
wasn't open until later in the day.

Options for morning stops are limited when we're going out in this
direction so we called into the Sparrows Den refreshment kiosk by the
sports fields, where a couple of Addiscombe CC mountain bikers had
also stopped off for a morning coffee. There's no indoor seating but
it's fine when it's not raining.

From here, it's country lanes climbing steadily all the way to lunch.
We cut out some of the off-road bits because of the earlier rain and
had to avoid patches of loose gravel that had been washed along the
lanes. There were also some patches where the road had flooded.

The Hare and Hounds wasn't the best pub we've ever used for lunch.
There's a noisy large screen tv in the bar and the only food is a
roast with no veggie option. Fortunately, most had brought their own
lunches so we sat in the deserted beer garden and those that did order
food were well looked after by the friendly staff.

The beauty of climbing before lunch is the prospect of a long sweeping
descent afterwards. Featherbed Lane gives you 2 miles of downhill,
depositing you right at the bottom of Gravel Hill which is best ridden
up on the cycle path along the pavement, even though it climbs
slightly more than the road does. We were down to 3 riders at this
point, all of whom had things to do so the ride ended at the top of
Gravel Hill instead of going back to Carshalton.

Out for 5.5hrs, 25 miles to the point where the ride ended. See some
pix on Flickr at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pollardshillcyclists/sets/72157619535078938
or
http://tinyurl.com/phc049

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Mark
PHC Co-ordinator
07711 688189