London bound

Today was the London marathon, and Jules had volunteered to help the CHASE support team look after the 50 or so people who were running in support of CHASE. Hence I had the whole day to go out on the bike! (although I had promised to get back by 2pm to do a few things around the house).

Paul & Simon both said they could come along for a while, and we all met up at 7am. Paul had to be home by 10am, so we thought we'd gad about a bit on the hills around Dorking again. We were a little late setting off, and Paul had yet another puncture just outside Guildford. By the time we'd fixed that and got going again, it was 8 o'clock already and we'd only done about 3 miles!!

Simon showed us a less steep route up Ranmore, which was a really nice climb. Then we went down via West Humble towards Boxhill.

Paul & I were much faster up Boxhill this week than last time we did it, and we stopped at the top for a quick snack & a drink. We then took a lovely route off Boxhill, again guided by Simon, and found ourselves at the base of Boxhill where we'd started.

At this point, Paul & I went ahead, and returned up Ranmore the same way we had come down.

At East Horsley, Paul had to head home & I was on my own. My plan was to cycle in towards London. I had a route planned, and was keen to try it out. It went from East Horsley to Cobham, and then past Claygate towards Esher & Kingston. I made good time, but by the time I'd got to Claygate it was pouring with rain. I carried on to Kingston but by then I was soaked & quite cold, and I decided to head back towards Guildford.

It was a good decision, because the storm was travelling west to east and I was soon out of the rain. Back at East Horsley, time was ticking on, so I decided to go home.

Another 70 miler, although a lot slower than yesterdays!!