Apologies to the weathermen

I got up at six and looked out of the window. The weathermen had said there would be snow overnight and lots of it, but when I looked there was none. Indeed it was quite mild, and dry outside.

Hence I decided to set off down the A31 to get some more miles in.

At the bottom of the Farnham road on my way up to the Hogs Back, it started to drizzle, and by the top of the hill, it was kind of sleet. I still didn't worry too much, as it seemed way too mild to settle. On the open road, I started pushing a bit harder on the big cog, and the sleet started to hurt my face. 6 miles out of Guildford, I was suddenly surrounded by snow, and it was an inch thick on the ground. Quite bizarre. If I hadn't seen it I would not have believed the sudden change in weather. I figured I'd better head home.

Having walked across the Hogs Back, my cleats had all frozen up with packed snow, and I was busy trying to sort that out when some kind guy stopped and offered me a lift. He was a time-trialler who had also decided today was not the day for cycling. I thanked him for the offer, but decided I was only 6 miles from home, so I'd push on. If you're that guy and you happen to be reading this, THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE OFFER! (I wish I'd taken it).

I pushed pretty hard to get home, and figured that as long as I made it to the top of the Farnham road, I could coast down into Guildford and I'd be fine. I finally made it to the top of the hill and started my free-wheel down. After not very far, and having skidded on a yellow line hidden by snow, I decided I was going too quickly. That was when I realised my brakes had frozen up with packed up snow, so I stopped the bike my skidding my feet on the ground. For a few seconds, I really thought I was not going to stop without falling off.

Anyhow, long story short - here is a picture of me as I returned home....

Back to Chichester

John cycled down from Bishops Stortford to Guildford yesterday afternoon. He did really well, as it's 80+ miles and he was by himself.

He stayed with us on Friday night and then Paul joined us on Saturday so the three of us could cycle to Worthing via Chichester. John only wanted to go to Worthing where he was visiting family. I say "only", but Guildford to Worthing via Chichester is around 50 miles which is quite impressive the morning after an 80 mile bike ride the previous afternoon! Then Paul and I would head home, hopefully ending up between 90-100 miles.


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We set off around 6:45 after a breakfast and juice. We travelled down past CHASE and out towards Godalming then Haslemere. I dont recall cycling south on this road before. There were some great hills!! (although "great" wasn't a word I heard John using!). After 30 miles or so we stopped for 2nd breakfast at Singleton. I must have driven through it many times, but had never realised what a beautiful little village Singleton is.

I had Google'd a route into the Garmin around the back of Goodwood racecourse to avoid having to go through Chichester centre. Once again, I was really pleased with the Garmin under these circumstances. It was not an obvious route, and certainly not one that any of us had done before, but we found our way down to the A27 without incident. Then it was just a case of blasting along the A27 for 20 miles until we hit Worthing. This part of the trip was very quick due to the road being pretty flat.

At Worthing, about 1/2 mile from where we were dropping John off, we noticed Paul had a puncture. So we stopped and changed his tube and said farewell to John.

Paul and I were feeling great. 50 miles already, and we were doing fine. Just outside Worthing, coming up the A24, there is quite a long hill and we realised why we were feeling so good; the wind had been behind us on the way down!! It was tough going, and it took us pretty much the same amount of time to go 40 miles home as it did to go 50 miles down there! Although part of that was due to Paul getting another puncture, and us stopping to pump his tyre up a few times and eventually changing the tube again at Cranleigh.

When we eventually got home, I felt the best I've felt after a ride of that distance. Maybe I'll manage a ride tomorrow, although the weather forecast predicts snow.