Rain Rain Go Away

The associates of the Guilford Pootle-on arranged to meet Sunday morning at Guildford for a posse ride of the Surrey Hills. How did we get on - read about it below.

It has been very tense in our house the last week building up to my 8 year olds exams which were Thursday and Friday last week and Monday and Tuesday this week. I don't know who is more tense, my son or his mother! Last week my wife had told him that he was expected to do his best to which he replied in a blasé manner that all he had to do was get 50% - red rag to a bull, Mum went mad and he was told in no uncertain terms that 80% was the benchmark. Wednesday night at bedtime we had tears and my son told me (his interpretation of the conversation with his mother, not as she tells it) that Mum had told him that unless he got 80% he was going to loose his Nintendo DS for a year!

It must be said that my son is like I was, he does not always live up to his capabilities and usually scrapes through with the minimum. His last set of exam results were disappointing.

Roll on Tuesday night when this period of exams is over.


During the week I only got one training session in which consisted of a 7500 metre session on the rowing machine and 25 minutes on the gym bike so I was desperate for exercise by the weekend.

What a weekend - where is that Indian summer we were expecting, what happened to the drought we usually experience, what has happened to out mild winters? All questions which, no doubt you too were asking at the weekend. Before I go into my training, the Guildford Peleton ride, and a story of woe and punctures, let me tell you about my sons football.

Saturday morning I had to attend my sons football match. Whilst at the beginning of the season he wanted to be in goal (saw it as thee easy option) he now has more confidence and wants to be out on the field more. The problem is both at school and on Saturday he has shown some skill in the goal and the team wants him there on guard. On Saturday he was in goal for the first half with the promise of being out the second half. Before half time they were 2-0 down (not a position they are used to) and then the opposition was awarded a penalty! The team was downhearted (especially as it was felt the penalty was unjustified). The ball was struck and my son stopped it. You could hear the relief from the spectating parents.

Half time came and in the second half tables turned. He was allowed out of the goal, his team got back the two goal deficit, and had the opposition under pressure most of the time. Their goalie was kept very busy and there were a lot of near misses, posts and high balls. The match ended a 2-2 draw.

Saturday afternoon I slipped out for a run. After 20 minutes and a third of the way around the circuit my calf suddenly went, and boy was it painful. I couldn't continue running, it was raining, I was in a long sleeve Ron Hill thermal top and running shorts, and it was cold and had started raining. I hobbled half a mile to the nearest station (didn't have any money,card, ID etc). The station fortunately wasn't manned and the barriers were open so I went on to the platform and the train arrived 5 minutes later. There was no inspector on the train. I got off at my home station, again unmanned and hobbled home. Once home I wanted to warm up and to know how bad my calf was so I jumped on the turbo for 45 minutes.

The calf stood up to the turbo so I arranged to meet M and J at Hampton Court at 9:00 AM from whence we would ride down to Shere where the others, meeting in Guilford, would ride out to meet us.

Sunday morning, after a late night at the school ball at the Tithe Barn Hotel at the base of Mont Box (we got home 1:00 AM), I got up first in our house. The weather first thing wasn't too bad. The three of us met (M, J and me) and had a gently but damp cycle down to Shere passing various groups huddled around punctured wheels. When we got there M went off in the direction of Peaslake to get an extra hill under his belt while J and I went to the Lucky Duck Tea House, and whilst some of our clothing was on the radiator drying off, we enjoyed coffee and a mince pie.

The other four who met in Guildford joined us, and immediately one young lady decided that she would abandon (not everyone automatically dresses for English weather). We only got about three miles down the road before M got a puncture and we all stopped to assist. At this point J decided she too had had enough and headed home. We went up on to the ridge (up the 18% hill) and along to Ranmore then down into Dorking. At this point we stopped at the bike shop as one rider needed new gloves. The plan was to ride up from Dorking through Coldharbour to Leith Hill before returning through Abinger Hammer, however, the rain got heavier, the temperature colder, and time was moving on. Once we were ready for the off we decided it was better to call it a day. Captain Turbo P headed back along the A25 to Guildford whilst the rest of us (4 of us) headed for Mont Box.

No sooner had we got out of Dorking than I got a flat tyre. As I was at the back I dropped off and the others didn't hear my call or notice my absence. They stopped at Rykers at the base of Mont Box and M came back looking for me. M and I sheltered in the underpass and working together (freezing cold wet hands at this point) changed the inner tune. I am a man who usually repairs tubes first rather than replaces them [tight, traditional, stupid?] but there was no way in that weather I was going to try that. With the CO2 already used on M's tyre we had to resort to using a pump which meant for the rest of the trip my tyre would be soft.

We then joined the other two who had warmed up on a cup of tea at Rykers and headed up Mont Box and out to the A217 towards London. M and I left the others when we got to Cheam and they headed off towards London. We went home.

I was cold and wet when I got home. We had only done 50 miles in 5 hours (including stops). The wife would not let me in the house so I had to go into the garage and do a freezing striptease in front of the washing machine (which resides in the garage) before streaking through the house to a warm shower. I didn't even stop to rinse off the bike so I will have to get around to cleaning and lubricating it this week.