A group of Ride25 riders who will be joining us on the Ride25 Milan to Rome tour in June decided to arrange a training ride last Sunday to get together for a bit of group practice around the 6 Surrey Hills. Some of them had never met before so it was a great opportunity to get to know each other before their big tour in June…
“On a bright, warm and sunny morning last Sunday, 10th May, a group of 8 of us gathered at 9am in Richmond Park outside the Roehampton Café for a training ride for our forthcoming Ride25 tour to Milan to Rome.
We even managed to get our very own photographer out too making us feel very special and attracting a little more attention than what would normally be usual from other groups meeting close by wondering who this group were – quite right too – one to watch I say! Chris Potter will be joining the Milan to Rome leg for the first time to take some great pictures of us all and if Sunday’s are anything to go by I think we are all in for a real treat in Italy – remember to smile for Chris as he snaps you, particularly on those climbs.
One of the many great moments of Sunday was realising Cheryl and I had ridden the whole of Geneva to Milan over 4 days last June and never actually met…. easily done not just because Cheryl was ahead of me for most of the trip! So, getting to know more of the team prior to meeting in Milan in a month felt really good too.
I knew we had a devoted group who were intent on ‘bagging’ those hills as we set out on a 72 miler with at least 4500 ft of climbing. At 24 miles we went through Shere where I’d stopped 2 weeks earlier at The Dabbling Duck for tea and cake…but this group said ‘Non’ so we continued….I think there was more excitement and perhaps a little trepidation on riding the other 5 hills and a desire to bag these before taking any rest.
A further potential watering place came at Peaslake but at 30 miles in to the 50 mile mark to reach Box Hill the group decided to continue to bag all 6 hills prior to fully refuelling… so snacks were consumed by all here knowing Leith and Box Hill remained. Whilst we didn’t stop in either place this time I highly recommend these 2 gorgeous spots for coffee stops when you get the chance.
So we continued on and arrived at what is renowned as the fairly brutal Leith Hill. However, I have never been so surprised at reaching the summit of Leith to feel like it wasn’t as bad as I had imagined….was I delirious…. actually, no…it turns out Leith actually has 8 ways up so beware…this was definitely kinder on the legs than the route I’d taken up 2 weeks before.
So, realising we now only had Box to go (or so we thought) and feeling confident, we started dreaming of cheese and pickle or was that tuna sandwiches, carrot, coffee and walnut cake and tea and hot chocolate. After all, 50 miles with no tea stop and 6 hills is quite a feat. So we were a little surprised and challenged when we then found ourselves on a big climb up ‘Whitedown Lane’. Seeing a sign for an 18% incline never helps and I’m always happy to live in ignorance not knowing what the gradient is. We weren’t expecting this one but the group was amazing and we were all the happier to know it really was just Box Hill left to do now.
It was more than any of us were expecting and as we regrouped after our slight surprise with ‘Whitedown’ we did indeed start to wonder just how many hills our ‘6 Surrey Hill’ trip really did include.
There is always a slight euphoric feeling as you come out on to Ranmore Common with the landscape opening up. It was a sunny day by then and it felt good to know we were very close. In fact by the time we got to Box Hill we managed to get the last of their sandwiches (well done Sam!) and we very happily munched on our goodies in bright sunshine feeling very proud of our feats. I think the pictures say it all.
A huge thanks to Jules, Seb, Rob, Sam, Cheryl, Jo and Martin for making it such a great ride. Real and true camaraderie that we all love on these rides and trips.”
So, if you are up to doing the Surrey 6 before any of your Ride25 tours, here is the course – https://www.strava.com/routes/2298840
Leave a Reply