23 of us out this morning with Sutton Velo, with 14 of us in the “Long” ride group this time (perhaps the biggest ever?). Having had a “small gathering” at my house the night before for my birthday I was slightly struggling with the “spicy” start of the ride – the slog up to Banstead and then up Farthing Downs…but things then settled down and I perked up and settled into a good rhythm as the kilometres sped by.
Unfortunately, disaster struck one of the team when we were just north of Gatwick as they failed to avoid a crater in the road that wouldn’t have been out of place on the moon. A double puncture of a tubeless tyre….
The group temporarily split in two as one half pushed on and the others stayed behind to help attempt a fix, but ultimately this proved fruitless and led to the horrible “uber of shame” home for poor David. It also reignited the perennial debate of tubes vs tubeless. The split proved temporary though as one of the lead group then suffered a slow puncture themselves, and the others caught up whilst we changed it. Again reigniting the perennial debate of tubes vs tubeless.
When finally we got to Tanhouse Farm, the shorter ride group were long gone, but luckily there were still the massive sausage rolls to be had, even after Matt’s visit, and we hungrily got involved.
It was then a short hop back up to Dorking, a quick blast up Box (for those of us not in the lazy Grupetto with Ed), and on home to the start/finish line in Ewell.
Great to see everyone again, and the new faces who joined this month. See you next time.
Dave