Sunday 23rd March saw the second running of the Tour de Forge, our way of riding together as a club.
Aided by dry and warm conditions, and some great route plotting by Henrik W, 57 of us gathered at 9am at Kingston Marketplace for our 3-stage, 3-routes per stage, 2-coffee stops and 1-pub ride. The nice weather meant the first chance of the season for some bare knees and elbows to be displayed, for new purchases to be used, and for bikes locked away from the grit-and-mud of winter to be allowed out. It felt like the proper start of the new cycling year.
The idea of the Tour de Forge is to have 5 groups riding at different paces across their choice of 3 legs, with a short, medium and long route on most legs. All groups meet up at the end of each leg, and everyone is then encouraged to move between groups, so as to ride with new people and try something different. With a no-drop ethos, and groups keeping together, this is a great way of mixing up members who are racers and social riders alike.
Sounds complicated? Only on paper, and fortunately Luke M was far more able to give out proper advice and instructions before we had the obligatory photo call in the marketplace and then we were off for the first stage to The Queen Stage at Effingham via different routes around Epsom and Leatherhead. Despite a bit of unscheduled cyclocross action caused by a road closure on the short route, all 57 riders arrived at TQS at roughly the same time. The staff there did us proud with hot drinks and coffee – the strawberry filled fairy cakes were particularly good. After a bit of chat and a reorganisation of the groups it was off on the next leg, to Shere.
This was classic Surrey- Hills-in-the-Spring riding. Some groups went via Westhumble and Dorking, some via Ranmore and Abinger, and some via Leith Hill, before all meeting up again in Shere village. Everyone enjoyed riding in a beautiful area on a nice day. Following a bit more snack-and-chat at various establishments (including a entire serving of cream tea at The Dabbling Duck for some of the groups and a poke around the gorgeous sweet shop, Shere Delights), another change of groups, and we were off for the last stage.
This started with the always-welcome-post-coffee trip up Combe Lane before dropping down toward Cobham for the homeward leg. Crossing the M25 with its long tailbacks, and running into some of the heavy traffic caused by the partial closure of the motorway, we were very grateful for Henrik having replanned – 8 times – the routes to avoid the worst of the road closures and diversions.
We finished up at the unofficial club house at The Norbiton, for drinks and pizza and the final “debrief”/gossip of the day. We had a great time and many thanks to Luke M and Henrik W for organising everything, for Anna D for making sense of the ever-changing commitments summary, and our photographers for recording it all.
What a great way to start the Spring cycling season, and hope to see everyone out riding with us for the third edition of the Tour de Forge later this year!