North Downs in the (winter) dry

It's not new that I love mountain biking. I have actually only taken up road cycling proper while in the UK, despite having owned a road bike for quite some time. Things were a little different back in Spain, where good to very good trails abound in the vicinity of where I used to live, in North West Madrid. The Sierras were never too far and hundreds of km of dry off-road trails were the norm. Here in the UK the conditions are a little different, and I do not think I have ever been on a mountain bike ride that did not involve a deep cleaning and re-greasing of the bike afterwards.

First few km in Ranmore Common

But today was going to be a special day: because it had been so cold in the last few days, below freezing, all the mud and water usually found in the North Downs were to be completely frozen. Also, we would be taking our friend Mateo on his first ever mountain bike ride, which made it even more special for us. Because we like cycling so much, we are always trying to encourage our friends to come along on one of our rides. This is usually unsuccessful as they all fear they are not fit nor capable enough to ride with us, which isn't really true, but still, it is always nice to be able to introduce someone to "our" sport.

After a slow train ride from London to Dorking, we headed straight away to Ranmore Common to pick up the route for the day, a 30-ish km loop taking in Leith Hill and a few other famous sights. Very soon we noticed that Mateo would be able to keep up with us, despite having no experience on a mountain bike and the fact that his rig was an ultra-heavy thing weighting in more than 15 kg, with sleek tyres, which cost him less than £100 brand new.

He really has potential as a mountain biker

The trails were in a nearly perfect condition, with no sign of soft mud or water. We took it easy on the descents though, as there was some patches of light snow scattered around. The uphills were taken their tall on us, and so we stopped quickly to re-fuel. No silly cereal bars, cake or dry fruits as always. This time we went big and did the Spanish thing: bocadillo de lomo (with an English muffin!)

Re-fuelling before the hills

Leith Hills appeared somewhat unexpectedly. We seemed to be doing the loop (which we got from the internet) the opposite way as the guy that recorded it, and were confronted with the last 200 m of steep hill up Leith Hill, the highest point in the North Downs. I promised Mateo a beer if he made it up his this hill on his crappy mountain bike, and, to my surprise, he did it. You are a machaca mate.

Lucy tackling the last few meters of Leith Hill (on the hilly side!)

Machacando

Once on top of the Hill, we took the obligatory picture, got some light snow on our faces, and made some conversation with fellow riders. Apparently this area is also popular with night riders - something to try out in the warmer months! The downhill from here was not as exciting as I had predicted, possibly due to our lack of knowledge of good trails, and so we stuck to the wider paths and followed the GPS track.

Leith Hill

At some point Lucy pointed out that the trail diverted off-road unnecessarily, but we, the boys, did not fancy more tarmac. As it happens most of the time, Lucy made the right decision as we found ourselves going up a ridiculous hill that we could barely walk on. I do not recall walking such a steep wall in the last few years, definitely not with a bike and with plenty of slippery soft mud. We were heading to the Holmbury Hill without knowing.

Could be fun on the way down, certainly not doable up hill

We got reunited with Lucy soon afterwards, on the road, and made our way to Peaslake to our beloved Village Stores. The trails were still dry-ish, but we could notice the mud getting a bit softer, and some sections got quite slippery again.

Rushing to Peaslake

Once in Peaslake we introduced Mateo to the "British" thing of tea and cake while out riding, which he seemed to enjoy quite a bit. After a calorie refill we hit the roads to cut short of the original route, and pick the trails back up near Shere.

There is an off-road path that goes pretty much all the way to Dorking, via Westcott, and so we took it. It was still rather cold, but we were in good spirits and Mateo seemed to be having a good time. More than 30 km on the clock meant his furthest ever bike ride to date, and he still had a lot more in the tank!

Self-portrait

Heading back to Dorking

The very last hill was not really necessary to tackle as we could have continued along the bike path, but after consultation with our newbie, we went for it, just for fun (and maybe to warm up a bit!). Some light snow started to fall again but by the time we got to the top it was only a few more km back to the station.

The North Downs in the background

We were back at the station by 3:30 pm, with significantly less mud than normal, which surely will be appreciated by the Southern trains staff. Although it was not a very demanding day, we had plenty of fun and enjoyed some unusually good trail conditions. Mateo wants to be head back, which means job done for us.

Autumn in the North Downs

Autumn is probably my favourite season to cycle. It's still not too cold, there's significantly less traffic on the roads, and the falling leaves make for some nice scenery if you choose your routes through forested areas.

This is exactly what we did on Saturday. A short-ish 95 km loop from Dorking and around the North Downs. Some 1500 m of climb added some hilly miles to an otherwise easy ride.

Freshly arrived in Dorking, we headed straight away to the infamous Box Hill, where the machaca cyclists of the Olympics 2012 looped around 9 times on their race. Despite its name, it's barely a noticeable hill, and certainly more than doable at an easy pace. It makes for a nice warm up, and I always find it amusing to see some folk on their £5000 bikes who try hard to look like pros, to only stop at the top of the hill for a coffee and cake after their first climb! The views are always rewarding though, especially when the fog is caught down at the valley.

Heavy traffic with cyclists on the smooth tarmac of Box Hill

Hairpin-like turn at Box Hill

Interesting fog formation at the bottom of Box Hill

Probably because of the fool weather, but this time we saw very few cyclists atop the hill. We pressed on through some thick fog and on to Ranmore Common.

Fog

The autumnal leaves made the scenery look pretty, yet the tarmac very slippery, and we had to take it very easy on more than one occasion, with some rear wheel skids.

Dense forests through the North Downs

Slippery

Once we cleared the hills for the first time, with looped through Crangleigh, which had some traffic. Ewhurst was the next town up, just before our tea stop at mtb-dominated Peaslake. We love coming to this small town in the Downs, seeing all the cycling folk, while having some food and chat with other fellows, before carrying on.

This is what I call drinking in style

From Peaslake to Dorking we had another 30 km of rolling hills that took us through Shere and back to Ranmore Common for a final descent into Dorking. 

I really was not going that fast...

Amongst those forested areas of the Surrey Hills, we spotted a massive field full of pine trees ready to be cut for the upcoming Christmas season! What a waste of resources isn't it?

Christmas deforestation approaching soon!

The last hill was a bit of an struggle, yet we were glad to make it back to Dorking in time for our early return to the Smoke. It's certainly a loop that we highly recommend, especially if you avoid the Crangleigh bit, as it is very laney, scenic and with hills to keep you entertained. Nothing too steep though, so you should manage ok on a 12-25 at the back. Even taking it easy, we got a moving average of  ~20 km/h!

10% incline 

The stats for the day were as below

- Trip odometer: 95 km
- Max speed: 53.2 km/h
- Moving time: 4h 54 m
- Stopped time: 44 min
- Moving average speed: 19.4 km/h
- Overall average speed: 16.9 km/h

A 50 km mtb loop in the North Downs

We've been many times in and around the North Down on our roadies, but never on the mtbs. On an overcast Saturday morning I decided to train it down to Dorking for a bumpy  50 km loop.

I pulled the route out of one of the online-shop websites, as they are normally ok. I knew it would not take me on the very best bits of the North Down, but for that I will need to do a bit more research. Still, the route can be seen below:



I started the loop going anticlockwise. The first hill came very shortly after leaving the station, and crossed the biggest single-state vineyard in the UK. Not a very usual sight on these latitudes, but still quite impressive. I managed to capture a shot of it as I climbed up to Ranmore Common.

This could be La Rioja, but not, it is Surrey!

The weather was pretty benign, and soon after reaching the top of Ranmore Common I encountered the first cattle gate crossing. Fortunately, I would cross no more than 10 by the end of the day, which is pretty good. I then made my first descent of the day, which, full of wet roots and rocks, almost saw me on the floor. I think I need to refresh my mtb skills on the wet!

Leith Hill came almost half way on the course. Being the highest point of the North Downs, it affords some good vistas reaching to the South Downs on a clear day. I had my ration of cake and continued down the hill.

View from Leith Hill

The route was quite nice for being relatively close to London. Not massive hills, but some that will see me on my lowest gear towards the end of the day. The scenery changes quite a bit, from vineryards and open green fields, to Pine Forest in the Peaslake area. Not very singletracky either - it ran mostly on wide paths covered with vegetation, so plain easy in the dry. The only downside of the day was the mud, of which I seemed to have brought loads back home.

Pine forests

Wood industry

All in all, a very pleasant ride, with very few roads in sight and plenty of fast going paths. I managed finish it in under 4 hours, so really doable throughout the year and with limited time.

A loop of the North Downs

We needed to put some hill-ish miles in. Our upcoming trip to the Peak District to gain our very first AAA points (i.e. points awarded by Audax UK for riding hilly routes) means that we "southerns" are going to experience some pain. The UK is not a particularly hilly country compared to other European destinations, but it does have some ridiculously steep, yet short, roads. In the Southeast, the best you can get is across the North and the South Downs.

The North Downs are close to central London, just on the outskirts of the M25, and we have cycled through them quite a few times already, but always on our way to somewhere. So this time we decided to do a loop to take in some of the most famous bumps (including the infamous Box Hill!) that overall totalled over 2000 m climb in 120 km. Although this may look quite significant, it really is not, as the climbs are never longer that a few km followed by nice descents. Nothing compared to climbing 2000 m in the Pyrinees or the Sierra de Guadarrama in Madrid (yes, we do have mountains down there!). The route was originally used by a chain of cycle shops in one of their outings, and looked like this:



We got to Dorking just after 9 am, and headed straight into the first climb of the day, to the west of the town. The traffic was very light, something to be expected on a Sunday at 9 am, but surprisingly, it remained this way for the rest of the ride. The first 20 km were very scenic, passing through very narrow country lanes and farms. It really felt like the North of Spain, with the green fields, rural cottages and farmlands. Crossing the busy A24 via a cycle path underneath the highway, we entered the zig zag road that takes you to Box Hill. This road will be used by the machacas of the Olympic Road race in the summer, but unlike us, they will climb it 9 consecutive times. Truth be told, this hill is probably the easiest of the day, and we were atop it without much delay. I felt much better than last time I was here in January, when I struggled a bit to keep up the pace with the other riders (too much turrón after Christmas I reckon!). The view from the top is really quite nice, and was already busy at 10 am with other fellow cyclists.

View from Box Hill, at 226 m over sea level

Roads out of Dorking, very quiet and scenic

After a few stretches of A roads (again, very quiet) we headed east and then south towards Gatwick, where the roads seemed much flatter and extremely wide for UK standards. After some quick miles the tarmac began to get a bit steeper - we were back in the Downs. Somewhere en route we saw quite an usual sight in this part of the world:

Can we pass you Sir - I shouted

Lucy climbing out one of the many short steep hills, but still smiling

The roads remained bumpy for the rest of the ride. Up and down all the time, through narrow stretches of country roads. Some of them we had already used in the past two Audaxes organised by "El Supremo", but unlike those times, after a descent we would head back up again and again. Peaslake, a cute town embedded in the forest, appeared at the end of one of those descents, along with mountain bikers everywhere. I knew this was a popular area within the southest mtb community, and promised myself to return with the wide tyres sometime soon... Although I wished I had my mtb with me, the lanes were so lovely to be ridden on skinny tyres that I soon forgot about it.

It really felt isolated near Peaslake

The hills were relentless, and we were feeling it. All the bumpy miles seemed to be packed in the last third of the ride, with the steepness increasing gradually as we approached the 100 km mark. Past the 100 km Lucy was allowed to complain (or that is what I was told, apparently) so I wasn't looking forward to it. However, she handled all the hills extremely well and she had an smiley face throughout the ride. Maybe the new cassette (a 12-27 in cyclists language) I had fitted to her bike helped here?

Approaching the end and she's still smiling after 2000 m of accumulated climb?

After a long-ish descent, we got to Dorking and back to the train station before it got dark. All in all, it was probably my top ride in the Southeast. Very little traffic, nice roads, and excellent weather. Lucy's getting fit, no complains about hills nor km left on the ride!

The stats said: 6 h 15 min moving time, 55.7 km/h max speed, 20.5 km/h average, 1 h stopped, total of 127 km (plus another ~20 km door to door). 4 bottles of water were drunk, and only weed twice!