Too many legs !!
Nothing too mad to report, just a few rides / spins out and about. This weekend I went out for a bit of a challenge. I thought I would have a go at the Leith Hill Octopus. It’s not a long ride on paper and it was looking like a nice day so how hard could it be. This crazy beast of a ride consists of 8 ascents of the highest point in Surrey, from every available route up the hill. I dragged along a fellow idiot from Woking CC. We parked the car at the summit of the hill and cycled down to Dorking swimming baths to the start – a chilling 10km down the hill. The first ascent is straight back up the road we went down, so we turn around and start the demoralising climb straight back up the road we just flew down (this was the start of a familiar theme). After the 1st summit, the route descends down the other side before turning back and straight back up to the top again. Over the far side of the hill, down a different descent, a short left and the left again and back up the hill to the top, back over the other side and down another route – I think you get the idea by now. Although the sun was out, it was freezing under the trees and in the shade, the uphill climbs are enough to get you warm, but the descents are freezing. We did 3 climbs of the hill and stopped for some lunch at a local pub. The gourmet burger was too good to pass up, and we succumbed. The clouds were now building and the temperature was getting very chilly. We were a bit under-dressed for the weather, so we made one more climb up the hill back to the car to call it a day (frozen and cold), having completed half the challenge. I will have to go back another day and have another crack at it.
Next big ride is the “Round the Isle of Wight – Randonee“.
Interesting points to note…
1: You get to know every pothole and inch of road on the route, as ride over everything again and again.
2: I passed the same dead pheasant 8 times.
3: Wearing a polka dot short sleeved jersey may have seemed like a good idea from the forecast but it was freezing.