DealExtreme, Michael Caine and an Alsation....

Date: 19th November
Riders: Mark2; XC Tom; Andy; Rich
Location: Box Hill; Mickleham; Headley; Leatherhead; Timbuktu

A timely meet at The Star for the four of us last night, Tom and Andy proudly sporting their new "Bastids" in windy but dry conditions. We headed straight for Box Hill to attempt the challenge. Once we had agreed the start and finish points all that remained was for Andy to prove he was the fastest (yawn) with a sub-9 minute time. My own time was 9.33 which is approximately 3 seconds slower than my previous efforts, although it felt much harder last night - room for improvement. After a 5 minute recovery we headed into the woods to find China Pig. This proved a little difficult but after a couple of wrong turns we finally found the start and flew down, the last couple of windy days seem to have dried it out well and we tried to apply our manual, cornering and heel down lessons from the weekend. I certainly felt like I rode it better than I have before. At Juniper bottom we turned right up the road as Tom took the lead, heading towards Headley. We turned into a car park and then began a tricky off-camber ascent with a "don't look now" drop away to our left pretty much all the way up. After about 20 minutes we emerged onto Leatherhead Common which we crossed and headed to the start of Tom's fabled "longest & best piece of downhill singletrack in Surrey" which I think I've heard described as Alsation. The big build up put Tom under a bit pressure but we all agreed he delivered with a fast, flowing and long descent down to the A24 which again gave us plenty of opportunity to employ Richard's methods - I was really "sending it" at one point, wasting Andy on a wider section (his legs must have "gone" after the Box Hill effort!) and catching right up to Tom, although he "brought" enough to stay ahead to the end!
From there we crossed the A24 into Leatherhead, passing the gates to Michael Caine's residence, apparently - I didn't see him at the window with his binoculars in nosey neighbour mode "'Ere, Shakira, look ahht that, bleedin' mountain bikers!"
From Leatherhead we rode up to Bocketts Farm and then climbed up to Norbury Park. At this point Mark, Andy and I were getting a bit tired but Tom said there was more singletrack to come so we followed him down into a steep off camber rooty valley which meandered up and down, claiming most of us as victims at various points. My bastid, very suddenly and for the first time failed me, so I learn't the importance of having a head and bar light! - to be fair the joystick was plenty to get me home. Eventually we got back to the A24, via Westhumble and rolled into Dorking, taking a route through the park to avoid a final road climb!
A couple of much needed pints were partaken outside the Star and Tom's computer suggested we'd done 15 miles - it felt like much more...
As a footnote I put the bastid on charge when I got in and it came back to life quickly so hopefully nothing terminal.
Rich