Nocturnal Mutterings...

Date: February 12th
Riders: XC Tom, Mark2, Dave2, Rich
Location: Box Hill & Leatherhead Common

The first night ride of 2010 and indeed the first one for at least a couple of months. It was very chilly but dry as we set off from The Star, through Denbies towards Box Hill.
Dave was sporting a new rear shock which happily doesn't deflate on contact with cold air, one of the other benefits of which is that Dave now pops off everything like a scalded kangaroo, getting tons of air seemingly at will - I wish I could do that!
Determined to put in a respectable effort on the infamous Box Hill climb I sat in Dave's wheeltracks and let him winch me up. I had thought this would guarantee a great time but I was disappointed to only knock 5 seconds off my PB (9.25 in case you were wondering!).
Following a recovery breather we weaved our way over the top of Box Hill to the start of China Pig which was running very nicely without the hazard of wet roots for once. Down to Juniper Bottom where Tom said he'd show us an "easy" road route to the start of Alsation - well it didn't feel that easy to the rest of us!
Onto Alsation which was running great and then along the A24 for a little bit. At Mickleham Tom suggested we take the off road route and promised "no more climbing" as we started to feel the pace. As usual this was not a statement based entirely on fact and I think Tom could feel our collective ire as we hit a 1 in 2 climb immediately!
We eventually wound our way back past the Stepping Stones pub at Westhumble and followed the bridleway back into Dorking. Due to various committments we gave the pub a swerve for once but at least no bike cleaning was required!