Dulwich Park 2nd Saturday Ride to Godstone Vineyards

It is a delicate balancing act arranging rides that go to interesting and varied places but, at the same time, cater for those who want to get back early to do other things.

So, on this ride we will be carrying out an experiment to see if we can do a long 40 mile ride to an interesting place, but still get back to the start point at around 3.30pm.

One think that will help here is if the riders who set off from Southwark start points on Saturday mornings stagger their rides in the same way that Penge Cycle Club staggers their Sunday morning rides (http://pengecycleclub.org.uk/adults/sunday-morning-club-rides/). The idea is that everyone meets up at the same starting point, but those who want to do longer and faster rides start off earlier that those who want to do shorter rides. Hopefully this will help us get round the quorum busting problem (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorum#Quorum-busting) of organisers of social cycle rides in the London area always being widely dispersed and never meeting up at the same place and the same time for AGMs or for other General Meetings.

We will therefore start at 9.30am, which is half an hour earlier that the 10am start time used by the Southwark Healthy Riders (https://www.letsride.co.uk/groups/southwark-healthy-riders) for their second Saturday rides.

We will also use a new, more direct route to the North Downs, which is is popular with the cyclists who assemble at the top of Anerley Hill each weekend to cycle to Elmers End and West Wickham in order to reach the Kent countryside.

We start by climbing up College Crescent and through the toll gate (cyclists free) to Crystal Palace. There are some brand new segregated cycle paths at the top of Fountain Drive, which we can make use of. We then descend Anerley Hill which quickly takes us to Elmers End and West Wycombe. We then follow the country route past the White Bear and through Chelsham and along the lane that leads to Woldingham School. We then follow a short off-road path down to Godstone Vineyards, where we will stop for a refreshment break before returning to Dulwich Park via a similar route.

Ride Leader: Nigel Bee (tel: 07415 315 690, email: [email protected] )