…park you car in short term car parks next to the river.

Drove through Guildford last night and saw lots of cars still in the St Nick’s CP and Millmead despite Wey right up to its banks. Then today there are photos of cars submerged as the Wey bursts it’s banks unsurprisingly. Do people not learn!?!?! At least there aren’t as many this time.

When will this stop……I want to do a 50k ride this weekend.

was thinking of doing the trailbreak 40km down by Guildford at the weekend but they said in the blurb the route normally gets standing water so god knows what its like now

Give it 2 weeks and it will be freezing cold and snowing

Hope the water levels subside first cloud nine

This is pretty dry in bad weather 50k from Newlands or 60k from Guildford. NDW (only boggy Guildford side of Newlands) to Hascombe Farm descent to Abinger, bridleway to Peaslake (bit of wet sand for 50m) climb Radnor Raod for Yogurt Pots and BKB then Pitch climb via Bridleway next to church cut over to Winterfold Orange Claw Hammer to Christmas Pie to stream bed bridleway to Ponds Lane/Ponds Farm to Little London then Albury Woods, Water Lane to Newlands.

Kilo – it’s very wet on most of those areas, lots of mini rivers on main paths, some quite fast flowing. I guess they go up to Punchbowl on their routes and all those routes are “flowing” 😉 nicely – but not in the 650b sense!!!!

Pretty sure I saw a news item of some guys wake boarding in an underground carpark in Surrey…

Yep, was on the website of the paper that must not be mentioned, but my wife also got mobile phone footage (Not sure how to transfer from a Facebook video to on here)

Kilo – had a run over pitch hill, Punchbowl, Thursley Common and Rodborough today. I am guessing the course for that event will include much if this area plus Puttenham, Crooksbury, Tilford (?) and Hankley and possibly the bogs behind Grayshott. A lot of the surface water has gone (although feet were soaked => blisters) and the “river” off the Punchbowl has returned to a BW but with obvious implications for the surface. Looked like that would be hard on a bike (I haven’t ridden it for a couple of months pre-rain) and probably just as fast running. Keep your eyes peeled for erosion and new potholes, they are all over the place. The track down to Thursley (if they use that) had a few new obstacles which given how fast that descent is, might need some care.

But a lot better underfoot than I expected although there are still major water obstacles!! Enjoy.

… Don’t go ride on your local woods or you’ll spend 3 hours repairing what you broke and another 3 hours cleaning yourself, your gear, and bike off 😀 made that mistake yesterday!! Rear tyre just shredded up the berm like it’s paper :/ 3 hours to fix the bugger.

Been another lovely day in the NE.

Weather will be ace on saturday…in southern UK anyway

Doing 50kms at least every other day. I swear there was dust last night too. It’s hell here in Scotland. Go to Wrexham, it’s much better.

Friend told me last night that when he took kids to panto in Guildford the orchestra pit was even full of water. The show must go on is true apparently!

Kilo, my tennis of off tomorrow so was thinking of joining you. Has a quick recce over what i assume is part of the course. First 1 mile I assume from Norney to Puttenham is pretty boggy and an awkward tree on the fast little descent early on. The worst bit? But for the most part, it’s dried out remarkably in the last 48 hours. Hankley is fine even a bit firmer than normal and the river has now gone from what I assume will be the route up the Punchbowl. That section has a few v muddy bits and it’s a bit churned by all the rain but rode better than I expected.

The hardest thing is riding into v low sunlight for large parts. There are still quite a lot of areas of standing water and my feet are soaked and frozen now. Oh and I am covered in mud as is the bike.

Otherwise standard winter XC stuff. Some sand, some claggy mud, some water. The Ralph’s were ok etc. I have done two long runs this week plus a 2 hr ride now and legs feel a bit empty and shot. I will decide in the morning…..

How did everyone get on?

I was doing the pre-ride course check of the long route this morning, it was pretty wet in places and hard work in parts, but could have been much worse (and would have been much worse a week ago!).

People seemed to enjoy it from what I heard? I did, but then I got paid in chilli and rocky road cake for helping out 😉

Did the trailbreaks 40km at shackleford and it was surprisingly good. Two very very very big puddles but other than a bit of gloop near the end and some heavyish sand (which i recall as heavy last year as well) not in bad condition at all – in places quite dry and fast. Lovely morning and a good turnout for them as well

I enjoyed it but for mechanical problems. Two punctures and a slipping seat post were a pain and killed my time, especially the second puncture coming off the Punchbowl. The fastest bit and my tyre goes half way down the grass. The bike was so muddy by then that it took my at least twice as long to change it, plus I was really pissed off to have two flats. Lots of v nice offers for help by passers by. What a nice sport!!,

The mud made it surprisingly hard work and most of the route was the exact opposite way round to how I tend to ride those areas (apart from the start). Very well organised and marked and will do their next one.

My only gripe was the route selection after Puttenham. The section after the field with the bulls that was just mud and puddles was a little silly. It’s always crap in there and I would never chose it. Plus isn’t it a footpath?????Why not go Britty Wood and Crooksbury. Other than that not a bad selection and first time I have done the Punchbowl that way round.

Lessons learned….I can ride mud much faster that I thought. Ditto deep water, just GFI!!! The big puddle at on Rodborough/Mousehill was a laugh and thanks to the guy in the green orange 5 who showed me the way!!! And punctures take more time when you bike is covered in crap. Oh, and maybe time for some CO2 canisters!!!!!

Surprisingly tiring and missed the gold this time and not just because of the mechanicals. Lost all my jelly babies in a puddle before Tilford!! That’s my excuse anyway!!!

park you car in short term car parks next to the river

Is this one of the main reasons? Whenever the floods make the news there is always an image of a single car stranded in flood waters. I’d always assumed they were doing an insurance job otherwise they would’ve retrieved it but perhaps not then.