A Brace of Bramleys

by Stephen

On Sunday, Jacky  and I met at Sigma Sports at 7:10am ready to ride the Brace of Bramleys Audax. 

We cycled to the Surbiton Racquet Club where 85 other brave souls were registering.   150 people had signed up but the threat of 45mph winds and rain put off a lot of people.  Kingston Wheelers were organising and had coffee, fruit and cake available.  The start was a casual 7:30am as people started leaving while others were still queuing to register. 

We set off as the sun was rising and no rain, which seemed hopeful.  Unfortunately drizzle started shortly afterwards. We went out via Walton, Staines, Windsor Great Park then a left away from Windsor to Wokingham.  The first stop was a bakery at Bramley after 71 km at 10:36am to check-in and get coffee and a sausage roll.  The riders hadn't stretched out much as a few long level crossings bunched everyone up so the cafe was packed, with a few bewildered locals wondering why it was so busy.  We were using e-brevet and Jacky 's said she hadn't check-in at the start so wouldn't let her check-in anywhere so it was back to paper for Jacky  unfortunately.

Jacky  and I left Bramley re-energized and ready.  At this point the drizzle turned to rain and rain jackets were the order of the day as the wind started to pick up.

Next leg was due west to Whitchurch mostly through farmland and few smallish 40m climbs.  Some bits were quite sketchy with the wind blowing us across the road when we were exposed and Jacky  had a branch land on her head, but she shrugged it off and we kept going!

At 99 km at 12:12 we reached Whitchurch the most Westerly point of the ride a bit short of Andover.  The checkpoint location was unclear and there weren't enough cyclists so we missed the stop and then had to turn around.  We found it eventually and stopped at the co-op to get a receipt and some water.  Feeling wet and a bit cold we immediately set off again. 

Next part of route was a bit of a slog, Jacky  had grit in her eyes which were red by now, my glasses were covered in mud and constantly wet.  I think it was lots of pretty countryside and farms but it was hard to be sure for either of us.  The road was also very dirty with lots of mud, grit and branches and we overtook quite a few people fixing punctures.  The next 45km seemed to drag a bit and neither of us were feeling particularly great.  After 2 hours though we reached Alice Holt at 2:11pm.  The cafe was very quiet as not many visitors due to weather, it was nice and warm though with hot food and cakes.  Jacky was having second thoughts about continuing, whether that was the weather or spending any more time with me I don't know!  After a coffee and sit-down we both felt better and decided to set off for on the last leg.

We had 63 km to go and quite a few of the hills still left to do, but anyway seemed manageable!  Setting off we went through Frensham, which is very pretty (less so in the rain), through Goldaming and then to the Surrey Bramley (the second of the brace) at 187km.  We only needed the name of a school for this checkpoint for the brevet, so didn't even slow down.  We saw one other rider so it felt like the group had really stretched out by now.

After what seemed like an excessive number of small hills that didn't show up on my Garmin we reached Shere and were turned up Coombe Lane with very tired legs.  With the last big hill dispatched we cycled on towards Cobham and amazingly it stopped raining and the sun came out, which made the Esher bumps a bit more pleasurable. 

Reached our start point at 5:23 pm after 9 hours of cycling and 214km for our final check-in and brevet verification.  We had sit-down and a pint at the bar and found out from the organisers we were 10th out of the 87 starters, which we were pleased with.

Route was really good if anyone is interested; very quiet roads, with little traffic all the way which was impressive given its length.