1st Tango Cycling Ladies Ride

Last Saturday 13 lovely ladies met up and went for a cycle to Leith Hill on the 1st Tango Cycling Women's Only ride.

The ride was open to ladies only and the idea was that ladies who have never been out can get the opportunity to come along and see if mountain biking is for them.



TC, Lara, Cecilia & Taryn

Ten of us hit down to Dorking by train.
It was great so see Cecilia Jaarsma & Letitia Rowley again, they both have been out with us before and it was brilliant to meet so many new other ladies and having the opportunity so show friends where we regularly ride.

Steph, cycled down with the boys and met us at Dorking. I think the boys were very curious to see what we were up to and were scared that they are missing out. :) We said "Hi" and then told them to get on with their ride.

All set and ready to go!

We had a quick check on tyre pressure before we set off up the White Downs, across the farm and up with Summer Lightning to Leith Hill Tower.

The Pack

Three of the girls deserve extra kudos for just riding the bikes they rode on Saturday.

Cecilia rode on a dutch bike, with NO shocks and thin wheels. Lara rode on a 1980's mtb with a rigid fork, problematic gears and not very strong brakes. Taryn rode on a cross-trail bike so she had at least shocks, but also slicks.

We broke the climb up to Leith Hill into four parts and took a nice breather after every part before we set off again.


Lovely Rossie & Julie my Julie.
At our regular and signature photo spot - Rookery Farm

Letitia, Niki, Adele, Cecilia & Marie
Part 2 of 4 completed



Marie & Cecilia
Part 3 of 4 completed

 At the top of Leith Hill Tower we bumped into the boys again. As I've mentioned in one of my previous blogposts, mountain bikers have the biggest FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). We took a quick photo before they carried on with their long distance mountain bike ride (by the looks of it, it included quite a bit of road too :)).



Part 4 of 4 completed and being "Photobombed"



We succeeded in confusing the lady at the shop in Leith Hill Tower with our numerous orders. We indulged in some sandwiches, tea, coffee, cake and the largest sausage roll you can find. We camped out, had a picnic and a well deserved breather before we headed down the hill and across to Summer Lightning.

 

*Leith Hill Tower is the highest point in South East England

 

1st Tango Cycling Women's Ride - All the hardcore Divas!

  

Unfortunately we didn't escape mechanicals. Niki had a flat tyre just before we were about to leave.  Steph & Liezl gave very capable assistance as the rest of us carried on. Thank you.

 

Steph & Liezl sorting out Niki's tyre problems

 

Summer Lightning was dry and ran so nicely. After almost losing a few peeps along the way we kept the group together and then split up a little bit later again. Poor Rochelle rode with her shocks locked for more than half of the ride and I felt terrible that we didn't check that earlier. We only realised this after the most rocky part on Summer Lightning.

 

Canola field in full bloom, Adele, Jules & Steph

 

We went back to the station via route 22. It was so much fun showing where so many of us started mountain biking to the girls and also having the opportunity to meet new people. Thank you for coming along and making it a fun day out.

Time for a quick beer at the pub before we head back on the train



Rossie & Julie my Julie

I've finally upgraded my telephone and have now joined the electronic cat world. #gotaniphone... After kicking against it for so long, I am now rightfully being called a hypocrite, but this upgrade enabled me to join Strava, the athlete's facebook. So you can see the route that we followed. http://app.strava.com/activities/65079602 Being technologically still handicapped, I've lost half of the route so we actually cycled 23km. :)

Please feel free to join Tango Cycling Club on Strava.
http://app.strava.com/clubs/tango-cycling

Next Women's Only Ride: 3 August 2013