Ride report: Tuesday 30 December – Moles Christmas ride 2025

Every year, the Moles have a group ride over the holiday period and this year – 2025 – was no exception.

As is often the case, it was quite a crowd, even though some people sadly couldn’t make it. Gathering at a civilised 9:30am (for once) at Bockett’s Farm were: Lloyd, Tony, MarkC, JR, Elliot, Stuart, Reece, Richard, MarkP and Brian.

Absent – and much missed – were DavidS, JamesW, JamesS, Karlos and MarkJ to name a few. There’s always next year. Er, this year now I guess!

Our plan

Our plan as always on a Christmas ride was to ride a bit, while mixing in coffee, cake and an extended lunch before dropping in on the pub on the way home. This year, the lunch location was the Hurtwood Inn in Peaslake.

For the uninitiated – Peaslake in the Surrey Hills is pretty much the home of riding in the Surrey Hills. The Hurtwood Inn sits right in the middle of the village.

All of this meant we needed to cycle from Bockett’s Farm to Peaslake in time for our table booking.

This is not normally a problem for me, except the amount of riding I have been doing in the last quarter of 2025 is close to zero. In a world of pigeons and statues, at this point I find myself typecast as the statue!

Setting off

I was under no illusion I was going to be playing rear gunner today and so it proved. A day out like this is about fun not fast and that’s where my focus was.

We set off at a steady pace, aiming for Alfred Pennyworth which has been a staple of day and night rides all year (and where I stacked it back in October). I’ve been going quite well on it but not today. A careful line was taken to the Dorking Road and then we started a long climb up to Ranmore via Dearly Beloved.

Even this early in the ride I was aware of my lack of fitness. Lloyd and the Prof (MarkP) both had e-bikes and while they were not using them to rip our collective legs off, I was feeling envious.

Once at Ranmore we took a path less travelled by us, heading down Scouting for Boys to the railway and on into Westcott before climbing to Wolvens Lane.

No fitness

This climb confirmed to me how hard the day was likely to be. Despite low gnarr, the climb has long been a test of fitness if nothing else.

For over two minutes my pulse was over 160bpm, for over a minute of that it was above 170 and it topped out at 174bpm! Easily my highest numbers of the year and neither safe nor good – a fit Matt would have had a 10% margin, or been a lot faster!

So, expectations and reality were converging for me. After that my focus was to try and stick to a HR limit – 150bpm – that felt more sustainable, even if it meant going slower.

We carried on up Wolvens Lane toward Summer Lightning before Elliot led us into Peashooter and Spud Gun. The combination was fast, flowy and downhill through loamy pine forest. Very nice but then we needed a little more climbing up to Coldharbour.

Sadly – or perhaps fortuitously – the Plough pub opened half an hour later than our arrival, so coffee from the shop was the default option instead.

Up to Leith Hill

On we went, in temperatures hovering around 2°C (36°F). Keeping moving was the aim of the game, burning too much energy was not.

I took it easy as we climbed to the Tower at Leith Hill. In days gone by I would have attempted the steep approach, this time not only did I opt for the steadier climb but also paused for a breather half way up. I was knackered!

The others, very politely ‘didn’t notice’!

We descended Leith Hill along the main walkers route to the car park, where we crossed the road. Rather head down the Mother, we picked up a trail that paralleled the road. I really enjoyed this as it looped us round the back of the Wotton Estate and through Pasture Wood to Holmbury Village.

Onto Holmbury Hill proper via Car Park No. 9, we were soon climbing again. A steep slope early on quickly reduced me to walking for 50 yards. As Tony noted, that was something he’s never seen before!

Our last trail was Van Gogh’s Missing Ear, another that I enjoyed as we descended into Peaslake for lunch.

Lunch at Peaslake

Ah lunch! It couldn’t have come at a better time, I really needed the rest.

The Hurtwood Inn was very busy – thank goodness Lloyd had booked us a table. Service did not involve the words ‘prompt’ or in Reece’s case, ‘accurate’ but the food was good, the beer was good and having hit our lunch time schedule we had the rest of the day to ourselves.

As every cyclist knows, stopping for coffee inevitably results in cafe legs for the next mile or two while your legs warm up. In my case, I had ‘lunchtime blowout’ legs and really suffered for the next forty minutes, first on tarmac, then winching painfully slowly back up to the Ranmore ridge.

I was at risk of seeing my lunch, seeing stars or seeing the inside of an ambulance during the most laboured few miles of the year for me. It was grim.

Thankfully, every pedal turn was getting me closer to home.

Up on Ranmore we headed east up another long drag before starting on the Sawmill trail. We have recently rediscovered the attraction of this, having preferred Sauvage for a long time. I enjoyed riding it in daylight for a change although the day was drawing on.

At the bottom, after a period of regrouping where at least I wasn’t last, we headed for Sheepleas.

Nearly home

This necessitated another punchy climb and more anguish for me, but the Sheepleas woods have a nice flow to them despite limited technical challenge. We popped out near the country house where they film the TV series ‘Ghosts’ and from there headed over to the back of Effingham past all the posh houses.

By now it was full lights and the temperature had dipped below freezing.

Our reward was the Queen Stage pub for final drinks, with the group splitting for those with family duties.

I was ready for a kip after the days effort but was very happy to stop for a drink with the remaining Moles. The rest of us seemed to be in in the same boat, so an hour later we headed for home. This is not the first time we’ve been too tired to drink after a Christmas ride.

Maybe next time we should get home, get freshened up/snooze, then reconvene? Although we might get stuck at the snooze part!

At the end

I really enjoyed my day of suffering. Once again, it’s a lovely way to mark the year end and acknowledge the good company, the many good rides (and much good beer) we’ve had over the course of the year.

This time round, I had 32 miles on the clock when I got home and truthfully was feeling pretty used up. At least I have an obvious objective for the start of 2026..!