Sam Jones sees if he can find a new way to link up the ancient and modern trails around the famous Surrey Hills.

WORDS SAM JONES

PHOTOGRAPHY ROB SPANRING

Some days everything comes together. The sun shines, the trail suits notoriously fussy Goldilockses (not too dusty, not too tacky), the company’s great and the route is, well, classic. Without meaning to sound too much of a smug git, this jaunt into the Surrey Hills was just that – and a great reunion with pal and colleague Robby Spanring.

We’d both booked the day off several weeks in advance and, with a track record for picking the worst days to ride, we’d been prepared for monsoons, not sunburn. From gales and torrential rain up in Cape Wrath to borderline freezing conditions in a late summer Surrey, we’re pretty ace at choosing our riding windows badly. But whatever happens, Robby keeps smiling – the man’s a bottomless well of optimism and goodwill and that rubs off. In good company, it doesn’t matter what weather or problems you face. A feeling tugs at your soul saying ‘We had a good time, didn’t we?’ and you can’t help but nod as you let time smudge out the negative and preserve the positive. Those trips are grand, but it’s definitely good not to have to go through that all the time!

The lockdown beard competition was fierce

You have legs? 

Riding with a friend who for the past year has largely been a 2D pair of shoulders, arms and head, frequently disrupted by rubbish Wi-Fi connection, was pretty exciting –a bit like the day before a big trip: giddy excitement, nervous energy, questioning your ability… Which wasn’t helped knowing Robby had gone and hired an e-MTB, because of an apparent ‘mechanical’. Meeting him at Pilgrim Cycles in Westhumble I wasn’t sure whether his grin was more for our meeting again or knowing he had a little electrical assist and I’d be playing catch up was hard to say – probably a bit of both.

Originally from Dorset, before I moved here, my knowledge of Surrey’s mark on the cycling map was the

asphalt zigzags of Box Hill and the Olympics. Fortunately, upon making it my home several years ago, I met local couple, Julie and Roland, who’d ridden the Surrey trails since the ’80s, and they soon put me right. Ideally, they’d have been along too, but this was the age of ‘you can only exercise with one other person not from your household or bubble’.