Our first long bike ride of the year coincided with the hottest day of the year (so far) so we decided to leave Ifield at 7:30 and headed towards the town centre via the subway in The Dingle and Ifield Road, stopping for a few photos in town before making our way past the Mall and along Haslett Avenue to Russell Way for our first pit stop.

Suitably refreshed, we coasted down Tilgate Drive and crossed the railway into Maidenbower using the tunnel at the back of Norwich Road in Furnace Green, passing the site of Blackwater Forge before tackling the steep slope of The Bower up to Worth Way. On arriving at Church Road, in Worth, we left Worth Way and instead turned left and then headed along Turners Hill Road, across the motorway before taking the left hand turn into The Old Hollow for another downhill coast, whilst watching out for pot holes!

Approximately half way along the Old Hollow we turned right onto the bridleway that leads to Rowfant Mill pond - the site of another former 16th century forge, and laterly a mill. After another pitstop, we doubled back on ourselves and headed back a little way before turning north onto a pleasant public foopath round the edge of some fields and through Copthorne Wood (and with no styles!), eventually emerging at Copthorne Hotel.

Our next stage was planned to follow the footpath across Heathy Ground and over the motorway, taking us to the Steers Lane/Balcombe Road junction, but having crossed the A264 we discovered that this path was closed, so we retraced our steps and used the Copthorne Road to Ridleys Corner and then cycled along the Balcombe Road to get back on track.