It's the Sunday of a four day Easter weekend and with the weather the best in living memory (the temp hit a whopping 29 degrees celsius yesterday) four of us meet at the LOMAC to brave the London smog for a good old fashioned cross-country mile-muncher.

But first up I spot something strange about Rob's appearance. No, no, not the wifebeater and faded tattoo. Look a bit lower (no lower than that) yes it's his socks. Or rather it's some paper towels which he has wrapped around his feet having discovered he had left his socks at home. Hmmm... let's see how they last.

Onto Stane Street which is baked hard like concrete and we follow this for a couple of miles until we spot a rider heading in the opposite direction who turns out to be none other than Davebus out for a sneaky rehabilitation ride. He claims that he wouldn't have been able to keep up with us for the whole ride but stil manages to slip into the conversation that he has just done a sub-10 minute climb up the Boxhill flint track.

We say our goodbyes and after a while take a right turn down 'Little Switzerland' to finish on the King Bill pub steps.

Across the A24 and we take the easy climb up to Norbury Park utilising the road instead of the leg-burning climb up to the radio tower. Into the woods and as I'm struggling as to which direction to take. I stop to think about which way we should be heading and topple over as I am unable to unclip from my SPD's which raises much laughter from the other three as they all try to grab a camera to catch me on the ground. But that's why I always carry the camera

A schoolboy error I know but my excuse is that instead of my usual MP66 shoes I am wearing my 2001 dated Specialized disco slippers with extremely worn cleats dated circa 2004 and so they don't disengage as well as normal.

I decide to take the more interesting route which turns out to be a deer trail and after crashing through various sets of undergrowth and then following some circuitous paths we arrive at the viewpoint and descend via Druid's Grove to bring us back down to the A24 where I check my Blackberry to remind myself which route we were planning on taking.

With memory refreshed and after a brief discussion we cross the main road and then up Boxhill and with Davebus's sub-10 minutes ringing loud in our ears we decide to take on the challenge. I take the lead but am soon passed by Rob but I'm feeling strong and latch onto his 29 inch rear wheel as he surges ahead and we drop Adam and Mark who seems to be struggling in the heat.

Rob sets a strong pace but I'm sticking with him even if it does hurt more than normal and I even feel able to grab my camera and take a shot on the hoof. Adam also digs in and leaves Mark behind as he closes the gap to us and the three of us complete the climb in a respectable 9 minutes 10 seconds. Mark trails in later looking bedraggled and we sit outside a crowded NT cafe making loud comments about where were all these fookers in January?

We seem to have had a great ride so far but Rob confirms that we've only covered 22k (less than 14 miles) and so we head off inot the woods again avoiding the parents out for an Easter Egg hunt with their kiddies and down China Pig. Left at the road and then right up onto Stane Street again and I'm struggling to think which way we need to head to get to Headley Heath. Adam comes to the rescue and points us onto Mickleham Down and from there we head through 'Life on Mars' onto the Heath. Avoiding Secret Singletrack which apparently has another Easter Egg hunt going down we head onto the North Downs way and pause at Colley Hill for a maintenance break and a few photo opportunities.

Acrosws the M25 bridge and onto the Walton Heath golf course singletrack and then head towards the lovely narrow rutted trail which takes us down parallel to Ebbisham Lane. But disaster! They have resurfaced it and it's now a four foot wide gravel trail which is a really disappointing ride.

Left at the bottom and climb up Langley Vale and then right along the bridleway and we are almost home. The fast rooty descent back into Ashtead and I somehow manage to whack the rim of my rear tyre against a large root and instantly recognise that feeling of a slow puncture (yup, I was standing not sitting down). But I carry on and we say our farewell's at Ashtead having covered a respectable 42k (26 miles) before Mark and I head back towards New Malden and Ewell respectively with me nursing my rapidly fading rear tyre for another 5 miles. A quick pause for a top up with the pump and I'm home having added 16k to my total which now stands at 58k for the day. And I still have another day off before I need to go back to work; excellent!