Wrestling The Octopus Eight Individual Roads Lead To The Top Of Surrey's Highest Peak. Simon Warren Rides Them All

Eight individual roads lead to the top of Surrey’s highest peak. Simon Warren rides them all

I’d ask my friends to come and see An octopus’s garden with me I’d like to be under the sea In an octopus’s garden in the shade Yes I know, it looks nothing like an octopus; no matter how hard you look at it, or from whatever angle, the tangled route of this ride has zero resemblance to the subaquatic cephalopod from which it draws its name. In the age of Strava art you may well have expected this to be a given, so sorry to disappoint. It does however have eight long tentacles, or arms as Octopus’s prefer they are called, that reach out from the car park at the top delving down into all corners of the woods surrounding Surrey’s highest point.

John Leitch, the creator of the route (a gpx file of which is available on the leithhilloctopus website), initially wanted to build the ultimate hilly sportive, but, put off by the costs involved, decided instead to run a simple reliability trial and after inviting a bunch of mates, the Octopus was born.

My prep for the ride had on paper been less than perfect, as the day before I’d ridden round Snowdonia for seven hours followed by a five-hour drive to Dorking, wolfed down a crappy Burger King (with extra nuggets) at a service station on the M6 and was in bed for midnight. Fully expecting to wake up feeling like a zombie, I was surprised how fresh I felt and how good my legs appeared to be — I made a note to do that prep more often.

After a breakfast of a packet of sandwiches, a banana and some melon in a garage forecourt, I met Dan the photographer and we had a good, close look at the route. I’d taken the effort to print it out and highlighted the course but from above it just looked like I’d dropped a load of string on the map. Dan is local, though, so said he knew where to go and everything would be just fine. With all confidence in him I let him have a head start so he could set up the first shot, and got ready to ride.