South Downs Way, 15-16th September 2007 Eastbourne to Winchester from my perspective You can click the images for full res versions You can download all the picture in a zip file here (63.4MB) People involved David Staples - Support + some sections Raoul Nardin - 25 miles only Alex Hay - 35 miles of South Downs Way / Support 2nd Day Bill Baldock - Completed Paul Taylor - Completed Kit Wong - Completed Chris Reeves (me) - Completed The journey was obviously weeks in preparation, and all I had prepared for was getting to the start point, and made sure we could get back home after the ride, so well done David for organising the difficult bit. Thursday 13th Thursday evening we fitted some new forks, a new disc and a new brake caliper to Alex's Bike, go for a quick ride locally. We jammed the bikes into the back of a friend's van, went for a ride and thus finished Alex's pre-ride preparation (I personally hadn't done any training before the ride, but ride on a regular basis for fun anyway). When I got my bike out of the van at home, I found the end of my brake lever had fractured. Thursday night I super-glued it back on and let it set overnight Friday 14th I woke up at 5:30am so that I could add araldite to my bit of broken off brake lever as I had spent the whole night worrying about it. I then cycled round with all my backpack, tent, work stuff etc. to my friend Paul who lives in the village, who also works at Fabers in Witham and gives me a lift. After a full day at work, we left at 5pm, and got the train down to Eastbourne. This involved riding to Witham station to London, cycling through London from Liverpool Street to London Bridge, with huge rucksacks whilst carrying a map, mapreading and overtaking traffic! We had a quick stop at Evans cycles to get some lights for Alex as we had wrecked his in Danbury the night before. I only had a set of tiny single LED lights to allow me to be seen! Alex on the train from Witham We managed to get our bikes and gear onto the train at London Bridge...which was at the peak of commuting time, and the train was very crowded (and the departure board was very difficult to read too). However we managed to get on the train and squash everything in with bikes on the train to East Croydon. We got off the train at East Croydon, by getting everyone off the train first and chucking everything out!! Then we waited for our transfer train to Eastbourne, which got cancelled....so we had to get an ammended route train ...so an extra 30 minute unplanned wait followed, along with some expensive food bought at the station to keep us going.! We chatted to another cyclist on the train, and had 3 bikes crammed in a 2 bike parking space. Me on the train to Eastbourne Alex on the train to Eastbourne Got to Eastbourne at around 21:00, latest time for getting to campsite was 21:00, but I phoned beforehand and they were very understanding and nice and allowed us to arrive later. On the ride through Eastbourne, we stopped at a tesco express for tea (Pasta and pringles!), and rode onto the campsite. Said hello and setup our tents... we had to mend Alex's tent poles with my insulating tape as one of the poles had fractured. Once we were all setup and had eaten tea, we watched an episode of family guy on Alex's laptop...then we just crashed to sleep. Tent erecting Mine ready Alex setting up Saturday 15th Woke up at 06:30...started packing kindof and prodded Alex awake. I went and had a shower, came back and packed my stuff, whilst Alex had packed and went and had a shower. Bill and David met us at the campsite and took our large bags for us. We filled our camelbaks and attached saddlebags (I had mine upside down for 3/4 of the trip!!) and got generally ready. Packing in the morning Self timer photo Alex and I shot off to tesco to get breakfast and some supplies for the trip, Bill and David headed off to the train station to meet everyone else. My mistake at tesco was to buy alpinie light bars...which when we want calories was a mistake! Anyway we ate half breakfast and went down to the train station. Met everyone else and started riding. At the station The group We found the start of the trail...a couple of us had maps! This started with a monster climb, but at the top we were greeted with some lovely jumps and steep drops which I had a quick play with (Paul had a quick go too). A bit further up the hill I had a spin around a water circular thing. Bill had popped back to the station to pick up his glasses, and caught us up again further up the hill. Eastbourne in the background Rest stop Me at the rest stop The trail went on for a while, we followed it up and down lots of steep hills. Alex trailed at the back up hills, but shot down them. The descent's were amazing and almost made up for getting up the hills. Some of the riding at speed was challenging, and zooming past walkers at about 25mph on loose flint is quite fun!! Our average speed however was quite slow due to keep on stopping and re-grouping. The journey for this bit mostly went with my speeding off ahead to the next gate, opening it, waiting for everyone to get through, close the gate, overtake everyone and speed off, open the next gate, wait for everyone to get through, close gate, overtake everyone, etc. etc. Riding along Just past a gate Riding along Resting Bike holding gate Re-grouping Trig Pillar Group Riding Alex riding Lunch time...well Raoul and Bill carried on the trail and ate a bit further up the road, Paul, Alex, Kit and myself decided to go off the trail by about 50 metres and have some food from a burger van! That was well worth it as I was quite hungry!! Food Stop Raring to go... Off in the distance Artistic Shot Uphill.. Uphill.... We caught up with Bill and Raoul, met David at the top of a hill, and progressed a bit further. Alex then got some loose wheelnuts, so phoned me, so I went back down the trail, grabbed his spanner and did them back up for him. We all re-grouped at a car park where David had left his car. By this time, Raoul had had enough. Alex due to not having done as much cycling as the rest of us, felt like dropping out, but decided to carry on for at least the next bit, so I pressed on ahead with Alex,so that everyone could catchup and Alex wasn't slowing the group down. We zoomed along some downhill, I think because I was going fast, the local cyclist in front of me was trying to push himself, and he kept getting his line wrong and almost falling over as he got caught in a large long rutt! We reached the crossing point for the South Downs way, and asked some cyclist where to go for the rest of the trail....they sent us in the wrong direction!! However, when we realised, we were at the bottom of a hill, so we carried on a bit and met some nice walkers with a map. We weren't far off route and headed back to the South Downs Way. I memorised the map...but thought it was a different scale...and er we once again overshot our turning...in my defence, the sign was hidden by a bush. So we er did about 4 miles in total going essentially nowhere and losing time. Stupidly hidden sign Frantic phone calls and trying to get back on route ensued as neither alex or myself had a map! We got back on the south Downs Way and cycled 2 miles to the next road. Alex decided when he met David, he was going to bail as he was in agony. I really wanted to complete the ride, and with only 1.25 hours of daylight left and 15 miles to go, I decided to press on alone despite having 2 of the largest hills to climb. When we met David, I learnt that Kit, Bill and Paul were hoping to get to the campsite by 7:30...just after sunset. I took a map, a bit of food, and Alex's front light (so glad he just bought a decent one!). On our detour The last 15miles I did flat out and it was the most challenging bit of the ride. I blitzed up the hills somehow, only pushed the bike up one where I couldn't get it to grip! Absolutely bombed it down the hills despute falling light levels and made some good progress on the road section of the South Downs Way. By 7pm I had 6 miles to Washington (campsite that night and that day's finishing point)...I had just averaged 9mph including the hills! Fast riding Another sign I overshot However I then afterwards got a bit lost as I missed another sign hidden in the bushes, and then rode back to find it. All the time I had made up through fast cycling had been lost, and I was getting tired now. It was getting quite dark now too. I had my lights on to be seen, but it didn't light up the trail enough to go fast...had to rely on er educated judgement. Due to falling light levels, I also had to stop at everything that looked like a sign and point a torch towards it. I even rode over a barbed wire fence in the dark that was laid flat on the ground because I was looking for a sign. Luckily I didn't get a puncture. A bit more riding in the dark later and by 8:25 I had reached the road. I phoned up to get directions to the campsite and whizzed down the road. Full ish pelt inside the campsite, and David had even already put up my tent. That was the most challenging part of the ride... Night Riding Knackered, I had a shower, setup my stuff and went to join the others in the pub. The meal was good, and by the time we wondered back, we were ready to sleep! Sunday 16th Sunday started off late compared to the 6:30 start on Saturday. It was quite a cold night, and I had left the side of the inner of my tent open...lucky the rest of my equipment is decent too and I wasn't cold! Gradually everyone got up and pack their stuff away. David shot off to get some milk, and breakfast consisted of coffee from the coffee machine and museli. Tents Tents and bikes... Our tents We set off around 9:15 ish and the pace was better than Saturday despite everyone being knackered. We made quite good time for the first 15 or so miles, were we met Alex in Cocking, and David was meant to be riding up the South Downs Way the opposite direction, but we missed him. Either way the day was again me opening and closing gates and overtaking everyone several times over! Bill Paul Steep Decent Then a few times after long decents and some twisty singletrack I got quite far ahead. I waited for a while for Kit, Paul and Bill to catch up, which was normally 5 minutes, but one of these times, I started getting cold, so after a quick chat with some hikers on the South Downs Way I decided to press on following the signs because I was getting cold. This was a mistake as I missed the next sign and carried on following bridleway signs instead. Waiting at a sign Where everyone else was The track ahead Decisions... I got about 2 or 3 miles off route before I gave in and turned back. A few phone calls later to David and basically I would catch everyone up, don't worry about me. I got back on the South Downs Way, looked at a map from some nice walkers I met on the way (I was going to meet everyone at a pub where they had stopped for Lunch slightly off the South Downs Way), and found out that had I followed my rough sense of direction, I would have got back on the South Downs Way as I was on a route parallel to it anyway! Nevermind, I just pressed on ahead up some very steep hills...had to push my bike up one, and slide down the other side!! A few phone calls later and I would meet Alex and David to pickup some food and supplies, and carry on the route, time wise we were pushing it to complete it in a day as we had 57 miles to do. Another stupid sign Down Beacon Hill I met Alex and David, wolfed down a BLT sandwich, took some snack bars and some bannana's, then the rest of the team turned up. We had a quick chat, and I expressed how pushed we were for time. David and Alex decided to join us for some of the ride, and we started pushing. The pace from now really picked up as we had 30 miles to do and it was about 2pm. The last 15 miles or so were gruelling for everyone. One of the hills everyone had to push their bike up (except me, but I was spinning like mad in my lowest gear, and only going about 0.0005 mph faster than people walking up it!). The hill to walk Steep hill Scenery Getting nearer to winchester, the route split off into walking and bridleway route on the signs, but the book only showed the walking way. We decided to take the bridleway route as it looked like it followed a contour, and it was on the road which meant we could make up time. We carefully looked for the signs and went speeding on the roads down the hills and along some bridleways! Pause.... Getting dirty... Quick walk! We managed to spot all the signs and followed them, although somehow we managed to finish on the footpath route, and had to pick up the bikes over the top of a cycle proof gate. Don't know how we managed that, we followed the signs! Then we realised we were in Winchester! We let Bill lead as he had been to Winchester before and we followed our nose...and the general downhill direction to the statue. Here we were greeted by Alex, David, and Alex's parents (who were giving me a lift home). Not far to go Thus endeth the journey. We took pictures, said out farewelles and went out seperate ways after grabbing out gear back...but all obviously quite tired! Paul, Kit, Bill and David went to the pub for a celebratory pint, and Alex's parents loaded my bike onto their roof rack and we started heading back. I arrived home at midnight after a nice pub meal on the way home, and being asleep in the car! it was a good fun trip. Survivors The full team The finishing statue Dirty bikes The lift home The dirt If I am with Faber Maunsell next year, I am very very likely to plan this trip, possibly in association with Loughborough Students Cycling club. I will have a pre-programmed GPS, OS annotated maps, guides, support van, planned itenery with times and other things that have been learnt from this trip. Also, taking a bike on a train during rush hour on a friday is not nice, so hopefully we can do the trip over a bank holiday next time. I hear that some people are quite keen to do this...I will send out an e-mail some time in June 2008. If you're interested, you can always contact me.