Solo mission, Shoreham to Eastbourne

Decided to do a solo run from Shoreham to Eastbourne, to see what average speed I could achieve whilst riding on my own - after all, the Randonnee will pretty much have everyone split up throughout the majority of it's length. I set off quite about fairly early in the morning, riding my normal route up the Downs Link Trail to the South Downs Way, and turning right on to the SDW.

I did cheat *slightly* by starting my GPS once I'd go on to the Downs Link Trail, rather than the South Downs Way, knowing full well that this would be a good thing for my average speed, as this section of the SDW starts on a hill ; )

I did use the lap counter on my GPS quite a lot throughout the ride, but of course, now I've forgotten which points used it - they were at various points such as Ditchling Beacon, the junction with the A27 etc, but didn't serve much purpose without remembering which was which.

True to form, there were a few mishaps, the first involving getting hit by a golf ball at Pyecombe Golf Course - I was riding with my head down, concentrating intensely, when it landed smack bang in the middle of the top of my left thigh - there wasn't a warning in terms of a shout or anything, and I could have written a Guide to Modern English Swearing Vocabulary with the torrent of foul language that (quite rightfully, I thought) spouted forth in the direction of the group of four golfers from whom the ball had come.

Feeling I wasn't getting much in the way of an apology, and that my average could potentially suffer if I stopped for too long, I went on my way, at numerous points having to stop for horse riders.

I got to Southease with an average of 8.7 mph - absolutely chuffed with myself, but not satisfied, and aiming for Eastbourne. I lost about .5mph on the slow ascent to the top of the hill above Southease, having also topped up my hydration pack, but got it back to 8.6 or so my the time I got to Alfriston. By the time I'd stocked up on food and filled my hydration pack again, I was down to about 8.2, so I went on my merry way, not looking particularly forward to the oncoming slog back up another rather large hill.

Things went fine from here, making good time down to Jevington, and then back up the final hill to the golf course from which you can see Eastbourne. All in all, this was a great ride, albeit a bit lonely, but with some sweet stats - 7.9mph average over 40.01 miles, time was 5h:2m:48s. That's an improvemtn of 1.3mph over my previous best, riding with Will.

I always enjoy rolling back in to Eastbourne town centre to catch the train, and as luck had it, I only waited 20 minutes for next train back to Brighton, which gave me a good chance to stretch etc.

Shoreham to Southease

D and I decided to go for a ride, ending up arranging to meet at Devils Dyke and riding as far towards Eastbourne as we could. Unfortunately, I forgot how far it was from Lancing, and left with about half an hour to get 7 miles!

Needless to say, I was slightly late, but once I got there, we set off in the direction of Eastbourne, not necessarily aiming to end up there, but at least for D to learn the section of the SDW between Ditchling Beacon and Southease, as he'd never ridden this section before.

The ride went well, apart from D's hayfever playing up slightly; this was the cause of stopping off at Southease to head back home. All in all a good ride, not entirely sure of the pace because I'd forgotten to charge my GPS, and D's speedo only measures your average speed whilst moving, not whilst having a break. Distance was about 25 miles though.

Winchester to Chichester MTB Ride

Some of the guys and I decided that not knowing the full route of the South Downs Way just two months away from the Randonnee was not, strictly speaking, a good thing. So it was agreed that we should get the train down to Winchester and ride back as far as we could.

I'm writing this a bit later than I normally would have, so can't remember the exact details of the weather, but i thik it stayed sunny most of the day - I have the tanlines to prove it too!

Having disembarked the train, we made our way to the start of the South Downs Way, both following signs and asking people. The route did branch off before it went off-road, with us going right - I thought this was a mistake at the time, but the sign wasn't that clear so it could have been either. It turns out that the way we went did lead to the SDW, but to the "footpath" bit, which I understand is not technically legal for bikes to use, so next time we do it, we're going to go the other way.

The South Downs Way at the Winchester end is great, in short - quite flowing and with shallow hills - superb. There are a few bigger hills; the first is one of the highest points on the whole route, but overall, it's a lot easier to ride than the other end.

The first mishap resulted from me going straight ahead from the correct South Downs Way, through a forested section, and turning left. After about a mile, we stopped to ask a fellow biker which fork was the South Downs Way, and he said we'd gone about a mile past it. After sheepishly backtracking, we realised that the SDW goes back on itself about 300 degrees just before said gate, and is not signposted - a very harsh trap.

After a while, the SDW goes on to road, where it stays for quite a few miles, staying quite flat, which is great.

After getting back on track, we carried on pretty smoothly, stopping off (for way too long) at what I think was the Queen Elizabeth Country Park, about 20 miles in, where we ate ice cream, bought copious amounts of water, refilled our camelbaks and had a rest. Once we'd set off, I realised I had lost some air from my rear tyre, so I stoppedd to pump it up. After descending qute a large hill, and going in to a forested section, the tyre was going down again, so I decided to change the inner tube.

This was a bit of an arse - it took about half hour to fix this one (there wasa a lot of chatting going on too) and I also had to pump it up further down the road. From here there was more road section, and the route is not exactly clear in my memory, but what I can say is that the hill down to the A286 which leads to Chichester was a very welcome sight. Really can't remember the ride stats but I think they were between 6 and 7 mph average, only bought above 6 by us absolutely caining it down the A286 to Chichester. This was due to me getting us lost, the long rest and the puncture, so not great. Still, I now know the whole of the SDW, which is a big relief.

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