If so, shouldn't you be getting some sleep? 😆

Weather forecast is looking alright-ish at the moment, so hopefully it should be another good one. I can almost taste that full English already!

in did this. it was great. possibly the best ride i've ever been on..

did anyone else do it ?

I've done it a couple of times,

1st year was great, and was really looking forward to doing it again,

2nd year was one of my all time cycling low points, lying exhausted under the side of a boat in the rain, freezing cold / tired / hungry and too exhausted to join the huge queue for food. (some nice mates got me some sausage rolls that were amazing!) And then having to fight / queue / wait to get a space for my bike in the lorry back to london. Maybe I'm not suited to road riding, but I found the worst battle wasn't fitness it was a fatigue / boredom that set in at about 3am,

Like I said the first time was good though, so maybe it was a weather thing?

Did it in 96, it was OK – except for having Essex bwoys driving past us and throwing full bottles of beer at us, then coming back for another go for about 45 minutes on the far side of Epping.

Was a good ride.

Decided not to wait for the coach though and get the train. This turned out to be a nightmare as we all got thrown off the train by the police as the driver was having a H&S paddy and I quote "a bad day". Had to cycle and extra 20 to Ipswich to the mainline station.

Had a big old barn owl fly next to me for a while though…that made up for it.

I did it as well on my SS road bike (there's another thread on it somewhere).

Set out about 8pm (earlier than I have in the past) with a big group of Dulwich Paragon riders but we got split in the huge melee of riders leaving and it ended up in various fractured groups although we met up more or less by chance on the road later on. Averaged over 18mph out through London to the village hall feed station which was fine as we were some of the first people there = no queue! 🙂

My better half and I then spilt off and just rode at our own pace although we still did about 16-17mph or so through the night getting to the beach about 4.30am. Nice breakfast, went to sleep on the beach for a while then rode to where she'd cunningly parked her car the night before. 🙂

I liked it but I've done it several times before and knew what to expect – she went through a bad patch at about the 90-100 mile mark. Saw a couple of barn owls, loads of bats, it was nice weather and a helpful tailwind.

I loved it.

If anyone is interested I have written a ride report here –

http://tinyurl.com/3xfjzqy

great write up tobyho, i'm really tempted to give it a go next year

I've done it three years in a row now. Last two with a vehicle waiting at the end. The only way to do it! The bus is AWFUL

Last two with a vehicle waiting at the end. The only way to do it!

Having your house waiting at the end* is pretty good too 🙂

*Well, another 15 miles up the coast anyway

Oh, good thinking MrGreedy. I guess I'm just not that committed 🙂

I also don't like the cafe at the end. I still remember the fry I had there last year, and it almost puts me off ever eating a fry… Ever again.

I also didn't do it on the bike I wanted to this year (vintage steel racer), and ended up on my tourer, so basically I have to go back next year *sigh*

@Zuke, was that second time the year of continuous rain? I wasn't there but I've heard _all_ about it…

tobyho, great write up. You must have been very close to us, the timings are all very similar, we were amongst the first in the village hall at about midnight, think we were at the beach about 4.35-4.40.

Yep. We were very close. We got the beach at 04.50..

And yes the food in the cafe was not so good. You would think they could have changed the oil in the fryers for their biggest day of the year.

And thanks for the compliments on the write up. It was a much edited version from our proper group ride report.

This turned out to be a nightmare as we all got thrown off the train by the police as the driver was having a H&S paddy and I quote "a bad day".

I saw on one of the bikeradar forums that the issue with the train was caused by some body on a bike(doesn't seem to actually be associated with the ride) spitting on the guard, at which point, fairly enough, the guard threw his toys out the pram and had all the bikes off other than the first 4 that he *has* to carry.

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12718160