Planning on doing the whole south downs way tomorrow, being meaning to try doing it for a while, and finally succumbed to the madness..

Planning my food, but laying it out it looks like rather a lot…

I have a nice Mrs Zukemonster meeting me a Devils Dyke for a pit stop and food drop, but how much should I bring?

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Also any other advice greatly appreciated..

hmm flickr seems to have changed, can't work out how to link a picture from there, or at least its not working..

well, if you allow 8 hours to the Dyke then it depends if you use gels/energy drinks – if not I'd say it was a 3 malt loaf ride to get there and 2 for the last bit – maybe 2 and 1 with gels.

Oh, and it's raining near Brighton now so it should damp the dust down a bit for you.

Its raining in Shoreham at the moment! Its a westerly wind and its meant to be sunny tomoz, i did it in just under 13 hrs but my misses met me at Dichling Beacon with supplies. Take the normal energy bars/gels/bananas and if you go on the SDW site there`s a list of where you can get water on route.

Good Luck.

yes the weather looks perfect for tomorrow, a nice clear day with a following wind.

I'm aiming at 13 hrs too,

was thinking a large malt loaf, stack of flapjacks 6 gels and probably a cheese sandwich to get me to Devils dyke, but looking at them on the table, it seems like a lot (heavy).

I'm ok on water stops for the brighton- eastbourne bit. Anybody know exactly where the tap is at QEP? or Cocking

http://www.bikedowns.co.uk/Water%20taps.htm

there are cafes at QE2 park and Amberley, and you drop down into Alfriston with shops.

there's pies and pasties in Alfriston. There's a cafe at Seddlescombe Farm (just East of the Dyke) now if you wanted soemwhere to have a cup of tea with your wife.

Raining in Lewes.

It'll be interesting up there if this keeps up.

flash floods in Uckfield Tim;

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/8312337.Flooding_causes_traffic_chaos_across_Sussex/

[Edit] although I can't believe that blokes lavender was worth including…

QECP tap on wall on left of gift shoppe/ visitor center. You might have to open a wooden gate, i think its signed deliveries or park manager.
Take a set of maps. Peanuts or Cashews , you can compress you malt loafs under something heavy. They will go down to 1" thick, stil yummy and more carryable. jelly Babies and Tangfastics, chewing gum to freashen your mouth.
Ibuprofen tablets,
lights if you are going before 0530

Blimey, I'm south of that load of water. Best get the boat out and go get the boy from nursery.

"staff at the St James's and St Paul's Hospice charity shop told The Argus the water has ruined much of its stock. "

It was donations FFS.

👿

Perfect day for it too . Weather will be warm but not hot, Mostly around 20'C. The wind will start light North Westerly, then slowly increase and swing through westerly, then eventually South Westerly, up to around 15 mph late afternoon. This is a near perfect strength as will get the most help in the afternoon. Light cloud cover and no rain forcast , although we had horrendous downpours this afternoon in Winchester.
Got to brew otherwise i would do a section with you
Good luck, you should be fine. Walk most of the hlls, roll all the rollable bits and eat more than you want , more often than you want to.

My SDW double write up is here: CLICKY LINK

At the bottom there's a lost of what I ate, which was spaced evenly over the ride. Eat little and often; I started eating within the first 30mins.

Hope that's useful

Rob Dean

Tap at Cocking is on the East of the A286 road crossing. Down the very fast and now smoooth farm track, out past cow sheds and cross road. Tarmac climb to farm and wood yard, tap is on right hand side set into a stone cairn .
More tap info and gpx down loads on SouthDownsDouble webpage.-

http://www.southdownsdouble.net/routeinfo.html

The Botolphs tap was out of action last week ….

Thanks for all the advice guys 😉 Looking forward to it now.. Pack crammed full of malt loaf, gels and tangfastics. Tasty cheese, mustard and beetroot sandwich… (ye its good for me) bits set out to make in the (very early) morning.

Thanks for the pointers on the taps. I did a big chunk or the SDW last year and I missed nearly all the water stops!

Fingers crossed the floods will be gone, but the forcast is looking good still

oooohh you did the double in 18hrs on single speed, I'll be happy if I get the single done in that time…

Will report progress tomorrow 😉

Very good day for it. Enjoy. I'm in Cuckmere Haven if you fancy a cuppa when your done!

Well? Success? Did you enjoy your grand day out? Will your legs ever be the same again?!!

C'mon Alex , Let us know you are still alive at least. even if the lure of beer at the Dyke was too much and you succumbed.

Ah sorry, thanks for checking on me…

Well it was good, but slow, left winchester at 5am, got into Eastbourne at bang on 8pm. So a proper 15 hrs. Didn't help getting lost several times which added on at least an hour to my time, but I was taking it easy and did 2x 30 min breaks at Amberley and Brighton. I followed my plan which was to take it slow and make sure I completed it!

Very dark patches between The Dyke and Ditchling, but I tagged along with a local (luckily quite slow) rider who kept me going. Also Mrs Z waiting at Ditchling with food and gels for me (and iburpofen gel) … moved me to tears!

Things to remember for next time

1. admiring the view is great but it might make you fall in a rut and really hurt…

2. some junctions don't have signposts…

3. If you want your gears to work later in the ride, best to stop the gates bashing into them as they close shut!

4. its a bit of a logistical nightmare, but if possible don't plan a road ride back to your car the next day… it will end in tears (or almost)

Actually I really enjoyed the ride, occasionally I had to remind myself of the fact, but unlike long road rides I have done, I really enjoyed it. I had no boredom set it at all which was great!

Thing I was really worried about was arse ache, but I thought about this, and focussed on staying out of the saddle wherever possible early in the ride, meaning it wasn't really an issue at all! Best bit was training back to brighton for beers and bbq on the beach afterwards and a cleansing dip in the sea. (apparently beer is a very good recovery drink at below 4%, so a brewer friend told me anyhow… )

Definitely up for another attempt, possibly with company as I know I can stay the course now.

You up for it Mr Singletrackmind?

Congratulations!

Glad to hear that you made it and enjoyed it, it's a great day out on the bike and I've always have a smile on my face from start to finish on the couple of occasions I've done it too.

Well done.

It's the one thing that I really want to do but i'm not really keen to do it on my own.
If you do plan to do it again and want company I'd be happy to join. With a bit of persuasion i'm sure Rob(singletrackmind) would give it another go.

Well done, not as easy as you think when you first set off is it 🙂

Well done Alex.
And you were faster than me every lap of the Big Dog last year. Mind you I didn't stop for an hour in total when I did it.
Picked up the Handjob today and will be fettling this evening.
The problem is we are running out of daylight. Big Dog next weekend, and the BBB the weekend after that.
Sod it , shall we pencil in the Wed / Thur /fri before the bank holiday weekend ( Steve , this OK with you? )
Its so weather dependant , I wouldnt do it if it was hosing down as it would be just grim. With a following wind and some cloud cover its not a bad ride, you just have to accept that you wil be out on the bike all day.

how many miles is it? sounds like a good ride

100 miles

So, to return to the original question…how much did you eat?

Rob, I have the last two weeks of August off so that would be perfect for me.

So, to return to the original question…how much did you eat?

Food, ate lots to be honest and it worked as I still had energy at the end.

Ate every 30 mins alternating between real food and gels. ( real food being malt loaf, cashews, bananas, flap jacks etc). Felt like a lot of food at the start but i soon worked my way through it.

Just as a question (and it is just a question because I know nothing about nutrition, solo epics etc): in the commentary of the TdF this year, I think it was mentioned that the guys only eat about 4-4500 calories a day. When you consider that they're riding balls out for hours and the average male consumption is only 2-2500 a day, that doesn't seem like very much.

So when you see a huge pile of energy gels etc does that add up to a huge amount of calories? Are we sure that that much energy is actually needed?

(Not a criticism – and not saying that the riders weren't hungry or didn't feel empty/the bonk/whatever and didn't need to eat).

When you consider that they're riding balls out for hours and the average male consumption is only 2-2500 a day, that doesn't seem like very much.

Was having a look at the live feeds from the TDF, these guys are super efficient machines, 22-27mph, HR at 95-110 burning next to no calories.

Not to be compared with normal humans.

I think they can cycle all day at just above my resting HR!