South Downs Way Triple attempt starting shortly.

Richard Sterry starting out on 300+ miles and more than 30,000ft of climbing at about 8 this morning. Been brought forward due to weather forecast for the weekend.

@hillburner and hash tag #SD3 on twitter.

at least the wind’s dropped off a bit this morning 🙂

Wow…. that’s gonna be a hell of a 30+ hour ride that. !!!

‘legburner’ would be a better twitter name for this ride, I think 😉

That’s very silly.

😯 😯 😯 😯

At what point do we get to question his mental health????

That’s SERIOUSLY impressive

Excellent, go for it.

Why?

Nutter!

Why?

because it’s there?

there’s a bloke less than 1000km from a world record bicycle circumnavigation. Why? Because he wanted to.

people doing stuff that I don’t understand or want to do myself is not a bad thing in itself is it?

progress can be tracked live here (assuming his battery holds out!);

http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/60289217

wwaswas. I understand doing challenges but riding the same piece of trail 3 times seems odd / lacking in imagination. Why not ride a longer / different trail?

I guess because in the South East (or maybe England) there aren’t that many 300 mile long bits of bridleway that only require the odd road crossing but not much more in the way of tarmac?

Also, it’s a progression: SDW in a day was a major challenge for ‘early’ mtbers, then the double was done and then it was done faster.

It’s a recognised route, one that people aspire to ride, setting the ‘target’ at the next level isn’t a bad thing.

My experience of the South Downs is you can ride the same route more than once, but it’s never the same twice.

[edit] I think it’s one of those things you either ‘get’ or ‘don’t get’ I’m not going to try and justify someones elses choice of route and personal challenge any further.

Does he have a target time?

How long before the first sub-24 triple?!

TJ, why do the three peaks when you could just go up Everest. FFS the SDW is a known quantity people use the double as a reference to set themselves against others.

I understand doing challenges but riding the same piece of trail 3 times seems odd / lacking in imagination. Why not ride a longer / different trail?

I was kind of thinking along the same lines. The SDW makes sense as a double, but three times does make seem like he’s on the wrong route.

It’s an impressive ride without a doubt and one he should be proud of but a triple doesn’t really capture the imagination.

My experience of the South Downs is you can ride the same route more than once, but it’s never the same twice.

I ride on them every day to get to work and then again to get home and I never get bored. 300 miles non stop though does seem like a very tough mental as well as physical challenge.

Thats insane, i love it. His average speed would suggest 36 hours of riding. Is the eastbourne bit slow or is this the kidn of speed hes gonna pace at the whole ride?

wwaswas. I understand doing challenges but riding the same piece of trail 3 times seems odd / lacking in imagination. Why not ride a longer / different trail?

Maybe it’s a really long ‘bleep test’??

🙄

DrP

9-10 mph is a fairly reasonable average, ime, it’s a bit lumpy at the Eastbourne end too.

He’s aiming for 36 hoursish, I think.

TJ, if you dont get it, dont bother posting on this particular thread. Leave it for those who do get it.

Go and start another one please. With respect, your not the sort of person who is likely to be persuaded that this is a good challange / idea 🙂

I managed to do only 85 miles of it and that took me 11 hours !

“He’s aiming for 36 hoursish, I think.”

Is that without stopping for sleep and stuff?

Trimix – au contraire – I get doing “challenges” but merely queried why riding the same bit of trail 3 times was the chosen one here.

good luck to him, just doing it one way was challenging enough, shall watch with interest and hope he achieves it.

Not sure I could do 30 miles! Good luck to the freak man 😉

Only hit 24mph going down South Ease 🙄

Good luck to him. I’ll be watching and (virtual) cheering online.

I like these things. Mike Hall’s almost home, Tour Divide (Fixie dave Nice is already ITTing it from South to North) kicks off soon and Aidan’s EWE race is next month.

Trimix – au contraire – I get doing “challenges” but merely queried why riding the same bit of trail 3 times was the chosen one here.

you’ve done a 24 hr event before?

Good luck to him. Anybody know how many gates that’ll be? 😀

Why do it 3 times?

I would guess its because it’s going one better than what been done before. I don’t doubt in years to come that someone will do the double double. It’s what people do always strive to go one better than what has been done before.

Who’s going to do the battery pit stop for his phone, or is it some other device tracking him.

The run at the start of May was quite an impressive time! Although he quite obviously has a thing for doing dull routes ie repeating the same trail.

you’ve done a 24 hr event before?

Yeah, they’re daft too 😀
I get TJs point.
Richard’s ride is going to be really impressive in athletic achievement, but to me, and really want to emphasises the ‘me’ bit, isn’t very inspirational. But as it’s not his purpose in life to inspire me, that’s not meant as a complaint in any form and I hat’s off to him attempting it!!
I guess it reminds me of people who do an Ironman, then a double-ironman, then a tripple, then a decca. It seems like going on holiday to the same place each year but for longer.
Which is also fine.

Daisy Duke off here did a double last year. He was hoping for a sub 24 but a couple of tumbles and a problem with his lights meant he missed it by about an hour IIRC.

Top effort though 😀

It seems like going on holiday to the same place each year but for longer.

My sister does that and she is definitely weird.

Full respect to him, it may not be the most interesting terrain etc and doing it three times over seems insane, but as others have said, he’s 300 miles away from a world mountain biking first record which is an achievement in my opionion.

I’m in Worthing and it’s warm and humid out there right now… he’s going to need to drink plenty over the next 36hrs that’s for sure.

Loving the fact he has a live progress feed! Very clever.

http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/60289217

My sister does that and she is definitely weird.

It’s probably genetic 😉

It’s probably genetic

🙁

Cheer up, you might be adopted

Cheer up, you might be adopted

that could make a good nature or nurture type study 😉

Currently tracking him too.
I might go and nick his bike and phone when he next comes past me…. (actually, I’ll get him third time round – bound to be less of a fight…)

DrP