A (long) write up of my "SDW in a day" ride… – Page 2 – Bike Forum

DrP · 2012-09-15T20:39:45Z

Yeah, this turned out a bit longer than I thought...... Firstly, I'm not a journalist, nor am I even very eloquent at writing, so do forgive this write up! Tbh, it's not ever a write up, more of a "what I did and how I found it" type report of my recent SDW in a day attempt. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera - a planned decision to save time - so no pics :-( Doing the SDW in a day, or more accurately sub 12 hrs, was on my 'to do' list for a few years. I'd been chatting with colleagues and had originally only ever considered doing it over two days, but then a friend of mine completed it in a day, so that became the plan! A life of work, childcare, and husbandly responsibilities means that my weekends of freedom are few and far between. Essentially, I OK'd it with the wife for September 8th to be the date, and hoped that the weather would hold out. I became pretty sulky the few weeks before as the weather continued to misbehave, but as it stands I had a stunner of a day! 100 miles is actually the furthest I've ever ridden in one go - on or off road. In the past I've winged a few 70mile road rides with no training (in fact, the two weeks before back to back 70mile/day rides I'd been boozing it up on holiday!). I'd relied on the fact I'm fairly young, slim, and have a decent degree of 'core' fitness. For the SDW I thought I should get some training in.... ....going back to the point of how hectic my life is, this didn't actually happen! I'd changed jobs so no longer cycle commuted to work, which made 'slipping in' a few extra road miles here and there a tad difficult! I'd planned to not do any riding the week before the big day, but it seemed this was spreading to the month before.... I was managing to get out for a few hours most Tuesdays, but simply wasn't covering the miles I'd wanted. 10 or so days before hand I was able to slip in a few 30 mile rides on the fixie (I've an odd and pointless collection of bikes, which doesn't actually include a proper road bike!), which I suppose counted... Anyway, the plan for the day was to get the first train out of my local station, and arrive in Winchester at 0730. I knew the last train from Eastbourne was 2300ish, but would be disappointed if I needed to rely on that! I didn't make any significant changes to my bike, a 2012 commencal meta 5 with RS revs and a reverb! The thing I love about the bike is that one day it can cover 100 xc miles, the next it could be racing an enduro, and the next bashing it's y down the alps! I did fit a bottle cage to it, to make my water carrying capacity to 2l (I'd be eternally grateful for this about 60 miles in, as this is when my water bladder split....) Although the 'fitness' preparation went astray, I knew the nutrition side of things was important - if you do the ride unsupported as I did, you really need to think about carrying enough food to get you through, but not weigh yourself down with pointless things. Calorie dense foods were the menu of the day - here you can see the almost complete collection of constipation inducin, calorie rich goodies! [imgKnowing how sick I'd be of chomping sweet things for 12 hours, I got a few good savoury recipes as suggested from a previous thread I'd posted; salt and oil potatoes, and "cream cheese, ham, and jam croissants"! In the 1.5l camel back I had water/electrolyte drink, and only had "energy drink" in the water bottle - I find it doesn't actually quench thirst. So, the weather report was looking good, the bag (wingnut) was loaded with 8kg of shite, and the alarm was set for 0500... ...but I didn't need it as I woke pretty much ever hour from 2300 the night before..oh well.... I ate some breakfast on the train to Winchester (scrambled egg and bacon croissants I'd made the day before!), and made sure I was adequately toiletted before pulling into Winchester... I knew there would be a group of 'stag do chaps' heading off at the same time, so said a cheery "hello" and we all headed to the statue at the start (well, it was a bit of a chase around town before I chirped up "shall we follow my gps to the start", after which we finally got there!). They asked if I was going to tag along, but they were aiming for 2 days and i knew one of us would be in for a world of pain if we didn't split up! I left them to snap photos at the statue, and headed off..... It's actually a bit of a faff getting from Winchester onto the SDW - once you crossthe m3 you get swung back under the footbridge and head alongside the road for about half a mile, joining back onto the SDW eventually (walkers can go straight on). I'll be honest, I can't really recall the names etc of most of the big climbs, so my account will only serve how terrible the human memory... IIRC the first real hill is actually a road climb, which then splits off to a nice bridle way. I quite quickly felt 'in the middle of nowhere' up on the SDW - a feeling that would be quite frequent despite popping through villages and main roads. The first h...

soma_rich

Posts: 2

Free Member

Great write up DrP. I have done it a few times but never in a day. You just convinced me I never ever want to do it in less than 48 hours 🙂

Posted : 18/09/2012 3:32 pm

MrAgreeable

Posts: 5655

Full Member

Good write-up and good effort. I've ridden most of it, but at a more leisurely pace, carrying camping gear. It's definitely one to do on a glorious sunny day, the views are awesome.

One bad point came when we descended off the ridge in search of lunch, based on the OS map saying there was a pub in Cocking. It turned out there was, but it was completely shuttered up, with a "for sale" sign, and a "reduced" sign. The village shop came to our rescue, and the phrase "Cocking pub" is now part of our ride vocabulary. As in: "Are you sure that's not a Cocking pub?"

Posted : 18/09/2012 3:39 pm

racefaceec90

Posts: 6351

Full Member

fantastic write up 😀
it's been a fair while since i last did a long distance ride,but would like to try and ride my bike more often.as i live in wiltshire (no car) i would like to ride the ridgeway instead (footpaths excepted though/would like to attempt both directions in one go).
i will do this (one day 😉

Posted : 18/09/2012 4:06 pm

Clong

Posts: 29

Free Member

First time i did it, i set off with just a cheese sandwich in my camel back. Completed it after 14 hours and i swear the last couple of climbs i went up on my hands and knees. I was a bit naive, my mentality was "its just a long ride how hard can it be?".

Posted : 18/09/2012 4:39 pm

singletrackmind

Posts: 7278

Full Member

Weeksy
Some good info on the SouthDownsDouble website re the taps.

Its the Maxx Exposure event on Sat Night too , 8pm start from Eastbourne to QECP , so lots of nice high viz signs.

Potential for a fair bit of precipitation im afraid as well

Posted : 18/09/2012 6:22 pm

weeksy

Posts: 28712

Full Member

If that's the case i'll be at home with the wife watching Sky Sports 🙂

p.s Yes i know it is, that's what i'm doing lol

Posted : 18/09/2012 7:23 pm

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