Well after a 0430 start to ride 12km to the train station for the 0535, I landed in Eastbourne about 0830. Kicked of after some faffing at 0900 and made Winchester after lots of swearing at my own stupidity at 2120.
Clocked 168km with a ride time of 10hrs 22mins, average speed 16.3km/hr no records set but a hell of a ride, those hills are brutal in places. The one out of Queen Elizabeth Country Park had me pushing!
The weather was perfect and the only dirt on the bike was dust and sheep sh*t. I was quite thankful that it hazed over in the afternoon a bit and cooled down.
2 Minor mechanicals, a really annoying rattle when out of the saddle going down hill turned out to be the bolts holding the saddle on worked loose! and the that BB pre-tensioner thing on the new middleburn crankset worked loose after 50km.
All in all an epic day, a few pics to follow.
Superb! Well done and I'm not surprised you pushed up Butser Hill 🙂
Nice one how did you route find? I had a go ten years back and kept going off course.
Good effort and a lovely day for it. I'm planning to do it myself in July.
Slightly OT. I was out on a ride with a friend last night and his work collegue mentioned that her partner/ husband was planning to do the SDW yesterday, she works in the Andover area. Was this you?
Slightly OT. I was out on a ride with a friend last night and his work collegue mentioned that her partner/ husband was planning to do the SDW yesterday, she works in the Andover area. Was this you?
Sounds like it could have been, my long suffering wife who drove to Winchester last night to scrape up what was left of me works in Andover.
Route finding wasn't too bad the first half of the route is not as easy to follow as the second. I had the Harveys Map of the route and GPS to check my location, you had to keep a fairly sharp eye out for the signposts. Couple of high speed (clocked 57km/hr down one) descents caught me out when I should have turned off half way down and found myself at the bottom. With so many gates to open/close I just check nav each time.
Few pics, was solo so it wasn't at the top of my list!
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The start outside Eastbourne station
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Firlie Beacon looking at the coast
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Devils Dyke from Fulking Hill
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Looking down having pushed up Buster Hill to QECP
That was it, it was dark and I didn't care for any more phots
Well done, was a lovely day for it.
I always think that Fulking Hill should have an '!' after it - "Fulking Hill!" always sounds like an expletive.
I got off the bike yesterday and decided my will to complete a 12hr solo event had completely disappeared, no way on earth would I go through that again.
Yet strangely i'm sat here aching a bit ( a lot actually) thinking well maybe I could do it again 🙄
Good effort
Dont worry its natural for that feeling ...... I said after the puffer that would be my last solo puffer ......looking back now 4 months later I wont be back this year ill be sunning it up*... But ill be back 😉
*sweating my tits off in 25 degrees + with 100% humidity
Well done. A huge effort, SDW hills are a hell of a drag.
Thinking about doing something similar myself this year. Just need to find someone to do it with, otherwise I reckon I'll chicken out!
Guess the only downside is that a ride that long means my Fox forks now need a service! 😥