It's time for "DrP's gnarmac Brighton-London-Brighton enduroad adventure" again!

It was baking late afternoon , car read 25’c most of the way home.
114miles for me , so will be more for the others. I dont think Drp will have made it back in time for Pride .shame, but he made a new friend this morning.

Made it back home 🙂

This was a kilelr ride..almost literally!
One of our party became ill, caught the train home, and became iller en route home..
I suffered bad asthma (first time in years) on the final stage of the downs link and had to call it a day and get a lift back from Steyning..
Still, I managed 227km..

Toby and Mike – I’M ALIVE, DON’T WORRY!!

Great day had by all despite illness and such!
Will get pics up soon!

DrP

Somehow, I’m relieved I had the “dog-sitting” get- out clause! 😉

Next time. Hopefully.

Cheers DrP for organising and to everyone that rode. 8)

Picton, hope you’re feeling better?

The final climb seemed to go on for ever (so a typical SD chalk track then) and I really could have done with 30 X 36 as opposed to 34 X 32. Toby had a puncture mid way down the final descent and we discovered the wind had swung round to the NE, which made the final few miles a bit of a grind.

Great to ride with new peeps and do a different part of the country. Wisley common and airfield were probably the strangest bits, mainly for their remoteness, despite being bordered by the M25 and A3.

Stravage here – https://www.strava.com/activities/360003578

Oh and the Pro race was perfectly timed 😳

Agreed- a great if tricky ride! Hope you’re feeling better Picton and Dr P…..
As we thundered along the Downs link id started to feel a bit odd – but put my sore throat down to the clouds of dust kicked up by the Dr and M1kea, heat, etc. Turns out its proper snotty manflu this morning. Sniff.
Highlight had to be interfering with surrey classic and being told politely, but firmly, to stoppit. Yet still being cheered on by the assembled throng… Hee hee!
A grand day out. Bloody hard work though.
Right now, I’m glad then next Gnashphalt challenge is a whole year away!

Jeez. 😯

Worst “bike ride” of my life by a considerable margin.

Riding along the Thames path I’d been near enough to the pace this far but I just couldn’t get the pedals to turn. Stopped and for the first time in my life insisted I had to get the train, something was not right. Literall 30 seconds after we parted company I was sick for the first time. Rode to Weybridge station at 3mph. 10 minutes til a train to Clapham, (I had the most fortunate train times ever) and I got on laying next to my bike on the floor 😐

At Clapham I felt worse and worse, the world closed in on me and I fainted, luckily only for half a minute and I was already on the floor. I think people assumed I was exhausted after ride london. Luckily a saintly man from said ride helped me on the train and stowed my bike, spent the whole journey vomiting and laying on the floor shivering. Got picked up from the station and went home for 12 more hours of the same. Stomach is broken now.

None of the food or water I took on had got past my stomach, whatever virus I had picked up was in me and my body was preparing for removal, perhaps it could have given me a hint before I rode a bike 90 miles from home.

Cheers Ian, I really did enjoy some of it, excellent to meet the other guys, kudos for completing it.
James

Damn James that doesn’t sounds good 🙁

Hope you can get some fluids and food back in you soon.

@ Toby. I found that Surrey Classic incident just embarrassing 😀

Bad times James 🙁

I was chatting to a colleague today, and they said there’s a ‘strange and potent tree pollen at Cranleigh’ – hence why my lungs must have packed in as soon as we hit the downs link (hot, dry dusty day etc etc)

I had to call family for a lift home from Steyning – anything more than walking pace and I was ‘gas trapping’ and getting near to a proper asthma attack!!
THere was no way any of the climbs out of Steyning (Bostal, Botolphs) or even the flatter road would be possible!

However, Up until that point it really was a cracking day out.
For some reason Flickr is playing silly buggers on my phone, so will have to upload via file transfer.
The highlight – the numerous crowds coming out to cheer us all on at Weybridge. Obviously for us, and not the pros that followed 30 seconds later. No way..

DrP

Oh..here we go…

Thanks to all those who started…well done for the finishers!

DrP

I feel I got off lightly with just unshakable cramp for the last 5 miles I did!
Next time I will definitely eat real proper food with nutritional value the day before and not wash it down with as much beer and wine. Probably.

Cheers DrP and everyone else from slow Tim and non-puking James

And Mike, hats off for hitting 90km/h on Strava. I know we were slowing you down, but I didn’t realise quite how much 😉

🙂

Strava does come up with some old billy bolx at times. Garmin Connect reckons 40.5mph which would be more likely.

DrP what’s wrong with those shorts? 😉

The shorts only revealed their true greatness with a dose of direct sunlight Mike. 😉

Jeeze.. 😯

Well done all for actually doing most of it, if not all.

Kinda glad I had nephews to look after TBH, quick ride in the morning then watching the big boys race the classic on the big screen in Town.

T’was a baking hot day.
😮

pictonroad
The shorts only revealed their true greatness with a dose of direct sunlight Mike.

It’s all becoming clear 🙄

Twasn’t the heat and dodgy corner shoppe pasties that caused your malaise, it was 4 hours of riding behind me! 😆

Next time the only bikes allowed will be blue Arkose 4’s and Tripsters

Fine. I’ll organise a steel only ride shall I? You can take your non-ferrous bikes and throw them in the channel.
Where they wont rust….. Bugger.
And I thought we had something special Mike. I really did……

And I thought we had something special Mike. I really did……

You’ll always have the shorts…

DrP

Oh, and only Toby and Mike witnessed my comedy “stick in spoke OTB” moment that naffed up my wrist and broke a spoke!!
Slightly nervous blatting down the surrey hills on 27 spokes!!

DrP

😆 😆

Oh dear this conversation has returned to the gutter, from whence it came!

Didn’t look very nervous to me….
A broken front wheel, slipping seatpost, knacked wrist and an asthma attack didn’t seem to slow you up too much DrP….

You guys are mental.. ‘Only’ 225km!

Batshit crazy.

Respect! 😀

Maybe I’ll take the Jake the Snake and join you next time..

Any chance of a re-run before the end of the “summer”?

90p for a curry pasty . Thought that was abit cheap, but as they contained all manner of nasty bacteria glad I didnt partake.
I didnt get lost on my way back either, although my crib sheet had disintigrated by Gatwick .

Dez can go on the next one, seeing as Im not allowd on my placcy bike

Rob

Give the guy a break Rob…They were 99p…… 😉

DrP

Dez can go on the next one, seeing as Im not allowd on my placcy bike

I’ll then have a spare gnarmac bike I could lend you 🙂

Sounds like a proper adventure! Tragedy, euphoria, doomed heros pleading to be left to die (ish), then crawling home (ish), cheering crowds, brushes with authority, and a last minute plot twist with the supremely fit expedition leader succumbing to illness prompting a cavalry rescue. Who saw that coming?!

Sorry I missed it! I had a lovely weekend eating, drinking and showing friends round local trails.

Hope to make the next one. I’ll be on Toby’s Team Fe.

🙂

Made me chuckle Ed!

Get next year’s in your diary (sometime in august…likely pride weekend again, though I’d like to aim for the ride 100).

DrP

And we haven’t even gone into detail on the ‘characters’ we encountered at Palace Pier.

Have to say I’m not in any rush to repeat being hit upon by two drunk / hung over guys at 7:15 of a Sunday morning!

They were ladies Mike.
Weren’t they??

DrP(ee behind the phone booth)

You will go flaunting yourself like that Mike…

pictonroad

You will go flaunting yourself like that Mike…

Well if you’ve got it…… 😛

On a more serious note,

Ian, that external battery pack appeared to have done its job. My Garmin didn’t switch off at all and looked to have had a fair bit of battery left. The connection was a bit ropey though.

Can’t remember where I dug that USB cable up from but I’ve brought decent OTG cables from Lindy[/url] in the past. (Their UK site doesn’t appear to be working atm).

Poking around Strava it looks like you loop back up on to the road at Cox Green and use a track to the W of the old railway line. Zoom in here