I was tempted to go to the gate at the top of decent from old Winchester hill and keep it open for people. I was going to ask singletrackers from the forum to say poontang and I was going to give each person that did, a Mars bar.

Then my wife reminded it was my turn to have the lie in and she’d be getting up when our daughter did.

It was at this point I thought “get your own bloody snacks”.

Seriously though, I’m working tomorrow afternoon and would love to be doing it again.

Good luck!

Yep, have a great time all riding tomorrow!

Don’t get so caught up in the riding that you forget to savour the views.

Unforgettable!

Just had a double “Kraken” and ice at “black boy” then walked through the fields on start of SDW to bnb. Just that alone was worth the effort. Yep,views and journey are the name of the game, not just destination.

What time do you reckon you’ll be getting to the top of amberly mount..sort of midway between the amberly and Washington taps??
I might head up there with the kids and heckle!!

DrP

8.5-9mph from a 5am start.

7 hours or so into ride, we’re 60 miles in and just fuelling ourselves before I hellish looking climb. Its not the first by a long way and won’t be the last.

Good luck 🙂 Keen on going!!

I was up by Chantry lane car park (between Amberly mount climb, and the car park, to be more accurate) with the kids about 10am for an hour or so..

Was fun clapping and cheering you lot on! I even timed it perfectly so that I caught up with 2 mates doing the ride 🙂

Enjoy the (painful) second half!

DrP

That’s us done. 12hrs from Winchester Premier Inn – Eastbourne Pier. 10:35hrs ride time. Probably around 9l of fluid, a lot of energy products and some hot cross buns. Most time I’ve ever spent on a bike. Suitably fatigued, Strouds local hills prepped me well. Fantastic support from two friends. Nearly £1000 raised for a MS charity.

Likes

T’s alright for a pootle innit 😀

11 +1/2 hours for me. Strong tailwind and cool temp really helped. Lots of local support and banter with complete strangers on bikes. Top day out. Guts abit churned up though.

Was just talking about this ride with the lads this morning on the drive back from Ventoux, a year to the day since we did it and still got incredible memories. God it was hot. Well done everyone, that’s a proper bike ride you’ve done today.

6 miles left and waiting at top of hill up from Alfriston. My oppo could be a while

Finished just before 9pm. Hell of a long day

😀

One I suspect you’ll not forget in a hurry.

Well done all, really well done.

Tremendously well done. Chapeau.

miles left and waiting at top of hill up from Alfriston. My oppo could be a while

waiting ?

Surely the done thing would be to freewheel back to him and then encourage him up. By stripping to your underpants and running alongside him yelling in his ear. At the least would give him the impetus to get that over asap 😉

Great effort. Still on my To Do list…….

Weeksy, Glad you laughed when I shouted out “Weeksy” top of my lungs from the start line at 5.10 when you rocked up on the orange Whyte. One long enjoyable day.

Shall we have a poll ?

Who aches ?
No need to put your hands up, just grunt 😆

I almost wanted to pee in the bed this morning as it would have meant not having to get up!

😆

Brilliant.

Well done all of you. It’s a right ******* of a ride.

So how was it then, i guess this goes down as a quite write up/report.

Firstly, the organisation was a bit meh. The postcode for Sat NAv took us 4 miles round the world to get there after dropping car off.. It was a bit poor. Happily things got better (sort of) after that.
One good amusing bit to come up, Wally, my Whyte is BLUE 😉 and we didn’t get there till 5.25 😀

So we set off on the ride, with last weeks mistakes ringing in our ears “too hard, too fast” and we cruised and cruised… I was trying to make sure my mate wasn’t pushing too hard as it was going to kill him too early if he was. On the whole on a flat section he can crack on but when we get to hills he lacks power but has tonnes of stamina, so we were just cruising it.
After 2 hours we hit Butster hill where i hit a PR on the descent and an 8th for the day overall 🙂 the Whyte was really flying. Sadly my mate snapped a chain so while we got that fixed we sampled some bacon and sausage 🙂 MMMMMM

The next, well, 8-10 hours i guess kind of blurs into, climb, climb, climb, little decent, climb climb… The feed stations were empty, so at one main road section we bailed and went to the nearest village and stocked up on supplies, then back to the same point and up some massive hill again. Even though we’ve done 80% of the SDW before, you foget just how hillly it is.

Over the day was 3500m of climbing ! I don’t know about anyone else, but that’s a LOT in my world.

By the time we hit Alfriston my mate was finding it REALLY tough, him and most of the people around us were walking many of the hills, i was feeling OK so still pedalling but that then meant a 10-15 minute wait at the top sometimes, one in particular was near 20 mins…. The problem for me with that was that i was getting REALLY cold, with cramp setting in as well, so around then i decided to sod off and leave my mate, i know him well and knew he’d make it, so sod it, i was off.
The last 6-7 miles was good, i made up loads of places of people i would keep passing on the hills, then they’d see me waiting at the top and go back past…

Eventually with a fading light i came into Eastbourne and the reward of a cheese and ham toastie, a coffee and a massage. With our ride to the start and the section for food, i got about 103 miles. Which i’m insanely happy with, especially after failing the weekend before on the 100.

We met and chatted to many many random people and had laughs at our own expense. We shared memories and i think with me being my chatty self, i helped mould a few memories for some people.

I rode 99.9% of it, only one tiny section in the woods i thought “sod that”.

My best climb was some chalky one, just after a bridge crossing, every single people was walking it, but i dug deep and climbed it, even getting a round of appluase from the spectators at the top lol.
I did a cracking log jump for people too later on.

Would i do the SDW again, well in honesty, no. The rewards apart from a sense of pride are not great enough for the efforts you have to put in. I can’t fathom how we didn’t end up 2000m higher than we started, we just climbed that much.

It was a day i won’t forget though that’s for sure.

My mate is my hero for the day for me, dogged determination, effort, courage and laughing at himself and the world all day… All at 59 year of age and carrying a bit too much round the middle. Massive respect to him.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1085111146

For anyone into Strava stalking !

My best climb was some chalky one, just after a bridge crossing, every single people was walking it, but i dug deep and climbed it, even getting a round of appluase from the spectators at the top lol.

I suspect that’s ‘cardiac hill’ – the SDW climb just after the A24… it’s a good hill – testing but doable!
(One of our local climbs..I know it well!)

Glad you had fun..your account of waiting at the tops is one of the reasons why, if you want to bash out a good time, you’re best of doing this alone…!

DrP

Glad you had fun..your account of waiting at the tops is one of the reasons why, if you want to bash out a good time, you’re best of doing this alone…!

Of course, but I honestly wouldn’t do it alone, it’s about experiences with friends, the laughs, the sharing. Without sounding too cocky I think I’d have taken a reasonable amount of time off alone, but why would I want to? Lol

Great effort, good write up too.

Puts me in the right frame of mind for my attempt on the 24th, watching the weather like a man possessed!

Excellent write up.

Doing it with mates or folks you don’t know is better I reckon.
I’ve ridden it plenty, the hardest bit for me is coming into Eastbourne, the section over Beach Head Downs. The expectation of “almost there” and “have I done better than last time” fills my mind before I look at the Garmin.

Ridgeway next, full route to Lyme Regis??

“My Whyte is blue”, that’s funny, even funnier because bloke shouted back Hi and to top it all, I am colour blind. Not quite red/blue though! that would be seriously bad, opposite ends of spectrum. Funny day. I walked two bits.

I feel fatigued for sure, some pain in right patella when going up stairs, but I reckon I could ride again today – but I won’t – probably tomorrow instead.

The flint put a hole in my sidewall @ 22 miles, the worm did an astounding job of fixing it, but it did loose pressure throughout the rest of the day, that’s a brand new tyre in the bin.

Definately agree that a solo it the way forward it your looking at achieving a personal best, treat it as a ITT.

We had a support vehicle that RVP’d with us 9 times, really saved on carrying stuff. Just 1 bottle, rear pockets for food and a saddle bag for tools.

I rode all the climbs and didn’t cramp, so pleased with that.

We did discuss if we were over hydrating but it’s difficult to tell. Wee’d a LOT.

Definately a lightweight short travel 29er FS / HT event, but we managed fine on a 29er Enduro and my 650b slack HT.

Ridgeway next, full route to Lyme Regis??

I’m never cycling again.

Well, until at least We’d!

Worst part today is my under carriage, I feel like I’ve been in the State Pen with Big Mike and Long John!

Early optimism 🙂

[url=https://flic.kr/p/Wy33HQ]2017-07-17_08-20-58[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Don’t forget the correct fuelling !

[url=https://flic.kr/p/WBopo8]2017-07-17_08-20-38[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

“Oi mate, did you enjoy that hill?”

[url=https://flic.kr/p/WBonV8]2017-07-17_08-20-23[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

More hills from the top.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/WdJcjL]2017-07-17_08-19-59[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

I think he’s dead !

[url=https://flic.kr/p/WdJbDC]2017-07-17_08-19-42[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Thanks for sharing the stories.