Rob Colliver set out from Winchester at 6am this morning for his South Downs Double attempt. He has just gone past QECP.
Track him on http://www.tinyurl.com/robdodgingbears

Only a handful of riders have completed the 200 mile South Downs Double ride on the South Downs Way between Winchester and Eastbourne.

good luck Rob

Rob has an interesting pit strategy; carrying only 500ml of liquid, his support crew will meet him every 5 miles with a new bottle. I know he wants to travel light but this requires very accurate logistics.

He meets the support crew every five miles?
That’s cheating.

I’ll be the first to say it…

STRAVA!!!!!!!!!

It’s also very hard for the support crew to keep up with him following the roads. There’s travelling light and there’s travelling ridiculously light.

Good luck ! Good progress so far.

500ml every 5 miles ? He’ll be stopping for a lot of comfort breaks

good luck, not sure this is the best day for it as theres rain predicted, mud will probably not be an issue but it can get slippy. bit windy too

what bike and tyres is he using?

Good luck to him, supported a group who rode the double earlier this year. Very tough challenge and extremely arduous. 2 of the 4 completed the entire challenge

#cycle4sam was the old twitter feed

Hats off to him. Did the SDW last weekend as a bikepacking trip. Left Winchester station at 8.30am Saturday, arrived Eastbourne at 4.30pm Sunday just on time to see the shutters close on the cafe.

How people do it in one go, never mind the double, is beyond me.

Roads could be tricky for the support crew around Eastbourne if he is aiming for 5 mile pitstops as its Airbourne this weekend.

He has a pretty tasty tail wind for the outward leg, hope it drops a bit for the way back.

Good luck, hope he does it.

Rob is going well and still smiling. He is averaging 10mph partly due to the tail wind. He has just crossed over the A27. Ben is the support crew No.3 out of 5 teams.

Rob is riding a Santa Cruz Tallboy and he is now
approaching Southease.
I like the next hill up to Firle; find a good rythm and have somthing solid to think about, it’s then not long before you pass the radio masts.

Tell him I’ll be rooting for him on the return leg.

Looking at Gfs forecast (local windsurfers favorite), the rain will be between 5-10pm, probably peaking around 9pm.
After 10pm looks like the rain will stop and the wind will drop noticeably.

So once it gets dark and the rain is lashing down in his face, tell him to tough it out, it will get better and we’ll be watching his progress.

EDIT:
Looking at the radar I don’t think he’s got more than an hour before it hits….
…Which is good, because it’ll be over earlier. 🙂

Rob has just past Alfriston and his gear cable needs replacing, unfortunately he doesn’t have a spare (he’s travelling light).
Is anyone in the area who can help him?

Rob has had to call it a day just before Eastbourne. His gear cable frayed and he had no spare, at least he gave it a go, but CARRY SPARES.

Incidentally, my gear cable snapped on my South Downs Double, so I fixed it. http://richardsterry.blogspot.co.uk/p/big-day-south-downs-double.html

Hopefully Rob will try again soon.

Shame the cable broke, should have singlespeeded it! Hopefully a return attempt will happen soon. On a side note, isnt the challenge to do it unsupported using the many public taps?

The South Downs Double can either be done Alpine style with no support or it can be done supported.
It’s a tough challenge where in 2011 there was only a 30% success rate. I’m not sure how many people have tried this year.

Where do you go after the Double – take on the Triple 😀

Shame Rob had to abort his ride.

beacon2 – I completed the double in 22 hours 23 minutes unsupported on 29th June this year, blog is here, maybe some useful info for people wanting to give it a go http://jonnydouble.blogspot.co.uk/

BTW If any of you out there are old timers and want a bit of inspiration… I’m an ancient 51 years old!

Support crew meeting him every 5 miles and no spares? Whoops! If it were me I would have a whole spare bike in the back of the car/van!! Easy to say in hindsight though of course. Hope he tries again and is successful, it’s a challenge I’d like to do myself one day (when a lot fitter!)

Bummer – but why wouldnt you start out to do a massive ride like that without changing the bits that can / do wear with new bits ?

Also reckon his support crew must now feel a bit daft not having a spare cable !

Do people normally carry a spare cable? Maybe if I were touring I might carry one, or put a new cable in before something like this, but I’ve not snapped a gear cable in 15 years of mountain biking. Am I living on the edge?

Its very easy to be critical in hindsight, but before a big ride I’ll generally give the bike a good going over before setting off. Snapped cables bascically end the ride if its the SDW.

Do people normally carry a spare cable? Maybe if I were touring I might carry one, or put a new cable in before something like this, but I’ve not snapped a gear cable in 15 years of mountain biking. Am I living on the edge?

Nope. I snapped one at Afan years ago but was lucky the shop had stock. We all know how sh1t we feel when we get a ride-ending mechanical 🙁

i carried a cable for the sdw-in-a-day i did.

just cos you never know and its bugger all weight.

Yup, weighs naff-all and takes up no space in my camelbak. Since it’d be a ride-ender, why not?

Ride-ender is a bit dramatic. SDW double attempt ender is fair enough.
A puncture is a ride ender if you don’t have means to repair it. A broken cable can be easily bodged to give one gear. That won’t end a ride.

It’s one of those things you never think will happen- really bad luck!

I snapped a rear cable half way in to one of the SPAM Salisbury Plain events but luckily could finish thanks to a triple up front which made the 11T bearable in most situations…

Now I always carry a spare cable… but stupidly no means to cut it! Thinking about it, maybe I should go and cut it to a reasonable length now 😀

Just for a chuckle, I thought it’s time to have another bash at this double game, so, if the weather plays ball, I’m going to have a bash at the double double next wekend.

I think it makes about 400 miles and a few feet of climbing, should be done in about 54 hours.

Bike is in good shape, though last times half distance attempt was curtailed by a busted shifter rather than just a cable. XTR shifters don’t break often, so I feel lucky this time round.

😯

Good luck fella, that’s proper epic.