2009-03-14 Sat - Overnight to Shoreham-by-Sea

Went well, Des and I had a nice old recce. We only did something like 40 miles or so (as unlike Michael, we didn't have to offset a huge burden of guilt. ;) ) We trained it out to Redhill (next to Reigate) and took Richard's route out of Reigate, then some variations of my own devising and found quite a good way to go. The only part of the route that I'm not happy with yet is around Horsham, and I think on the night we'll just take the bit that we didn't actually recce, as that should work fine. Only went off course once by turning the wrong way into Rusper Road but got back on track quickly.

The bit between Reigate and Shoreham is really nice--mostly small lanes through some places that looked beautiful even in the fairly indifferent weather we had earlier before the sun came out. A couple of small hills and a bit of up and down, but nothing unmanageable. Had a pint in Upper Beeding before heading down to Shoreham, where we did some sightseeing of the Old Fort. The really frustrating thing was that we only got to Brighton station after 4, and were refused access to the platform by the jobsworth on the gate. I'd heard of the repressive carriage policy before, but to not allow bikes on Brighton-London is completely ridiculous, especially on a fast train that only calls at East Croydon and Clapham Junction! None of the other Southern Trains staff seemed to care about observing it, so we rode to Hove (five minutes) and got on another train there. This cost us half an hour. I'm still seething with anger at this stupid nonsense.

But, yeah, we've got a nice route together. Trains on the weekend will be fine (no engineering works, no bike bans). Should be about 70 miles. Up to Reigate we'll do the same route as last time, then we'll do Richard's bit via Leigh to Charlwood, then do a bit of a detour to call at Gatwick again, then back to Charlwood on the genuinely new bit of the ride. Looking forward to it!

Hi Oliver,

Yes they are annoying. I sometimes have to commute to London and I have been involved in many an altercation with them.

Just FYI, the First Capital Connect (old Thameslink) trains are OK for bikes Brighton to London in the evening rush hour. No bikes on any trains the other way, tho.

ps - I WILL join you soon, once I hit a deadline or two!