2012-06-10 - London Ditchling Devil (London-Brighton-London) 200km Audax, June 10

I wish I was free! :(

Friend want to know if his bastardised Pacific is audax-legal, told him it's fine, right?

The Pacific sure looks interesting, I've never seen one of those before. But for a summer 200 you can ride most anything really.

excellent, look like i'll be fine with a disc equipped CX bike then, already brought myself an audax uk membership.

Hope to see you there.

I can still enter this right?

yes, follow manotea's link on the top.

Thanks, just persuaded a friend to jump on board as well, should be a good ride!

I'll be on a light blue bike with fat gumwall tyres with a French duke whom have that Pacific, shouldn't be hard to spot, would be good to see you there.

Yeah I'll definitely keep an eye out! Should be riding a black specialised probably with yellow pannier(s) lightly packed :)
(shame my tourer is just short of being finished, would have been nice to use it on this)

I'll be the guy draped in fake BMC team kit riding my streetracer. I hope the weather keeps up!

^Coordinating haha, see you there :)

One likes to coordinate whilst one sweats one's guts out.

I'm sure the fixed massive will not need to sweat. Though they may feel a trifle warm at times...

I won't be at the Arrivee for this Paul, as I've got rides lined up for the weekends either side of this one, and there's be strife if I did this one as well.

It's nearly upon us...

Ignoring the weather, I'll ride to the start from hackney wick if anyone is heading the same way?

Joel

I live outside London.... Would my van be ok to leave in the free parking area all day?

There is free parking at start and finish points. Personally I'd park at the finish point (roehampton gate cafe, richmond park), and ride round to the start point which is about a mile down the road.

The forecast doesn't look great.

It's an Audax Sanchez - it's supposed to rain for at least most of the ride...

For those heading from East, I'm planning to meet a couple of people in London Fields at 05:45, presumably outside the Cat and Mutton pub, then we will ride over - if anyone else is riding then please join us!

It's an Audax Sanchez - it's supposed to rain for at least most of the ride...

That's the spirit! Actually as I write, the forecast seems to be improving; not too cold, mostly dry with showers around midday/early afternoon and a tailwind home. I'd settle for that!

Regardless, I've changed the approach to Richmond Park, as per my email to riders last night. This allows the Arrivee (that's Audax for, um, arrival point) to be moved to a pub on the approach to the Park equipped with beer garden marquee, food and beer(!) when the Roehampton Gate cafe closes at 6:00. Basically, if you're not finished by 5:30, stop at the pub! I don't anticipate too many complaints. If you haven't received the email don't fret, there will be a handout with details in the morning.

See you then, Paul

Need to learn the route!

lost the goddamn card just when I was leaving the pub, damnit.

Really glad I did this. My legs aren't talking to me though.

It's not only I and John's first Audax, but also John first Century ride.

I always rode with him a lots and we work pretty well together, so it make sense to go to the Ditchling Devil Audax.

We planned on starting at 7:30 as we didn't want to join the mass start, the simple reason to ride at a comfortable pace rather than keeping up with the group, can be a little tiring on the first couple of hours before getting your legs.

Despite being overtaken quite a handful of time, we were enjoying the ride from Wimbledon to Turner Hill as it was a lovely if cold morning (note to self - buy arm warmer), after the first checkpoint and the breakfast, we joined some of the riders who overtook us, it was actually a lots more sociable than I thought it would be, beside one bloke commenting on I using "balloon" tyres on such ride at the Windmill, it was nice to be able to relax on such ride.

We were really enjoying the ride and John were a little surprised that Ditchling wasn't particularly hard (Tongdean Lane to Devil Dykes after riding down took us by surprise), the calamities of the others grew and the journey back to London doesn't feel like a chores anymore, each checkpoint gave us just enough time to recuperated, make a big difference compared to the forum ride of which tend to be non-stop.

Left Wimbledon at 7:30, got signed at Chiddingfold at half 3, a rather respectful time with just 35 miles to go, John and I like to have a little bit of a challenge by trying to complete it in under 10 hours.

Disaster strike.

John knees, both his dodgy knees blew up, in the metaphorical sense, I dropped out of the main group and rode with John all the way to Richmond, we're in it together, would be rather rude to ditch him at that point.
It took us almost 4 hours to do the mere 35 miles, the fact we thought the pub was on the north side of Richmond Park (on a road also called King's Road) mean we lost 45 minutes having a quick lap of the park before resorting to the pub, as if we decided to do a couple of hill before turning back to the correct road.

it seemed that there's a recurring pattern that after a Century, you're just running on fume trying to get to the destination, food and drink no longer motivate you but the signpost saying "Kingston" does, the last 25 miles seemed to go on forever compared to the first 25 that somehow disappear before we noticed it.

Really enjoyed it, and definitely will do some more, just got to stretch more often in future.

Was great to meet most of you.

That was my first audax, nice sociable ride and good day out, stayed pretty dry until being at pub at end, several pints later and it was still pissing down, damm accuweather promised it would clear, so only had to ride an hour home in the sort of weather I'd feared we'd have had all day!
And great to meet Ed, here offering pencil to note down a letter w on said card:

I was not even aware you took the photo, that was pretty sneaky!