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@Gussio
[FONT=Tahoma]Saturday saw me riding the South Downs Way on an old MTB. 12.5hrs moving, just under 16hrs elapsed. I had optimistically planned on it taking 11hrs..... Produced a Strava profile something like the inside of a sharks' mouth:
[/FONT][FONT=Tahoma]http://app.strava.com/rides/22145935[/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma]Caught the 0558 from Richmond to Winchester, arriving 0730. Finally got to the start of the trail by 0800, after getting hopelessly lost around the one-way-system. First 20km was glorious, with the sun rising and dew everywhere. Very few other people to see. The next 140km were a bit more tricky and unearthed my major shortfall - riding with ridgid forks on the MTB rather than suspension. Arms and wrists still feel like someone has been hitting them repeated with a broomhandle.
Weather was lovely - sunny but not too hot. Taps to be found in useful places, so water never an issue. The views from the tops were incredible and there were a surprisingly low number of other people on the trail.
Navigation became a bit tricky when the sun went down and I got lost a couple of times. The worst of these mishaps resulted in my pushing the bike up an escarpment which was 150m high, in the pitch black, with a deal of uncertainty over whether I'd actually find the trail at the top. Infact, that was probably the low point of the ride, closely followed by the piece of dog shit which flicked off my tyre onto the water bottle earlier in the day. The going was pretty slow in the dark, especially on the downhill bits. Front light battery gave up an hour from the end. Fell off almost immediately after that when I hit a patch of loose gravel, but thankfully didn't damage anything. Rode the remainder of the trail more gingerly, holding a rear light in one hand and cursing the moon for not having risen. Everything was getting a bit surreal by this point. Quite a relief to roll into Eastbourne and the luxury of street lighting.
Getting back was the biggest challenge. Having missed the last train to London from Eastbourne, I got onto the last train to leave the station which was the 2356 to Brighton. Figured that there might be a later train to be had from there, but I was wrong. Managed to find a National Express coach leaving at 0100 for Gatwick, but they wouldn't let me take the bike in the hold "in case it damaged anyone's luggage". Back to square 1 until a night bus showed up which was going to somewhere called Three Bridges, near Crawley. The driver was kind enough to let my bike on, and there was a 0210 train to Victoria which I just managed to catch. Got off at Clapham Junction and rode back to Richmond. Arrived home 0337 in a slightly dishevelled state. Sunday started at 0700 when the kids woke up....
It is a great ride, but probably more suited to two days than one. Could use some more flat sections too, rather than just up and down.[/FONT]