BHF London 2 Brighton Night Ride 26/27 May
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- Start date
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ceepeebee
Veteran
- Location
- Some imaginary Flanders
Just watch out for tables and chairs man....
Their chips are bloody awesome though.
Their chips are bloody awesome though.
Aperitif
Meme bar
- Location
- ...I don't have much idea - really.
Madeira Drive is a well known Red Light district. When the chips are down, the spirits are uplifted - thanks to Greg and the staff of the Madeira Café.
U
User10571
Guest
Exactly what is it pounding?
Aperitif
Meme bar
- Location
- ...I don't have much idea - really.
The bicycle-mounted version of Post #75? Or, possibly, an allusion to a 'hearty' breakfast.
bobcolover
Guru
- Location
- south london
bhf brighton night ride report
well for what its worth i had a great ride; i missed seeing trikeman but got to the top of nightingale lane at 12.10 and there was no movement inside the pen where the 5000 were held ready for departure; So i set off ahead of the pack alonesome and expected to be overtaken by hordes once on the road; strangething ; it never happened. The route followed bits of the daytime BHF daytime l 2 b route [which i know very well] but after the turn into the countryside pratts bottom / reigate outskirts area, went into new territory. Much later before Balcombe there were long slopes and after that some kind of modern by pass with lots of roundabouts; no motor traffic at 2.30 so good and clear. Lights on other bikes varied from blindingly bright to scarily dim.
I never visited a feed stop so have no idea whether those arrangements worked for those numbers. I saw no fixies[ there are some reports on lfgss] i did see some single speeds; some v expensive bikes and as ever some that looked as woefully unprepared as their riders who i suspect would have done a good deal of walking. Somehow the dyke road with a false summit seemed harder than the simplicity of straight up ditchling. Closed to traffic tho which was good and safe .Saw dawn from the top; 4.25 and in madiera drive 10 mins later; There were less than 200 people there when i arrived; Coming past the brighton night owls; comatose/drunk youngsters enjoying a stag/hen night and crowds and crowds at the seafront bars that were pounding !
Blagged a ride home on an official coach; bike in the artic with us at 6.30 am; so all the stuff about cycling/training it back dissipated....
general impressions;
goodish route with very fast sections but a good deal more climbing than i remember from the day route.
would have liked to have hung around and trained it back;
marshalling better at mid and end than at urban parts in outer suburbs; signposting mixed; cold do a but better; stopped 3/4 times to check directions etc with other riders; met some who took seriously wrong detours by mistake.
maybe because i was ahead of the crowd [ having expected to be caught up by them] there was none of that vision you get on the dun dyn of lines of rear red lights ahead of you winking into the distance; maybe the terrain would be against that as well; which i missed and was a shame; it happened now and again on the climbs that you knew there was yet more' up' as the lights ahead were close but much higher than you were.
dont know if the routes worth considering for the fnrttc
and cant tell you what breakfast was like at madiera cafe;
shame; next time will review cafe
bob
http://www.strava.com/runs/9439520
someone elses strava but has route and climbs etc
well for what its worth i had a great ride; i missed seeing trikeman but got to the top of nightingale lane at 12.10 and there was no movement inside the pen where the 5000 were held ready for departure; So i set off ahead of the pack alonesome and expected to be overtaken by hordes once on the road; strangething ; it never happened. The route followed bits of the daytime BHF daytime l 2 b route [which i know very well] but after the turn into the countryside pratts bottom / reigate outskirts area, went into new territory. Much later before Balcombe there were long slopes and after that some kind of modern by pass with lots of roundabouts; no motor traffic at 2.30 so good and clear. Lights on other bikes varied from blindingly bright to scarily dim.
I never visited a feed stop so have no idea whether those arrangements worked for those numbers. I saw no fixies[ there are some reports on lfgss] i did see some single speeds; some v expensive bikes and as ever some that looked as woefully unprepared as their riders who i suspect would have done a good deal of walking. Somehow the dyke road with a false summit seemed harder than the simplicity of straight up ditchling. Closed to traffic tho which was good and safe .Saw dawn from the top; 4.25 and in madiera drive 10 mins later; There were less than 200 people there when i arrived; Coming past the brighton night owls; comatose/drunk youngsters enjoying a stag/hen night and crowds and crowds at the seafront bars that were pounding !
Blagged a ride home on an official coach; bike in the artic with us at 6.30 am; so all the stuff about cycling/training it back dissipated....
general impressions;
goodish route with very fast sections but a good deal more climbing than i remember from the day route.
would have liked to have hung around and trained it back;
marshalling better at mid and end than at urban parts in outer suburbs; signposting mixed; cold do a but better; stopped 3/4 times to check directions etc with other riders; met some who took seriously wrong detours by mistake.
maybe because i was ahead of the crowd [ having expected to be caught up by them] there was none of that vision you get on the dun dyn of lines of rear red lights ahead of you winking into the distance; maybe the terrain would be against that as well; which i missed and was a shame; it happened now and again on the climbs that you knew there was yet more' up' as the lights ahead were close but much higher than you were.
dont know if the routes worth considering for the fnrttc
and cant tell you what breakfast was like at madiera cafe;
shame; next time will review cafe
bob
http://www.strava.com/runs/9439520
someone elses strava but has route and climbs etc
My ride review now I'm back from a day on the beach in Brighton. Arrived at the start at around 23:00. Massive queues for registration and information so went and joined the queue to start where I stood around for an hour and a half. Supposed to be off at midnight and by 12:20 nothing had moved. So phoned the support line and was told they didn't have all the marshals in place on the course - how hard can it be to get that right? Finally left the compound at about quarter to one. Ride out through London was interesting - bikes swarming everywhere over the road, cars just frozen not sure what to do. Managed to get ahead of the main gaggle which made life a bit easier. Lots of expensive machinery around and some not and mostly very inadequate lights once we hit the countryside. Some long but not very steep climbs most of the way. Most of the ride was a thread of red twinkling lights up front heading off into the distance and marking out the contours of the route ahead. Quite magical in a way and very few cars around. The first feed stop was giving out bottles of water, half bananas, slice orange, pretzels and jelly babies so had a quick gorge and pocketed some jellly babies for later. Second feed stop had a catering van selling sausage baps and cheeseburgers and handing out free tea and coffee. Took a break and had a sausage bap and cup of tomato soup. When I got up to go the horde had arrived and there were massive queues for food and toilets. After that people were starting to walk the hills. Dawn started to break around 04:00 before the last feed stop. passed a couple of ambulances at the side of the road attending someone but no idea whether it was an accident or illness. Last feed stop was back to bananas, pretzels and jelly babies. Then on to the last climb up Devils Dyke. First part fine although lots were walking and the second steep pull I was about the only one cycling up. Fortunately the road was closed so I had the full width available to avoid walkers. Lots of expensive machinery being pushed by people half my age. Then a long sweep down into Brighton and the finish and double back to the recommended Madeira Cafe which was busy with lots of cyclists when I got there at 06:00. Don't think they could have coped with more. Sat at the front with a full English to watch others come in but once the food was polished off I was dozing more than watching so went off to the beach to grab some zeeez. So just over four hours total and 4,000 ft of climbing.
StuAff
Silencing his legs regularly
- Location
- Portsmouth
Glad the whole thing seems to have gone OK. Should have hired the Fridays 
It was today and I managed to pick up something really tasty. Once I'd finished I rolled over and went to sleep.
CopperBrompton
Bicycle: a means of transport between cake-stops
- Location
- London
The first riders didn't actually set off until quarter to one, and it was 1am by the time I got through the start. It was my only criticism of the ride - we were getting pretty fed up waiting there.
And the descent from Ditchling is a LOT more fun! To be honest, it was light by 4am, so Ditchling would have been perfectly safe.
Heh - I did see a few riders cycling the other way, but very, very few compared to the day ride.
That was for me one of the loveliest things about the ride, especially on sections with a downhill leading into an uphill - you could sometimes see the line for miles! Sadly the video footage doesn't capture it - the sensor can't see as far as the eye.
bobcolover
Guru
- Location
- south london
That was for me one of the loveliest things about the ride, especially on sections with a downhill leading into an uphill - you could sometimes see the line for miles! Sadly the video footage doesn't capture it - the sensor can't see as far as the eye.[/quote]
wheres the video footage?
wheres the video footage?
CopperBrompton
Bicycle: a means of transport between cake-stops
- Location
- London
Give a man a chance :-)
bobcolover
Guru
- Location
- south london
sorry ; looking forward to seeing it;
btw how did you get back?
btw how did you get back?
Had a great time except for the start which was rubbish. G/F was waiting with car and, after a hearty breakfast and several Americanos, loaded up the bikes and back to Creepy Crawley for a celebratory BBQ and a drinkie or two. Was quite tempted to turn off the Balcombe road when we rode past and go home but stuck with it - I quite enjoyed the Devil's Dyke version rather than the Beacon but maybe that was because it was new to me. Well done BHF but get the chuffing start issues sorted for next year (also doing the "main" one and the off-road again this year).
CopperBrompton
Bicycle: a means of transport between cake-stops
- Location
- London
Video will be online this eve ...
I took the coach-and-truck. The nice thing about the trike is they like to put it at the back, so I got pulled out of the queue and asked to put it on the one that was just about to leave.
