How does London to Hastings compare to London to Brighton

[r0bbbo]

Hi,

I rode the BHF London to Brighton a few weeks ago and was looking at doing the London to Hastings ride at the end of August. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who's done both and can tell me how they match up.

LTH is longer obviously, but I also hear that it's very hilly. I managed to ride up Ditchling Beacon on the LTB, despite the attempts of a few walkers to knock me down, and found the rest of the ride to be not too painful.

I've got four weeks to fit in any training. How do you think I'll fare? Any tips or advice would be very welcome.

Thanks,

Rob

 

[Matthames]

Just had a look at where the route goes through. It goes from Crystal Palace to Knockholt to Tonbridge Wells [sic] to Hailsham through Bexhill to Hastings.

I have some idea of the route they probably use for the Tunbridge Wells to Hailsham and to Bexhill and Hastings. From Hailsham to Bexhill and Hastings the road is pretty much pancake flat. At a guess they would probably use this route here:-
[media]
]View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-3xj3Msid8[/media]


The bit that is probably going to hurt is going from Tunbridge Wells to Hailsham through Heathfield. Depending on the route they set, there are a couple of rather nasty climbs although they are a borderline cat 4, but what I found the trickiest is the descents as they are pretty technical. The course could be described as pretty undulating.

If you have a cycle camera, it wouldn't do much harm to go out and ride some of the more technical parts and learn it.

 

[tiswas-steve]

Don't want to scare you r0bbbo but I've heard that last years L2H was a killer .... I think there's quite a bit about it from riders who done it last year on Google. Good luck tho :-)

 

[r0bbbo]

Thanks guys, you've scared me a little but I think I'm going to go for it! I did some googling as well and read some reviews from last year's which echoed your comments. In case anyone else is interested here are the two reviews:

http://www.fatcycler...-ride-2010.html
http://radderz.me.uk...bike-ride-2010/

So, I've got just under 4 weeks to get some training in. Tonight I'm going for a 25 mile ride which includes a couple of category 5 climbs. If my legs don't feel too bad I'll push a bit further on the weekend, and try to find some hills that are something like those on the London to Hastings. Any other suggestions on how I can ramp up my fitness, especially climb-wise?

Thanks,

Rob

 

[Matthames]

Any other suggestions on how I can ramp up my fitness, especially climb-wise?

Thanks,

Rob

[joke] Some pro riders swear by EPO, but a certain rider who we shall call AC prefers Clenbuterol with his steak. [/joke]