London To Brighton

[The Jogger]

I've been asked to do this by a mate in work. How hard is it, I don't cycle that much and am getting over an ankle / running injury. The furthest I've cycled, was on new years eve, a 20 miler. Could I do it?

 

[Smokin Joe]

I believe it is about 58 miles. A considerable percentage of the entrants will not have even ridden your distance, you get all sorts of rider and bike from full on club racers to people on old hacks you wouldn't even trust to get you down to the shops.

You will be able to do it, just keep riding regularly and try and up your distance as much as you can in the meantime. From memory the only significant hill is Ditchling Beacon which comes just before the finish and most people will be walking up that anyway. You'll find the atmosphere in being part of such a large group of riders tends to pull you along quite a lot too, no matter how knackered you feel there will be plenty finding it much tougher going than you.

 

[The Jogger]

Excellent, thanks for that, I think I'll do it then.

 

[RedBike]

I did it several years ago. Everytime there was a slight uphill loads of 'riders' seemed to jump off and start to push their bikes up the middle of the road. We had a nightmare of time trying to safely weave past everyone. We almost ended up walking up one hill ourselves because we couldn't get passed everyone walking!

Some people were really making it look like hard work!

 

[cadseen]

just do a bit of riding, if you can just get used to the saddle that will be a big help.

start with a few 30 minute rides and see how you get on.

 

[Zoom]

The Isle of Wight Randonee is much much better not much harder and free (once you've gone over the water)
www.cycleisland.co.uk

 

[Mortiroloboy]

It's 54 miles, any cyclist or POB can do it, but it will be VERY crowded.

 

[johnnyh]

The Isle of Wight Randonee is much much better not much harder and free (once you've gone over the water)
www.cycleisland.co.uk

I like the sound of that, especially given a cheap ferry return to the Isle of White is only £14.20... hmmmmmm

Definitely doing the London to Brighton, but this one above might be fun too.

 

[Fab Foodie]

The L2B is absolutely heaving, I mean heaving in a big way, so be prepared for a long slow day in the saddle in whatever weather comes your way. However, there is not another bike ride like it with such an assortment of people trying to get down a narrow road and over a pretty big hill at the end. The scene that greets you when you make it to the finish line makes you feel like you've just won the TDF.
Enjoy! I''l be there yet again...

The IOW Radonee circuit is a real treat, I did it with some mates last summer and it's very pretty, good roads, a few nice climbs and not too much traffic. Worth the effort to get there.

 

[Morrisette]

I did the London-Cambridge last year, on the back of commuting 9 miles a day and a few 20 milers beforehand. The longest I'd done before the ride was a 32 miler with a huge break in the middle at my parents' house!

I found it fine - much easier than I'd expected. I'm aiming for a 100 this year!

 

[jay clock]

Whatever you end up doing, a few weeks of training will pay dividends. Sounds like you can do 20 miles without any hassle. So just do little and often, making sure you add in a few hills because L2B is hilly, and maybe do at least a 35 miler in training.

 

[Paulus]

The Isle of Wight Randonee is much much better not much harder and free (once you've gone over the water)
www.cycleisland.co.uk

I have done the IOW Randonnee for the last ten years, and IMHO is a lot harder than the L2B. It is 66 miles round the island and almost none of it is flat. There are some big hills along the cliffs on the south side of the island and also around Cowes. It is a very good ride, well worth doing, but nothing like the L2B.

The London to Cambridge ride is also very good, a few smallish hills but nothing of note.

 

[Tynan]

did it 2 years ago, not sure I'd do it again

it's an experience, all human life is there for sure, some huge fat girls on utter scrap heaps with flat nobbly tyres, everything

the downside was fairly narrow lanes getting choked with riders, people stacked now and then and brought the whole thing to a standstill for an hour, M25 stylee, if you can avoid the masses I gues it''s good, I see now why people were setting off at the crack, we were off fairly promptly

as said, every single hill, no matter how gentle had people pushing, often blocking the road, it was very very hard to ride up Ditchling for the people using the entire width of the road to push up and telling people calling for some room to ride up to **** off, nice

 

[ianrauk]

This is the reason I haven't done the official L2B .. it would drive me completely mad having to stop all the time..

And as for not keeping to left when walking up Dichling.. wtf? I though it was in our British psyche to keep to one side...

did it 2 years ago, not sure I'd do it again

it's an experience, all human life is there for sure, some huge fat girls on utter scrap heaps with flat nobbly tyres, everything

the downside was fairly narrow lanes getting choked with riders, people stacked now and then and brought the whole thing to a standstill for an hour, M25 stylee, if you can avoid the masses I gues it''s good, I see now why people were setting off at the crack, we were off fairly promptly

as said, every single hill, no matter how gentle had people pushing, often blocking the road, it was very very hard to ride up Ditchling for the people using the entire width of the road to push up and telling people calling for some room to ride up to **** off, nice

 

[Tynan]

Absolutely, real day trippers, there was barely room to wind single file through them on the rhs, there was me and two others already at our limit having to find the breath to call out for people to clear the road and then pick a path through them, and generally getting bad attitude back, it really didn't make things easier