rb58
Enigma
- Location
- Bexley, Kent
richardj5 said:
If this is your first ride in a group, take extra care. Lots of L2B riders are not very experienced and can be very unpredictable on the road.
London to brighton
- Thread starter nosherduke996
- Start date
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If this is your first ride in a group, take extra care. Lots of L2B riders are not very experienced and can be very unpredictable on the road.
Fab Foodie
hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
- Location
- Kirton, Devon.
rb58 said:
+1
Heed the Marshalls advice, particularly regarding the downhill sections.
Take care of people suddenly stopping close to Tea stops.
OP
OP
nosherduke996
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Newdigate,surrey
If anyone wants a bit of company riding back, i will be riding back to sunny Surrey.
OP
OP
nosherduke996
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Newdigate,surrey
O.k. how was it for everybody. Mine was a good day considering my bike wouldn,t change down in the granny ring so i climbed all the way up Ditchling Beacon out of the seat. It made my knees hurt but i still managed to cycle home for a total of 101 miles.
At home with a beer now totally shattered.
At home with a beer now totally shattered.
Yep good day for me as well, first time, 4 hours 3 mins, I didn't do all of ditchling though, a mixture of tired legs and congestion put a stop to that.
I did get up to 43.5 on the way down though (according to the bike computer) which was fun, but people were overtakeing me, and I was scared enough
A great day, at home with a beer as well (first in over 8 weeks).
Does anyone know the exact route, I'd love to add it to my training log on map my ride, but I have no idea what it was, just followed everyone else!
Cheers
I did get up to 43.5 on the way down though (according to the bike computer) which was fun, but people were overtakeing me, and I was scared enough
A great day, at home with a beer as well (first in over 8 weeks).
Does anyone know the exact route, I'd love to add it to my training log on map my ride, but I have no idea what it was, just followed everyone else!
Cheers
Well done for getting up Ditchling with an unco-operative bike - it's hard enough on one that works. I enjoyed the day and the walks up the hills as everyone in front of me was walking. Someone obstructed me very early on at Ditchling and I had to jump off as I'd nowhere to go. I am tired too.
Fab Foodie
hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
- Location
- Kirton, Devon.
nosherduke996 said:
Most excellent day then!
My report (copied on heywayne's thread)
Slow, very slow...
Hit the route at 0730 and it was hugely slow out of London... and flippin' cold.
Once out of London it was even slower. London to Brighton Bike walk. I've a knackered cleat from all the walking.
We were deep into surrey before any comfortable progress was made, never mind we chatted to people, shared some jokes, imparted wisdom.
Lunched at Ardingly, Cheesburger, Sultana cake and tea from the scouts (fab job) and then had a pretty zippy run down to Ditchling village where apon reaching thecrossroads were stopped by the Marshalls.
Apparently there had been 2 Heart-Attacks on the beacon in a very short space of time. We were held back to allow the emergency services access. Delayed about an hour, chatted to a lovely young lady and shared around the Jelly babies. All a bit subduesd due to the bad news.
Eventually we were underway as the Flying Ambulance departed.
We were let up the Beacon in dribs and drabs. This actually was quite good news as I found myself with way more space to ride in than usual, though it did get veruy tight at times. With more freedom, climbing the beacon was pretty straightforward, never even getting into my 30 x 25 bottom gear.
Lots of people made it up the hill. I noticed a lot of girls on city/hybrid bikes seemed to make it up with comfort... this it seems is diue to the 'Mega-range' cassette fitted to such bikes. It highlighted the benefit of good low gearing.
Ice-cream at the top, 45 mph on the drop into Brighton and a nice rumble into the finish. Average speed of 11 mph! Long slow day, more knackered than my Sunday morning 60 miler at an ave of 15mph!
Reception on the sea-front never fails to amaze me too.
There did seem to be waaay more people than ever before, the constant stopping and walking annoyed me for the first time ever today. There were also a lot of accidents (this is also quite normal).
This is possibly my last L2B for the forseable future, not because I don't like it, but because the key people I ride it with are moving for sunnier climes and it wouldn't be the same without them. We've done about 14 years consecutively and my personal tally must be getting closer to 20 since my first in about 1984. It's time we did another ride somewhere...
Hope you had a good day.
Aperitif
Meme bar
- Location
- ...I don't have much idea - really.
One poor soul didn't make it apparently. Aged 48, he died climbing Ditchling Beacon.
RIP
RIP
OP
OP
nosherduke996
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Newdigate,surrey
Yes very sad, out of about 30000 people you are always going to get the odd one or two heart attacks. It makes you wonder to really get fit and train for it or just go for broke and trust youre luck.
We got held up for 40 minutes about 5 miles out of Ditchling as they'd closed the road to deal with the incident. Poor guy. As I expected from last year there's just too many people on roads that are too narrow. Makes it very frustrating.
On the positive side I got a clear enough run to get up Ditchling without stopping plus on the way down the other side managed to hit 47.2mph which is my best yet. Annoyingly I didn't realise I was going quite that fast and had I tried harder and got down on the drops I could have got over 50.
On the positive side I got a clear enough run to get up Ditchling without stopping plus on the way down the other side managed to hit 47.2mph which is my best yet. Annoyingly I didn't realise I was going quite that fast and had I tried harder and got down on the drops I could have got over 50.
as said before RIP to the guy who didn't make it. I had to wal the first bit of Ditchling Beacon because he was undergoing treatment, he looked in a bad way but i thought as he was surrounded by medics he would be ok. sadly not.
Otherwise though i had a great day.
Started the day with a hangover after 3.5 hours sleep. Then got halfway to the startline before my mate asked me if i had remembered my car keys!!! Doh, we had to go back and get them, what a plank!
Eventually started at 8:30 (should have been 8) and plodded out of london, had to walk up the first couple of hills because of the amount of people walking but once into the country was able to get a good lick on.
Apart from having to walk the first section of ditchling because of the poor chap who collapsed I managed the rest of the hill with no problems other than getting soaked by the kids with supersoakers!
After that a leisurely roll into Brighton to finish off the ride.
All in all a great day out, ended up doing 65 miles with the extras at each end which makes it the most i've done and felt i could have gone further and no ill effects today.
I'm now considering the London to Southend next month.
Otherwise though i had a great day.
Started the day with a hangover after 3.5 hours sleep. Then got halfway to the startline before my mate asked me if i had remembered my car keys!!! Doh, we had to go back and get them, what a plank!
Eventually started at 8:30 (should have been 8) and plodded out of london, had to walk up the first couple of hills because of the amount of people walking but once into the country was able to get a good lick on.
Apart from having to walk the first section of ditchling because of the poor chap who collapsed I managed the rest of the hill with no problems other than getting soaked by the kids with supersoakers!
After that a leisurely roll into Brighton to finish off the ride.
All in all a great day out, ended up doing 65 miles with the extras at each end which makes it the most i've done and felt i could have gone further and no ill effects today.
I'm now considering the London to Southend next month.
dnrc said:
Other than the obvious hill I think the L2B is relatively gentle on people because you get so many times going slowly or stopping. Our average speed for the first 20 miles was exactly the same as last year - 8mph
.I was looking at the BHF London to Hastings ride which looks fun.
Berger and Chips
New Member
I expected the heart attack victim to have been a fatty who overdid it.
However, the news said the man was called Gary Allen was 48 and was from Leighton Buzzard.
There is a man of that age bracket from that part of the world who is a hard core veteran racer who has won and finished highly in several on and off road races and owns a large cycle store called "GA cycles" - as in "Gary Allen cycles"
Surely it cannot have been this man??
NB: I did this ride and got a puncture plus was held back by police TWICE. Ride time 4 hours 15, total time about 8 hours...
However, the news said the man was called Gary Allen was 48 and was from Leighton Buzzard.
There is a man of that age bracket from that part of the world who is a hard core veteran racer who has won and finished highly in several on and off road races and owns a large cycle store called "GA cycles" - as in "Gary Allen cycles"
Surely it cannot have been this man??
NB: I did this ride and got a puncture plus was held back by police TWICE. Ride time 4 hours 15, total time about 8 hours...
