Yesterday, as has been mentioned, was the London ~ Brighton ride.
I've done this one many times, so know what to expect of the day. This time, however, a mate and I got away just after 06:00 after being up at 03:00 for the drive to Clapham.
The roads there, and also cyclists riding towards the start, seemed to be quieter than usual, and we put it down to the earlier start time. Still, we made good time out of London, and thought about a quick coffee at Fannys Farm Shop, but were surprised to see it closed and being used as an ambulance parking area instead. (Possibly as there are accidents on the fast descent past it?)
Anyway, we decided to carry on until about 35 ish miles and take a short break before Ditchling Beacon was attacked. As with
@mark st1 we made it up in one go, though I didn't have a gear to spare, but I did press the lever over a few times 'just in case' I found one
More than happy with a PB though.
We made good time all the way as there were fewer than usual riders at the main pinch points and hills and we put it down to our earlier start, but someone said it's because BHF dropped the numbers from 27,000 to 14,000.
When we got to the seafront, we'd hoped for some fish and chips, but the kiosk by the pier seemed to be open, but said they were closed until 11:00! It was just gone 10:00 at this time.
I asked them if they were mad to turn down all this business but they seemed unconcerned, knowing they could buy a new Mercedes with the money they'd make during the rest of the day. Kerching!
The ice cream kiosk, however, was open so we made do with that. Mine's the one with 2 flakes
We only stayed in Brighton for a short while before setting off back to London. Our route, as in previous years, was the up the A23 cycle lanes, and bike paths nearby, as far as Handcross, and up it's hill, before turning right towards Turners Hill along High Beeches Lane and High Street were we were treated to the sound of being overtaken by the Chelsea Harley Davidson club out on a Sunday jolly!
Once fifty of so had passed us, and had ridden into the distance, our hearing returned to normal
In previous years, we've ridden back on the Monday and seen only the usual traffic. However, we thought that by lunchtime, most of the riders would have passed the Turners Hill stop, where we rested for a short while. It was heaving though, and the band was still playing!
This presented the problem of riding the opposite way to the main ride. Luckily, once we'd used a cut though to the main road, we were away from most of the throng so didn't have too much trouble. We did take an alternative route at the A264 via Copthorne to Smallwood as it would have been dangerous to ride against the flow though.
Our route back from here diverged from the L2B route, but went up some decidedly challenging bits from the top of Outwood Lane, across the M25 and then Hilltop Lane. Once past this, we knew the main climbing had been done, with only a few ups and downs to ride.
Farthing Down was our last bit of countryside before getting back into The Smoke.
From then onwards, for the remaining few miles, we were into London traffic. Happily, there surprisingly few eejits out and about, so we got back to Clapham with no issues, using the A237 and A217 to Tooting, then the A24/CS7 back to Clapham. It then took us longer to drive out of London than it did for us to ride from Brighton
A great day out, with 110 miles ridden in decent weather, for a change, in a reasonable time (for me)
https://www.strava.com/activities/614174846
PS: I have one more L2B to do now. My daughter has decided she wants to do it next year, so I said I'd cycle with her as support.
