As payback for me dragging him to do Liege-Bastogne-Liege, but mainly because he's an offroader at heart Mike Wingrave suggested we tackle the South Downs Way this year, but take a 'full' day to do it. 'Too easy on a mountain bike' he said, we should do it on our cyclocross bikes. Like a 16 year old going to the prom the only thing that crossed my mind was 'what to wear' - was this peaked helmet, baggy shorts and Camelbak or road lid, lycra and bottles?
Predictably, we did absolutely nothing until a few days before the agreed date and then came up with a plan to load the route onto my Garmin and then pedal that route until we got to the end. We were hoping to try and average 12 mph to start, dropping to 10 and then probably 9.5 by the end, filling our bottles up from taps en route and stopping at some cafés for food. Easy. No point in over-planning these things.
So on Saturday 20th June I set an alarm for 4:10, met up with Mike and we made our way to the official start - King Alfred's Statue in Winchester just after 06:00. A bit of food and faff and by 06:30 we were on our way. Finding the way out of Winchester isn't too bad, we didn't see any other groups but it's a steady uphill for the first ten miles which serves as a nice warm-up.
The first really steep climb comes at Old Winchester Hill which we had to push up but we saw some MTB-ers doing the same so felt OK. A bit more steady riding and then the big descent at Butser Hill to the Queen Elizabeth Country Park. Very unwisely I was pushing to keep with a group of guys on MTB bikes - the downhill looked trivial at the top - a long, wide, grassy slope; what you don't see is the rabbit holes and small drop-offs until you are flying over them at speeds of up to 37mph which, with thin tyres and no suspension, was plenty.
We'd made reasonable progress to QECP - 4th fastest time according to Strava so after a quick peanut butter sandwich we set off again and from there into the proper South Downs.
A bit of low cloud spoiled the views to the North and South but we caught glimpses of The Solent and The Isle of Wight. At about 10:00 we had some sustained, light rain which wasn't too bad but made the tracks quite slippery. Mike was just commenting on this when my front wheel went from under me on some wet chalk and down I went, bent shifter and cut knee. I couldn't understand how it happened, I was using the road tyres I ride to work on, they should have been ideal for the SDW in the wet...
By now we were stopping for every official SDW tap. Spaced at roughly 10 miles we were finding that with a quick swig and then filling the bottle up we were fine fluid-wise.
From Cocking onwards we found ourselves riding against the flow of a SDW marathon, which made for some tough descents. Held up by runners with their eyes down and headphones on we came close to crashing a few times, but we passed this and even got a "Wahey Redhill" shout as we always seem to when wearing club clothing. Views of Arundel castle and Worthing reward the relentless ups and downs and bone-shaking chalk / flint doubletrack.
Just before Amberley we diverted from the route by half a mile to have lunch at a roadside café. I take a keen interest in nutrition so ordered the "Team Sky" (large chips, pasty and coffee cake) which sat at the top of my throat for the next two hours making me feel quite nauseous.
We plodded along, by now below 10mph, surviving the awful hill at Shoreham where in a few miles you go from ~800ft to sea level and then straight back up to ~700 ft. We stopped for some malt loaf at Devil's Dyke and were making better progress until I tried to get a wine gum out of my pocket and managed to fly over the bars and into a nettle patch.
Despite definitely having a broken leg we pushed on straight across Ditchling Beacon, missing the sharp right turn at Blackcap we had been warned not to miss, reversing and then dropping down to Alfriston. Only 9 miles to go but another sea level to ~650 ft climb that I really struggled on. Road riding is one thing but this sort of flinty offroad climbing actually requires a bit of technique and upper body strength, both of which I was lacking. Mike's offroad prowess was shining through by now and I just about managed to cling on, riding into Eastbourne with two MTB groups that had set off earlier than us that day.
Conclusions:
* Riding it on a CX bike is quite painful. The gearing makes the climbs tough and some had to be walked. Front chainring-wise I was on 50-34 with a 11-32 cassette so lowest gear wasn't that low. There were times when we were with MTB groups where they could sit and spin up steep stuff (suspension bobbing over rocks) where we just couldn't do it and had to push. At the same time the CX bikes did give some advantages and certainly aren't a bad option for the SDW, I attempted it having not ridden offroad for years, a decent MTB rider who happens to have a CX bike could set a very good time.
* Really knowing the route could save a lot of time.
* Not having a marathon going against you saves time.
* Having some tyres with grip on is to be recommended.
* Turning around and doing it again (and again!) is absolute madness.
* Most importantly - I really recommend having a crack at this - it is a fantastic trip no matter how long you choose to take.
Stats:
Distance: 100.4mi
Moving Time: 10:27:17
Ascent: 11,273ft