London to Brighton Bike Ride 2006
The full horror can be seen at flickr.
A huge thank you to everyone who pledged donations towards my sponsored insanity attempt yesterday as I joined 27,000 other nutcases on the 54-mile London to Brighton Bike Ride.
I am now able to tell you, categorically, that when travelling from London to Brighton it is far easier by car than by bicycle.
The day started in slightly inauspicious fashion when Thameslink removed the service that I had planned to get from the timetable and instead of taking a direct train from Earley to Clapham Junction I had to travel from Wokingham to Guildford and then onto Woking where I had to change again for Clapham Junction. Way to go guys.
Kev and Andy (who have both said they will do the ride next year!) were good enough to turn up to see me on my way and then I was off, although it very quickly became clear that choosing the 9.30am start-time had been a mistake, because by then the traffic had started to build up on the roads, and all the other cyclists who should have started in earlier slotsbut were too lazy to get out of bed on time were grouped in with the 9.30 riders, making for a huge amount of bikes setting off at the same time. It took an absolute age to get out of London.
It was pretty stop/start in the early stages and each time we came to a halt I noticed that the other riders were taking advantage of the breaks by getting out their water bottles and taking a drink. I, in typical fashion, was taking advantage of the breaks by getting out my camera and taking photos.
The first real hill reared up around the 9 mile mark, and with added speed-bumps too - thanks guys! - and I made my first stop around 12 miles to wee, eat, re-apply suncream and top up my water bottle, (in that order) and then I went on my way once more where after a few minutes I passed a couple who were having a massive domestic as they rode along!
At 16 miles we were hearded along a small single-track country lane where everything came to a shuddering halt. For over an *hour*. Apparently there had been a big accident up ahead and thousands of cyclists were forced to stop and stand around while it was sorted out - but it was OK because the smell of manure in the fields wasn't *that* bad and I quite enjoyed inhaling the pollen from all the hay-fever inducing flowers that surrounded me on all sides. Worse for the poor bugger in the accident of course, but also very frustrating for everyone standing around waiting and by the time midday came around I had covered only half the mileage I had been expecting. The only bright spot of the delay was a few guys trying to get an impromptu mexican wave going!
Eventually we got moving again and finally we reached some real roads so I was able to claw some miles back. There were some lovely downhill bits too and I flew headlong down them, at one stage reaching a top speed of 42.7mph at which point I promptly shit myself and applied liberal use of the brakes.
I made good time until we were frustratingly held up for around 30 minutes at Turners Hill, this time due to the sheer volume of cyclists on the road and I would imagine another consequence of the 9.30 start-time, although it did give me a chance to refill my water bottles again and I even saw Jedi Master Yoda. He looks much bigger in real life and was quite out of breath. I think he should have done more training.
Things then started to get quite tough for a while with the sun beating down and with some fairly nasty hilly sections to negotiate. Thankfully there were dozens of people lining the pavements with high-powered 'supersoaker' water-guns and hose-pipes, spraying the riders as we went through which was very welcome, before we finally came to the dreaded Ditchling Beacon, a 1km long 12% gradient climb up to the highest point on the route.
I attempted to cycle up it but that idea lasted just seconds before I had to disembark and push the bike up. Walking up the hill, which followed about 20 minutes or so of tough riding just beforehand, shot my heart-rate up to 179bpm, 96% of my maximum heart-rate(!) - I know it's good to push yourself a little bit I think that may have been somewhat out of the realms of healthy exercise and into the realms of premature-death-attempt. It was at that point I was overtaken by the Incredible Hulk. I wonder if he started off the ride as Dr David Banner and slowly transformed into the Hulk as he got more a more angry as the day went on?
"Grrrr! Too Hot! Legs hurt! Hulk MAD!"
I collapsed, literally, at the top and rested for a bit before tackling the final 5.5 miles into Brighton where it got incredibly busy and congested again, the final mile taking about 20 minutes or so to complete. Seeing the finish line was a very beautiful sight, as was the sight of my Wife who had kindly driven down to Brighton to meet me. I then inhaled an ice-cream and we sat on the beach for a bit before the 3-hour drive back home.
Needless to say my legs and arse are aching just everso slightly today!
...
VIDEO:
Riders gather in Clapham Common. WARNING - motion sickness may occur while viewing.
Jonee sulks in the traffic jam
...
EDIT: Oh, I completed the ride in 4 hours, 32 minutes of actual cycling, (or in 6 hours 43 minutes if you count all the stops and accident delays!) burning 4,001 calories in the process.
A huge thank you to everyone who pledged donations towards my sponsored insanity attempt yesterday as I joined 27,000 other nutcases on the 54-mile London to Brighton Bike Ride.
I am now able to tell you, categorically, that when travelling from London to Brighton it is far easier by car than by bicycle.
The day started in slightly inauspicious fashion when Thameslink removed the service that I had planned to get from the timetable and instead of taking a direct train from Earley to Clapham Junction I had to travel from Wokingham to Guildford and then onto Woking where I had to change again for Clapham Junction. Way to go guys.
Kev and Andy (who have both said they will do the ride next year!) were good enough to turn up to see me on my way and then I was off, although it very quickly became clear that choosing the 9.30am start-time had been a mistake, because by then the traffic had started to build up on the roads, and all the other cyclists who should have started in earlier slotsbut were too lazy to get out of bed on time were grouped in with the 9.30 riders, making for a huge amount of bikes setting off at the same time. It took an absolute age to get out of London.
It was pretty stop/start in the early stages and each time we came to a halt I noticed that the other riders were taking advantage of the breaks by getting out their water bottles and taking a drink. I, in typical fashion, was taking advantage of the breaks by getting out my camera and taking photos.
The first real hill reared up around the 9 mile mark, and with added speed-bumps too - thanks guys! - and I made my first stop around 12 miles to wee, eat, re-apply suncream and top up my water bottle, (in that order) and then I went on my way once more where after a few minutes I passed a couple who were having a massive domestic as they rode along!
At 16 miles we were hearded along a small single-track country lane where everything came to a shuddering halt. For over an *hour*. Apparently there had been a big accident up ahead and thousands of cyclists were forced to stop and stand around while it was sorted out - but it was OK because the smell of manure in the fields wasn't *that* bad and I quite enjoyed inhaling the pollen from all the hay-fever inducing flowers that surrounded me on all sides. Worse for the poor bugger in the accident of course, but also very frustrating for everyone standing around waiting and by the time midday came around I had covered only half the mileage I had been expecting. The only bright spot of the delay was a few guys trying to get an impromptu mexican wave going!
Eventually we got moving again and finally we reached some real roads so I was able to claw some miles back. There were some lovely downhill bits too and I flew headlong down them, at one stage reaching a top speed of 42.7mph at which point I promptly shit myself and applied liberal use of the brakes.
I made good time until we were frustratingly held up for around 30 minutes at Turners Hill, this time due to the sheer volume of cyclists on the road and I would imagine another consequence of the 9.30 start-time, although it did give me a chance to refill my water bottles again and I even saw Jedi Master Yoda. He looks much bigger in real life and was quite out of breath. I think he should have done more training.
Things then started to get quite tough for a while with the sun beating down and with some fairly nasty hilly sections to negotiate. Thankfully there were dozens of people lining the pavements with high-powered 'supersoaker' water-guns and hose-pipes, spraying the riders as we went through which was very welcome, before we finally came to the dreaded Ditchling Beacon, a 1km long 12% gradient climb up to the highest point on the route.
I attempted to cycle up it but that idea lasted just seconds before I had to disembark and push the bike up. Walking up the hill, which followed about 20 minutes or so of tough riding just beforehand, shot my heart-rate up to 179bpm, 96% of my maximum heart-rate(!) - I know it's good to push yourself a little bit I think that may have been somewhat out of the realms of healthy exercise and into the realms of premature-death-attempt. It was at that point I was overtaken by the Incredible Hulk. I wonder if he started off the ride as Dr David Banner and slowly transformed into the Hulk as he got more a more angry as the day went on?
"Grrrr! Too Hot! Legs hurt! Hulk MAD!"
I collapsed, literally, at the top and rested for a bit before tackling the final 5.5 miles into Brighton where it got incredibly busy and congested again, the final mile taking about 20 minutes or so to complete. Seeing the finish line was a very beautiful sight, as was the sight of my Wife who had kindly driven down to Brighton to meet me. I then inhaled an ice-cream and we sat on the beach for a bit before the 3-hour drive back home.
Needless to say my legs and arse are aching just everso slightly today!
...
VIDEO:
Riders gather in Clapham Common. WARNING - motion sickness may occur while viewing.
Jonee sulks in the traffic jam
...
EDIT: Oh, I completed the ride in 4 hours, 32 minutes of actual cycling, (or in 6 hours 43 minutes if you count all the stops and accident delays!) burning 4,001 calories in the process.