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Ride to Brighton
16 August 2009
Fifteen go down to the sea
This ride was due to go to Southend, but then we realised that the tide would be out, then to Eastbourne, but the Airshow was on, so we thought we'd have trouble getting on the train to come home, so in the end we went for an old favourite and rode down to Brighton.
Ride leader Caroline has done this ride many times, and I think has identified the ideal route. We met at East Croydon station (some cycling all the way from Island Gardens, others by taking the train from London Bridge), and rode via Woldingham, Godstone, Turners Hill, Ardingly, Lindfield, Slugwash(!) and Ditchling.
There are some definite highlights on this route - the road past Woldingham school is through a superb valley and feels far from the modern world, and not far outside the M25 the climb up from Godstone passes through some fine woodland. It's also extremely steep, and much crunching of gears was heard as everyone reached for that little used (in Tower Hamlets) first gear, and then discovered it was no longer in adjustment (we don't really do hills in LBTH - we believe the highest we get is on top of the Green Bridge at Mile End).
Turners Hill provided another challenge (and apologies to all those that I misled by saying that between the North and South Downs it was pretty flat!)
Then, after a pleasant lunch stop at Wakehurst Place (a branch of the Royal Botanic Gardens and no doubt well worth a visit, but I have to confess to having stopped there three times on the way to Brighton and never having got past the cafe), we followed the quiet lanes including the improbably named Slugwash (which lead to some speculation about what you would name a house, or a cottage probably, it's a cottage sort of place, if you lived there). After this, the classic ascent of the ride - up Ditchling Beacon - where Mark put us all to shame by his speed, but most got to the top under pedal power. The views from the top were exceptional on a perfect summer's day. Finally, the easy descent for the last few miles into Brighton, where we went straight to the beach, for a swim for those who like that sort of thing, and chips and beer for those who like that.
A special mention for Maciek and Mike who were using the ride as a training run for their 1200 mile London to Krakow expedition (coming up soon - see their blog). Maciek decided to test his (4!) panniers under full load - and not surprisingly found Ditchling a bit of a challenge - but he made it, which bodes well for the big trip.
Total distance was 58 miles (for the Island Gardens team) or 48 (for the East Croydon team) with just under 3000ft of climbing. Interestingly Ditchling provides only about 800ft of that, thus proving what we all knew anyway, that the rest of the route is not flat. You can see the route here on bikehike.co.uk.
Dave
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