London to Brighton 2010

08.30 on Sunday morning and there we were, Team Super Bailli, lined up on Clapham Common beneath murky skies wondering just what the day would have in store.

Despite riders having been starting every 30 minutes since 06.30, there must have been thousands still waiting to start and many more yet to arrive before the final departure time of 09.30.
Map in hand, detailing vital information about refreshment, toilet and mechanic points along the route, off we went.

To my surprise it can't have taken much over an hour to leave behind the built up areas of south London. Then came the first stop, at Woodmansterne, at round 10.15 where Bronwen, George and I joined the hundreds of 'picnikers' and took the opportunity to lighten our loads by eating some of our own provisions - three dozen bananas, and numerous multi-packs of Jordans' cereal bars - ok, I might be exaggerating slightly, but only slightly!! What a star Bronwen, looking after us so well!

On we went to the great named pub, 'The Dog and Duck'. Already lunchtime, we weren't tempted to sample the local brew, as with only 23 miles gone it might have brought about a premature end to our day!

By this point we had already manipulated 2 short inclines, the first of which brought everyone to a standstill for quite a while in order to allow an ambulance to pass through to reach an accident ahead on the narrow wooded descent. Once everyone got moving, the majority chose to walk, but the persistent ones including me, somehow found space to squeeze up the gutter. Riding uphill at snail's pace has certainly improved my balance!

I must admit at this point I was starting to feel bored. The skies were still grey, I was feeling cold as the flat route didn't allow me to build up any body heat whatsoever, and the countryside was nothing remarkable. It's a good job that Bronwen and I found a way to amuse ourselves, unintentionally I must stress. There we were taking a quick breather and trying out each other's bikes down a side road, a cul-du-sac in fact, when a rider followed us thinking that this was the route! Poor man, I'm not sure how impressed he was at us leading him astray!

However, then came Turner's Hill - a nice focus at a point when some sort of incentive was required. Once again however the majority of riders abandoned their wheels and took to their feet. Quite why people resorted to this when they hadn't even made any attempt to pedal up the hill I couldn't understand! I kept saying to myself, isn't the whole point to be able to say you've 'cycled' from London to Brighton?

About 50 yards from the summit even I had to get off the bike and walk, as the dense crowds of 'so called riders' made it impossible to ride on. The reward at the top however was a nice cup of tea and half an hour listening to a local brass band who had found a great spot on the little village green.

From here on in, I'm pleased to say the sky slowly started to brighten and with it my mood. The next stretch was fast due to several gradual descents. Once again however we were temporarily delayed by another accident for which we had to enable ambulance and backup vehilces to pass by and attend.

After riding through the picturesque village of Lindfield, news was filtering through that there had been a further incident ahead. Shortly afterwards, Police warned us of a 20 minute delay. The word on the road was that a 48 year old gentleman had suffered a heart attack on the final climb and been airlifted to hospital. On hearing of the predicted delay, and at the same time finding myself outside Archie's Sandwich Shop in the centre of Haywards Heath, there was only one thing on my mind - 'bacon butty time'! Bronwen and I enjoyed ourselves immensely, but poor George was held up for these 20 minutes half a mile back! Perhaps that's why he ignored us and rode on when we later waited for him to catch up!

With only one thing now on our minds, the much talked about and feared, 'Ditchling Beacon', I started to get quite excited! With what people had been uttering all day, I thought maybe it really was our own 'Alpe d'Huez' that lay ahead. Maybe I was being disrespectful to the South Downs that were starting to appear.

Suddenly the riders were starting to slow and as a result gather more closely together. I was pleading to myself for people to actually stay on their bikes in order to at least attempt the climb. Unfortunately my pleading fell mostly on deaf ears. Despite a few of us shouting for walkers to stay on the left, thereby leaving a passage clear on the right for the few cyclists amongst us, it didn't really work. I think that the climbs should have been 'marshalled' in order to allow those who wished to ride up to do so, after all it was a bike ride we were doing, not a sponsored walk!

I am however proud to say that I remained patient and balanced throughout, allowing myself to pedal up the entire climb. The fact that I never broke sweat says nothing about my level of fitness, only that the speed was so slow, anybody could have in fact done it! And it's for that reason that I find it such a shame that so few people even attempted to ride up the seemingly 'notorious' Ditchling Beacon.

After a short stop for the three of us to regroup it was all downhill to the finish. The sun broke out, the clouds cleared away, and the sea was a dazzling blue. With the crowds cheering us along the promenade we joyfully passed beneath the finishing line and collected our medals. We'd done it!

So much for my prediction of 54 miles probably taking about 4.5 hours. Instead I have to hand it to George who was much closer in his prediction of 10 hours. Arriving in Brighton at 18.00 or thereabouts we had in fact been on the road for 9.5 hours - picnic stops and hold ups included. Hey, but it was worth it!