It got a long ride! 275km and 16 hours including stops
I started at 6:40am, quite late and had a possible shorter scape of 9/10 hours 160k route, just in case.
Great morning traffic free escaping from East London , passing by some landmarks, Tower Bridge, London Eye, Big Ben, etc...to Richmond park, where the actual London to Brighton off road starts. That was the the place for first stop to top up my front (quite worn out sides) tyre. I had a serious cut near the tyre bead from previous Wednesday night ride in Epping. and had to do a Saturday evening change, setting up tubeless. Sunday morning the tyre was flat and was losing pressure quickly before and after departure.I hoped it'd eventually needed less frequent top ups; and that was the last.
Richmond, full of roadies, deers and drivers driving slowly. From that point, I had done the first 30-40 first km and knew it was tame, cycle lanes, road and so for cyclocross bikes. At the middle part I hit some singletrack, (finally!), a quick fun descent and the reached the Downs link. Enjoyed a lot despite being flat and straight. Maybe the fact I had already passed the turning point, lots of families with children on bikes and the sense of adventure made me cheerful. Now that infamous hill before Brighton...not that steep, thought it'd be longer but I got really tired on my arms, pulling from handlebars standing on the single speed bike...that was tough. Now on top I could see the shoreline and off I went down quickly and reached Brighton for first time. I forgot the towel and decided not to go for a swim. Longish stop, text family and friends. All good. 3pm already and still 125km ahead. Predicted more than 7 hours including stops. My legs felt completely fine.
First hill off Brighton and that was a hell of a one. It's part of the South downs way, that grassy top, felt weak, what was happening to my legs? No worries, stop and walk, the speed was almost same as pedalling and my heart was very grateful.
After that I just followed mainly NCN 20 and 21, really enjoyed, plenty of dirt tracks, some singletrack, not many riders, dog walkers or horse ridfers compared to the L2B. the links on the road were not very long and few cars and that time on a Sunday evening. Lights on and still 4 hours to go. On my own, far away and enjoying the darkness and that little space of light, focused all the time, superb! At times felt not strong, whereas after eating a power bar, a banana and chocolate powder in water in 40 minutes interval gave me an edge. The importance of nutrition.
30km to finish and my Garmin turned it off. It lasted few seconds on and again it turned itself off. I'd heard that Garmin could have some problems dealing with long files. I still had the mobile phone as a back up but not handle bar mounting (need one). 10 minutes later it worked fine again. It was cold, temp dropped near the zero grades mark.
Crossed the Thames via Greenwich tunnel path and then entered into the maze of skyscrappers in Canary Wharf. There my gps signal got weak, they are too tall and wandered a bit until eventually got a better signal, marked my destination and followed gps as a navigator.
I was craving of salty food, how on hell I thought entering to a McDonalds wouldn't be a bad idea? Bought some beacon before going home and that was first thing I ate!
Just less than 5 hours of eleep and again on the bike, this time the commuter, to go to work...Finally my tima came Monday afternoon woth 5 hours of siesta and well fed
This has been the 1 day longest ride ever. Enjoyed loads and, honestly, I never felt extremely tired. Guess easy gear, flat terrain helps.
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