posted on June 14, 2010 11:32
The thought of riding 41 miles can always feel like it will be very painful, but how wrong the 3 wise men from Surrey were. Remy, his mate Ray and myself headed off from Guildford train station and managed to find the start of the trail with little problem.
After a quick break involving watering the local vegetation, we headed along the Downslink which is an old disused railway line and as we discovered is almost flat for the entire ride. In all honesty, the ride is suitable for anyone due to it being this flat.
We tapped away on the pedals, noting owls and various birds of prey as we went, stopping for a break at Southwater to watch a bit of kayaking on a training lake before heading off once again through the scenic countryside of West Sussex.
Now, having ridden 35 miles the 3 wise men had reached the South Downs and possibly made the not so wise decision to tackle Truleigh Hill, which is a climb of approx 250m in height, along a very narrow path, which didn’t have a true track to follow. Plus it was chalky, gravelly and grassy just to make it nice and easy for us.
Eventually we all made it to the tarmac road about 2/3 of the way up and carried on after allowing our lungs to no longer feel like we had each smoked 60 Dunhill cigarettes in the last 5 minutes. Not surprising, the tarmac road soon disappeared to reveal a nice stony and once again gravelly mixture, to test the strength left in our legs, just what we didn't need after a whacking great climb.
But after every climb comes the decent and this made every second of the climb worthwhile, as we clicked into a high gear, up on the pedals as we hacked it through the rutted pathways, bunny hopping, puddle splashing, grins on our faces as we finally reached Shoreham harbour.
With the smell of the sea air and sun in our faces, we headed towards Brighton and by the time we had reached the train station we had clocked up 45 miles and settled down for our relaxing journey home.
This truly was a great ride and great practice for Remy and Ray tackling the London to Brighton ride on 20 June and myself riding the London Bikeathon on 27 June. If this trip is ever run again, it is highly recommended or if you tackle it yourself, i’m sure you will enjoy it just as much as we did.
Martin