South Downs Way in a Day

Well it seem like a good idea at the time. The South Downs Way in a day; no problem, leave Winchester at 6am, ride for 10 hours and home in time for the Tour de France highlights at 7. What could possibly go wrong?

The South Downs Way is a 100 mile mainly off road path between Winchester and Eastbourne which is thought to follow a Bronze Age trading route.  A little research soon found me a track to load onto my gps, a paper map was bought from Amazon and water points noted. A little more research stated "very little of the Way is flat". Armed with this nugget of information I decided that I knew enough.

Things started to go wrong 10 days before. There was a delay getting the new rim that was to be built into a geared wheel. Something to do with Bastille Day apparently. No problem last year somebody rode the 'double' (Winchester-Eastbourne-Winchester) on a singlespeed bike in 19 hours so it might just take me a little longer. I put a larger sprocket on to help up the hills (32:18 if you're interested) and all was set. 

Saturday morning at 6 saw me under King Alfred's statue as planned and in was underway.  The first few miles weave through the outskirts of Winchester and then it's the South Downs Way proper. The track was in great condition dry and deserted. I only saw 3 other people in the first 3 hours!

About 10 miles out of Winchester it was clear that I'd been lucky with the weather as there'd obviously been heavy rain which made parts of the chalky ground more slippery especially when going uphill but I was making good time averaging faster than I needed to make my finish time. I had to get off and push a couple of times but was still doing well. 

Every so often the peace of the rustic trails was disturbed by a reminder of 21st century life as the trail crossed the main roads and the calm was disturbed by the by the roar of traffic drowning out my iPod which, set to shuffle, was sending out motivational tunes. 

Beacon hill saw the first big challenge and was the first place I couldn't blame having to walk on a lack of gears. Once up there the views made it worth while, right down to the English Channel which was to be almost constantly in sight for most of the rest of the ride. 

Not that I was taking much notice of the views at the stage. The ride had settled into a pattern of grinding slowly up the hills; getting off to push and save energy as the hills got steeper and descending as fast as I dared - I hit close to 40mph on one steep wide grassy descent; food was a combination of gels, Powerbars, flapjack and energy drinks. My gaze switched from admiring the view to watching the distance to the next turn tick down on my gps and my estimated arrival time slipped further and further away as I walked up more and more hills jumping off my bike each time the track pointed upwards. 

At 4 pm relief came in the form of the Cafe at Saddlescombe, a mug of tea and pannini providing welcome relief from concentrated chewy carbohydrates. Refreshed I was able to push on a little faster but was nearly tempted by the option of bailing out at Brighton, just a short roll downhill from Ditchling Beacon and even, a couple of hours later by even the bright lights of Newhaven!

Just beyond Streat Hill my gps decided it wasn't going to play ball any more and insisted on pointing me back the way that I'd come. Fortunately the signage along the way is very good - most if not all of my off piste lapses can be attributed to my over enthusiasm in hurtling downhill rather than any shortcoming in directions. I wouldn't recommend it but it should be possible to complete the route without map or gps, relying on the signs. The temperature had started to drop now so it was on with an extra layer. As walking uphill was easier than riding at least I wasn't going to overheat. 

The sunset somewhere close to Firle Beacon but on the open heathlands I was able to press on without losing too much speed on the downhill sections. As a precaution I'd packed some lights "just in case I need them back from the station to get home at the end of the day" and these were fitted to help light the way through the dark wooded sections. Now mountain biking at night is great fun if you know the trails or you're feeling fresh but with neither benefit my pace was dropping as I had to slow to avoid crashing and inspect every pole to see if it had a direction marker my gps still stubbornly refusing to point me in the right direction. 

After what would have been, in daylight, an exhilarating descent into Jevington, but in pitch darkness involved riding the brakes and avoiding the potholes I decided to follow the road to Eastbourne, the prospect of walking up another hill and what another rider had described as "a run you'll really enjoy" being too much for me. I found the station in Eastbourne easily and was in time for the last train of the day, 25 minutes later. As I walked up to the ticket barrier and the guard said "you'd better hurry the London train's about to go." It seemed that the previous train was running late so I was able to get home an hour earlier - for some reason the last train, despite leaving only 30 minutes later arrived an hour later. Finally home at quarter past midnight. 

Highlights of the day: a deer bounding out in front of me on the way out of Winchester, Swifts feeding above a field, a glider soaring over the ridge, the views before I got too tired to appreciate them and finally sinking into my my own bed. Almost everyone I met was uniformly friendly, lots of great conversations with other people on the route, just out for a walk, doing the route (more sensibly over 2 days) or section by section or the one other person I met who was also trying to do it in a day. 

So all in all about 107 miles in 15 hours, one puncture, nearly 7000 feet of climbing and two very stiff legs the next day.

But I have 'unfinished business' because I didn't do the last 5 miles I can't claim to have completed it so I'll be back, but with gears, definitely and fitter, maybe?