Final info for Croydon to Coast off-road, Saturday 19th June

[Will]

Start: ECBR at 7:30am. Out front by taxi rank.
Finish: Palace Pier, Brighton, hopefully by 6:15pm.
Distance: Around 70 miles
Route: 85% - 90% off-road, on easy trails

Things to bring:
- Fully working mountain bike with off-road tyres (i.e not slicks)
- Water bottles (with enough capacity to last the barren 30 mile section from Christ's Hospital)
- Food (to last as above)
- Appropriate warm & waterproof clothing (weather looks to be cooler and wetter than of late, with light showers forecast)
- Tools, including spare tubes, puncture patches, pump, etc.
- Money (for refreshments & return train fare)
- Phone (for ringing people up)
- Commuter lights (it should still be light when we get to Brighton, but you might need them for getting home)

The sections of the route are:
1 - ECBR to Rykers Cafe (14.9 miles)
2 - Rykers Cafe to Cranleigh (13.5 miles)
3 - Cranleigh to Christ's Hospital (9.5 miles)
4 - Christ's Hospital to Truleigh Hill (17.9 miles)
5 - Truleigh Hill to Palace Pier (8.5 miles)

There are known refreshment points at 0 miles, 14.9 miles, 23.4 miles, 28.4 miles, then at the end at 64.3 miles. There are probably others too, but we would have to find them.

There are bailout points via nearby BR stations at 7.0 miles, 14.9 miles, 21.6 miles, 37.9 miles, then at the end at 64.3 miles.

Likely attendees are:
Maria D
Jayne Toyne
Phil Nash
Mark J
Steve
Neil S
Dom
Grahame
Elliot M
Steve
Jeff Mesie
Aodan
Sylvain

Any problems, give me a call on 07946 xxx xxx. We will leave ECBR promptly around 7:30am, so don't be late!

Note that all the distances quoted above were measured using a map wheely pen thing last night. Allow for a margin of error!

If you want to look at the checkpoints in a little (but not much) more detail, I've got a spreadsheet [url=http://www.chickpea.plus.com/croydon_to_coast_2004.xls]here[/url].

See you tomorrow!

[rollerskate skinny (sylv)]

thanks alot for all that Will, great info.

i hope i will be on foot for tomorrow.

[Will]

on foot?

are you sure you'll be able to keep up? it's a long way.

[Dom]

I dunno I reckon well only manage 7mph! Sylv can keep that up no prob!

[rollerskate skinny (sylv)]

"sur pied", ie that my headache will be suited to the terrain of tomorrow.

[Will]

Well, we made it!

14 of us (me, Sylv, Dom, Elliot, Jayne, Helen, Maria, Jeff, Steve, John, Marco, Jeff, Joe, Neil) set off on a bright and sunny morning at around 7:45. We made good progress from East Croydon, stopping only to witness some stunt horses perform for us the side of Epsom race course. From then on the ground was dry and fast, and we enjoyed the roller coaster ride over Stone St (?) to Boxhill. We stopped at Rykers for a bit, then, as planned Marco and John headed back home off-road.

Afer Rykers we headed up and over Ranmore Common. Maria peeled off shortly afterwards, having done a few good miles, but decided that she wanted to do several hundred more by road in preparation for the looming Etape du Tour!

A little while later Downhill Dom had the most spectacular mechanical I've seen for a while when his forks fell apart (pics probably to follow)! As Elliot pointed out, you can ride all year round with little bike trouble, but it seems only when you're riding to Brighton off-road with Addiscombe that everyone's bikes collapse in unimagineable ways! That was game over for Dom, so he sellotaped his bike back together and made his was slowly back to Dorking.

The next part was pretty smooth: we went down a steep hill (40mph from most I think), and over the railway to Peaslake, then up to the top of Pitch Hill, and down into Cranleigh (45mph from Sylv). We stopped in Cranleigh for a bit of lunch and some sunbathing - despite ominous weather reports, it stayed fine and dry all day - and to restock for the next long section along the Downs Link to the South Downs Way.

Suitably rested, we made our way on to the disused railway track. Nothing much to report from here, other than more nice weather, a good pace, with a small celebration when Helen beat her previous distance cycling record of 30 miles! At Christ's Hospital - actually a school rather than a hospital - Jeff turned off as he had to get back home. From then on we followed the rest of the Downs Link on the old tracks, across fields, and along dirt tracks before reaching our turning off point.

Next we cut across to the South Downs Way. The skies were darkening and the wind was picking up, as if warning us of the horrors of the South Downs that lay ahead. Eventually we reached the point of no return, and had no choice but to go up Truleigh Hill. The ascent had all the hallmarks of an hors categorie climb, and all that was missing was our names in paint on the track. We made it up intact, and were rewarded with our first proper sea views.

We were nearly there now. After Truleigh we rolled up and down a few hills to Devil's Dyke, stopped for a photo opportunity, and turned on to the road for the home run down to the sea front. A mad dash through the streets of Brighton brought us out by the beach, and we rode along the front to the end of our journey at the Palace Pier. Then a photo, some chips, a long 'health & safety' wait at the train station (I pity those L2B'ers riding today!) but safely under cover from a flash storm, and finally homeward bound.

Checking the stats, we'd arrived around 5:30pm (45 minutes early!), and we'd covered 64.3 miles (funny that!) in a total of 9 hours 45 minutes, with 8 of us having made it all the way. Despite the occasional darkening skies, we were lucky that the weather stayed dry and warmish all the way. Thanks to everyone for a great ride, and a special congratulations to Helen whose cycling record, after she had got home, probably now stands nearer the 70 mile mark!

[JayneToyne]

A great ride to brighton on saturday, far far better than the soggy ride i think most people had on the sunday on the road. ( the official l2b ride)

A route and itinary laid out with all the prescision of a swat team, Will did us all proud and kept us pointing in the right direction, and nearly always "on schedule" by around plus or minus 5 minutes... I still have no idea how we managed to get to Brighton an hour early though.

the route was much better than last years, mostly simple tracks with the odd bit of loose ascending/descending rocky stuff, nothing super scary and the sun just kept on shining.

Since the weather was fine it gave me a chance to relax and enjoy the route more than last year where i was hanging on for grim death. At one point in the ride where we used some road to go between trails Elliot commented on how fast i was descending, mentioning something about being a bit mad and had I not seen the ruts, my reply at the time was a casual shrug and yeah i like the road, but in reality my eyes were running so much from going so fast downhill I couldnt see anything, never mind ruts so I was pointing myself partially blindly at what I thought might be the bottom, luckily for me it was, although that hairpin at the bottom nearly had me, I was stll trying to clear my eyes as the road vanished around to the left, you might still see the bite marks on my saddle from that.
The final climbs over the last bit before the descent into Brighton was where i really felt the pain as my legs started to complain and the wind was battering me from the side. I think I was muttering expletives, interspersd with 'fish and chips, must have fish and chips'... Arriving at the pier in Brighton we had a moment to remember Dom, who didnt make it because of a slightly unusual technical fault with his forks, (ie, they kind of parted company)

I take my hat off to Helen ( my flat mate) for managing the whole route, without complaint, spending most of the time at the back breathing in everyones dust, and having ridden an average of once every 3 weeks this year she didnt really have a great deal of preparation.

Thanks to everyone who made the day such good fun and to Will for organising another great ride and for the tow down the final bit of road to Brighton. Im looking forward to the next ride already.

cheers

Jayne

[Dom]

Well done you lot!. Was shaping up to be a great ride til my incident (didnt realise how disappointed I was til I got on the train at Dorking).

Anyway congrats on getting down there so promptly, Will you thought about a career, you could run the train system flawlessly!

[rollerskate skinny (sylv)]

Excellent stories!

And a huge thanks to Will and his faultless navigational skills (save from the one time when I was talking to him and, distracted he took a wrong turn - only 100 yards lost though) and great overall organisation.
I think Will had secretly planned that we'd get there for 5.46 in order to get to the train station literally seconds before the storm, but had allowed a 29 minute margin for inponderables.

Thanks also to everyone who took part. Now let's see some photos of Dom doing a Hulk on his forks crown!

[Elliot M]

Great ride, v. sociable ride, top organisation Will.
I'll try to post pics tonight

[Steve]

A superb ride for all concerned except poor Dom who'd like to have done the whole run, the sun was shining, the pace was just right, the trails were perfect, and the route-master Will was great - taking all the stress out of 'which way next'. Hats off to Helen who without proper regular riding - still finished with everyone, so gets the award for best achievement. I though my previous max miles was 45 but I was forgetting about my Holland to France holiday where I was doing 100 a day, but that was on road, so maybe 64x2 offroad miles is the true record. Addiscombe is a great gang, and I thought everyone was real friendly. There's only one word for it - agreeable!

[Helen]

I'd just like to say a big thankyou to everyone for letting me join the ride to brighton on saturday, it was great to meet you all and I had a fantastic day. Arrived home feeling extremely chuffed and amazed to have made it all the way to the finish line at the pier!

thanks again

Helen

[jeffmesie]

An absolutely cracking day!

Thanks to everyone for making what was my first mtb run with the addiscombe so enjoyable. I'd recommend this to anyone as one of the best days out on your bike.

Everyone was so supportive and Will was an absolute hero - who needs a GPS with him about?

My backside was glad that I packed up at Christ's Hospital and I'm full of admiration for those that carried on. Well done everyone!

Maybe I'll have to think about going out on a Sunday mtb ride now as well as the Saturday road run.