London 2 Brighton at last

Followers of the Lovesail Twitter profile and Facebook page will know that for the past 3 months I have been annoying everyone with my posts  about my training for the London 2 Brighton Bike Ride (54 miles) to raise funds for The British Heart Foundation.  Well the ride took place last Sunday and I have recovered sufficiently now to bore you with the days events!

Myself and two friends caught to train to Clapham for our 9:00am start.  We nearly got lost leaving the station, but a fellow cyclist pointed us in the right direction, and we made our way to the Common.  The Common was packed, 28,000 cyclist took part in the London 2 Brighton bike ride this year.  We were directed to our 9:00 start gate and got our tickets stamped.  We left bang on 9:00am only to grind to a halt a few meters further along.  This stopping and starting continued until we left the outskirts of London.  So many cyclist and much traffic makes for a slow start.  I was secretly pleased because my fellow team mates are much faster than me, so it meant we had a gentle start!

Our first stop (10 miles in).  I had forgotten my water bottle, so a short stop and then we were off again.  Making our way down to

Brighton, I couldn’t tell you the route for the London 2 Brighton, I remember Mitcham, signposts reading Redhill, Crawley Down, Lindfield (which I thought was Ditchling) Haywards Heath and then Ditchling itself.  By this time the rain had started and the hill to the Beacon approached.  Everyone says not to even try to cycle up, but I had to give it a go.  I lasted about 100m and then just had to stop, and join the rest of the cyclists walking.  It was pretty hard pushing  up to the Beacon.  Don’t forget by this time we had completed about 47 out of the 54 miles.   I finally reached the top and tried to locate my friends.  We had lost each other several hours before but had agreed to wait at the top of the Beacon.  I finally managed to find Louise and Sarah rang to say she was on her way up.  Her chain had been problamatic, but what she hadn’t realised was that her brake had been stuck on!  She had ridden about 15 miles like this until someone had noticed and helped her out.  That was the one thought that will stay with me the most.  the atmosphere of the ride.  Everyone was polite, chatty and helpful.  They stopped to give you a hand even if it meant you were delaying their ride.  From the top of the beacon down into Brighton was 7 miles, a lovely downhill run to rest the tired legs, but we had a strong headwind.

Finally the finish line was in sight.  It had taken 5.5 hours and I never thought I would say this but it was very enjoyable!  The time did fly past, and I didn’t feel too exhausted!  It was a great feeling of achievement to get the finish stamp and medal.

Thanks go to Bev for collecting us and driving us home, and to Sarah and Louise for making it such an enjoyable event.  Definitely a must for next year, an earlier start to improve out time with hopefully more friends to join us.

If you would like to know more about The British Heart Foundation

Leaving London

One of many stops!

The top of Ditchling Beacon