12 may- Ditchling Double

Onwards To 'The wall!'

This was a new all day early bird special- the Ditchling Double. This was based on the official Puncheur  Sportive that Simon G told us about but modified to take it further east to incorporate the greatest climb at Ashdown forest, 'Kidd's Hill, aka 'the wall'. Up for the challenge were myself, Duncan, Dan , Malc and Ivan. The ride started in Stanmer park next to sussex uni in a nice free car park. A narrow but still mostly tarmacked lane from the  car park took us out on the main road leading up the southern slope of Ditchling Deacon. The easy steady ride to the top of the beacon was followed by the hairy descent down the much steeper (12%) north side. Having only ridden my Giant SCR/Defy for the last week it was a shock to remember just how badly my Rayleigh Avanti handles downhill and it was a relief to reach the valley floor at Ditchling village.From here we headed North through some lovely quiet roads and picturesque villages before heading east into and through Ashdown forest. Dan was having trouble with his gears, the chain jumping between the cassette teeth. We tried adjusting the cable but it made little difference. Lack of cable lubrication was the most likely culprit. Before long we were flying down the fast slightly down hill road through Wych cross and onto Coleman's hatch before taking a sharp right for the decent  down to the bottom of 'the wall'. There was just a moment to glance enviously at the people sitting outside supping lager at the Coleman's Hatch pub'. Ivan was on his fixie and wasn't sure what to expect on this climb. He needn't have worried as Ivan power has been restored (after faltering during the winter cold) and he comfortably stomped up the hill with Malcolm for company. I found the hill quite a bit easier than the last time I rode this hill a month ago and managed to knock exactly a minute off my time. Now we headed due south on the lookout for somewhere to eat. A pub at Nutley was tempting but I knew there was a better pub at Fletchling (the griffin inn). The people working at the pub were very friendly and the sandwiches were excellent, They also serve Harvey's Best which Ivan couldn't resist. With only 17 miles to go, we seemed to have the ride beaten. However, the weather had clouded over and the cold head wind had picked up, These last 17 miles were going to be tougher than we thought. Ivan doesn't normally like cold weather but with a pint of Harvey's inside him he was really enjoying battering into the wind and on some sections raced ahead only to cycle back down to us slower ones and go back up again. On reaching Lewes, Ivan and Malc broke away from us. The rest of us rode steadily towards Ditchling knowing that there was one more 'big push' before the end. The start of the climb is very stark and jumps from 0 to an elevation of 9% almost immediately. This famous climb is the highest one in East Sussex. I had put my garmin onto profile mode to help me judge the length of the climb. After four minutes of climbing I thought my GPS had stopped working as the black dot on the profile didn't seem to have moved up the profile line at all, but there was nothing wrong with the GPS, It was my tired legs that were not working so well. In the end it would take me another five and a half minutes to finally make it to the crest. I had really been looking to the ride down the south side back to the car park but the moment we reached the crest a blast of cold air struck us head on and to keep moving we had to keep pedalling all the way back down to the car park. All in all we thought this was areally good route and although not quite as thrilling as the 'Hell of Ashdown' it is definitely one to repeat next year.