7/9 Annual Off Road Ride To Brighton

Josef On A Superlight Ridgid 29er!

This was our annual off road ride to Brighton. Joining us for the first time was Paul Fuller on a recently purchase Giant Anthem full suss and Mark Ingram on  a Boardman cyclecross. While assembling at the Bridge cafe we saw the familiar figure of Stuart Hodd coming back from a training ride, Stu warned us how strong the South westerly wind was before wishing us good luck. Colin has no love for mountain bikes and turned up on a new steel fixie, his plan was to leave us at Eastbourne and cycle to Brighton on the road meeting up with us later.We set off at a gentle pace along the coast road to Eastbourne where we had arranged to meet up with Dave HH. For the last two months Dave has been recovering from a neck injury he sustained on a 'drop off' at Bedgebury. He was a bit apprehensive how he would get on especially as he was carrying an enormous backpack with him! Dave led the way to the start of the downs and struggled at first as unlike the rest of us his legs muscles had not had chance to warm up. Josef was on a super light weight carbon 29er hard tail with a single chainring, 42 tooth rear cassette and rigid carbon forks, this meant he could climb any hill extremely fast. Steve D was struggling as his knee was hurting from a twist he must have sustained playing football for Tackleway during the week. The route up to the top of butts brow is relentless but I actually found it  easier than when we did it last year, my muscles being stronger because of the great mtb season we have enjoyed. Just before the juddering descent down to Jevington, Steve realised he had a puncture.

Dave Is Back On The Trails!

This is where our run of punctures started last year when we had around a dozen, were we in for a plethora of punctures this year? As I am a bad descender I held back to go last down the decent but I was finding it a lot easier than Mark and Josef who had no front suspension and were in all sorts of difficulty on this descent. We rode up the long man by the longer but easier way before another rocky descent down to Alfriston. Both myself and Ivan had begun to get the shakes, we needed refuelling.There is an excellent shop in the centre which makes bespoke sandwiches and pasties so we were able to get refuelled. Outside the shop was an Ozzie named Luke who asked if he could tag along with us, Luke was on a cheap mtb but was a strong rider, he told us that he has lived at Eastbourne for two years but has not found a group to ride with, I have given him our business card so hopefully we can meet up with him again.Eating here  turned out to be a very wise move as the next part of the ride was by far the hardest and would require an awful lot of energy. We took the downs head on by climbing up Kingsdrive. The climbing went on and on, not surprisingly as we were ascending from sea level to an altitude of about 700 feet. Having made the top we were hit by the full force of the south westerly wind which made the undulating route across the top much harder than in previous years.It was also so cold that I had to stop to put a gillet on (we have been spoilt this year with all the warm weather) . For the next five miles everyone was quiet as we all retreated into ourselves to just focus on keeping the pedals turning and not thinking about the wind which was buffering us . Dave was going surprisingly well by now but Steve's knee was getting worse and was beginning to swell up. Eventually we reached the brilliant curved descent of Rodmell hill. We could breath a little easier now as the end of the ride was in sight. Just one more big climb up Swansborough hill (aided by half of it being concreted) and all that was left was the mainly down hill ride to Brighton. On reaching the main road to Brighton we had a choice, either stick to the road which is downhill all the way getting us into the centre in ten minutes or try to locate the beginning of the track marked on the map which would take us down to the sea front. All of us apart from Steve whose knee was painful ,wanted to do the track. This time

Only One Puncture This year!

using the gps we found it straight away. I am very glad we did as the first section was a glorious fast descent on very firm ground, disappointingly the next section took a sharp 'dog's leg' onto a very steep grassy unpleasant climb before redeeming itself with a fabulous decent right through the middle of a golf course. The golfers gave us some dirty looks but there is a nothing they can do as this is a public bridle way. Another benefit of this track is that it ended up at Madeira drive and only a short distance from the laines so this is definitely the best way to get into the town. After meeting up with Colin , he directed us to an excellent Thai restaurant (would definitely use this one again) A couple of beers at a pub by the station and it was off home on the train. We all agreed this has been the hardest ride to Brighton we have done but was very enjoyable, roll on next year!

Refuelling At Alfriston!