Grimpeurs du Sud - South Downs National Park 100 Audax Jan 30th

Simon T and myself got a last minute entry in for this Audax event on Sunday. Weather was glorious sunshine but icy cold. There were only about 40 riders, half the time we had wheels to follow the rest we were riding on our own using the route sheet to navigate and so I mistakenly led us up the steeper side of High and Over, where we found a bunch of riders we'd passed earlier on a frost covered descent had come the shorter easier way and reached the checkpoint ahead of us! We did 122k / 76 miles in the end and climbed 2007 m / 6585 ft, criss-crossing the Downs; Butt's Brow twice, Birling Gap, Beachy Head, Exceat Hill, East Dean, Wannock, High and Over twice, Bo Peep with gradients of 19% and Firle Beacon. These last two still had frost on the road which made our wheels slip if we stood up! Most of the proper Audax riders had super low gears to spin but somehow we managed to sit down, grind up and ride back down again without sliding too much on the frost. Some of the others were walking down Firle and apparently one chap did fall off. Atmosphere was very friendly with two excellent feedstops run by Brian "El Supremo" Hudson. Legs were hurting halfway round and for a day or so after but a great time. Saw some beautiful new bits of the downs I wouldnt normally bother to ride like Butt's Brow at 16% and Bo Peep - just stupidly steep climbs that end in a carpark, where we stamped our route card or had our feed then rode back down again. At Bo Peep we saw half a dozen blokes with very long skateboards getting ready to street-luge (tombstone?) down the steep twisty frosty bits! Reassuring to know there's someone crazier than us . . .
Cw