South Downs Way 2006 Day 2
Miles ridden: 41. Average Speed: 8.1 mph. Average beers drunk: 7. Punctures: 1.
After some early morning research, Mark formulated a plan for those who wanted a rest day to ride 10 miles to Chichester and take the train from there with a view to recovering enough to enjoy the final day of riding. so, despite Tim assuring everyone that this day would be easier than the last, we split into two teams.
Team A (Tim, Rob, Andy and Neil) planned to complete the full days route as planned, and Team B (Mark, Craig Alison and Sam) planned to take the train and fit in a bit of shopping and drinking in Chichester. The two teams planned to meet up at Brighton Youth Hostel in the evening.
Team A started the day with Andy having a puncture before we even got back on the Southdowns way. With his tyre popping off and him feeling generally knackered after the first hill, he almost gave up in favour of following Team B. However, he didn’t and we started to make quick progress after that.
That was until we hit a field that had been completely ploughed over forcing us to walk, followed by some really monster hills that soon had everyone walking the steepest bits. We stopped for lunch to rest and fuel up on jacket potatoes. Rob also had been having problems clearing his mixed grill from last night – to attractive bar maid: “Have you got any rennie I’m all backed up!”
Although the huge hills just continued one after another, we were at least rewarded for our efforts with some fantastic flat(ish) riding along the top of the downs, and the corresponding monster down hills. We were all pushing ourselves and were really enjoying the riding. There were a couple of little dodgy sliding moments on loose Stones (particularly Andy’s when we were riding down a huge hill in tight formation) but all came to the bottom of each descent grinning. We didn’t even mind that much when Mark kept texting to let us know he was drinking San Miguel!
When we eventually appeared on a road about 3/4 of the way through the days route we struggled to pick up the next section of the trail.. “hmm let’s keep going” says Tim.. “but if we go more than half a mile and we haven’t found it we’ve definitely gone too far”. Err.. yep so half a mile later Rob and Neil have disappeared down the road and subsequently down a massive hill. Unfortunately they were now off the map. Rather than ride back up the hill they decided to follow sign posts to Brighton and meet Tim and Andy at the Youth Hostel. After riding up and down for half an hour or so Tim and Andy eventually find the route. They had actually left the route some time back during that really exciting down hill section.. easy to do when your having fun.
Tim and Andy rode over more hill after hill and then walked up and rode down hill after hill to finally meet up with everyone in Brighton YHA. What a relief! Rob and Neil had ended up going quite a long way around and didn’t get there much earlier.
All were reunited in the pub over the road for a serious eating and drinking session, involving multiple trips to the included salad bar, and shots of horrible Strawberry Vodka (4 for Tim to catch up!). Once back in the Youth Hostel we took over the TV room and turned it into our very own massage parlour – Sam you’re the best! The evening closed with Alison and Rob demonstrating some fine hand stands and other acrobatics in our room, whilst Sam and Craig nipped back to the TV room for a bit of Buffy!
