So as to get prepared for our epic cycle (just over two weeks away now!) Pete and I decided last Saturday to undertake a practice run from London to Brighton. Scouring the internet I found an alternative route which took us on lots of small, mostly deserted country roads through Surrey and Sussex. We met at 9am at Hammersmith Bridge and I brought my friend Tim in tow.
Our route took us out through Richmond Park, which it turns out is effectively a massive outdoor velodrome for kitted up cyclists to show off their £1,000+ bikes. Pete and my bike coped well on the uphill climb near the end of the park, though Tim, who had brought a slightly broken down mountain bike, really struggled. His bike, it turned out, didn't like any roads with an uphill gradient!
From Richmond we headed through Epsom and up over the Downs (more steep climbs!) and made a brief stop in Tadworth for chocolate and energy drinks. We then crossed over the M25 and from then on in we were on to beautiful, leafy roads. We made our way through Betchworth, Leigh, Parkgate, Faygate, and stopped off at Colgate for a pub lunch. Occassionally we'd cross over the main cycling route to Brighton and see lots of very serious cyclists racing their way to the sea, but otherwise we were mostly all on our tod.
After lunch, feeling slightly too full, we finished our relaxed cycle down through various other small towns with names like Lower Beeding, briefly getting lost on a public throughfare and ending up in a private property (thank you Google Maps!). We ended up having to walk our bikes through a number of fields and illegally cross at least one farm. We only rejoined the A23 for the last five mile cycle into Brighton and to the pier! We had talked about negotiating Devil's Dyke but, in the end, decided that taking on the 500ft ascent might just kill Tim!
We ended up arriving in Brighton at about 6pm, a lot longer than the 6 hours we anticipated but quite good considering we took a long, relaxed lunch and that Tim had a battle on his hands with his mountain bikes - the route wasn't as flat as any of us had thought.
Pete and I are still feeling confident that we will survive John O'Groats to Land's End. We've got another cycle around Birmingham planned for this weekend and will be making our way to Richmond Park for some practice evenings.
