LANDRACE South Downs Way Ride

The 'South Downs Way' is a 95% off-road cycling and hiking hiking route from Winchester to Eastbourne across the South Down's chalky hills.

It is 100 miles or 160km long according to my Strava with 3,576m of ascent. It is usually tackled in an Easterly direction as the winds are generally more favourable and can help you along.

To ride it in a day is a right of passage, a bucket list ride, its the South East's 'epic' ride for mountain bikes and gravel bikes.

We decided to ride it in one day so around the Summer Solstice at the end of June is highly recommended for maximum daylight hours and favourable weather. Guided and assisted by Charlie from Hidden Tracks Cycling the six of us set off from Winchester train station at 7:30am having caught the 5:30 train from Waterloo, London.

The weather was unusually warm, the sun was out and the Costa Coffee at Winchester train station was staffed by two baristas who could actually make a decent brew, a great start. The six of us set off (soon to be seven as someone missed their train and we picked them up later!) and within five minutes there was dirt under our tyres.

And we rode and rode and picked up the straggler and then not long after lost a rider due to double unfixable punctures, who then found us again at the breakfast stop equipped with new chunkier tyres!

Then we rode more, up high on the Downs in the sunshine with wonderful views. The trails were good, more variable than expected with different surfaces from loamy dirt in the woods, to flinty farm tracks over chalk up high.

Its worth noting that there is a lot of climbing (and gates!), a lot, especially at the end for the last hour or so; there are no flattish sections to tap along. The descents are fast and open over flint and chalk so a mountain bike with 2.3 tyres will let you descend fast but even then you have to stay on the brakes to protect the tyres. Gravel bikes can do it and five of the group used them, though their wrists and arms were fatiguing quite quickly.

Equipment:

The few blogs that there are on the SDW recommend using a mountain bike and 2.3" knobbly tyres so it was a good excuse to take the new LANDRACE hard tail mountain bike we are designing for a good test. Other kit suggested was a hydration pack as it is hard to drink enough off-road and as the weather was pretty hot this proved advantageous. I think I drank around 5 or 6 litres throughout the day.

Nutrition wise, I packed salted cashew nuts from M&S and 33 Fuel energy bars and carbohydrate mix and electrolyte tablets for water bottle top-ups. Extra food was picked up from the two cafe stops, and I grazed my way through the day!

So, we kept going, had a nice (small) lunch by a river, can't remember where but it was nice and battled on. When you see Brighton off to your right it feels like you are almost in Eastbourne but Brighton lurks there for a long while, and you imagine dropping down for a beer and a burger but you can't. We lost two riders here, the beer temptation and an early train home was too much to bear.

On we went past Ditchling Beacon, stopping briefly for a 99 ice cream (crushed nuts? er, yes since you mention it) from the Mr Whippy van. The wind picked up, the light started to dim, we fixed a teenager's brake on his BMX who was 'out for a ride'... we stayed positive, this is living.

Past Beachy Head and up long draggy grassy climbs, descending through dark woods with no lights (must remember them next time) and eventually, eventually we descended in to Eastbourne. It was about 9:00pm by now, and the remainder of the group had split due to various states of fatigue. We hurried to the train station to get the last train and as we were about to board equipped with beer and crisps (its all we could find, honest) Simon and Charlie appeared on the platform.

Back together again for the journey home. A truly epic and wonderful day on the bike.

Our next gravel adventure is LANDRACE to Folkestone via the North Downs and The Pilgrims Way on Friday 16th August. It's the same distance but with more road and a less climbing, ideal for a gravel bike and test for The Boxer our new gravel frame that is in development. More info HERE.

Then we return in September 13th to ride from London to Brighton again on a slightly different gravel route than on our spring ride. More info HERE.