Sunday morning I was awake at 05:30 so that I would have enough time for some porridge before re-assembling the bike and riding over to Clapham, through what should have been deserted streets. Not to be, they were filled with cars carrying roof racks of bikes and then, in Clapham, the sight of full sized articulated lorries unloading hundred of bikes individually separated with cardboard and bubble wrap.

Onward to the start, which was set up in zones. 6:30 was still displayed when I arrived, but most showed 07:00, which was my start. 

The elapsed time to leave London was comparatively short, faster than most car journeys, and we suddenly appeared in the Surrey countryside. One of those moments where you felt as if you'd driven over a planner's felt tip marker showing 'Where London stops'. 

We approached a few smaller villages, decked out for the race, with tables offering cakes and cups of tea. In addition there were the larger official refuel points that seemed to be every few miles.The early Surrey hills were pretty straightforward and I managed to keep going without much trouble. Some people were walking them, but I thought I'd save that idea for later.

As we reached the halfway point, the Turners Hill village was operating a holding tank to split us up into reasonable sized blocks for the next stretch, which was a fast downhill section. Yes, I used my brakes quite a lot. Others didn't seem to feel the same need. Then a long mainly flat section until we reached the well-known Ditchling Beacon. For me, it's an impressive bump in the landscape, which you suddenly realise you'll need to climb over. 

I did about the first third under pedal power. Sounds wimpish? I'll still declare victory. Others walked from the base and only an handful were still pedalling by the halfway mark.  As we approached the top. I could hear the tannoy voice which is a clue that there's not so far to the summit, and then a cheekily abusive boy-scout shouting out 'come-on! put some effort into it!' 

From there it's pretty much fast downhill all the way into Brighton. There's even bike lanes on the last stretch and then a taped off section along the road, where it did get slow again. But after 30 minutes of stop-start traffic, the seafront appeared and then nice long flat spin into the impressively crowd-lined finish.

Yay.