The South Downs Way in a Day 2009.
Alex Beattie is raising money for Cancer Research UK
Participants: Alex Beattie & Isobel Dutton
Story
* * U P D A T E * *
We left Brighton at 2.15am on Saturday, and after a very foggy drive arrived in Winchester to start our ride along the South Downs Way.
After a short diversion we managed to locate the start of the trail and our adventure began at 4.45am.
The ride started off cool, damp and very misty, although this had all but disappeared by 11am to be replaced by blazing sunshine.
The beginning of the trail was great fun, winding through woodland and sleepy villages, with the occasional hill. Particularly memorable was a fast diversion through the Meon Valley where we reached speeds over 30mph, unfortunately only to be followed by a series of steep and tortuous climbs that were slippery and became increasingly relentless.
The ride down towards Queen Elizabeth Country park was exhilarating and Alex only narrowly missed riding through a barbed wire fence at speed. From here on the hills became steeper, the sun got hotter and the downhill sections became less frequent and over all too quickly.
After 35 miles Isobel’s legs were beginning to suffer on the steeper sections. By the time Devils Dyke appeared slowly over the horizon it was evident that continuing further would be foolish and risk injury. So at the 65 mile mark Isobel made the decision to retire as home was only a couple of miles down the hill and it was a fitting point to end as a selection of Beatties were on hand to provide emergency supplies and sympathetic ears.
We parted company after top-ups of ice cold water and sachets of ‘rehydrate’ had been taken on board. Alex pressed on with a fast downhill section, only to realise it was in the wrong direction. Much swearing and ranting at the trees followed on the long slog back up the hillside to get back on track towards Ditchling Beacon.
After a couple of hours good progress things slowed down as the South Downs Way become increasingly badly signed and the realisation that the amount of daylight was diminishing. Shortly beyond Newhaven the GPS batteries died and map reading and careful navigation was required to avoid getting lost as the sun finally began to dip over the horizon. Fortunately Eastbourne was clearly in sight and an exhausted Alex rolled / limped into the station shortly before 10pm after about 17hrs, 100 miles and over 4000m of hills.
A smiley faced Isobel was waiting with emergency munchies and lucozade for the train journey home.
We would like to thank all of the people who very kindly supported us on our challenge and made donations to Cancer Research UK. With gift-aid we have raised in excess of £1750 to date. www.justgiving.com/abt
Once again a massive thank you to everyone.
Alex & Isobel++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
On Saturday the 27th of June we will be attempting to cycle the 160km of the South Downs Way in a day - Winchester to Eastbourne with 10,000ft of riding uphill in between.
Our journey will start early in the morning and probably not end until dark.
Please sponsor us for whatever you can as every bit helps.
Many thanks for your support.
For further details see our event website at http://web.me.com/alexbeattie
We left Brighton at 2.15am on Saturday, and after a very foggy drive arrived in Winchester to start our ride along the South Downs Way.
After a short diversion we managed to locate the start of the trail and our adventure began at 4.45am.
The ride started off cool, damp and very misty, although this had all but disappeared by 11am to be replaced by blazing sunshine.
The beginning of the trail was great fun, winding through woodland and sleepy villages, with the occasional hill. Particularly memorable was a fast diversion through the Meon Valley where we reached speeds over 30mph, unfortunately only to be followed by a series of steep and tortuous climbs that were slippery and became increasingly relentless.
The ride down towards Queen Elizabeth Country park was exhilarating and Alex only narrowly missed riding through a barbed wire fence at speed. From here on the hills became steeper, the sun got hotter and the downhill sections became less frequent and over all too quickly.
After 35 miles Isobel’s legs were beginning to suffer on the steeper sections. By the time Devils Dyke appeared slowly over the horizon it was evident that continuing further would be foolish and risk injury. So at the 65 mile mark Isobel made the decision to retire as home was only a couple of miles down the hill and it was a fitting point to end as a selection of Beatties were on hand to provide emergency supplies and sympathetic ears.
We parted company after top-ups of ice cold water and sachets of ‘rehydrate’ had been taken on board. Alex pressed on with a fast downhill section, only to realise it was in the wrong direction. Much swearing and ranting at the trees followed on the long slog back up the hillside to get back on track towards Ditchling Beacon.
After a couple of hours good progress things slowed down as the South Downs Way become increasingly badly signed and the realisation that the amount of daylight was diminishing. Shortly beyond Newhaven the GPS batteries died and map reading and careful navigation was required to avoid getting lost as the sun finally began to dip over the horizon. Fortunately Eastbourne was clearly in sight and an exhausted Alex rolled / limped into the station shortly before 10pm after about 17hrs, 100 miles and over 4000m of hills.
A smiley faced Isobel was waiting with emergency munchies and lucozade for the train journey home.
We would like to thank all of the people who very kindly supported us on our challenge and made donations to Cancer Research UK. With gift-aid we have raised in excess of £1750 to date. www.justgiving.com/abt
Once again a massive thank you to everyone.
Alex & Isobel++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
On Saturday the 27th of June we will be attempting to cycle the 160km of the South Downs Way in a day - Winchester to Eastbourne with 10,000ft of riding uphill in between.
Our journey will start early in the morning and probably not end until dark.
Please sponsor us for whatever you can as every bit helps.
Many thanks for your support.
For further details see our event website at http://web.me.com/alexbeattie
Alex & Isobel
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