Dear Diary - The final assault

Last day of the South Downs Way, or as Adrian better described it.  The South Ups way!

All a bit apprehensive about the last day as it was reported as being the hardest section of the 100 miles.

Adrian and Garry assisting with last nights curry production

The previous night at the YHA, over Chris's very nice home made curry, it was decided an early start should be had, which meant forgoing the YHA breakfast.  Plan was to be on the road by 7am!  PG was up at 5:40am for the shower he didn't have the night before (as he as too busy downing a few well earned beers at the same time as trying to sort out an internet connection to enable update of Saturdays blog).

Curry time!

Bikes were retrieved from the lock up garage and slowly the team assembled for the early start.

 

We all rode off into the misty morning leaving poor old Garry to clear the room of beer cans; bottles and our previous nights clutter before he headed to Eastbourne for a walk.

The cyclists had a plan to meet at a Wild Bean cafe (BP Garage on the London Road) for breakfast, which was actually much better than expected.  A regroup of riders as Chris and Gary had been doing the usual job of forging ahead leaving Andy and Paul with Hugh and Adrian following closely behind. The Wild bean breakfast went down well and we all set off with full belly's only to break into the usual formation.

Wild Bean cafe stop

The climbs were as expected, longer and harder than previous day's and PG struggled on the climbs to hold Andy's wheel. Was this down to gearing; too much beer or just steep climbs?

There was a pre-arranged lunch stop of a pub at Rodmell, but progress was much better than expect and the first riders got to pub at 10am, so everyone carried on as pub was closed. Climbing up on to a long ridge, we passed loads of paragliders.  At one stage the sky was full of them, just like red kites circling above.  On some of these climbs we came across a couple runners that were faster at running up hill than we could cycle! They didn't stand a chance against us on the downhill sections!

Chris relaxes at the top of a climb

Alfriston looked a nice village stop and opportunity to fill up on tea and cakes.  No regroups here. So Andy, Gary and Chris were soon joined for tea by PG.  A very nice little tea rooms with fantastic looking cakes which Andy could not resist.

Alfriston tea rooms

Chocolate cake anyone?

As PG had rediscovered Bovril on yesterday's stage, he thought he would request the same beverage.  The young waitress responded with a blank response to this request, has she had obviously never heard of this bovine drink (did you know, Bovril was a vegetarian drink and had no beef or animal extract in it, from 2004 to 2006?.  Also it is sometimes made with milk!)

Alfriston was a pretty village and one shop owner didn't take kindly to Gary parking his bike in the middle of a raised flower bed. As we sat in the tea rooms the shop owner came out of shop and moved Gary's bike and in doing so knocked PGs bike over.

The track from Alfriston was a serious up hill section, that seemed to go on for my miles.  Eastbourne was becoming closer and the kilometers were slowly going down.  It was reported that Hugh and Adrian who were about 2.5 miles behind visited the same tea rooms.

One techie feature of the trip which was a real benefit to all was the use of Google location so we could keep an eye on where each rider was.  A few phone battery issues meant incorrect info, but overall, it worked extremely well.

The end is nigh!

After the Alfriston climb there was one more climb before the decent into Eastbourne.

After what seemed like 3 miles down hill we read the end. A photo or two at the plaque for Chris, Gary, Andy and PG and a lot of back slapping.  Everyone was chuffed to complete the course and to be so lucky with the weather.  It might have been a bit chilly at times, but at least no rain as that would have made things much trickier.

Garry had parked the car nearby and Andy, Gary, Chris and PG soon had bikes loaded and a change of clothes ready for a short stroll into Eastbourne central for that well deserved fish and chips.meal.  A quick check on Hugh and Adrian on Google location found that they weren't too far behind and by the time we were seated for the meal, they were posing for their end of journey photos.

After our Fish a chips , ready for the journey home

After stuffing our faces, the weather changed for the worst and Eastbourne was very wet and grey.  We were all very glad to have completed the 100 miles in the dry and didn't have any rain to contend with.

The return journey to Hertfordshire's had also been organised the previous night and the team car was loaded with the 6 bikes and 5 occupants meaning that two of use had to take the train.  As Chris, Gary and Andy had traveled down by train it was decided that Hugh and Adrian were to return by train.

By the time PG had dropped off everyone and unloaded bikes he was at home with a well deserved pint by 7:30pm.  Adrian and Hugh getting into Hertford North by 8:40pm, Andy had kindly agreed to taxi them back home.

Well, what an adventure!  Everyone seems to enjoy the pain and suffering and talk of what's next?

Great weekend had by all.  Well done to everyone including Garry for his help driving the support car, his presence made a big difference and it was great to have him join the team in the evenings.  Looking at his Strava activity, he put in some serious walking miles over the weekend.

PG Strava stats for SDW day 3

59.76km total distance
5:22:54 moving time
1,155m of climbing
11.1km/h Average speed
51.5Km/h max speed
Heart rate AVG 103bpm and Max of 159bpm
Estimated AVG power = 78watts