Jake's Rides

London to Brighton Bike Ride 2004

When James Jennett asked if I'd be interested in joining the five-man Powergen team in the London to Brighton ride it seemed like miles away, so I said yes. As with everything else, the big day soon came about and all plans to reach ultimate fitness were dashed. The ride was this Sunday and was great fun. Here's my report of the day:

Having barely had chance for Sunday's inadequate breakfast of a Pot Noodle to digest I was sat on "the beast" (see above) and raring to go. it wasn't long before we hit a slight incline on the way to the start line and realised just what we had let ourselves in for. Climbing in this thing is a nightmare. It might have eighty odd gears but it could still do with a few more. One thing was for sure though - we were going to be the centre of attention. I was expecting more novelty bikes than we actually saw. There were people in kilts and some tandems but nothing like this piece of engineering. People loved it.

The ride itself was well organised and had a great atmosphere along the whole route. There were plenty of refreshment and entertainment to keep us going. There was no sense of it being more of a race than a ride, which was nice. People of all abilities took part and it was often so busy that we all ended up walking anyway, as the road often turned in to one long jam of bikes.

After a couple of miles we knew that 54 miles would not be easy on the beast. It's funny, most of the people who passed us (and lots of people did when we were on anything but a descent) thought they were being original when they repeated the same thing twenty people before them had said. If it wasn't that "those two at the back aren't pedalling" it was "That's cheating!!" or "That looks easy! Can I have a go?". I have no idea why it looked easy, but, trust me, it was not. This should have been obvious to us from the start as the bike has been entered in the ride five times now and it's always five virgins that ride it. We made it even harder on ourselves by taking up a challenge. Apparently it's the norm to get off and push it up hills. Especially the Ditchling Beacon that everybody spoke about all the way. No team had ever completed the whole course without pushing. We really wanted to be the first and I'm glad to say we were. Not sure about the others but I really paid the price for it that night. I have never ever felt so physically exhausted in my whole life!

The highlight of the day for me has to be reaching the top of the beacon. Not only because we did it but because of the reaction we received. It must have been at this point that the look on our faces showed all who saw us crawl to the top that it ain't that easy. It seemed like everybody at the top, lining both sides of the road, stopped what they were doing and applauded us as we agonised through the last hundred yards or so. A great feeling and a moment I will cherish for years to come.

Enough about climbing! What about descending!? We'd all heard about how this thing could do 60+mph, but what did we actually get out of it in the end? Just a measly 47mph on the descent in to Brighton. Doesn't sound like much, but trust me, it is, and had me screaming like a girl. Speeds like that are ok when on a bicycle, but that's where you are in charge of it. You know what to expect and what it's like to fall off. On this thing your life is the hands of a man you met earlier that day and you have no idea at all what a crash will result in. That's half the fun of it though I suppose. Most "scary" fairground rides aren't scary at all. You know they're engineered and nothing is going to happen. With this thing it may well be engineered but nobody knows what might happen ;o)

There's probably lots more I could talk about but I'll leave it at that for now. Just want to answer one more question - would I do it all gain next year? Yeah, sure. Only I would prefer to do it on my own bike if that's ok with the other guys ;o)

London to Birghton Bike Ride Photos

Before I get round to writing more about the day itself, here are some photos of the event and a video of the finish (15MB .avi). Most of the photos are mine, however, one or two of them are Jim Jennett's, as is the video. You can tell shots are Jim's when you see me in them ;o)

There are some official photos from the BHF on their L2B 2004 page.

Route For London to Brighton Bike Ride

Thanks to my cohort in this Sunday's bike ride, James Jennett, I can link to a copy of the route. What, I hear you ask, they have hills down south!?

As a reminder, this is the thing we will be making the journey on. You might see us coming! If so, you might want to move out of the way.

London-Brighton Ride Looms

As ever the plans I made for a fitness regime in advance of the London to Brighton ride have come to nothing. It's now less than a week before the ride and I am yet to do a ride of any significant distance. I seem to always call it a day at about 25 miles. What I really need to do this week is a ride of 40-50 miles. Just to make sure I'm up for it. When's best to do this though? The ride is this coming Sunday. How many rides should I do before that and how long should they be?

Maybe I am taking it way too seriously. I am pretty sure I am fit enough to complete the distance. Whether it's worth training seriously is another matter. I've heard various reports about the ride itself. One of them is that it can turn in to one long queue of bikes at certain points, as 25,000 cyclists make there way along the route. Another story I've heard suggests that it's a bit of a jolly and not to be taken too seriously. Apparently it's par for the course to stop at a couple of pubs along the way!

Whatever happens I will no doubt write about it here and hopefully there'll be lots of photos as well.

The Many Uses of GPS

It goes without saying that I use my GPS mainly for geocaching. I have other uses for it though. One of them is to find places I've never been. This week I had to go to pick up a chest of drawers I'd bought on eBay from a guy in Sheffield. I called him and he gave me his post-code. Enter this in to Streetmap and it takes you straight to a map of the road. Not much use though if you don't know the area at all. You could zoom out and steadily build an idea of the area and how best to get there. Or you could use the link low down on the page and convert the post-code to the WGS84 GPS co-ordinates.

With the co-ordinates and a general idea of the main roads needed to find the general area you can set off with relative peace of mind. I was lucky that I already knew the way to Sheffield. As I neared the city I simply followed the arrow on the GPS as best I could. It's a bit hit and miss at times. You can think one road is the best to take and end up heading in the completely wrong direction and getting further from your target. You get there in the end though! It's not like having a BMW with a soothing yet robotic-like lady's voice telling you exactly when to turn each corner, but then where's the fun in that?

White Van Man

Not last week, but the week before, I talked about how I respect roadies for having the balls to share the road with vans, lorries, buses and ignorant motorists.

Last weekend I had a view from another side of the fence. We hired a van to make a start on the move, taking as many unessential items as we could to store at my parent's house. As the only one with a clean licence it was down to me to drive for the weekend. I was White Van Man for a few days - a unique insight in to the world of this strange beast. What is it that makes them the way they are?

Well, there's definitely something about driving a van that makes you drive differently. It's all about size (and the fact that you're higher up than others). There's a definite pecking order on the road and it's all determined by size. Driving the van I found myself unwilling to give way to cars but still moving over for the buses.

Not wanting to fall in to this trap I made a conscious effort to make good the reputation of the van-man. I was as courteous as I could be. Waiting for the best time to pass a cyclist with adequate space, letting people cross at zebras, giving space behind people on the motorway. Basically, driving it like it were a car. Not as easy as it might sound!

Thank god for Geocaching

It's school holidays at the moment. Yesterday, after running all the errands there were three bored looking girls and a restless dog sharing the house. Sat round bored on an average English summer's day with nothing to do but watch TV. After discussing what to do the idea of visiting the cinema came up. The kids liked this, but I didn't. What could be worse than two hours watching poor movies and spending a small fortune in doing so!? Instead I talked everyone in to a Geocache. The rest of the day was spent having a whale of a time and it cost us nothing but the petrol to drive there and a small picnic-style lunch.

The only reason I manage to get Karen (eldest of the three bored girls and mother of the youngest) involved is that she likes going for walks in the country with Teddy, the dog. She thinks Geocaching is a daft hobby but does admit it's a good way to find country walks we would have no other way of finding.

What were three bored girls are now three happy chicks. Ok, I told them to smile, but I think they're genuine ;o)

The bridge they are sat on is over a river that's just shallow enough for us to wade through it. Something I've not done for years. The girls had great fun taking their shoes and socks off and playing in the water.

In the top-left corner of the photo are the ruins of Beaurepaire. With our feet still drying we went up there for a look and got in to a good old game of tig (no butchers!). Even Teddy got involved!

As we tired of tig we all followed the GPS signal to the cache site and had fun finding a box cleverly hidden under a tree. Pleased with their newly acquired toys the girls made their way back with us to the car and we got home just in time for tea.

So, there you go. Next time you're sat round wishing there was something to do there's always Geocaching. Which, apart from the initial outlay for a GPS unit, is free and, most importantly, fun. No more complaining of having "nothing to do"...