South Downs Day 1

Last weekend we had set out to do the South Downs Way there and back. 200 miles off road.... Well that was the plan. There were six of us: Tash, Iwona, Anna, Stephania, Emila and me. It all started really well...... great riding weather and a great sense of anticipation for the adventure ahead.

At the start of the South Downs Way

We started off at a relatively leisurely pace with lots of chat.  It became clear quite quickly that if we were going to make 66 miles for the day as we had planned, we would need to keep the pace pretty high.

Then came the first puncture. We used it as a good opportunity for a snack and a chat. I must admit - Iwona's fruit salad was rather delicious - no wonder she needed such a big bag.  

Iwona was also heavily armed with bananas! Is that the secret of her incredible speed??

Then my spoke broke and puncture the tape of my tubeless wheel causing another flat! 

With that fixed we rode on for another 10 minutes only for Iwona to get a flat as well.  Then it was Anna's turn having ripped her tyre on a flinty downhill section just before Cocking.  It was now approaching 5pm and we figured we had another 3hrs riding at least before we reached the hostel where we were staying.  A quick phone call and we discovered that they stopped serving food at 7.30pm - now this was serious! The prospect of no food!!.  It was at that point I realised I had another puncture! Grit had got into the tyre through the hole left by the spoke I had removed and that grit had caused the puncture. This was an incredible tally of flat tyres for one day!

We had all accepted by then that we needed a Plan B. Luckily Tash lives in the area and it is her riding territory so she lead us down the main road to Chichester where we got on the train, a little disappointed about only having made half of our intended distance. Six muddy girls in lycra did seem to attract quite a few funny looks in Chichester and on the train on that Friday evening!

I wonder who Emila is texting? That dirty girl!

It was the right decision though because on the way from the station to the hostel another of my spokes went making the bike unrideable.  I had to push it the last mile to the hostel! Luckily it was a beautiful evening.

a second spoke breaks

Despite all the mechanicals, and not sticking to the original plan, it was a great day.  The girls had even arranged a birthday cake for me as it had been my birthday earlier in the week. And the great thing was that we all had a great excuse to eat loads to fuel for the next two days!

Birthday Cake