London to Brighton - Training Ends In Style

Hi Guys,

With 1 week to go to the start of our ride to Cornwall, the time had come to hit a proper landmark and finish our training in style. Sunday was the perfect opportunity for us to get together as a team (for the very first time) and tackle the famous London to Brighton cycle route.

As with many things over the past few months, things didn't go to plan. Carlos didn't manage to get hold of the bike he will be riding and so wasn't able to join us. Now is probably the time to mention that Carlos hasn't actually ridden a bike since he was a kid. He has done a load of spinning in his gym, and don't get me wrong, he has the fitness, it is just going to come as a shock to him when he is out of his air conditioned room and in the real world on a bike without the aid of a Saturday's video on MTV to stare at. It's going to be interesting to see how he deals with that!

Anyway, the remaining 3 of us headed off to Brighton, from Clapham Common on Sunday morning. Usually at this point in one of my previous blog posts I have a tale of struggle, jeopardy and puncture problems to tell. This time however it was a simple and straight forward ride, over easy terrain, and an easy route to follow.

Ade had done the route before, and had some unfinished business with the daunting hill Ditchling Beacon, a few miles outside of Brighton. On his previous attempt he was forced to walk the final third of hill, although he was on a single gear bike, and to be fair he must have done an incredible job to get to where he did that time. This time however, it was a totally different story. The three of us nailed the hill!

The only issue that we had in fact was that behind us on the hill were a collection of idiots in their cars. I really think that there should be a personality test to go alongside the practical and theory test parts of a driving test. That way, if you are a total moron, you wont get to drive. That would eliminate the kind of stupidity that was happening behind us as we cycled up Ditchling Beacon. 

I'm not going to dwell on this too much as I've had enough of a rant in the past about bad drivers, special mentions however should go out to the Subaru weaving and overtaking everything, including other cars at some crazy speed (we are talking about a narrow, winding and steep country lane) and also the fat balding middle aged man in the creamy-goldish coloured convertible who decided to shout abuse at us as he cut us up, this was after a good few minutes of incessant beeping on his horn. I wish he had stopped at the car park at the top, as I had some opinions of my own to pass on to him . . . . . what an idiot!

We cruised into Brighton at 1:40pm, satisfied with what we had done, how we had worked as a team and filled with excitement for the adventure that awaits us next week.

We are on our final push for sponsorship, so please visit www.justgiving.com/justgottarideit or text RIDE76 to 70070 to donate £5. We are so grateful to everyone who has sponsored us so far, we will do you all proud, and it's your support that will help to keep us going through the tough times that lay ahead for us.

I've got one last post to write before we go, so thanks for reading everything so far. I have loved this experience and hope that you have been kept entertained too. Speak to you soon.