London- Brighton aka Europe’s most hectic bike ride / 21st June 2009

This year there was close to 40,000 cyclists taking part which was a fantastic turn out for the British Heart Foundation, although ironic as there were people smoking while getting ready for the ride and at every single stop off point (one every few miles) there were participants sat on the grass devouring burgers! I’m no doctor but I’m sure smoking and bbq’s result in anything but a healthy heart.

We were booked in for the 9am start time and met up with a couple of friends who had the same start. They were a little more inventive than us having hired a tandem & even tapped cushions to their seats to combat saddle sore- genius! The shere number of people cycling made riding conditions difficult, it wasn’t like the Orchid ride the week before with serious cyclists everywhere- no most of these guys were complete amatures. When ever we reached a mole hill some people would get off their bikes and walk causing huge congestion which resulted in 30 minute long queues. That was fustraiting.

Nonetheless the weather was fantastic and we breezed through the ride although coming into Brighton through Ditchling lead us up a monster 600 metre climb over a mile. We rolled into Brighton and crossed the line in a respectable 6 hours (bearing in mind the hold ups which totalled about an hour and a half).

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