David Coats Blog

The next challenge has been set. The Randonnee. The training started yesterday.

As the BHF site is down - a brief intro - the Randonnee is a cross country off road bike ride from Winchester to Eastbourne - 100 miles! The challenge is not only cycling cross country 100 miles - but completing the ride in 12 hours. Any longer than this and the rider is classed as retired. MENTAL!!!!!

Jim, Alex and I met at Brighton Station to cycle our inaugrual training session at 8am - on Sunday. Stupid Stupid time to be awake on a Sunday! Duncan had arranged a lads night out on Saturday - beer, rugby and curry - the perfect combination for fun but the perfect recipe for a sore head at 8am the next day! The ride certainly didn’t start well. We arrived to find Jim sitting with only one pedal attached to his bike. Great! By 12pm and a trip to Halfords in Hampden Park later - we were finally ready to start the ride - 4 hours late - but at least each of us had a pair of pedals!

We cycled along Eastbourne seafront and (walked) up the downs to Beachy Head, then down to Burling Gap and into Friston Forest. This part was great - we all felt pretty tired but the ride was exhilarating. Now I must stress - I’ve never been off roading before! Riding through a forest with half a foot of mud as a path is great fun. The bike slides around everywhere, you get caked in mud and twigs; get stones and dirt in your eyes, but its exhilarating nevertheless! I must mention the state of my bike at this point. Without front suspension, disk breaks and with only 6 working gears, the forest made it a challenge to simply turn the pedals let alone stop, go up or down hills! Jim awarded me cyclist of the day for riding such a clapped out unsuitable heap of junk!

We arrived in Alfriston - about 8 miles in for a quick break - at 2.30pm. Two and a half hours. We’re screwed! To complete the Randonnee the average speed has to be at least 8 miles per hour. We were doing less than half that!

Then came the rain - and god did it rain. We reached the top of the downs above Alfriston overlooking Arlington Reservoir and watched the land disappear under a thick grey blanket of heavy precipitation. We cycled for nearly an hour in the worst conditions i’ve ever experienced; lashing wind and rain which, at times felt like hail, until every millimetre of our bodies were soaked. By the time we reached the Transmitter towers above Southease we decided enough was enough. We weren’t even going to make Lewes, let alone Brighton. We arrived at Southease Station at 4.45pm - 17miles later. A speed just under 4 miles per hour.

I’ve got a lot of work to do before I can even think about getting half way on this challenge! What have I let myself in for!

On the plus side - thats a 13 mile run one Sunday and a 17 mile ride the following. Fit as F**k!!

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