I have done the South Downs Way in 1 day and… I am not going to do it again 🙂 I am not a professional cyclist, I am good commuter from to work 🙂 One day I decided to ride through the whole South Downs Way in one go. Because I have never, ever done anything similar, few weeks before the final ride I decided to do a small bit from Cocking to Washington and then I back. It was roughly 2 x 20 miles ride with a lot of small and big hills and climbs. It took a bit over 4 hours for me so I knew that I can try to do the whole SDW in one go.
My trial ride:
I also took a time lapse video (a bit over 4 hours compressed to 8 minutes):
Before I went for the big ride I did a good research online. I printed the map from the picture below (click to see full size!) or download the file here.
Riding the SDW is a quite big dill. You have to climb almost 4000 meters!
The big day become on 1st of July 2017. My plan was to grab my car and drive from Portsmouth (where I live) to Winchester, where the SDW starts. Then, on the other side of the SDW, in Eastbourne, the plan was to grab a train and go back to Winchester, where my car was waiting for me.
Because I had no idea how much time it will take to go through whole SDW, I decided to start as early, as possible to get to Eastbourne before the last train could take me back. I only slept for 4 hours and I woke up just before midnight. I grabbed my car and I was in Winchester at 1 at night. The last train from Eastbourne departure at 10 pm so I thought that I was fine.
I started to ride just after 1 am. It was 1st of July, and it was still dark. The first signs of the sun light I saw roughly at 3:30 🙂
Winchester, 01:15, 0 miles done, 100 miles to do
Butser Hill, 04:48, 24 miles done, 76 miles to do
Near Beacon Hill, 06:04, 31 miles done, 69 miles to do
samsung SM-T815 (1.86mm, f/2.2, 1/126 sec, ISO50)
Time Lapse video from Beacon Hill to Cocking – Time Lapse
Somewhere near Washington, 07:58, 45 miles done, 55 miles to do
samsung SM-T815 (1.86mm, f/2.2, 1/121 sec, ISO50)
Time Lapse video from Washington to YHA Truleigh Hill
Near Steyning / River Adur, 11:20, 58 miles done, 42 miles to do
samsung SM-T815 (1.86mm, f/2.2, 1/380 sec, ISO50)
River Adur, 11:32, 60 miles done, 40 miles to do
samsung SM-T815 (1.86mm, f/2.2, 1/219 sec, ISO50)
Near Edburton, 12:18, 65 miles done, 35 miles to do
samsung SM-T815 (2.9mm, f/1.9, 1/1632 sec, ISO40)
Near Pyecombe, 13:33, 70 miles done, 30 miles to do
Near Southease, 16:05, 82 miles done, 18 miles to do
Near Southease, 16:10, 82 miles done, 18 miles to do
View at Easbourne :), 19:55, 97 miles done, 3 miles to do
Finally after 18 hours 45 minutes of riding I finished the whole South Downs Way trip. Well done me 🙂 🙂 🙂
At train, 20:42
I had to take the train from Eastbourne to Brighton, then from Brighton to Clapham Junction (it is almost in London), then from Clapham Junction to Winchester. I do not remember, I grabbed my car in Winchester roughly at midnight and I was at home in Portsmouth roughly after 1am on Sunday. I woke up next day at 10 🙂 Happy days 🙂
I think it was my life’s bike trip!