The South Downs Way with KC - Day 1 - Winchester to Brighton

 It’s back! After the eventual success of the John Muir way earlier in the year as the first long distance off road/gravel route I’d cycled, work in Southampton coincided with a spare weekend for me and with Kieran living in Hove around half way along the route (or so he said, we’ll come to that…) plans were hatched to tackle the South Downs Way. I did ask Dec as he lives close by, but his famous distain for anything but tarmac put paid to that (he’s also doing a long distance bike ride for a Parkinson’s charity in Norway soon so some excuse!) Pretty much a completely off road route through the South Downs from Winchester to Eastbourne it’s around 100 miles but with a whopping 12,000 feet of vertical ascent. After Kieran suggested we could do it in one day were laughed off, we’d arranged for him to come up on the Friday night to Winchester, stay over there and get an early start on Saturday. Now I had the gpx file of the route but left it to KC to split it up into 2 days. When he sent it back I found out that chez Campbell’s residence was in fact 70 miles along the route with 8,000 feet of climbing…

Obviously knowing we had a monster day ahead of us, we did what any keen professional athletes would do by having a healthy meal and early nigh…nope we went out for a massive curry, poppadoms, pickle tray, rice, naan, monkfish and chicken curry at the fantastic Gandhi Indian restaurant in Winchester! As the hotel was 3 miles out of town I’d said I’d take us into town in trusty Jean, so at least it would mean we’d keep the alcohol content down, until of course we were back at the hotel where 4 pints later and 1am we decided we really should probably go to bed…

To add to the marginal gains preperation the hotel rooms air con was broken and brilliantly none of the windows opened. It must have been 30 degrees in the room and even the fan we managed to get from reception wasn’t helping, neither was the noise it was making! We made a pact to make the best of it and be on the road for 8am…

With Kieran waking up with the immortal line “that 4th pint was a mistake” the faffing about commenced! With having to leave Jean in Winchester to drive home Sunday night and knowing there was a big climb to get to the hotel from the train station I’d decided last night that I’d drive into town look for a space to park, Kieran would ride in, and we’d meet outside the Indian we’d been in last night. We did discuss looking for said spot while we’d been in town last night, but obviously food and beer were more appealing  and after a very big breakfast and a refund from the hotel on some of the bar tab for the non functioning air con, I was pulling out the car park at 8.45 am, not too bad!

Obviously there was no where to park in Winchester. It was all permit controlled. Driving round for 20 mins and going in and out of various multi stories which didn’t allow anything over 24 hours, KC was already at the start point waiting. Eventually I found a park and ride car park, but it was also max of 24 hours. However it was free on a Sunday, and I was out of options, so quickly assembling the bike and strapping the gear on, I strapped my new water bottle to the bungee on the back of my bag and it was 2 miles to the meeting point. And then I got lost in a housing estate…

Finally at 9.25 I arrived at the start point with a somewhat grumpy Kieran wondering what the chuff I was up to…we then had to go and get some supplies as there wasn’t much between here and our first stop at the Queen Elizabeth visitors centre after 23 miles. As I held the bikes and KC went into the shop, I realised that my water bottle had fell off and I had no water…back into the shop and Kieran emerged with a 2 litre bottle of water which we couldn’t find anywhere without me repacking everything…Ahhhh! Finally at 10 O’CLOCK, we set off…

The climbing started pretty much straight away and as we cycled past the hotel (obvs!) we left 2 hours earlier it was straight up the first of 11 climbs today up Chilcomb hill. Steep but not too bad we were up and onto the downs proper. It was beautiful though with views to each side of the valley below and the single track paths weren’t too bad. In what was to become a familiar pattern to the day however no sooner where we up on the downs, we were down on the downs! The fact that we were doing about the same speed (5mph!) going down the steep hills as it was just so rocky and uneven as we were going up them was of some frustration to roadies like me and Kieran, but at least we hadn’t had to get off and push like some of the reviewers of the route said…

Boom! Round a corner, just as I was taking a photo of the lovely view I heard a nasty expletive from Kieran. In front of us was a chalk wall with a gully running down the middle. There was no choice, and for the first time in my life, I saw Kieran get off his bike and start pushing! Man it was steep, around 25% and it was difficult to walk up. Calf’s screaming we got to the top thinking that must be the worst…

Dropping down through the lovely village of Exton, it was an another climb up Old Winchester hill and climbing into Butser Hill nature reserve its was time for lunch. We’d done 25 miles and it was 1pm. We’d averaged around 7mph on the bike but dicking around meant it was really 5mph. KC was confident we’d be done for 6pm this morning, I reckoned on 9pm, we’d both be wrong…

After an agreeable toastie, crisps and coffee we were off and dropping down a massive grassy bank towards the M3 where we would pass under it and climb up the other side. Just as we got to the bottom we saw the dreaded Petersfield sign post! Before I started these blogs we did a trip to Southampton which unexpectedly went wrong (!) and we’d spent what seemed like 50 miles never getting closer or further away than 10 miles of Petersfield! Photo taken, it was climb up from the mountain bike centre, spectacularly cycling the wrong way up the steep mountain bike course only to be nearly killed by somewhat more skilled riders than us coming the other (right!) way…

Reaching the top Kieran added to his collection of lovely benches he likes a photo of and we were up and down a series of tough little climbs and then a proper amazing descent through a massive wheat field. Expecting  shoeless Joe Jackson from field of dreams, or perish the thought, Theresa May to come hurtling towards us, we were down the climb, and appropriately enough into the outskirts of Cocking! Spotting the cadence cafe right along side the route, we decided to stop for a drink and something to eat. The cafe was ace, although not doing hot food, we purchased some sausage rolls for later and cake for now! Just as we sat down the sun also came out and with no real head covering a cadence bucket hat was bought for me to go with Kieran’s safari hat. At the cafe were also 2 young lads dressed head to toe in Castelli gear doing the same route. We’d be seeing lots of the “Castelli twins” (or Gunters, read the first day of Ireland end to end for that call back…😁) it was however 4.45pm, we’d done 41 miles and had been on the road for 6 hours. We weren’t going to make 6pm…

Setting off about 10 mins behind the Castelli brothers we caught them about 4 miles up the road just as we were going through what looked like beautiful fields of lavender, they’d stopped. Piling past with a nod, the race was now on! Obviously it was a one sided race, and they were not acting like 10 year olds like we were, but a race’s a race…we even had to do another quick stop for a lovely bench photo with them looming into view, but managed to stay in front…6 miles were done but we had to stop for more water outside another (closed) cafe and all of a sudden they were passed us! Kieran had managed a brief conversation with them while filling the bottles and found out that they had been planning on stopping at Cocking, but had overheard us both talking about pushing on to Brighton. As a result, looking at these fat (me) balding (both of us) old men (again, both of us) dressed like Kevin and Perry had shamed them into carrying on!

As we saw them start the climb up to the Slindon estate, we remounted and set off in hot (4mph) pursuit. The climb was horrid and they had stopped half way up. Gasping, but desperately trying not to look like it was hurting quite so much, we were up and past and victory was ours as we didn’t see them again! However it was now 7.45 and we had still 15 miles to go. It was not going to be 9! Stopping and having the sausage rolls we’d bought earlier, we knew there was 2 climbs to come but the last 4 miles would be down hill to KC’s house. Can’t remember much about it except Kieran being so tired he forgot how gates worked, then insisting we had a sit down and finish the last of the Percy pigs when we got to the top of Steyning Beacon. He cheered up when he realised it had been so hard was because he was still in his big ring…

It was now dark, proper dark and of course, we’d overestimated our ability and underestimated the task at hand and hadn’t brought any lights. The descent from the Beacon was more an act of faith than anything else, but we made it to Devils Dyke and the 4 miles downhill to Hove. Finding a rear light in my frame bag, it was agreed that I’d stay behind so at least we’d have some presence on the busy road into Hove. A few sticky moments, but 15 minutes later we were pulling up outside of KC’s house at 10.05 pm…

We’d been on the road 13 hours and on the bike for 10. We covered 75 miles and done 8,000 feet of climbing. That’s a lot on the road never mind on the chalk ruts we’d been riding on. To put it into context it’s the 3rd highest climbing figure I’ve ever done behind the Etape and dat 10 in Devon & Cornwall on JOGLE….

Anyway a shorter day with only 35 miles and 4,000 feet tomorrow to finish it off. Joseph, Kieran’s eldest is joining us as might be one of Kieran’s friends who did it in 1 day previously…of course he did…