London to Brighton

[citybabe]

I know this ride will have had a lot of coverage in previous years and threads but please just help me out.
I've registered my interest on the BHF website for their ride in June this year. This will be my first ride of this nature - usually I just ride out weekends by myself.
I've a couple of questions......Do many of you do this ride? I'm hoping that I can get chatting to people when I get there and maybe find someone to ride along with....
and coming from Norfolk I'm used to flat roads!!......how 'hilly' is the course?

 

[Aperitif]

It's a pretty congested ride, generally speaking! Test the water of riding to Brighton by reading this, checking out the Brighton ride dates, and chugging into London for a midnight start! Full support, more fun, more conversation, riders as friendly as you, as tired as you, as full of life etc - a whole new adventure in complete safety. And confidence-building too. The rest of your designated weekend riding can be spent in due reflection of rowdy metropolis, quiet countryside, misty dawns, sizzling breakfasts and post-ride beers - while watching the day unfold at the seafront!
Oh - there's stunning repartie by the bucketful - like sand!

 

[Part time cyclist]

I did this ride last year with my nephew and hope to do this ride again as a team of six the family, the ride is heavily congested for the first 10 miles or so then it starts to ease a little it's not to bad for hills there are a few as previously said but many get off and walk and then off course Ditchling beacon :0) but there is an ice cream van at the top :O) then its all downhill from there. People seemed really friendly and the atmosphere was great. In fact I am really looking forward to this year....

 

[dellzeqq]

Strange how many people think this!

yes - I always think that the hill by the golf course is just.........unfair!

 

[martint235]

yes - I always think that the hill by the golf course is just.........unfair!

+1 and it's a flipping drag of a hill too and it always seems to be into a headwind

 

[GrumpyGregry]

always, always a headwind on the climb after Ditchling Beacon.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

always, always a headwind on the climb after Ditchling Beacon.

there's always a headwind down here full stop. I swear it just followed me around on my loop just now ...and ditchling isnt the only hill...

i think i may be up for this though

 

[Fab Foodie]

Strange how many people think this!

It is all downhill apart from about 50 metres at trhe end of the road off the Beacon where they turn left. The BHF ride goes a different route into Brighton dropping straight down off the Beacon and then the long flat main road in to the sea front. On the Genteel FNRttC I hadn't expected another climb after Ditchling (especially in the gale) but I had good company!

Citybabe, do a search, I've done it over 20 times I reckon, it can be a long slow day, but there is no other ride like it for atmosphere, a festival on 2 wheels, soooo many people, it's the daddy. I think expectation is the key here. I've written about it ad nauseum in previous years so take a punt at all the views.
That's not to say thet there aren't lots of other good rides, but never with the concentration of people (which can be a good or bad thing depending on your aim).
I'd say go for it!
Then ... do a FNRttC for an alternative and spellbinding challenge! More bonhommie than you can shake a stick at!

 

[Christopher]

I did it once, the last year you could take the train back as it happened. Good things were the closed roads and the camraderie and shooting downhill thourgh Horley, bad things the congestion, crowded feed stations, being forced to walk up Ditchling Beacon and constantly having to dodge or brake hard to avoid hitting slower cyclists weaving about or slower groups blocking the road. Might do it again but would ribe back from the coast.

 

[dellzeqq]

pardon - it is, after all, (saws off leg, counts annual rings) fifteen years or so since I last did the big L2B. (And almost forty years since the first time).

 

[GrumpyGregry]

there's always a headwind down here full stop. I swear it just followed me around on my loop just now ...and ditchling isnt the only hill...

i think i may be up for this though

Whilst my ride this morning was much shorter than yours, it too went in a loop. At no time was there a tailwind!

 

[Fab Foodie]

Whilst my ride this morning was much shorter than yours, it too went in a loop. At no time was there a tailwind!

Tailwinds are for wimps ....

 

[PoweredByVeg]

Hi CB, I haven't done L2B but have been up Ditchling, if you can cycle up Gas Hill then Ditchling will be OK

 

[gary in derby]

Im doing it this year!

 

[Sara_H]

I did t a few years ago, it was a fab atmosphere - my friend and I considered it to be a nice day out.