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I had a crack at this last weekend as a bit of a test to see whether a South Downs Double attempt is a possibility this year. I used the route from the excellent ridgewaydouble.net which was great, although since it has been created there are a couple of bits that aren't as clear on the ground as they should be (it sends you on a track that is now marked as a footpath on the signage at one point).
It's a lovely ride, although next time(?!) I'll try to do it on a different weekend, preferably when the Race to the Stones ultramarathon isn't on. Although it was nice having their signage to follow on the way out (I parked in Lewknor where the trail crosses the M40, and headed west to start off with), coming back from Overton I had to negotiate my way past 1900 runners coming the other way. Oops.
Not quite as quick as I'd have liked, but the runners didn't help, and nor did the fact that my Garmin Edge Touring <span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">is, quite frankly, shit. It got confused frequently, tried to reroute me (in spite of turning all of the the re-route options off), only intermittently showed the locations of water taps, and generally made life a pain. Luckily I also took a Harveys map with me that I ended up relying on.</span>
Water was a bit scarce - the tap at Bridgewater Monument is broken, and the one at Hill Barn wasn't working, so I went a bit too far without water at times - not ideal on a hot day.
Character building challenge of the day was coming back past the turnoff to Lewknor (and hence the car, drive home and a beer!) after 11 hours and 195km of hot sweaty riding and choosing to keep going to Ivinghoe and back (it's only another 95-odd km, shouldn't take long.... famous last words!)
Didn't realise that the route finishes at the bottom of the hill at Ivinghoe Beacon, so I climbed up the hill to the Beacon itself (well, why stop short of the official end of the trail?) - well worth it as the view was stunning just as the sun was going down. Did the last hour in darkness - no issue with that apart from the fact that my back LED light had parted company with the bike somewhere in the preceeding 250km, so there were a couple of times I had to mount the verge to avoid cars approaching from behind on one of the road sections.
Ended up finishing at 11pm after 16h34 elapsed time, 15h17 moving time, 286km and somewhere between 3500 and 4000m climb (Garmin watch ran out of battery after 13hours, had to record the rest on the Edge which doesn't have a barometric altimeter, so not convinced the reported 3550m on Strava is correct (i.e. it felt like a bit more!) Still, not a bad day out. Strava link here: https://www.strava.com/activities/1703633263
South Downs Double attempt provisionally scheduled for late August, more hill training needed in the meantime!
Excellent work ! Cracking job.
Respect! I did it this weekend but over two days, during the ride I wondered how on earth people do the double in about the time it took me to do one leg!
Like you I could have chosen a better weekend. Yesterday was the White Roads Classic Sportive which sent roadies down some parts of the Ridgeway route in the opposite direction to me. Don't get me wrong most were friendly and gave a cheery hello but there was the odd numpty or two who seemed to think they owned the trail and came hurtling down the trail without a care for anyone else on the trail. I also picked up two inner tubes hanging off a fence (the guy must have been really unlucky), does make me angry when people can't carry their rubbish with them.
Anyway started at Ivinghoe Beacon on Saturday, made good progress for the first 45 ish miles and then I think the sun and heat hit me once I got on the more exposed parts of the route after Goring. Still managed to ride to the end on Saturday and made a start on the return leg and then got the bivvy bag out at around the 100 mile mark. Sunday was slow progress as my body was aching and it was still a tad warm.
The tap at Hill Barn was working for me but didn't have much flow to it. On Saturday afternoon the one at Idstone Barn worked for about 2 seconds and then stopped but was fine early on Sunday morning and I got a good 2.5 litres out of it. Think the notes on the GPX file say it can be hit and miss. The only other tap I used on route was the one at Aston Rowant nature reserve. I got the impression that some of the taps indicated on the GPX were at private houses that on the face of it may not be readily available now as a few seemed to have electric gates etc in the way.
Sounds like we both chose hot weekends for it! Well done for doing it with bivvy gear, not sure I’d have enjoyed the extra weight. I travelled pretty light, just had a saddle pack with tools and a repair kit, and a top tube bag with lots of food. Ultra lightweight waterproof jacket and a phone stuffed in my pockets, and that was about it.
There are some additional taps marked on the Harveys map, but after a frustrating 10 min spent trying to find the ones at Ilsley Barn Farm (since confirmed as having been removed) and Barbary Castle car park (tap in toilets now replaced with one of those combined hand washer/dryer things), I decided that they weren’t to be trusted!
Glad this is getting some traffic. I did this last year, a little more riding time than djtom but quite a bit more stoppage time. I also managed to pick up 3rd place on the western section eastbound but I think that may have gone now 🙂
Care to share your stopping/eating strategy? I've got this crazy urge to do it again quicker...
I eschewed taps that I had not recced in favour of two shops that I had scoped out on Google Street view, in Goring and Wendover.
Stopping and eating strategy? Sure, I do a lot of long distance adventure racing so I'm used to not stopping for long periods and eating on the move.
Stops as I remember them were 5 min in Goring on the way out (toilet stop!), 5 min at Overton (reward for getting there, ate a sandwich!), 10 min trying to find assorted taps that weren't there (not really a stop, but not making forward progress), 10 min at Goring on the way back (was melting and dehydrated, so sat outside the shop drinking cold coke and water and eating ice cream), 10 min somewhere near Chivery (sorting out two punctures in half a mile that both needed anchovies stuffing into the tyre), 5 min at Ivinghoe Beacon looking at the view, and that was it. There will have been other stops and minor detours like water stops at taps and swearing at the useless Garmin (seriously, how do they get away with selling something that is so flawed??) but nothing longer than a few minutes. It's amazing how it all adds up though, a few minutes here and there and you're suddenly adding whole hours to the ride ...
Food - a variety of sandwiches, cereal bars, snickers, trail mix, some shot blox and a couple of gels, supplemented by a cold coke and an icecream in Goring. I probably didn't take quite enough food as I felt a bit underfuelled towards the end, but I had been struggling with not wanting to eat in the heat anyway, so not sure I would have eaten more even if i carried more. I tried to eat something every 45 min to keep a steady supply of fuel, but this went out of the window a bit after I ran out of water.