Setting the Double South Downs Way Record
Josh Ibbett - Endurance Mountainbike Racer / 05.10.2011
There’s 3810m of climbing in the 100 miles and hardly an inch of flat. For years the challenge has been to ride the length of the Downs. But then some endurance cyclists, a few brain cells short of the full complement, decided to try and ride it both ways non-stop. 200 miles with a mighty 7620m of climbing packed into the folded contours of the route.
Then some slightly more crazed cyclists decided to ride the whole length of the Downs and back unsupported, carrying all their food and equipment for the ride apart from water which was collected from the public taps en route. Then the challenge was the do this in under 24-hours, which was soon achieved.
The problem with setting times for long distances is there is always another more competitive endurance cyclist in the wings willing to try and beat it. Thus the problem escalated. More cyclists tried the double and the record tumbled and tumbled, down to the record of 18h 3m 12s, set by Ian Leitch in 2009.
Then a young and even more ambitious cyclist decided that he would quite like to break the record. Me!
The double record has been in my sights since I moved down to Brighton in the spring. I quickly fell in love with the South Downs, the long rides, big views, the peace and quiet. So not wanting to do things by half I decided the best thing to do would be to do a double: really quickly.
So at the stroke of midnight on Thursday 22nd September, I headed out from the shadow of King Alfred’s statue in Winchester on my attempt at the record.
I had been super nervous all day, shaky hands and all. I knew my preparation was good. I had the bike for the job; full suspension 29ers are the way to go for this kind of stupidity (big orange ones are even better!). I had the route dialled in my mind, my nutrition plan sorted and was travelling light compared to all the previous attempts – I had no rucksack, all my food and equipment was stored on the bike frame or in my jersey pockets.
The reason I was so nervous was a lack of confidence over my form. I had trained hard over summer, including regular recces of the route and had planned a block of three hard races to get in top shape. Unfortunately I managed to get ill and missed all my end of season races and had pretty much not ridden my bike. In actual fact I had all but written off the double for this year and if it wasn’t for a snap decision upon returning from an awesome trip to Italy a week previously I wouldn’t have started it.
I planned to ride myself into it gradually. The first few miles are off-road which allowed plenty of time to warm up. The only difficulties encountered in the opening miles were avoiding a policeman who was exposed by my Exposure Lights weeing in the bushes!
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