This good Friday Sophie and Rachel had
agreed to join David and myself for a ride to Brighton. Unlike the usual and
slightly epic route over the south downs, culminating in another failed attempt
to tackle the ditchling beacon, we opted for a route we hadn’t tried before.
After much to-ing and fro-ing we opted for
Horsham to Shoreham. A simple 26 mile route with a few extra miles tagged on for the last leg
to Brighton.
Many of the reviews of the route suggested
it was unmanageable on anything other than a mountain bike. I opted for the
brompton as it would be easy to take on the train and has Marathon tyres on
which are much better suited to this kind of journey. Most of the other bikes
we saw were indeed full suspension mountain bikes, but you don’t need to go
that far unless you want to do the journey really fast, in which case I reckon
an old fashioned touring or audax bike, or one of the new cyclocross hybrid
would be quicker.
As you can see from the pictures we had a
motley assortment (or Crue if you like) of
bikes covering multiple “disciplines.” In truth it is manageable on any
bike you want to go on, although I’d avoid anything too roady.
Inevitably we got to Horsham later than
planned and decided to forgoe the first tea shop to get a few miles in before
lunch. Had this been Holland we would have been passing cafes all day but
refreshments were not all together easy to come by. Indeed with a group of 6,
including 3 vegetarians, found it a little tricky to get lunch at all. I had
cauliflower cheese and cheesy chips which meant I didn’t need to eat again for
the rest of the day.
The route itself is lovely if a little uneven and potholey in places and
the ride into Hove from Shoreham is bleak and industrial but I loved it and
will be doing the whole thing again shortly.
Upon arrival in brighton Sophie and I
stopped for ice-cream and a suitable amount of bum rest before retiring to a
local hostelry. Unfortunately the first bar was riddled with wankers downstairs
and needed the upstairs for a function in the evening, so we moved on to a much
nicer bar a little closer to the lanes.
We really should have checked the trains a
little more thoroughly because the journey time was an half an hour longer than
usual so Sophie and I popped our folders into a black cab at St Pancras.
Unfortunately that meant we followed Robert all the way through Islington. He
did indicate his pleasure at this with a salute using just a couple of fingers.
All in all a lovely day out.
