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The London to Brighton BHF Bike RideOn Skates of course - 2007
The official British Heart Foundation's charity bicycle ride goes from Clapham Common to Marina Drive in Brighton, a distance of roughly 55 miles every year, and is one of the very largest cycle rides in Europe with 28,000 official riders and several thousand "ghost" or bandit riders. This is an event I've been looking forward to all year, and last year's skate was the single best thing I've ever done on skates. Of course it's meant to be done on a bike, but I thought last year why not give it a go on skates. I thus posted about doing the trip on the LSST and SR forums, and as a result last year 6 others joined me on the skate. We had such a brilliant time, and obviously big-upped it enough that this year almost 50 skaters went in several different groups.
Last year I was quite nervous before the start, as I'd never skated or cycled the route, and so wasn't sure how rough the roads were. I also wasn't sure whether the organisers would allow skaters, but it wasn't to be a problem, last year or this year. The night before I was so excited that I didn't sleep very much, I think just some 3.5 hours. I was quite chuffed to hear that a few others also didn't sleep much through excitement. This really is one of the most fun things I've ever done on my skates! I'd also changed my mind about only taking things that would fit in my lycra cycling jersey pockets. I did this last year, but I wanted to take a few more comforts this year, so ended up buying a Camelbak Rogue backpack, with 2l of fluid capacity and 2.1l of cargo. That turned out to have been an excellent idea, as I could then easily take all the bits I wanted, and it also saved a fair bit of time filling up water at water stops. It also let me take a GPS, so I have a good idea of ride profile, speeds, and the exact route we took now.
Anyway, no matter! The group I was skating with congregated at Clapham South Underground station at 07.30, and ten minutes later we moved on to the start at the corner of Nightingale Lane and Alderbrook Road. Unfortunately a few skaters were quite late, including Dmitri, but time was pressing given the agreed departure time, so we took a quick photo opportunity, and then we were off! I think the excitement got to Quentin and I a little, because we kept up a high pace for the first 15 miles or so, and did lots of ducking and diving to get around the queues at traffic lights and around marooned buses and other vehicles. Skaters can easily find space in a crowd of cyclists since we use the road in a slightly different way, are more manoeuvrable and not as long. Of course this had us suffering aching legs and panting breath far too quickly, so sooner or later we had to slow down and start to take a more realistic pace. We couldn't help it - it's the excitement of the event and the amount of fun we were having, LOL! I do feel slightly bad at dropping the rest of the group, but then we'd all intended to separate naturally as we found our own pace anyway.
I loved the way cyclists would comment with surprise, firstly on being overtaken by a skater, and then when they were wondering whether we would be skating the whole way. Most never imagined that we would go the whole way, surprisingly to me. Of course, half way through, the cyclists' comments changed to asking whether we'd come the whole way from London, just as with last year. Doh! Cyclists don't seem to realise that skating it is only a bit harder than cycling it, with the 40% efficiency loss of skates relative to bicycles. At this point I found I was having trouble adjusting my skates - I couldn't find a happy medium between too tight but with good control. It took me a couple of stops before I found a happy medium where I wasn't getting lace bite and yet still had good ankle control. Given the high level of vibrations from the rough surfaces, it's perhaps not too surprising that this was difficult.
Somewhere a little before Turner's Hill we caught up with the 06.00 group, who had been taking it easy and sticking together nicely. It was nice to chat to them and to see them on the road, well resting at the side of the road, LOL. I was particularly chuffed that they had stuck together given the different levels of skaters in the group. Quentin and I chatted for a little bit, and then made our way onwards, straight into a rain shower. Yuck, that was horrible. I'm very pleased I had my Montane Velo Featherlite Jacket with me, as that kept me warm and mostly dry, and was only carried because it folds up so tiny.
Into the actual climb itself, oooh, talk about getting into the cave of pain and sitting in there a while. I know I didn't go as hard as I did last year, but I still pushed myself. I'm a bit annoyed at myself for getting caught out by one of the false flats on the climb with 400m to go, oops! I blame it on the lactate haze, since I should have known better really. Still, I made it to the top in relatively good condition, and without the savage cramps I had last year. That was probably partly due to the much cooler conditions as well as taking it considerably easier. Still managed to pass many many people walking, as well as loads of people still riding up. When I got to the top I instantly collapsed on the grass to wait for Quentin, and it wasn't too long before he crested the hill with Dmitri in tow, who had finally caught up with us. I was quite impressed to see a fixed wheel rider make it over the crest as well, still riding, so gave him a big cheer. I wonder how many others noticed his big effort?
After a quick stop on top of the hill, we were off again, this time Quentin, Dmitri, and myself, back to the old group from last year which felt really good. I love the section after Ditchling, as it's a long and steady descent into Brighton, and you can make huge speed here, often much more than the cyclists because of the good surfaces and our much better aerodynamic profile. On the steep descent under the bridge, I again took it easy this year at about 35mph, that's a long and fast hill, and it wouldn't be impossible to clock 50+ mph on skates there. I'd love to take my recumbent down there one day, that would likely be even faster still. Then the usual sprinting and burning between each set of traffic lights, it's so much fun at the end. With conditions being very good for skaters, it's easy to sit with or pass most of the cyclists. Come the next queue at the traffic lights, it's super easy for us skaters to get to the front ready for the next sprint off. The result is we hop past hundreds and hundreds of cyclists and then have a clear sprint down Maderia Drive to the finish line. We got a brilliant huge huge cheer from the crowd as well, partly as a result of being in the front of our wave, and partly because of being on skates I guess. The three of us had agreed to cross the line together, which was a rather nice way to finish. I do recall pushing hard through the sprint, and then coming round a slight bend to see another 500m to go and thinking "Oh no, THAT much more?", LOL! It's not the first time I've done that. Of course we were then going at speed across the finish line, and nearly forgot about stopping before the cyclists queueing up for medals. Quickly through the finish gates, we were then off to find Cheryl for a massage just like last year as a top priority, more so than talking to our other mates who had arrived a little before us! Then off to meet the family, and go for a pub lunch and refuel. Of course one of the fun bits about skating the L2B as opposed to riding it, is that you can take your skates off and jump on the train afterwards, still taking your skates with. No need to have family come pick you up and create yet more traffic on the crammed roads, or have to risk your bike in a van/coach.
In ConclusionWhat another great skating experience! To me it easily beats even the Le Mans experience we had last year, when our team came 12th out of 600-odd teams. Be aware though, that I would rate this as a skate suitable only for advanced skaters who are competent on steep and fast downhills. Videos
Short clip on ITV Local - the skaters are about 2/3rds of the way through. Short clip on google videos of the finish line. The commentator really doesn't get it here, does he? PicturesSomebody on a miniBike. That's got to be a lot harder than skating it! LinksThe 2006 London to Brighton Skate writeup. The official British Heart Foundation website.
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