Today we went for a little bike ride in the country. A tad short of 70 miles from the London Eye to Newhaven.
Leaving The Eye was predictably slow as we got ourselves ready, took photos, etc. But we were off by 11:20, only 20 mins late. Immediately took a wrong turning and had to re-route via Elephant and Castle, not a good idea at the best of time but today doubly so because a lorry had turned over right in the middle of the roundabout. Fortunately traffic jams do not exist for bikes so we soon got past the snarl up.
Took us about 2.5 hours to get to the M25. Alex and Esther were waiting on the bridge over the motorway thinking "where are they?" then Tom turned up and told us that Jon had come off his bike spectacularly on the twisty downhill road down to the motorway bridge. After some running repairs we were soon at the agreed pub lunch location and had a combination of super sandwiches and jacket spuds washed down with a (only one, honest) pint. Things went faster after lunch and we were soon approaching Ditchling and pleased to know we were not going over the infamous Ditchling Beacon. We took a fast undulating road running parallel to and north of the Downs after Ditchling, very nice!
Colin and Dan have been doing a great job with the support vehicle and it is always a pleasure to turn a corner and see them.
Had a great meal and a few pints at the Newhaven Premier Inn and am about ready to drop now. Fairly early start tomorrow, we are meeting up at 7:45 to go to the ferry. But an easy day tomorrow, few hills, mostly flat, and only about 50 miles.
Signing off now to sleep like logs.
Alex & Tom
