South Downs Challenge Recce

One of the many joys of cycling is finding new routes to follow. And they don't need to be a million miles from home either.

I have entered for the South Downs Challenge, a 110 mile circuit starting/finishing Highclere Castle http://www.cyclegb.co.uk/southdowns.asp

So today, with the weather being so good, I decided to do a reconnaissance ride to take a look at the course, since I am familiar with the end but not the rest of the course.

The ride was a delight, taking me into Hampshire and along many roads, all new. You pass through a number of villages, full of thatched cottages and looking like picture postcards. And to complete the perfect image of a fine English summer's day I passed 4 games of cricket.

(Some early pictures (not taken by me but from the web site)

The pubs along the route looked very inviting as well. Today I was a bit pressed for time so did not take the opportunity to combine my ride with a bit of beer tasting but will tackle the ride again on coming weekends, in smaller chunks, and be sure to include time in the schedule for a pint (or two).

Just a few of comments on the route>> South Downs Route Map

I don't have a map for the bottom right bit (finishing at Petersfield), so cut a corner, heading south from Gundleton, through Cheriton and picking up the route at Stony Hard farm (great name). But still clocked up 158km in total (including ride from home to/from Highclere). Most of the route is pretty easy to follow, albeit with a number of stops to check map/directions, did miss one right hand turn after Micheldever Station to West Stratton and also only got through Michelmersh more by good luck than judgement.

Overall the trickiest thing about the route is, as you would expect, that there is little that is flat, most of the time you are going up or down, not usually very far in either direction but it does get tiring after a while.

The last couple of climbs are the hardest. Just before the final one (the "scorpion" in the route description) there is, as the directions say, an "acute right turn". This does not do the turn justice given the approach is at 13% down hill. The turn is not cute at all it is downright nasty and just to make it a little bit worse there is a big pothole in the middle of it as well. Hopefully that will be filled before the day.

The scorpions sting is a little less venomous than the route directions say, its maximum gradient is 11% and it only lasts 600m or so. The climb immediately before is tougher, being slightly steeper in parts and 1.5km long (with a steep bit just before in Combe and you pretty much go uphill all the way for the preceding 20km albeit only at an average of 0.5% so not really alpine).

Also I think I would take the total ascent figures given on the route directions with a pinch of salt. If the total of 2925m climbing is true this would push the ride close to being a Tour de France mountain stage which I don't think it is **. My altimeter (which I think is pretty accurate as it tallied with the heights of the TDF cols I climbed last month) gave me a total ascent for the day of 1540m. The last stage, which I rode pretty much exactly as planned was 480m rather than the 950m on the route description.

** By way of comparison, in France I rode tomorrow's (16 July TDF) stage from Montelimar to Gap, pretty much exactly following the route. This is classified as a "mountain stage" by the tour in terms of green jersey points.

Stage 14 timetable

This was 191km long and included a couple of category 2 climbs and a couple of category 3. Highest point was 1300m and started/finished at around 100. My altimeter for that day recorded a total ascent of 2570m.