At the end of April two members of Team Niagara took time off to perform a recce (recon) of the entire South Downs Way route, but on bikes rather than on foot...

We started around 9AM Sunday morning having been dropped off by my other half in little village called Chilcomb across the motorway from Winchester. I'd included a photo at this point, but the camera seemed to have issues focusing!

We'd ridden less than a quater mile before we encountered the first hill of the trip, which took us up onto the route proper; that's one of the problems with the South Downs Way, it's a Downland based landscape, specifically an "area of open chalk hills", so there's a lot of slow climbs followed by fast decents!

We met up with one of John's friends close to Petersfield, where we stopped for lunch at the Queen Elizabeth Country Park cafe (very reasonably priced food BTW). QECP is the start venue for the Trailwalker, from what we can tell the starting line is at the foot of a rather long hill, but we won't tell the others! If you ever find yourself in QECP with a mountain bike be sure to take a ride up to the top of Buster Hill, it's a great view from the top but the two minute 30mph ride back down to the bottom is what it's all about!

Before leaving QECP I did a bit of luggage rearrangement (my Topeak handlebar bag was too heavy, coming down Buster Hill, it was scuffing on the front tyre when my suspension was fully compressed - great motorbike type sound, like when you used to tape card to your bike spokes as a kid!).

We continued in sunshine for the rest of the afternoon, much better than the forecast, onto our first overnight stop at the Blue Bell Inn, Cocking (that's the name of the village!), West Sussex, around 20km into the Trailwalker route and close to Check Point #2. Our stats for day one were:

• Start: 9AM
• Distance: 33.4 miles
• Riding Time: 4h55m
• Ave Speed: 6.8mph! Atrocious, but so was the terrain!
• Stop: 5PM

Started Day Two, looked to be another scorcher - so much for the forcast rain, and up a main road hill to get back onto the 'Way, don't mind hills but not with heavy traffic. It was good to get off the road, especially for the relatively level ground of Heyshott and Graffon Downs edging into Charlton Forrest towards Trailwalker Check Point #3 (around 28km into Trailwalker).

We had a rather long stop to try to fix my gears (John likes a challenge, when dropping into the lowest front cog, they would either not change down, the chain would jam or the chain would come right off). We then had a not so short stop to attend to a puncture on Johns rear wheel. Amazingly this was the only puncture either of us picked up, depsite nearly all the terrain being plentiful of jagged flint; to that end, Johns tyre had only picked up a thorn.

These delays impacted us quite a bit, we held until 20 miles before stopping for a very quick lunch break at around 3PM. Then it was a long slog up the summit of Devils Dyke; this was tedious, due to the cross winds (on your right: the English Channel; on your left:low lying land for around 30 miles; in the middle: you, open to all the elements, which even on a hot sunny day, isn't too much fun).

This took us past Trailwalker Check Point #5 (68km) and onto our second overnight stop at the Jack and Jill Inn, Clayton. BTW, their website looks off-kilter compared to their bricks'n'mortar site. Our stats for Day Two were no better:

• Start: 9AM
• Distance: 34.38 miles
• Ave Speed: 6.4mph! Getting slower!
• Stop: 7PM

The pub couldn't/woudln't serve breakfast before 8:30AM so we left at 12 hours after we'd arrived at 7AM to start Day Three, still no sign of anything but lots of unbroken sunshine (days of endless sunny weather, takes me back to my days living in the Bay Area!).

Another long climb up a long main road to get back up to the trail, and along the picturesque Jack and Jill windmills, and the site of Trailwalker Check Point #8 (75km). Then onto Ditchling Beacon, with excellent views of passenger jets stacked up waiting to land at Gatwick Airport.

We had a narrow miss shortly after crossing the A27(T) at Housedean Farm, we just missed having breakfast at a mobile cafe, unfortunately it was across the wrong side of the carriage-way by the time we noticed it; crossing 4 lanes of rush hour traffic was less tempting than a Fried Egg and Bacon Bun!

If we'd been doing the Trailwalker route, the next climb would have been our last around Check Point #9 (90km), but we weren't so it was onwards onto Eastbourne. Finally we got to visit a quaint little village today: Alfriston Old Post Office does very tasty handmade sandwiches, and reasonably priced too! To be honest anything would probably have been tasty by this point.

Of course Alfriston is in a valley, so after lunch we had another climb over Windover Hill down to Jevington (via a detour as a landowner had erected an illegal notice stating that the SDW didn't cross his land - but it does!) and then up out of Jevington towards Willingdon Hill.

You know how with most hills, every time you turn a blind bend or reach a blind summit, you see another climb? Well I liked Willingdon Hill, cause as I reached the blind bend, I saw John stood by the Trig Point and Eastbourne laid out behind him; IT'S ALL DOWN HILL FROM HERE!

Final Day Stats:

• Start: 7AM
• Distance: 32.5 miles
• Ave Speed: didn't note, but it must have improved!
• Stop: 4PM

After reaching Eastbourne station, thanks to the locals who gave us directions, we caught the train to Brighton. We had a quick celebratory drink on the seafront and then another train back home. Our total distance was 101.3 miles.

In one word: PUNISHING!

More photos at flickr, or see how we got on here: