london to brighton off road - anyone done this?

[phatmanace]

hi - have done the 'normal' L2B a few times, and when signing up for this year, I saw this link for the offroad one.

Has anyone done this - 75 miles offroad sounds pretty tough, and I was curious how offroad it was - I'm quite a newbie to the mountain biking scene.
Cheers, Ace

[djone101]

Did this last September - on a Scott hybrid with 700C tyres - the weather was good and the ground was dry - whilst it is 'mainly' off road there are plenty of roady bits too. The first 15 miles or so is all either tarmac or towpath. There are a couple of twisty steep bits and one very steep loose up-hill near the finish as you go over the South Downs. A good work out for sure - it would no doubt be much tougher if it was wet...

I plan on doing it again though I'm sure I said I wouldn't at the time.....

[Cookie172]

Did it last year too. Didn't make it far up that big hill at the end before I had to push

[1 PST]

I did it in 2010, great day and managed to finnish in the first top 40 riders. Even though I took a wrong turn and ended up doing 78 miles instead of 75!! Thankfully had no problems but was prepped for anything.

[1 PST]

djone101 said:

Did this last September - on a Scott hybrid with 700C tyres - the weather was good and the ground was dry - whilst it is 'mainly' off road there are plenty of roady bits too. The first 15 miles or so is all either tarmac or towpath. There are a couple of twisty steep bits and one very steep loose up-hill near the finish as you go over the South Downs. A good work out for sure - it would no doubt be much tougher if it was wet...

I plan on doing it again though I'm sure I said I wouldn't at the time.....

I said at the time I wouldn't do it again as well, but I'm thinking about it again.

[sparkyb999]

You should be fine, just get a few longer mile rides in beforehand. I was regually cycling 50 miles say every other weekend leading up to the ridgeway ride, starting in wiltshire wasnt too bad, but getting to the chilterns after already in the saddle for 60 odd miles was tough as hell, but did it in 10 hours at a total of 104 miles!

[itsallyellow]

I'm doing this this year. Part of my traing to get down to my race weight this season has been some MTB riding. Thought this would add an extra incentive. I'm not fit enough yet...

[996 sps]

Have literally just seen this, I'm in!!

[MadDad]

Ridgeway, L2B off road and South Downs Way are all on the 'to-do' list this year (along with a few road sportifs, time trials and as much riding as possible).

I am already working on my fitness, currently hitting the turbo trainer 4 or 5 times a week plus a long off road ride at the weekend. I have to admit that my training is not as structured as it should be at the moment, but my focus is just on keeping bike fit for the time being, once the evenings draw out I will look to structure training for upcoming events. Having lost 3 months of riding time last year through a big crash I am looking to make up for it this year!