Meet: London Bridge Station, ticket office at 09:00 for the 09:26 train to Gatwick. map
Standard day return on this train is £9.90 but this can be cut in half by Daysave 4-for-2 deals. Arrive early to maximise your saving and get in a group of 4. Approximately one third discount also available for holders of Network railcards.

Distance: 65 miles

Phone: Paul - 07957 209 322

From Gatwick, we’ll head south to join the wonderful traffic-free Worth Way (currently under threat would you believe – more at www.worthway.org.uk) before rejoining the road at Crawley Down to take mainly small roads and lanes to Brighton. We will climb Ditchling Beacon but will wait for everyone so you can walk it if you’d prefer.

If the weather’s fine lunch will be at a seafront cafe but this gives the option of picnicking on the adjacent beach so feel free to bring your own food. I will.

After Brighton, we’ll head back via the fine viewpoint of Devil’s Dyke and an optional pint or whatever. Then we’ll join the national cycle route for the trip back to Gatwick.

Suitable for any bike except racers.

Lunch in Brighton will be at about 32 miles but as always it’s advisable to bring the odd snack to keep you going before and after. And sufficient water, spare tubes.

Report

Six of us met at London Bridge – Paul, Ian, Rob, Cathy, Jane with her still pristine-looking Roberts bike, and Jim. Smaller than expected turn-out but there were other local rides on.

Four of us got a Groupsave to get a return to Gatwick for £4.95, others paid about £6.50. A fast First Capital Connect (new franchise holders) train got us to Gatwick in half an hour where we found the Dr Who lift to emerge by the rubbish bins.

Off down the National Cycle route to Three Bridges, where we headed off down the wonderful traffic free shaded Worth Way. Incredibly plans are afoot to dig parts of this up and to run a road under it before putting it back on top, quite probably in blazing sun. Disruption could take years. More at: more at www.worthway.org.uk.

I had a natter about this to a local who also told me where to find the unmarked exit just before Crawley Down that we were looking for. Off the Worth Way we climbed by to Turners) Hill. Soon after here a wonderful incline on some great surface unfolds to Ardingly and Rob and I couldn’t resist flying off to test our higher gears.

Just after Ardingly onto smaller roads which eventually led us to Ditchling Beacon and its climb. “A piece of piss” someone we encountered told us, though he was turning north again just before reaching it so we couldn’t test his bravado against Lewisham’s finest. Not as bad as its fearsome reputation but still a challenge. We all got up.

After my usual faffing I fixed a slow puncture at the top and then it was down to Brighton where the day-trippers were out in hordes. We braved the pedestrian-crowded cyclepath towards Hove to get away from the crowds and a relatively peaceful beach. Three got fish and chips (a very reasonable fiver but £1.50/£1.75 for a tin of coke/bottle of water), one had a takeaway from adjacent cafe, and two of us ate food we’d brought.

Then a combination of my typed notes and Ian’s GPS got us past Hove Station to find the path to the Devil’s Dyke viewpoint. The path is marked on the Sustrans leaflet as a good alterative route out of Brighton but there are absolutely no signs at street level. Odd.

We hit the viewpoint with the sun at its warmest. Great views and amenable company so we just chilled and chatted for I’m not sure how long, sitting on a wonderful sloping grass carpet. According to John Constable on an info board: “This is the grandest view in the whole world” and on a day like this none of us were going to argue. The pub even let us take real glasses out. The only blot on the landscape was a large fire to the north which Ian’s web researches reveal was almost certainly caused by the near obliteration of 400-acres of heathland at Thursley Common in Surrey.

Eventually we left to drop down the other side and followed a route hastily researched early that morning, typed onto a route sheet and emailed to Ian as a GPS log. We briefly rejoined the fume-ridden hell that the national cycle route chooses to use on the lengthy stretch near Brighton but then turned off to go down some wonderfully quiet lanes. Far better, though it did subject us to rather more climbing.

Eventually we rejoined the national cycle route at Staplefield, climbed to Handcross, managed to find our way straight out through Tilgate Forest (apologies to Judith who I managed to get lost with on the reccie) and then swanned back up to Gatwick. About 68 miles in all. We’d managed to keep up a good pace all day with plenty of time for stops and sitting around in the sun– almost perfect.

Oh – it’s true – Ditchling Beacon does get easier with practice

We will almost certainly be doing this ride in 2007 – join us next time.

Paul Taylor