Hi there! You’ve found my personal blog for all things generally of interest to me (Darren Tipton) and probably not many others. I have a wide range of interests from Blogging, Web Development, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Software Development, Photography, Growing Veg, Gardening, Fishing & Cycling to name but a few. I’ll put the odd post on here if I can think of anything half useful to comment on.
It seems a GPS file for the round Berkshire Cycle Route didn’t exist, even Bracknell Council have removed their PDF file from their website, so I decided to put one together and make it available to download. This is basically a trace of the Open Streetmap Cycle Map route.
The complete route is 134 miles, I would plan to do this over two days and stay in a B&B half way round, but thats just me. Some crazy people may consider doing the whole route in a day!
Download the GPS route here: Round Berkshire Cycle Route GPS Track File for loading to Garmin GPS (right click and select Save As)
After doing some digging I found this GPS route of the official London to Brighton Bike Ride. I thought it might be useful for others who plan the challenge.
Cycling 50 or so miles for most people is not so easy, so its important to prepare. I thought this website was also useful if you are considering preparing, especially for cycling up Ditchling Beacon!
Download the GPS route here: London to Brighton GPS Track File for loading to Garmin GPS (right click and select Save As)
So, I decided to have a go at a longer ride and more importantly two long rides back to back to see what it felt like the day after and after the two days. I did the ride with my brother in law (Tim) who suggested the Sustrans Route 4 from Bristol to Reading. This route covers 97 miles, but we also then have the ride from home to Reading then back home afterwards, summing up to ~120. In short, it was harder than I expected but I have some mitigating circumstances.
1. We were camping and I had a 4kg tent, a 1kg sleeping bag and two full panniers. Much more than I would ever plan to carry.
2. The pace was a little higher than normal, owing mainly to Tim who rides to work regularly and has quite a fast pace, which I felt needed to be matched.
3. The route surface was extremely variable. Some of it was great tarmac, but some was nothing more than a dirt track with stones and quite alot of pot holes meaning what should have been a 3 hour, 30 mile section of the ride ended up being 4 to 5 hours.
After the second day, I did feel somewhat tired and the day after a little sore. But with approx 3 months to go, a better route on the ride and hopefully my fitness will build to cope with that.
So the 2 x 50′s back to back got cancelled due to horrendous weather, neither me or my brother in law fancied camping out in it – sad but true. The UK seems to be going through some kind of biblical deluge. After sitting in all day getting frustrated and just looking through the window at the rain, I donned the rain gear and headed out. Not a very long ride, but it did result in a personal best time for 10 miles. Nothing like a bit of water to make sure you move / pedal a bit quicker!
After a few days out of the country on business, I was feeling somewhat guilty at the lack of riding this week so really needed get this one in.
Its true, the further you go the more confidence you get. Although this is a one off, I need to complete around this mileage or more every day for 13 days. I guess tomorrow I’ll see how I feel. With 17 weeks to go, this is a good start. Next week 2 x 50′s back to back on consecutive days.
