Ian’s Cathedral Ride – Update – Days 41-43

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Cathedrals Ride Day 41 Tuesday 23rd May
Start: Winchester (9.30am)

Finish: Chichester (5.30 pm)
Distance: 40.9 miles

Bike Time: 3h 46min
Ave Speed: 10.8 mph

Max Speed: 28.8 mph
Total Distance: 2232.9 miles

Total Time: 210h 34min

Nice to feel no pressure first thing in the morning. The only other guests were Australians who seemed to be almost permanently on holiday, well at least from the list of holiday destinations that they told me about. Met my ‘twin’ Judy and her husband Peter at the cathedral, having first met Patryk, initially from Poland, walking the End-to-End with his fluffy gorilla Wilson

Slight navigation problems during the day adding an extra four miles to the day’s ride. Met Gerry and Brian at the Cathedral, where I had to plead to be allowed to photograph the organ with some ‘jobsworth’.

The reunion fest continued with finding that Dan (an old school friend) and his wife Alison (Mary Jane’s college friend), were coming for supper. Excellent!!

Cathedrals Ride Day 42 Wednesday 24th May
Start: Chichester (9.00am)

Finish: Alfriston (6.45 pm)
Distance: 67.1 miles

Bike Time: 6h 52min
Ave Speed: 9.7 mph

Max Speed: 27.7 mph
Total Distance: 2300.0 miles

Total Time: 217h 26min

After one of the best nights ‘on the road’, it was great to have the company of Gerry and Brian, as I readied myself for the day ahead. Riding out to the coast from Chichester was a bit of a bugger, which was highly appropriate as my first coast fall was Bognor.

From there it was almost continuous coastal suburbia. Made no less pleasurable by the frequent need for pavement cycling and failures of the signing for The South Coast Cycle Route, sometimes having to be worked out in reverse , and at others trying to be a mind reader of the ether – something I have not mastered yet.

The great advantage, for most of the day was the flatness. This was until I got past Brighton, when things livened up with The Seven Sisters, followed by the South Downs as I rode to Alfriston for my B&B. The most pleasurable moment of the day was coming across a street musician playing Let It Be on his ‘portable cello’ in Shoreham.

Cathedrals Ride Day 43 Thursday 25th May
Start: Alfriston (8.30 am)

Finish: Winchelsea (4.30 pm)
Distance: 36.9 miles

Bike Time: 3h 45min
Ave Speed: 9.8 mph

Max Speed: 22.4 mph
Total Distance: 2336.9 miles

Total Time: 221h 11min

In the good old days on Saturday afternoons, there was wrestling settled by two falls, two submissions or one K.O. For me there were two prat falls, one submission but no K.O. It all started off with the submission when, having cycled some four miles from Alfriston, I arrived at the A27, hardly the road to be travelling on at any time of the day, especially not at just after nine, so I had to re-route myself vis Hailsham rather than Polegate – it turned out to be a shortcut and there was no long steep hill.

Just before Pevensey, having safely negotiated some traffic works, I went up on to a kerb at too acute an angle and flipped the bike. The only injury was to my pride as two roadmen put me back on my bike. Later, as I approached Hastings, on a cycle path, one of my panniers caught on a post helping to shut off the track, I was cycling on, to all but cyclists and walkers; again over and put back up by a passer-by. Still no injury apart from a slightly bruised rib.

Despite these slight setbacks I am ‘ready for the fray’ tomorrow, with freshly laundered clothes!! Such is life with its checks and balances!!

Walsham would not be the same without the village church and the regular sound of the church bells.
If you would like to sponsor this act of pedalling lunacy, taking in a number of Cathedrals in England Wales and Scotland whilst covering a distance of some 2,500 miles, then please complete the sponsor form

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Or, complete the form printed in The Observer
Or, pick up a form at Rolfes

Drop your completed form in the Cycle Ride box in Rolfes of Walsham or scan and email to Ian at iandmj@tiscali.co.uk

Ian will contact all sponsors on his return. Thank you.