Nick Herlihy – 22h 13m 33s on the 18th May 2014. Near perfect weather for Nick on his double ride. A brief few words from Nick:
I set off a couple of hours before sunset because I wasn’t confident at all I could do it under 24 hours and didn’t want to be finishing in the dark. The outward leg was fairly uneventful, I refilled my bottles at Cocking and Tottington Barn YHA and the only other thing of note was that my light bracket worked itself loose which was irritating! It was a very still night with no wind at all. I had an issue at the Eastbourne end of the route – I had done practice rides on nearly the whole south downs way, but hadn’t bothered with the Eastbourne section because I had lived in Eastbourne 2010-2012 and so I felt I knew it well. Unfortunately, I didn’t know that they had changed the end of the route and it no longer finished at Paradise drive. So when I got there I was confused not to see the old information board. So in the end, my turn point was Paradise drive as I didn’t want to waste time investigating a new bit of the route I didn’t know.
On the way back I refilled bottles at Jevington Church, the YHA and Cocking. I felt really good until Amberley, spurred on by the fact I realised I was on for a sub 24 hour time. Then it got a bit tricky and the last 30 miles or so was pretty tough! The weather stayed near to perfect the whole time, with a slight tail wind on the way home.
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