Chris McNamara – 20h 55m 00s on the 19th of June 2025. Chris hoped to do the Double Double so to speak with his brother Simon, but it ended up as a solo effort
In Chris’s words
During Covid I rode the South Downs Way with Connor Murphy and Luke Kennard, this is 100 miles off road and runs from Winchester to Eastbourne with around 11,000ft elevation, we had a great day out and they mentioned a goal of there’s was to attempt the double ( there and back so 200 miles and 22,000ft ) there was a website dedicated to it. ( www.southdownsdouble.co.uk ) – in order to get on the hall of fame it has to be completed in under 24hrs – they did this in 2023 and I followed the ride dot watching through the day and went out on the trail to see them with around 30 miles to go, it was just getting dark and they had had one hell of a day ( I’ve never seen anyone look so broken as Connor !!! ) – this really inspired me to have a crack myself at some point but kept putting it off with other trips and races.
With Simon riding Badlands Gravel again this year and it being the year of our 50th birthdays I suggested we do it together as a big training ride and kit check for him, we pencilled a date of Friday 20th in the diary so that we would actually commit to it, unfortunately he’s been having some issues with his back which resulted in a spasm that locked him up completely so he had to pull the pin on the ride the day before which was gutting as we had put a fair bit of planning in and we’re really up for !!.
I decided I might as well crack on a and have a go solo so set out at 10.20 pm on Thursday night, I was starting from Heart attack hill below Chanctonbury ring, I rode through the night and got to Eastbourne for around 4.00 am, I found this leg of the ride the hardest by someway – there was quite a strong headwind all the way and I kept taking wrong turns ( its hard to focus on a small beam of headlight when your off road and also the Garmin for directions ) – I went to tighten my shoe just after starting back West and the Boa lace snapped which is less than ideal and then I crashed just after Devils Dyke ( one hand reaching into my pack for Jelly babies and went over a piece of plastic pipe diagonally across the trail and went down pretty hard with my hand still in the pocket 😂🤦♂️) – despite this, mentally once the Sun was up and you can see all these amazing views across the downs I was in a much better place and started to really enjoy the ride , It was a really nice surprise to see Connor on the trails just before Shoreham and he rode with me to Chantry where I was meeting Semone for a pit stop refuel.
On my way again the sun was shining – nice tailwind and cracking along nicely when about an hour past Amberley my front tyre blew out – it was a big slash and I didn’t have a tyre boot with me so remembering something Simon had said I popped a gel down and used the wrapper on the inside of the tyre and put a tube in – on my way again and it was pretty much just getting on with it from there .
I had a plan of no caffeine until the final leg back so that I would get a real boost and I had also saved headphones and a playlist for the final 5 hrs home and this worked well – tunes on the go meant I was no longer bored with my own company and then a couple of SiS Beta fuel Noo tropic gels meant I actually felt really good and was just loving life – the sun was shining, the views amazing and once up and over Amberley I stopped to take a few pics of the sun low in the sky and take it all in on what had been an epic day, Semone and Connor were there to meet me at Washington for a celebratory pint to finish what will be a day Ill remember !!!!
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