Congratulations to Graham Wardle

In Graham's Words

[Skip to the bottom if you just want bike setup / nutrition / what went right wrong etc]

I live very close to the SDW and am very familiar with a small sections of it, but I hadn’t considered riding the full length of it until late 2025 when I finally invested in a gravel bike. I used to ride a lot of XC as a teenager but have exclusively road riding for a number of years. The comfort of riding the chalk paths on 50mm tyres with a gravel bike vs 32mm on my touring bike was a game changer and I penciled in a full SDW W-E trip with a friend for May 2026. I co-opted a (very fit) friend who had recently run a trail marathon, but who didn’t have any long bike rides under his belt. We took it at quite a leisurely pace (c14 hrs total time) but it still felt like a challenging ride on what was a very hot day.

In July 2026, I did W-E again to help out a friend who was trying to build some form for a multi day gravel adventure. I ended up riding most of that solo after he bowed out injured at Cadence cafe and now being familiar with the route I pushed on quite hard. It was also a very hot day and I don’t think I quite got my nutrition or hydration right so I arrived in Eastbourne with an improved 9hrs 20min (moving) time, but feeling pretty broken. It was on the train back home that I stumbled across southdownsdouble.co.uk. Despite at that point swearing off riding my bike for the foreseeable, reading through the testimonials, the different strategies and the (frankly outrageous) record times, I knew it was something I’d take on at some point in the future. I filed it away as a “2027 target” bucket and headed for a well deserved chippy tea.

Fast forward 3 weeks and in down time on holiday with the family, I kept returning to southdownsdouble.co.uk. I’d managed a fair bit of riding and elevation in 2026 (including in very hot weather) and outside of a chronic hip injury, my form was looking decent. Logistically, riding the SDW one way had been a bit of a challenge as it meant an overnight stay at the Winchester end (or a 2.5 hr train journey home if starting at Eastbourne) but when the penny dropped that I could essentially start and end the double from my house, it moved from being a “maybe” to being a “when”.

Looking at the calendar, allowing for other commitments and weather changing going into autumn, there was a single opening for 2026 for the weekend of 14th August. Moving into the week, the weather was looking fine so the challenge was on! The one sticking point about that weekend was it was also Boomtown Festival, but I took comfort from the site that there would be signposted diversions (more about this later).

Based on my experience of the route, I decided to start and end my ride at Ditchling Beacon, do the Eastbourne leg first and set off at dusk. This would get some of the hardest climbs out of the way when freshest and do the sections I was most familiar with in the dark. My strategy was to try the current route self supported and to chunk the route into 3 sections (Ditchling-> Eastbourne -> Ditchling, Ditchling -> Winchester, Winchester Ditchling) - by taking the minimum I needed for the first leg with me I could resupply at Ditchling Beacon for the final two legs.

I set off just before 8pm so had about 45 mins of riding before I needed to turn on my lights. I started out with a head torch attached to my helmet, but quickly ditched this as it kept falling off. Whilst I do a fair bit road riding at night, I hadn’t actually tested this setup at night before and was a little nervous about riding dark trails at speed. Needn’t have worried though as he dynamo light and the Exposure cockpit mounted light lit the route superbly (full technical bike setup listed below). There’s something about riding at dusk that doesn’t sit right with me, so I didn’t feel properly settled until night fell around Firle. For most of the first section it was a perfectly still night with temps in the teens so it was a very pleasant ride. I kept the pace steady and despite a minor navigation wobbly around the descent into Eastbourne, I was feeling pretty fresh at this point. Quick snap at the kiosk, an “I’m ok message” to the family and I turned back round up the hill.

I’d never cycled for 20+ hrs before but had done some ultra marathons many years back so knew how my body handled fatigue and nutrition. Over this first leg I had to force myself to keep eating so made sure to sip on some carb drink and have a gel / carb gummy or a soreen bar every 30 mins or so. A few times I felt quite sick from eating so many carbs, but I think forcing myself to eat on this leg made all the difference later on. I got back to Ditchling Beacon about 2am having gone through all my supplies. I had a very quick pitstop to force down a chicken and mushroom pasty and resupply my saddle bag before setting off on the next leg. My general strategy was to pack what I needed for leg 2 in my jersey and top tube bag and keep the remainder (for leg 3) in my saddle bag.

I had a few bad patches on the 2am -> 6am section. There are some steep sections out to Amberley which felt like a grind, alongside the cold reality of the remaining distance sinking in. As other riders have mentioned the variety of night wildlife and in particular the owls were highlights though - must have seen at least a dozen of them gliding alongside me at various points. The worst patch of this segment was a steep climb through a field of sunflowers before Cocking - ordinarily it’s the type of climb I’d relish and the scenery was beautiful, but it was the first time I felt a real lack of power in the legs. I hit proper daylight around Cocking Hill, but the sunrise was a bit of a non event and I don’t feel like I got a good psychological boost. Still, the riding gets easier from this point and the sun started to warm me up and I felt like I flew along to the QEP. Butster hill was a real challenge - I’ve never done it from this side before and it looms up like a wall. Heeding some sage advice from some other successful double attempts, I got off and pushed for the steepest section.

Exiting Meon farm was where I had a 2nd nav wobble. The last two times I’d ridden W-E I’d come from the left, but the Garmin was telling me to go right. I cleared and reloaded the route map to be sure but ended up following the route that I had keyed in. I later worked out that this was because I’d mistakenly downloaded the classic route and not the current route, which meant that I missed out Winchester Hill. At the time I was a bit confused that I didn’t recognise where I was, but once I’d got my bearings the Boomtown Festival diversions quickly became my main concern. In actual fact the diversion itself around the festival wasn’t too bad, but there had unfortunately been a very bad accident on Petersfield Road and the police had blocked the road so I couldn’t make it back onto the Bridleway. I was directed by the police to divert down Rodfield lane and onto the A31, which added about 10km of distance with a fair bit of it on a very fast dual carriageway. It wasn’t an ideal reroute and at the time felt it could have derailed my attempt, but in the context of the impact on a personal challenge vs the life changing impact that everybody caught up in the accident was having it forced some perspective.

I got to the King Alfred turn around about 10amm, took a selfie and sent an “I’m OK text" to the family. I calculated that if I made it back to Cadence by 2pm, then I’d have about 6hrs to do the last 55km to make the sub 24hr, so I popped into a shop and got 2 cans of coke and a pack of flaming hot monster munch. At this point I’d only had sweet things since 2am so the crisps and the 2nd chicken and mushroom pasty I’d carried with me went down a treat. I still felt pretty good, so started to believe that the challenge could be in the bag, but not wanting to be complacent I kept the stop short and pushed on.

By the time I got back out of Chilcomb the accident had been cleared so I didn't need to make a return dual carriageway diversion. I was quite thankful for the road sections interspersed out to Harting Down and despite having a second get off and push (up I think Beacon Hill?) I made good time back to Cadence and arrived at about 1:30. I stopped here and got another 2 cans of coke, a large iced coffee and a bacon sandwich. By this point, I was starting to feel pretty ropey - I don’t think I’d taken on enough nutrition since Winchester and the heat of the day was kicking in. I took one bite of the bacon sandwich and left the rest and decided to press on and get it over with.

The last two times I did the SDW I really enjoyed the section from Cadence > Devil’s Dyke, but with 250km in the legs and no sleep it hits very different and this was a real survival grind. I ended up pushing the horror show climb up High Titten and the nasty short climb up to West Hill from Saddlescombe farm. At this point I could see the Jack & Jill windmills so knew I was almost there and the challenge was in the bag - coming over the rise at Clayton Holt I even found the energy to race a couple of guys on MTBs to the gates and I pulled into Ditchling Beacon car park for a total time of 22hrs 15mins and a well earned Calipo from the ice cream van.

In terms of bike setup:

- Fairlight Secan
- 50mm Schwalbe G-One RX Pro tubeless on hunt wheels with a dynamo hub
- SRAM E1 XPLR 1x 10-46T, 40T on front
- SON Edulex LED dynamo light
- Exposure TracR rear light
- Exposure Toro 16 front light
- Carradice Super C Audax bag
- Tailfin toptube bag
- garmin 1030
- 2 x 750ml bottles
- tube, c02, mini pump, tyre levers, battery pack, tubeless repair, multi tool

In terms of nutrition:

[carried with and consumed]
- 2 chicken mushroom pasty
- 11 mini soreen loaf
- 11 precision fuel carb chews
- 12 servings precision fuel carb drink
- 6 Maurten 160 gels

[bought on route]
- 1 strong iced coffee
- 1 bite bacon sandwich
- 1 bag flaming hot monster munch
- 2 blue Powerade
- 8 cans coke
- 2 cans ginger ale

This comes in at around 7000 cals, which I think leaves a deficit of around 9000 for the total ride.

Other thoughts:

- Weather was perfect for my attempt. Barely any wind and whilst it was hot later in the day, I’d done a lot of summer training in the heat so was acclimatised. Would have been a very different day out with strong winds and / or cold weather.
- I ended up doing the classic route and not the current. In hindsight the Boomtown diversion meant that I was glad I didn't have to do the horror show climb that is old Winchester hill, but it wasn’t my intention to go this way.
- I carried a power bank, but kept my phone on airplane so didn’t need it. My Garmin 1030 lasted the distance - even when used in map mode for the entire time it still had 60% charge left.
- SON Edulux + Exposure Toro 16 was a winning light combo. In my experience, dynamo lights on their own are no good unless you can keep above 18kph, but the extra kicker for the fast sections alongside the Toro was great. I also have a splitter for topping up phone / lights / Garmin in the top tube bag but I didn't need this.
- Starting at Ditchling and doing the Eastbourne section in the dark was a great strategy. I think starting at Amberly going east might even be a better one given the toughness of those climbs (and doing at the start and not the end), but maybe I’m over thinking it.
- Over eating on the first leg saved the challenge. I got complacent with fueling on the back half of the 2nd leg and I think this is one reason I found the last 50km so hard
- Ibuprofen came in handy when my hip pain flared up and antihistamines were useful when I was attacked by horseflies over Devil’s Dyke.
- I had some chamois cream at the resupply point, but I left it there. That was a mistake and about 200k in I would have happily traded the weight of it for all the energy gels that I carried and didn’t end up eating.
- Despite carrying enough nutrition with me I killed my self supported attempt by buying (mainly drinks) on route. This was largely for the psychological boost that a cold drink and a short stop provided so I think the trade off was worth it. The man unexpectedly selling cold cans of coke out of his van at the top of Meon springs was dreamy.
- I had the route on my garmin, but was really glad I’d done the full route twice very recently. Made the night sections much less challenging as didn’t have the navigation niggles in the back of my mind.
- I love my Secan but I think there’s a reason why all the fastest attempts are on MTBs. The trail buzz on my hands and feet by the end was killer and worse than the muscular pain and meant I was struggling to really fly on the descents. That said, having suffered to come in sub 24hr it puts the speed and endurance of the top times (in full alpine!) into context (and insane attempts on single speeds)
- My moving time was c90mins more than my total time. I think only c30 mins of this was actual “stops” (ditchling beacon, alfred turn around, cadence coffee stop) so the remainder is gates, nav stops, any pushin, faff time sorting out gear etc. My Garmin does stop pretty much immediately, but it highlights how important it is to keep moving and not lose time as it all adds up.