Cycle to Box Hill

Although through the winter we've done a fair number of cycles, we hadn't really approached the kind of distance we'd be doing every day, until today.

Unfortunately Sam was homebound by illness, but the rest of us set off, faced with typical, miserable, British spring weather. We were aiming for Box Hill, which is near Dorking, and that was the half-way mark for the route. Newland's Corner is the general starting point for most of our cycles, and from there we went to Peaslake and up Holmbury Hill. When a point in the map has "Hill" in the name, we found it usually isn't good news. Along the way we also realised how many unusually named villages and towns there are that we've never even heard about.

Sadly the road going to Box Hill starts at about 60m and reaches 210m in a short space of time, although we only have ourselves to blame. There were worried looks when we saw this sign.


However, when we got the top it was definitely worth it, with satisfying views and a road that could have been on Top Gear on the way down!

Things were going well until we went more off the beaten track and ended up in the middle of nowhere (somewhere around Mickleham). As we were hoping not to get a puncture this cycle Sod's Law dictated we would get a puncture just when we really didn't need it. Fortunately, we fixed the puncture and through process of elimination we eventually found our way back to civilisation.

By the end, me and Charles had also learnt what the bonk is, according to various websites eating more carbohydrates would have make our lives much easier. As 80 miles will be the longest we'll have to go, there will need to be some serious adaptations. But, that aside, we all made it back alive and with bikes relatively intact.



Here's some stats from my cycle computer:
Distance: 55.06m (some was added in the process of being lost)
Ride time: 5:58
Average: 9.2mph
Max: 25.7mph

Here is a link to our route on mapmyride.com

An Introduction

First things first - Let us introduce ourselves and why we feel worthy of having a blog...

We are a team of 4 George Abbot students - James, Nick, Charles and Sam who have decided the best way to celebrate the end of our exams is to cycle 1000 miles across Britain in what is well known as the Land's End to John O' Groats cycle.

We are by no means biking experts, but we are determined, and we hope that through this massive challenge we also raise money for the locally based charity, Chase Hospice, which cares for terminally ill children. Here is a link to their website.

It's taken a couple of months, but accomodation is now sorted, and we will be staying in Hostels run by the YHA and SYHA. Now these are booked we are certain on the 1st July we will set off from Land's End, hopefully to return on the 17th July. Obviously between now and then, we will try and fit training in with revision, and also try and raise some money!