Well, it was finally time to head off to Paris. Friday 21st June 2019 saw seven of us gather in the small Surrey village in which we live in order to set off on a three day cycle journey.
We started easily enough and headed down the roads through Guildford town centre. We’d decided to leave at 6.30am in order to miss the bulk of the commuter traffic and also to ensure that we didn’t miss our final boarding time for the ferry in Newhaven of 4.30pm, allowing for mechanical problems, too many lunch stops and the like. Our plan worked well enough and we didn’t have any issues in Guildford.
Heading on south towards Cranleigh though saw us pick up our first crash (at 1 mph) and puncture. The crash was more of a slow falling over, no damage done and the puncture, surprisingly, was picked up on a brand new pair of Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres which are generally regarded as indestructible! Perhaps not! We limped the flat tyre to Cranleigh where (the rest of us) grabbed a coffee and watched Nick fix his tyre.
Fortunately, this didn’t t take long and we carried on towards Billingshurst – our designated breakfast stop. We were finally on the back roads and it was truly glorious cycling. The sun was out, there was very little traffic and we made excellent time. We stopped at Whispers in Billingshurst (behind Sainsburys) and it again bolstered its reputation of being the best breakfast stop between our home and the south coast. Nice people and great food – what more could you ask for?
Out of Billingshurst, we set off through Adversane and headed down to Ashington before crossing under the A24 and winding down down to Steyning via Wiston and a busy couple of miles on the A283 (unavoidable). At Steyning we deicded to join up with the Downs Link path from there down to Shoreham. This section of the Downs Link is really nice – great surface and some really nice views, especially by the river.
We then encountered another mechanical issue – Graham lost a spoke on his rear wheel. He was slightly concerned as this was not the first time this had happened in recent weeks on his Cube mountain bike despite having had it repaired and trued. We stopped at Halfords between Shoreham and Brighton to pick up some more spokes just in case (this turned out to be prophetic but useless), before heading on to Brighton pier (not before another puncture in Hove though). It had just turned midday so we had 4.5 hours before the ferry and under 10 miles to go so we did the sensible thing and headed to one of the beach side bars for a couple of beers whilst Graham went to get his spokes repaired.
After deciding that the beer tasted too good to stay any longer, we rode through the marina and picked up the Undercliff Walk which turned out to be a beautiful ride under the chalk cliffs between Brighton and Peacehaven for about 2.5 miles. I recommend this ride to anyone, especially on a sunny day.
That just left us a final ride over the small mountain range that sits between Peacehaven and Newhaven which wasn’t aided by the two beers consumed in Brighton. However, we still made it to Newhaven with loads of time to spare… enough in fact to make a visit to the Hope Inn (underneath the fort) which was an excellent spot from which to watch our ferry sail in and try a few more of the local alcoholic beverages.
We boarded the 5.30 ferry with a minimum of fuss and set up camp in the cafeteria to have some dinner and (yes you guessed it) a few drinks to relieve the boredom of a 4 hour ferry crossing.
Finding the Ibis Budget Central Dieppe Hotel wasn’t so easy it turned out, after far too much alcohol, despite having maps and directions. We did eventually get there though and it was to time to crash out and grab some sleep. Well, at least I did. I understand several others went in search of yet more beer albeit unsuccessfully! The hotel was clean, tidy and very good value for money. It was also very easy to find.. for a sober, half intelligent person. It has a secure indoor courtyard to lock the bikes up in, a basic breakfast offering and good showers. Job done. Day 1 was finished!
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