London to Brighton.
02 July 2010
As part of Freedom’s social conscious we have for the last few years supported various charities through various fun raising events. The latest fund raising event was the London – Brighton bike ride which took place yesterday 20th June.
14 Employees from Freedom including myself entered the event. The money being raised is being donated to two charities Help The Hero’s and The British Heart Foundation. We are waiting to see how much in total we have raised but I have raised over a £1000 personally for these two worthy causes.
I am sure that a number of us are nursing a few aches and pains this morning.
The Day of the big Race:
The day started by meeting at Freedom at 6am to get a mini bus to the start point at Clapham Common, and loading the bikes onto a van. Eventually we made our destination but had to park a few miles away due to the traffic and had to ride to the start line. Everyone was excited as we queued for our start time. Unfortunately the weather did not match our mood and was overcast and grey. After what seemed an age we where off, about 30 minutes later than expected. The group soon split into two halves. The traffic through London and just the sheer number of riders made progress of the first ten miles extremely slow. There seemed to be more walking and waiting than actually riding. We had to wait at the bottom of every hill before being allowed to start riding again. It was impossible to attack any of the hills due to the amount of people walking. The first 28 miles took a staggering 3.5 hours to complete, and was extremely frustrating due to the forced delays. The second half was a little easier with the amount of people thinned out, and we started to make good time and the last 28 miles was completed in 2 hours. The thought of Ditchling Beacon loomed as all we had heard was how tuff this last hill was. After completing 48 miles we came across the dreaded hill, and it lived up to the hype we had heard. Unfortunately again the amount of riders on the hill made it impossible to complete the ride up. The disappointment was shorted lived as the decent into Brighton, about 5 miles is all downhill and extremely picturesque. Finally the finishing line with hundreds if not thousands of people cheering was incredible.
I would suggest that anyone wanting to take part in future London – Brighton bike rides and if you want to get a time and attack the hills you go for a really early start 6:30 or as late as possible. For everyone else relax and enjoy the day. There are many stopping of points for all sorts of refreshments and many have a real carnival feel to them, so take your time and join in the fun of a great day out.
Kevin Kemp
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