Training advice for London to Brighton off road

srasho

Hi All,

Myself and a few friends are signed up for the 75 mile off road london to Brighton in september. we are generally fairly fit and have been riding most weeks over the winter around Bedgebury Singletrack. We are well aware this is far more phsically demanding and wondered if anyone out there had any good training advice and what we can expect on the ride itself. I hear its not so much technical but more physical. Any advice would be well appreciated. Also any similar rides that would prepare us for it beforehand. I have a GPS unit so if you have any GPX files for any good cross country routes that would be great.

Many thanks

Simon

njee20

Half of it is the Downs Link, which is fireroad at best. Just a flat, wide, gravelly track for 30+ miles. The only tough section is climbing up onto the South Downs. If you're fairly fit you'll be fine.

There's a GPX of the route floating around on one of the other threads.

srasho

Oh really, makes me feel more confident. Thanks!!

Rankles

I might do that too. I've not done anything like it before, but am spacing out similar, albeit shorter events beforehand in the year to build up my endurance alongside my training. These involve the six UK Cucling Events series (between 55-70km each) the Bucks Off Road Sportive (132km) and 12hrs of the 24/12 in July (12 hours riding - if pretty constant hopefully around 150km or more).

The BHF in September is around 120km off road so along with lots of long rides in your training throwing in a few events can make things a bit more interesting!

njee20

You realise the BORS and 24/12 will both be far far harder than L2B off road? :?

Rankles

njee20 wrote:

You realise the BORS and 24/12 will both be far far harder than L2B off road? :?

Hopefully,

I'm building up to 24/12, the LTR came about afterwards and is a bit more of an afterthought. Is it really that much easier than bucks off road though?

richvass

Hi, two years ago I completed it. My advice to you from what I learnt is to use low resistance tires as the the majority of the ride is on hard surface. Enjoy!

njee20

Well the BORS is proper off road and far further, whilst more than half the L2B is just a flat surfaced fireroad.

24/12 has lots of hills, even in a team of 4 that'd be harder than the L2B I'd wager!

Rankles

Ah fair play, looking into it it does seem to be relatively flat - I might still do it for the distance and then ride it back so I can clock a long ride.

That's a point actually, when you ride London to Brighton how are you meant to get back??

njee20

Train or lift from someone, or as you say, ride back.

blablablacksheep

hi there, a fellow London 2Brighton guy training too..though im doing the mans event(the running one:P)

Training wise it hard to train for, but just log as many miles in as you can before hand and get your gear sorted so you know how it feels when you ride the distance as finding out that a backpack strap rubs after 20 mile or so isnt going to be a nice suprise

diddyfunk

Hi Guys

I am looking to enter this for 2012 too.

Any ideas on the best tyres for the job - Highrollers?

will I be at a bit of a disadvantage if I use my Stumpjumper Evo?

Many Thanks

srasho

Hi Guys,

Been away fromt this for a while (new baby) thanks for the comments and info. Especially on the tyres!!

Will be looking at doing some decent rides during the summer(baby permitting) to get the mileage in my legs.

Si