London to Reading

SME

Last year I rode London to Brighton for Cancer Research UK.
This September I'll be doing a 'there and back' ride.

But more imminently, in a few weeks time I'm riding London to Reading for the British Heart Foundation.

I had heard of the notorious Ditchling Beacon on the L2B. Are there any similar on the L2R route?

This is the route they have outlined... (PDF file, no GPX !).

https://www.bhf.org.uk/~/media/files/ev ... ow-res.pdf

Any help or info would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Steve

fat_cat

Looking at the elevation profile it looks pretty flat apart from the last bit.

Not sure exactly what hill that is, but know the area reasonably well and most of the climbs around there are quite similar to Ditchling Beacon in terms of difficulty, so if you got up the Beacon OK, you'll be fine.

apreading

No, there is nothing remotely as bad as Ditchling on that route. The biggest climb, as Fat Cat says, seems to be on a stretch called the 'bends of death' locally because there are lots of accidents and that climb is nothing really.

SME

I'm doing it with a small group. My son and I done 'Ditch' OK together- I've had cancer twice and he's been at my side both times! Some of the girls struggled with the hills on L2B so were wondering what this ride would be like.

I didn't think there'd be too much to hinder my son or myself, but I'm off to google 'bends of death' now!!!

Cheers guys,
Steve

apreading

Don't panic too much the bends if death is a local name because twisty roads with high hedges do not mix well with commuter traffic late for work or motorbikes going too fast at weekends. It's not like it happens every day, and no worse than several other roads round here I am sure...

marcusjb

You'll be just fine. Very roughly speaking, you're following the Thames, so it's generally pretty flat (I can do some loops out from where I live in Richmond, following the Thames, that barely register any elevation change at all).

Certainly nothing as challenging as the Beacon on that route.

Best of luck and good to hear you've come through the shittiness of cancer twice (well obviously, I would prefer it if you nor anyone else had to come through it, but you know what I mean!).

SME

Thanks all, and thanks for the well wishes, Marcus. One of the girls just had dome minor surgery a couple of weeks back. But she's determined to start to see how she gets on.

Thanks all,
Steve

itboffin

Yep flat as a pancake

Good luck