south downs
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White Chalk Hills Ultracross 2015
Stretched out along the fence line, the peloton splinters into clumps of riders. Shadows tumbling down hillsides. Pedalling not against the gradient but the wind. Silhouettes scattered along the next ridge. The gate opening relay starts, the off road equivalent of through and off, keep riding, no time for gate faff, might even finish in…
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Greenwich Mean Climb 300km [Brevet des Grimpeur du Sud ride #6]
04:29, Dyke Road, Brighton, heading for London. Underworld are played on the radio in the car and two men in their mid-forties reminisce about coming home at this time of the morning rather than going out for a bike ride. 05:47, Blackheath, London. Applying chamois cream behind a bush on the edge of Blackheath. There…
![Greenwich Mean Climb 300km [Brevet des Grimpeur du Sud ride #6]](https://themanfromicon.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/tweaked-colour-14.jpg?w=1024)
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Mid Sussex Hilly [Brevet des Grimpeur du Sud ride #7]
Sat in a village hall, with a slices of cake and cups of tea in mismatching china, whilst they tidy up around us, getting ready for the whist drive in later that evening.
![Mid Sussex Hilly [Brevet des Grimpeur du Sud ride #7]](https://themanfromicon.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/msh11.jpg?w=1024)
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AAA Milne (Brevet des Grimpeurs du Sud ride #5)
Yesterday I completed my series of Brevet Des Grimpeurs Du Sud audax with the AAA Milne. To get the badge you need to complete five 100km or more audax in the south east (Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire) which have AAA points. The AAA points are Audax UK climbing points and rides only qualify if they…
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The Lanes – Bo Peep Bostal
You won’t find yourself here by accident, you seek this place out. Maybe when you set off from home you didn’t plan to come here but somewhere along the way you make a decision to ride up here. When I first started riding again a few years ago I saw an photo on Instagram that…
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The Lanes – Along the Cuckmere Valley
It has three names – Litlington Road, Chapel Hill and The Street (either side of Chapel Hill) – but is one continuous strip of tarmac. Running along the Cuckmere River valley from the Seven Sister visitor centre at Exceat to Wilmington, it transfers your ride from where the South Downs meet the sea inland to…
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The Lanes – Spithandle Lane
On a late summers evening I’ve chased my shadow home along here. In the depths of winter I’ve entered one end of the lane in drizzle with a bunch of riders only to emerge from the other end, two and a half miles later, in snow and having lost one of our mini-peleton somewhere along…
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The Lanes – Spronketts Lane
This is less about a single lane than a network of lanes that transport you from the chalk downland hills to the clay lands of the weald, quiet narrow lanes bookended between the A23 and A281 and bisected by the A272. There are many of them, running north-south or east-west, no diagonals – Foxhole, Cross…
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The Lanes – Bostal Road
In 2013 and 2014 I wrote a series of pieces about Sussex lanes for Nowhere Fast CC. The old NWFCC site has been replaced by a new Tumblr site and I’m not sure if these will be accessable anymore, so I’m archiving them here and adding some new photos. First up, Bostal Road in Steyning……
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The first (proper) century of the year
Sometime last year a guy called Justin commented on a photo I’d posted to Instagram. Something along the lines of “You ride so much! You need to contribute something to the website.” That statement is partially true. I do ride a fair bit but really I just take an inordinate amount of photographs. The website…
the man from icon 