The challenge was set a few months back… ride from London to Brighton to raise money for the British Heart Foundation. On Sunday 16th June, Colin, Drew & Ty of Eclipse Digital completed that challenge!
54 miles, starting from Clapham Common ending on Brighton beach, was always going to be difficult and it certainly lived up to our expectations. The first 16 miles took 3 hours to achieve due to heavy traffic and shortly after (around the 20 mile mark), Colin, Drew and Ty got separated tackling Turner’s Hill. After some confusion and searching Drew & Ty decided to cycle on without who was not to be seen again until the end. It turned out that Colin had managed to get through the check point at the top of Turner’s Hill just before other riders (inc Drew & Ty) were stopped.
Cramp & The Ditchling Beacon:
After pressing on and building a steady pace, about 40 miles in, Drew encountered his first ever experience of severe cramp, with his left quad ceasing up, prompting a 5 minute medical break. Leading up to Ditchling Beacon aka ‘The Beast’, Drew & Ty went on full attack to try and beat it… Drew suffered another attack of severe cramp, this time on both quads, leaving his stuck on the side of the hill with two locked quads – ouch! Ty on the other hand, pressed on and managed to Beat The Beacon! Reaching the mighty summit by cycling the entire 1.55km, 135m incline hill. Colin who arrived at The Beast around 20 minutes early, gave it a solid effort making his way to the ‘400m to go’ mark, where he was inturupted by a slow rider infront that caused him to loose balance and place a foot on the ground, unfortunately he was unable to cycle up from there. After the beast, it’s a steady 7 mile journey, mostly downhill to the finish.
Due to the stop / start nature of the event, due to the shear volume of cyclists and the unfortunate few who came off their bikes, it took the Eclipse Digital team a total of 7 hours to reach Brighton from London. Feeling slightly drained from the experience, there was only one thing that had to be done… Ribs, Chicken and Beer, a great way to round off a great day!
The Eclipse Digital Media Just Giving donations page is still open for those of you that may wish to contribute, is so, please do here: www.justgiving.com/eclipse-digital
Pics to follow…