London to Brighton 17th June

[steveh]

Who is up for the annual skate to Brighton this year?

54 miles of mostly atrocious surfaces and some huge hills, but when you get there the atmosphere and sense of achievement make all the suffering worth while.

This year the Brighton skaters will hopefully be out in force to welcome us when we arrive, maybe some of them will join us for at least part of the route.

Further info available on last year's thread

[Sparky]

Has there been any resurfacing, please let there have been some resurfacing

[steveh]

Latest forecast for Sunday predicts dry, cool and not too windy so hopefully ideal conditions for this endurance skate.
A few of us will be setting off very early as usual, to get ahead of the massive queues that always build up during the morning.
Meet at 0545 outside Clapham South tube, or 0555 at the corner of Alderbrook Rd/Nightingale Lane SW12, ready to move off at 0600 behind the first tranche of cyclists.
ETA at Brighton around 1130 taking it reasonably easy.
Reconvene in the Concorde 2 bar on Madeira Drive about 300m after the finish line.
Brighton skaters may be there to meet us this year.
Helmet and full protection are strongly advised!

[GumbieBEN]

No need to dupe post in London scene... Have fun!

[steveh]

Believe it or not, there's been a lot of resurfacing done and for about 2/3 of the journey this was a really enjoyable skate. Sure there was a fair bit of atrocious stuff as always but that was mainly on the uphills where we were going slow anyway. The detour for skaters after Ditchling wasn't being enforced this year - at least not when I stormed through it, though some of the others got stopped later on. Everyone made it there safely, and 2 of us were back in London in time for the Sunday Stroll.

[GumbieBEN]

Having done it once I'd be very interested again if I believed the surfaces(downhill) had indeed been redone!

[Stevie B]

Who else was on it this year?

[Acidedge]

Who else was on it this year?

I know Ono was: he was showing off his finisher's medal on the Sunday Stroll!

[steveh]

Who else was on it this year?

just 6 of us in total; me, Ono, Alan B, Jeremy, Gary and Paul.

Coincidentally, that's the same number of skaters that came the first time we joined the L2B bike ride, back in 2006.
Numbers increased to about 40 by 2008 but have gradually tailed off since then. I think a lot of people were put off doing it again by the bad surfaces, which is quite understandable. However the state of the tarmac has improved considerably and I hope more people will be tempted to join in next year. The hills haven't got any less steep though!