London to Brighton Bike Ride – Everything You Need To Know

Cycling the London to Brighton Bike Ride 2024 🚴🏻‍♀️

Join me to share my personal experience of the London to Brighton Bike Ride 2024

Time Stamps:
0:00 Intro
0:19 What I Took With Me
3:23 The Cycle Breakdown
4:48 Checkpoint 1/2 (13/17 Miles)
5:54 Checkpoint 3 (29 Miles)
6:28 Checkpoint 4 (39 Miles)
6:39 Checkpoint 5 (48 Miles) THE BEACON 🔥
7:48 The Last Leg
8:03 The Finish Line 🏅
8:30 Finish Line Picnic 🍊
9:08 Final Thoughts 💕
9:28 Strava Stats

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hi everyone and welcome to my YouTube channel i thought I would make this video to share my personal experience of the London to Brighton cycle ride anything from what I took with me to event rules and guidelines and how it all came together on the big day so let’s get started i currently ride a gravel bike which is basically a road bike with thicker tires to withstand some of our wonderful British potholes the bike has no suspension but the trade-off is that you gain a little bit more speed i will also share all my Strava stats at the end for anyone who is interested we did the cycle ride with Skyline Events who sent us a starter pack with two rider numbers some safety pins and cable ties one rider number was fixed to the back of your jersey with safety pins and the other one was fixed to your handlebars with cable ties or if you’re like me to a handlebar bag which is like this skyline Events also send you numerous reminder emails with health and safety information but the main one to note is that you must wear a bike helmet and this is my bike helmet so in terms of clothing I had my jersey my padded shorts uh leg warmers and I did not wear cleats it’s more of a preference as I am quite clumsy so the thought of me being attached to my bike is quite a scary thought i also had a padded seat cover as well so doubling up on padding is the best thing ever and this actually worked um some people don’t like that it sort of slides around a little bit when you’re cycling i do not care no saddle saw after 60 mi of cycling I could walk fine i also had attached to my handlebars a handlebar bag so I have this multi-tool super useful for any sort of wobbly bits that you might have on your bike um a tire lever in case you get a puncture you’re going to need this a spare inner tube um so just make sure that it’s the right size for your tire a mini bike pump for set in a tube oh and here are the snacks um once uh we got to the first checkpoint I actually took my leg warmers off so I had to eat my snacks and then stuff my leg warmers into my hand bag because it did get really really warm um later on during the day but I will talk more about that later on in the video i also had a water bottle cage which I fitted prior to the cycle uh these cost like three quid on Halfords super easy to install and they can hold your water bottle super easy and of course the bike helmet i know I’ve shown it off already but you will not be able to cycle without one so our cycle start time was 9:30 and I did it with um my husband and a really good friend of ours so we did it in a group of three we met up with our friend in Clappam Common which is where the ride started but my husband and I actually stayed in Brighton the night before because we didn’t want to worry about transport after a very physical day however Skyline Events do offer a transport service after the event if you need it starting in Brighton did mean getting up really early to catch the train to London which I do not recommend as the train service wasn’t very happy with being overrun by a gazillion bikes so if you have the opportunity to stay in London the night before I really really recommend it the morning was also super cold in our cycling gear it was a 5:00 a.m start and we didn’t take any rucks sacks so try and keep weight to a minimum so if you don’t like the cold or early starts stay in London the night before once we got started on our adventure I realized we probably didn’t need Straa as there were so many people on the route so it’s always handy to have the route on you just in case but I would save your phone battery and just follow the other people cars Holton was where the real fun began it was our first proper hill and although I conquered this one I really did start to feel the burn the first stop I don’t remember very well and I think that’s because we made an executive decision as a group to carry on for a further 4 miles to the second stop which had a water point the first stop was at Chipstead um at 13 miles and Skyline events give you a list of checkpoints and times you need to arrive by in order to make it to the end within a specified time so our second stop was at Crossways Gardens at 17 mi and it was more than welcome at this point we had done quite a few hills uh so we really wanted to just have snacks we had about 10 minutes um at this stop before we decided to head off and continue on our journey at Crossway’s Gardens there were some portaloos a drinking point and snacks uh so some of the snacks included bananas oranges and nutrition bars we were still in good spirits at this point and having a lot of fun the following stop was at 29 mi at a place called Roofant but we didn’t actually stop here because the runup to the snack point was uphill and none of us were in the mood for that at that point there were always loads of people to guide you along the route so we always felt well looked after and the communication was brilliant between 29 and 39 miles I just knuckled down and grilled through this section i really sort of just came into my own zone i didn’t really speak to anyone i just sort of wanted to get get through the next stop was called Lindfield at 39 mi and you can see we were feeling feeling the burn at this stage um I’ll post a picture of my friend who really sums it up for us and then we got to a London to Brighton icon Ditchling Beacon [Music] i’ve heard some people switch the first letters around which may be a more accurate depiction so naively I started cycling but that came to an end in about 90 seconds a long ditchling beacon there were lots of motivating signs like “Ain’t no mountain high enough.” Well luckily it ain’t a mountain and I walked the rest i was the first to stop in my group my husband claims he almost made it to the top but anywhere around the corner would have been believable i saw very few people if any make it to the top in one push i did not need to take that one off my bucket list and I have made peace with that once we made it to the top the Ditchling Summit at 48 mi we were exhausted i was very distracted by the view so I couldn’t tell you whether there were any portaloos but I do know there was a water point because it says it on the checkpoint list from the beacon to the end was my favorite part of the journey it was all downhill for a start so we got really really fast and it was just super exciting to get close to the end i was having the best time once we turned onto the seafront and we saw the finish line I just couldn’t have been more proud of our group once we crossed the finish line we received our beautiful beautiful medals there we go i’ll bring that up close for you to see and we then took a few proud hot and sweaty photos at the end we were also given a picnic meal so my packed lunch had a sausage roll a lentil burrito a banana a packet of crisps and an orange there was definitely also a vegan option available we also received some free t-shirts some tote bags and other random bits and bobs we then proceeded to order another meal aka McDonald’s because we could have eaten for king and country at that point defo not in our usual camping spirit but we were knackered thanks again everyone for watching this video i really hope this has cleared up any questions you might have had about the London to Brighton cycle ride it was truly an incredible experience and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun yet physical challenge [Music] [Music]