Everything I Ate on a 90km Bike Ride (London to Brighton)

I’ve only been “big girl” cycling for about 6 months, so taking on the iconic London to Brighton route felt pretty daunting… but honestly, it was SO much fun! Once we escaped the chaos of the city streets and hit the beautiful British countryside, we really found our groove.

The girls (Tats and T) are in training for their very first half Ironman, so this ride was the perfect challenge for all of us.
Spoiler: there were plenty of laughs, a few climbs (one big climb that nearly killed me!!), and lots of food to keep us going.

Speaking of food… big shoutout to The Archive cycle café; such a cool spot! Highly recommend the breakfast bagel if you’re passing through. And Brighton, as always, delivered with endless restaurants and cafes to explore.

I’d love your food recs for the route because I’m already keen to do this ride again. Drop your suggestions (or questions about the route) in the comments — we just used the classic London to Brighton route on Strava and popped it into Google Maps, nice and easy.

And if you’re new here: Hi, I’m Emily Roz! I’m a recipe developer and food content creator based in London. Growing up around Europe gave me a serious love for travel and exploring the world through food. If you’re into fun, cinematic adventures (with plenty of food stops along the way), stick around and join the party.

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how many there are of us 🐣5.38k

My name is Emily Ross and like many people trying to navigate their late 20s, I’ve entered my cycling era and today I’m doing something I’ve never done before, cycling from London to Brighton. It’s about 90 km and I’ll be joined by my boyfriend Henry and two of my best friends, Tats and Te. Together we’ll be pedaling and eating our way to the coast. So, wish us luck and let’s get to it. It’s going to be bang on. 86. Oh, 87. Oh, 87. Show that. [Music] Oh, yeah. [Music] Good morning. It’s 6:00 a.m. I woke up halfway through a dream. So, you know when you wake up and you’re like, let’s go for a cycle. [Music] Oh, yay. It’s a snail. It’s a snail. It’s a really pretty or a butterfly. It’s a It’s um That’s actually such a cute butterfly. You see the tail there, its body there, its head there, little antlers. That’s exactly what it is. And then the wings. Yeah, high side profile. I’ve been working on the snail for for a while now. Sell some the Bolish [Music] honey smells amazing. [Music] Now, having never cycled the London to Brighton route before, setting off at 7:00 a.m. was met with a mixture of nerves and excitement. We’d heard from a friend that the roads can get pretty busy, and just before you arrive in Brighton, you’re met with one of the hardest climbs ever. That was so hard. So, although they were pretty daunting prospects, the thought of stopping at a cafe and nibbling on schnags along the way filled me with the energy I needed. Now, let’s meet up with the crew. Hi, no boob camera camera. It’s also worth pointing out that Tats and T are both hardcore and training to do a half iron man. Now, for those of you who aren’t aware of the distances, that is a 2 km swim, a 90 km cycle, which is what we’re doing today, and a 21 km run. So, today we’re literally doing one out of the three parts of the challenge. Mental. I’ll be honest, cycling in London is far from enjoyable just because of the traffic and stuff. But as we got out into the city and into the countryside, everything was perfect. The sun was shining, the vibes were high, and after watching back all the cycling footage, we were all clearly enamored by the houses. So, here’s some live commentary. Oh, wow. That’s a pretty house. Oh, wow. That’s a pretty house. Oh, I love a super cute house. Oh, that looks like very American housey vibes. Oh, the Thatch cottage. How bloody cute. Oh, something going on there. Now, I’m no sports nutritionist, but we’ve been cycling for around 35 km at this point, having had toast and banana for breakfast and a flatjack bite as a snack. And I’m not going to lie, we’re all feeling pretty hungry. We kindly been recommended this cafe in Crawley, which is around 45 km into the cycle. So, we just got 10 more km to go. And guys, I can’t wait to show you this cafe. It is so fun. Let’s go, team. You want a cafe? Caffeine levels are low. I feel like we’ve been climbing this hill for ages. Nearly there. Nearly there. Well done. I am really starting to lose energy here, but luckily we stumbled across a little pickme up. Are they sweet? Come to give me. Oh, you got some big ones there. Look at these ones. Oh my god, they’re massive. [Music] I’m loving these. Perfect little sweet treat. Yum. M. After a few more kilometers, we finally made it to our first stop and I was ready to order the whole menu. This is the archive, the cyclists and hikers dream cafe. You’ve got places to store your bikes inside the cafe. Comfy sofas and chairs dotted around the huge garlike space and an abundance of food to choose from. Wait, so what are we in? We are 45k in. I am so impressed. Look at his gay. I have no destiny. Is that everything? Yes. Thank you. Right now, let me run you through everything we bought and ate. A coffee for Henry and a hot chocolate for me. We then shared a breakfast bagel with eggs, sausage patty, bacon, and ketchup. It was fantastic. I would highly recommend. Next up, I had this carrot cake. It was perfectly moist with a lovely thick layer of cream cheese frosting on top. I can’t resist a bit of sweetness after exercise, and it seriously hit the spot. I then weirdly went back to savory and tried their ham and cheese croissant. I’ll be honest, not as good as the bagel, but still a good choice to reinject a load of salt and carbs into the system. Once we drank a ton of water, lots of coffee, and a rehydrating hot chocolate for me, it was time to get back on our bikes for the second half of the cycle. Stretch club. Stretch club. Stretch club. Stretch club. I know. As soon as we get online, I’m going to need a win. I didn’t get any footage of this next part of the cycle, but guys, it was the hardest climb I’ve ever ever done. There were cyclists who’d stopped on the side of the hill because they just couldn’t keep going. But none of us stopped. We kept pushing. Made it up. Ditching beacon. And a huge shout out to Henry who would cycle back down the hill to make sure that we were all doing okay. What did we just do? Uh uh ditch ditchy. What did we do? Ditchy beacon. Ditchy beacon. Bacon. beacon. Ditchy beacon. That was so hard. What a view. That is We’ve now only got around 5 km left and the views down to Brighton are so so gorgeous. It’s all downhill which is such a dream. And so I’m literally just cruising, avoiding the cars and the traffic, and excited to arrive at our destination. We made it. Woohoo! There’s the sea. Yay! Oh, so fun. Oh. Oh my god. Thank you. the sugar, baby. Thanks so much. Have a lovely day. Cheers, boo. Cheers. Oh, well done. I’m so proud of you. That was amazing. You as well. Love you. Well done. This is disgusting, but it’s okay. Where are we going for food? Do I go for fish and chips or burger chips? I actually just don’t fancy a burger. No. Or after exercise, I always fancy a salad. I always like Yeah, it makes me want to want to eat. Should we have done some chips? Yeah. Yeah, I would like chickens either and then you are [Music] The very saucy Caesar salad arrived and the fish and chips were pretty elite to be honest. The chips were crisp on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside. The fish was light and flaky with a gorgeously crunchy golden batter served with tarta sauce and mushy peas. We chose to add some ketchup and mayo to the mix and it was a very satisfying lunch post 90k cycle. I know it sounds silly, but London to Brighton has always been a huge milestone in my head, and it’s quite weird now coming to terms with the fact that we’ve just done it just like that. It’s amazing what the body can do. After cycling back up yet another hill to get to the station, we trained it back to London down some electrolyte drinks and water. Now, I would say the trip was a success. No punctures, no accidents, no rain, just lots of smiles, a lot of food, and wellw worked out bodies. [Music] What a great day. Time for a cup of tea and a biscuit. [Music] These Foxes indulgent chocolate center deliciousnesses are so good. [Music] You know how you have like the post exercise high? I’ve now hit post exercise low. Literally could just snuggle up and go to sleep. Right. So, it’s Te’s birthday next week and tomorrow we’re going on like a birthday walk with her and a few friends. So, I thought it could be really cute to make some cupcakes for her. She loves coffee and walnut cake. So, I’m going to do coffee and walnut cupcakes. 150 g. [Music] [Music] and now for the buttercream coffee frosting. [Music] I know this sounds really weird, but I feel like after exercise, depending on the exercise that you do, how tired you are, you can sometimes crave a rather specific thing for dinner or like to eat afterwards. And I’m craving something pretty weird, but I’m hoping it’s going to work. Hear me out. So, we’ve got sushi rice. We’ve then got Lloyd Grossman tomato sauce, which I’m actually going to Asianify with some soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice wine vinegar. Hear me out. Then going to top with a softboiled egg and maybe add some veggies on the side. Mush that all together and it’ll be like a lovely rice bowl of deliciousness. Sounds weird. It genuinely might be weird and may fail, but we’re going to try it out anyway. Rice is on the boil. Then I’m going to use Lloyd Grossman’s Pomodoro and Fresh Basil because I feel like this one will be the best one to add our kind of Asian flavors. Oagene for freshness. I’m going to slice this up into chunks and then add that into the boiling water with the softboiled eggs. Okay, so as you can see, we’ve got the eggs underneath the oagene and the oagene is sliced up like this. I think we’re just going to have to trust the process on this one. [Music] Love you dummy. Boop. Boop. I was tired. Final product. You got the jammy egg. You’ve got the oagene. You’ve got the tomato with rice underneath. And then topped with sesame seeds and soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and sesame oil. I love mixing everything in together. Oh, dang. Is it good? Yeah. Really good. M. Oh, that’s worked perfectly. I knew it would be. Oh, that’s such great. I’m not going to lie, I questioned the sort of tomatoy sushi icing. Mhm. I was wrong again. So, very sadly, and I’m not quite sure how it happened, but the cupcakes failed. I ended up having to buy some Colin the Caterpillar mini cakes. I was semi devastated. But hey, hey, I must have been way more tired than I thought. Thank you so much for watching this video. I really hope you enjoyed it. And if you did, please subscribe. It really, really makes a difference and shows YouTube that you really enjoy watching my videos and that they should push it out to more people. And I’m still a really young channel, so I would hugely appreciate it. Thank you so much, and I will see you next week. How was everyone’s booty cheeks? My gu feels horrendous. Oh my god. Like the bone is just like