If you are perhaps considering taking up the challenge of Cycling the Wight next year, the provisional date is Sunday 21st September 2008. (tbc)
We thought you might like to read extracts from one of this year's competitor's journals just so that you know what you'll be letting yourself in for!
The following was written by Brian Connor who completed the route in a respectable 8 hours 19 minutes and raised £1,000 for the British Heart Foundation
"The bike ride started at the old floating bridge, which is a chain ferry that continually goes across the River Medina. I started off at 09.15 and set a good pace out of the town until I hit the hill up to Whippingham and that warmed me up. The vintage car rally passed me at this point on the way to Ryde Esplanade where I picked up a trophy of the stars and stripes from a pink open top Oldsmobile.
The ride continued without much direction on the road and a very basic map to follow. So when I got to Wooton five miles out of Cowes the cyclists ahead of me turned right towards Havenstreet, when we were actually supposed to go left to Ryde but just like sheep we all followed each other!! Ha ha.
Well, this proved to be a very long windy route through very small country lanes and my internal compass was definitely giving me abort signals. I arrived at a five ways junction with no signs where a very helpful motorist informed me that all my other fellow cyclists had gone straight on down the hill - no thought I!! Then along came a group of racing cyclists with Ordnance Survey maps and a hand held GPS at which point they started a discussion as to whether they should go left or straight on down the hill!! At this point I promptly fell off my bike with my bindings stuck and with a grazed elbow and shin I took off to the right and left them to it. A little later they sped past me with a smile!!
Down into Ryde at 10.03 and twelve miles on the clock to get stamped in. Another big hill up out of Ryde before a beautiful sunshine ride through Nettlestone, St Helens, round the bay with the most amazing coloured houseboats to Bembridge. The route went further inland than I expected at this point although through the very pretty countryside of Yarbridge and on to Alverstone. A very quiet road went though the lanes to miss the towns of Sandown and Shanklin. At 28 miles I ended up at Godshill thinking nearly half way there, only Blackgang Chine to get gone before a lunch stop and it is down hill from there!! I didn’t expect that Niton Down as it is called is actually up 500ft to St Catherine’s Hill the highest point on the island where I was rewarded with a beautiful view of Brighstone Bay and the white cliffs in the distance of Freshwater Bay. With a re-charge of water an apple and my card stamped at 13.00 I was 35 miles on with 30 to go so I thought!
A 300ft decent to Chale was an exhilarating ride reaching 38mph with me on an old ‘boat anchor’ of a bike was pretty awesome, so much so that I missed the sign at the bottom, if there was one, and continued on a route taking me North to Newport rather than West!! I wondered why I could not see the white cliffs any more or the lack of other cyclists on the road!
Reaching the village of Rookley the sign said 4 miles to Newport, which is home where I started from at 08.30 and with 43 miles on, the prospect of backtracking and another 30 odd miles was a tough call. Not to be deterred and out with the map, I planned a cross-country route to Brighstone, which was back on the right track. Buoyed by the lovely weather and the knowledge that there is a village shop with lots goodies ahead, I set off on the eight miles back to where I should have been an hour ago.
Munching on a banana and snack outside the shop and who should come along but the boys from the pack I met at the start with their racing bikes – but they passed me four hours ago so where had they been?? – missed the signs like I had – perhaps GPS doesn’t work on the island! We had a good chat and a laugh about the day and were on our way again.
I could now see the white cliffs of Freshwater Bay ahead but what I did not know is that there was to be the worst five mile stretch of road to get there. Not so steep but just steep enough to kill your legs and seemingly never ending. Determined to kill it, I pressed on with a very strong head wind and a slight misty rain, I made the top with a great sense of achievement. Now I know why they call the other Isle of Wight cycle ride ‘The Hills Killer’.
Rounding the point at Freshwater to Totland the wind was behind and it was an easier ride to Yarmouth. What was not easy was finding the check point! Three times round the harbour I found it behind a West Cowes double decker bus strategically parked – surely they didn’t think we would take the bus home!!.
It was 16.00 and I had planned on getting back to Cowes to see my mother for tea at 17.00, so with fifteen miles to go and fairly flat country ahead I was pleased to be riding the last hill into Cowes and finishing the ride at 17.30 with 76 miles on the clock."
