Dunwich Dynamo 16/07/11
Not anything to do with Mountain Bikes this one, but it seemed like a good training ride for Trans Wales and a bit of fun. The Dunwich Dynamo is a semi-organised ride out from London Fields in Hackney to Dunwich on the Suffolk coast about 115miles away. It’s ridden through the night starting between 8-9pm (it was not a race, just a nice ride). Jon and Graeme up for this one and we decided to meet at London Bridge station and have a bit of a warm up ride over to Hackney (3 extra miles won’t kill us).
Graeme Report
We got over to London Fields and it was a mass of cyclists everywhere. I went and purchased the route guide and we decided to go. It was about 8:30 at this point and still nice and light. Getting through the 1st part of the route took a while as it went down some rather narrow cycle lanes, however once out onto the main road all was ok. Due to the traffic getting out of London it took us an hour to complete the 1st 12miles out towards Epping, we had a good rhythm going once out of town. Jon had arranged to meet some of his friends about 28miles into the ride and we got there about 10:30pm, this was quite good going and our average speed for the 2nd hour was 16mph which was pretty good as we were both on hybrid bikes. Jon’s friends’ had sweets and drinks on hand which was very much welcomed and a nice surprise, thanks! After a bit of a rest we got back on the bikes and headed off into the darkness.
Lunch/midnight feast stop was just over 50miles in Sible Headingham, it took us a while to find the Village Hall. By the time we got there (about 12:00ish), it was just tomato soup and a roll left. I can’t eat tomatoes when riding, but I’d bought a pannier full of sandwiches and pies which I munched on. We stayed in the hall for about 45mins, then filled up our water bottles and headed back out into the very early morning. I was pitch black outside now however we did have a bit of moon light.
Next town on the map was Sudbury where I spotted the 1st Dunwich Dynamo sign I‘d seen all night. We stopped again at about 2:30ish on 73miles to neck some gels and a bit more food, we had been traveling at quite a rate and were on schedule to get to Dunwich before Katie who was coming in the Vito to pick us up.
We plodded on through the early hours of the morning as it was gradually getting lighter and eventually hit 100miles, time for a quick stop and the last gel of the night. The run into Dunwich from here was a little hilly, but it gave a nice vista for the sunrise coming up over the hills in the distance.
We arrived in Dunwich around 5:30 and was just under the 9hour mark, which on seeing the time with 3miles to go I was determined to get under. Katie arrived in the Vito about 15mins later with our swimming trunks and it was time for a dip in the sea. Brrrr that was cold, but it had to be done. After drying off and changing it was over to the Ship Inn for a full English Breakfast and a pint, I’d been up all night riding so deserved a beer.
Back to the Vito and a long drive back home to Kent, Jon and I slept most of the way, so a big thanks to Katie for getting up extra early and coming to pick us up. Pretty much slept for most of the day after that!
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