Skip to content

< Back

Dave Thompson: Chase The Sun 2021

Dave Thompsons blog on his longest ride of his life

Chase The Sun, and what a great Club Oakley Pedalers are; with a great community of members.

Riders: Dave Thompson, Nigel Cole, Malcom McKenzie, Paul Simpson, Keiron Ross, Mark Hamer, Darren Walker.

I am sure all involved also have similar views but these are from my own personal perspective that I wanted to share with you.

First for those that may not know Chase the Sun is usually an organised event that is run in 3 locations (South UK, North UK and Italy) around the longest day of the year.
The significance of the longest day is so that a long ride can be completed in daylight hours and follow the Sun from East to West with start and end points on each coast. With sunrise over the sea to East and Sunset over the sea at the West Coast.

For some time now there has been a group of us interested in doing the UK South version which starts in Minster on the Isle of Sheppey and ends in Burnham-on-Sea this equated to a distance of around 208 Miles and just under 10,000ft of climb. Unfortunately we have not been able to participate in the organised event in recent years mainly due to date clashes with other cycling adventures. This year we managed to pull together a team but the organised event was sold out, so a plan was hatched to do our own ride 1 week later on Sat 26th June. This still enabled plenty of daylight hours, albeit many obvious logistical challenges in getting a group of people to the start location over 100 miles away, and then back home from the end location, also 100 miles away, along with bikes and kit, etc.

Several people put a considerable amount of effort and personal time to organise this event (Transport, Accommodation, Itinerary, sustenance etc etc etc) and make it the success it was, there was also a considerable amount of club member support (I will come to this in a bit).

I am sure all involved also have similar views but these are from my own personal perspective that I wanted to share with you.

First for those that may not know Chase the Sun is usually an organised event that is run in 3 locations (South UK, North UK and Italy) around the longest day of the year.
The significance of the longest day is so that a long ride can be completed in daylight hours and follow the Sun from East to West with start and end points on each coast. With sunrise over the sea to East and  Sunset over the sea at the West Coast.

For some time now there has been a group of us interested in doing the UK South version which starts in Minster on the Isle of Sheppey and ends in Burnham-on-Sea this equated to a distance of around 208 Miles and just under 10,000ft of climb. Unfortunately we have not been able to participate in the organised event in recent years mainly due to date clashes with other cycling adventures. This year we managed to pull together a team but the organised event was sold out, so a plan was hatched to do our own ride 1 week later on Sat 26th June. This still enabled plenty of daylight hours, albeit many obvious logistical challenges in getting a group of people to the start location over 100 miles away, and then back home from the end location, also 100 miles away,  along with bikes and kit, etc.

Several people put a considerable amount of effort and personal time to organise this event (Transport, Accommodation, Itinerary, sustenance etc etc etc) and make it the success it was, there was also a considerable amount of club member support (I will come to this in a bit).

Poor Training Weather
This year the lead up to the 26th June was challenging from a training perspective as the weather was wet making training unpredictable. We did not had a great weather until quite recently meaning the desire to do several 100 mile + training rides was somewhat diminished.

With limited training, but an abundance of enthusiasm, a peloton of 7 riders decided to give it a bash, and on Friday 25th 2 vehicles and 9 individuals, which included 7 Riders, 2 Support members to drive one of the vehicles back so as not to have a stranded vehicle in Minster, set off for Minster, with a little unexpected traffic on the M25 we arrived just in-time for our pre booked meal (good it was too), followed by an early bedtime and alarms set allowing enough time to get to the Seafront before the 04:43 Sunrise. Good planning and logistics meant that our hotel was just a few 100 yards from the start.

4.30am Sunrise and start time
We are all (7 Riders and 1 Support Driver) outside the hotel ready to make the initial 200 Yards ride to the Seafront with some undoubtable nerves about the following 208 miles to the next Seafront in Burnham On Sea !!!
With Sunrise photos taken the team set off a few minutes after Sunrise heading for the 1st stop schedule about 40 miles away where we were met by Sarah Cole, our trusted support driver for the trip.

First Refuel Stop
Almost to the minute we arrived at the 1st stop having done the 1st 40 miles. Sarah had already prepared our coffees and food which were waiting for our arrival (what great service!!!). We knew that time was tight so we were mindful that we needed to keep the stops brief so 15 minutes later we are on our way again to our next stop at 71 miles.

Second Stop: Chertsey 
Stop 2, Slower progress than we expected and a bit behind schedule as we had ridden through central London from East to West and stopped at an enormous number of red traffic lights. We had assumed that our support vehicle would have the same issue, however when we arrived at Chertsey we were pleasantly surprised our trusted support vehicle had already arrived and once again we were greeted with fresh coffee and sustenance to fuel us to our next stop at the half way point.

Great Moral Support
On route to this next stop is where we encountered a great exhibit of how amazing the OP club are !!! …. We were joined by a normal Saturday Op ride that had been co-ordinated with the intention of meeting and supporting us. This was not pre-planned by our organising team, but this show of support from the Oakley Pedalers was absolutely great to see. We continued to cycle with them till the main food stop some 30 miles later. With their help and support, pulling along the peloton with their fresh legs, we were able to make considerable time and arrived, ahead of schedule at the half way point.  The half way point was close to Basingstoke so we had planned a  longer stop over. A fellow OP member offered to feed us with a proper meal and had arranged this food stop at their house.  He also arranged for many of our OP club members and our own family members to be there to give us a heros, and we were greeted with cheering and clapping, and much encouragement from a team of familiar, welcoming faces. At this point in the ride it was a great encouragement to us and we were all set up for our next leg of the trip.

Half Way there: Little London.
Having a proper meal and the ability to rest for 45 mins at the halfway point was a real luxury and gave us the opportunity to fuel properly for the second half. Many of us took the opportunity to freshen up and change kit if needed.  A fresh pair of bib shorts can really make a difference on such a long ride. We also picked up a second vehicle and support driver that would help to bring back the riders and kit once we arrived at our final destination.

After a 45 minute re-fuelling session we set off again.  This time we were able to split the Peloton into two  groups as we were joined by additional support riders from OP. Our numbers had now doubled to 14), with support riders helping us along our way to the next stop 40 miles away at Honey Street, Wiltshire. We split the groups equally so that the fresh riders, took the lead to allow the 100 miler riders to rest their legs somewhat during this section of the ride.  This was not planned and a real bonus and surprise as it really spurred us on and gave us fresh enthusiasm.  A few miles into the ride and we picked up additional club members that also deviated from their normal Saturday ride to support our endeavours.  What Great Support from the club.. WOW. !!

140 miles in
So the 140 Mile stop was at Honey Street which is a familiar stop with many OP’s). This is a great re-fulling place, and also very bike friendly.  Thanks to the support from OP we were able to make great time and arrived ahead of schedule wise. Just as we leave one rider notices a somewhat soft tyre, quickly pumped up and ready to go, we set off again, and to our surprise, the the additional 7 support riders decided to join us, and lead us to the next stop 25 miles further on.

25 Miles later we again stop on schedule to be met by support vehicles ready to re-fuel us. Again the dreaded tyre was down to a low pressure…. No Problem the quicker solution was to take a wheel from one of the additional 7 support team as those additional riders were ending their journey at this point. I must say that by now I was starting to feel like a pro-team rider with all of the support being offered.

The Last Leg
Off we set towards our final stop at 183 Miles, making up time again and again to be met by our 2 Support vehicles and their Drivers, with a quick refresh we were soon on our way on the final leg. At this point the route was starting to get hilly, but we had some respite as we approached Cheddar and this time we were able to descend this marvellous hill into Cheddar, and from there we tramped on another 25 miles until we finally arrived at our final destination in Burnham-on-Sea. We were all tired but extremely happy as were arrived about 30 Mins before Sunset.  Bang on cue were our trusted support team who were waiting there to great us…. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

I know the above is long, but I wanted to highlight what an amazing OP club are. This started a a small group of individuals deciding they wanted to do a crazy 200 miles in 1 ride, However what made this happen was all the support we had… and that was considerable ranging from support vehicles and people, including a proper food stop, and additional support riders to draft behind, with added family members pushing us on… all I can say is Absolutely AMAZING I am BLOWN AWAY !! and it helped more than you can imagine. Thank you all I/We had a great time.

Blog Gallery