The South Downs Way was the choice for our XCWide photoshoot
The South Downs Way holds an almost legendary status for any die-hard, all-day, cross-country rider. And rightly so – it is, in the most literal sense, a ride across the country that jaunts through Hampshire, West Sussex and East Sussex. Stretching a grand total of 100miles from Winchester in the west to Eastbourne in the east, it is an all-day epic MTB ride.
Even more special to us here at Hunt, is that it often features on morning off-road commutes between Hunt HQ and Brighton, where a few of the team live. Our very own endurance specialist Josh Ibbett was the former record holder (set in 2011) for the South Downs Double. It was taken by friend of Hunt’s Ian Leitch in 2015, with a time of 15hours 35min (Ian actually held the previous title before Josh did!).
It was also the place we decided to take our super awesome Pace RC129 steel hardtail for our XCWide wheelset photoshoot. While we will be the first to admit that the South Downs Way is not the most technical or challenging, it has that 'old-school' XC feel about it. There is something simply so great about spending a summer afternoon riding across the downs. We may be biased, but we think it is one of the best places in the world to head out on an XC ride.
While we don't have an accurate GPX file on hand, many are readily available on sites like RideWithGPS which will give you more current details than ours. Also, if you are wondering how to keep fueled for an 18 hour ride... This was Josh’s set up for his 2011 attempt:
