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The top of Ditchling Beacon (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Simon Li:Flickr)Hove cyclist plans to climb Ditchling Beacon 100 times
Before Box Hill became the south-east's most iconic ascent, Ditchling Beacon's place as the hardest climb on the annual London to Brighton bike ride struck fear into the hearts of cyclists. But not, it seems, the heart of Hove cyclist Kurt Charnock who is planning to tackle the climb 100 times on Saturday.
The Argus' Siobhan Ryan reports that Charnock, 41, plans to spend 22 hours repeating the section, starting just after midnight on Saturday morning.
The Ditchling Beacon Strava segment is 1.4km long and rises 133m at an average gradient of nine percent.
One hundred laps of the hill, the third-highest point on the South Downs, will therefore see Charnock climb a total of 13,300m, one and a half times the height of Everest.
Charnock is riding to pay tribute to the memory of his friend Fabrice Cesaro, who died recently.
He said: “It was a huge shock when it happened because I had no idea how he was feeling.
“My intention is to raise as much money as I can to create a fund that can be used for anyone in the sports community who is in need of help and who may be feeling in a low mood for whatever reason. Having access to the fund will mean they can go and see someone instantly without worrying about waiting and hopefully help them get sorted out before anything further develops.”
Despite being a marathon runner and Iron Man triathlete Charnock concedes it not going to be a walk in the park.
He said: “It is going to be really gruelling but I am absolutely determined to do this.
“It is in honour of my friend but hopefully I will raise enough money to help others as well.”
On each ascent, Charnock will be accompanied by a different rider, who will make a minimum £10 donation to the cause.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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20 comments
Chapeau and Kudos to you sir! Just a word of warning on the descents, even if it isn't raining, the road can be wet and slippy. Was descending last week, way too fast for one of the right handers, locked the back brake, so briefly released both brakes, grabbed the back one again, huge drift in towards the kerb (handlebars pointing left, road going to right...) and bailed out of it all by rubbing my left shoulder along the muddy bank for a couple of metres before hitting the deck.
Might well try and come along to shout encouragement.
depression is a pernicious enemy of reason - this is in a good cause - what a good thing to do - I salute you and wish you luck...
Is there a link anywhere to donate? His FB page is not public.....
Nutter.
Good man
Whilst the idea of doing it 100 times gives me the shivers the concept of having a different comrade on each ascent (or thereabouts) who each chip in towards the charity is really nice, I like that and wish it was a bit closer to home.
Good luck! I'll ride down from London to cheer you on... Might only stick around for one rep though....
Cor, no way do I fancy Everesting. Well... maybe if I lived next to a proper mountain, I guess that wouldn't get too awful.
Much kudos for getting your head in the right place to do it though. And for making your legs work hard for that long...!
just done everesting on kids hill last sunday
it was hard but i loved every minute of https://www.strava.com/activities/272696700
good luck mate I'm coming to do few reps with you
I'll be down there for some of the time cheering him on. If you live locally it's worth a visit. Who knows, maybe the ice-cream van will be at the top!
Crikey. 6 mins is a good time up the beacon, if he can still be doing it in 10 after 10 reps he'll be doing well. That means he's looking at 1000 mins for the whole thing, roughly 16 hours! After that time, the descent will be excruciating, pushing on the bars while braking and craning the neck, never mind the climbing. Good luck!
Wow. That's 4.5 ascents an hour for 22 hours! Amazing...
Best of luck to him! I too will pop down and wish him well.
Good luck. Well done for attempting it. Looking forward to the post-ascent debrief!
Doing an 'Everest' myself in 6 weeks in memory of a recently departed friend. Don't know if I'll manage it because it's such a tough challenge, but 1 & 1/2 'Everests'? - that's bonkers! Every credit to you and the very best of luck. The thought of our lost friends will certainly help to motivate and add something to the determination banks though.
I'll pop down to cheer you on, I love the Beacon and only live a few miles away. Good luck sir and chapeau for the effort!
It will be a great effort and a great way to remember someone and all for a good cause.
All in, best of luck and I hope you do well.
Bloody hell. That's tough, its so hard to get into a rhythm on DB. Good on him, best of luck!
Good luck, think you'll need it.
Chapeau! I thought about an everesting attempt on there, but then someone beat me to it. This is even more impressive!
I hope he raises tons of cash!