Current Record Holder: Ian Leitch 18h 3m 12s.
For thousands of years, people have been crossing the South Downs using nothing but the power of their own two legs. And in all that time, every traveller has been looking for the easiest route: what's the quickest way over the next hill - around it, over it, or across its flanks? Eventually, out of all those small, individual decisions a trail emerged, worn into the chalk over countless journeys.
The end result of all those collective decisions and knowledge is the South Downs Way.
Of course, of all those people over all those years, someone's got to have made the quickest journey, there-and-back. Nowadays, that's going to be someone riding a bike.
200 miles (there and back). 24 hours to do it in. It's that simple.
The history page covers the background to the Double and explains how it came to be. A special mention must always go to Ian Butler, who is widely acknowledged as the first person to do the full 200 miles in under 24 hours - thanks for showing the way, Ian!
On 2nd August 2009, in the early morning hours, Alan Goldsmith set out to attempt the Double. No stranger to the South Downs Way (and indeed to epic rides, being a successful competitor in the 2009 Tour Divide), he completed the ride in 22h 41m 45s despite some early mud that added to the challenge. Carrying a GPS logger to verify his ride, we'll report more details as we receive them.
After a valiant attempt at the first ever "Winter" South Downs Double earlier in the year, Rob Dean returned to the trail in rather hotter weather. This time he stormed the ride coming in just under the magic 20 hours, at 19h 59m 13s. Riding a Gary Fisher Superfly and battling 31C heat, a snapped chain and a high speed tumble with another rider, his report of the ride on BikeMagic is highly recommended reading.
At 6pm today, Richard Sterry set off to attempt to complete the South Downs double for charity, in aid of the BHF. We've also heard that two other riders also set off to complete the ride a couple of hours earlier, aiming to ride from Eastbourne to Winchester, register for the BHF Randonee, and then ride back to Eastbourne! More coverage over at Bikemagic, as always.
Steve Heading - who previously rode a shorter version of the Double route back in the early 1990's - returned to set a personal best of 20 hours 36 minutes and 11 second on 26th May 2009. Starting from Winchester at midnight and riding through heavy rain overnight and into the morning, his time is still the 3rd fastest to date and an astonishing acheivement given the conditions. More info about his ride in this BikeMagic story.
Ian Leitch, a well-known endurance rider for Independent Fabrications and Exposure Lights has set a new outright record time for the South Downs Double. He set out from Winchester at 3:03am and finished in 18h 3m 12s. More info on this story as we receive it, in the meantime we have these pictures and info courtesy of Rory Hitchens as well as this story and these messages on Bikemagic.
Ian is also well-known as the course designer for the 2008 G2 Revolver event and the upcoming 2009 Brighton Big Dog.
Rob Dean has made a valiant attempt at the first ever Winter Double. Despite the challenging conditions, he completed the ride one-way in impressive time, but sadly had to bail out on the return leg. The full details are available here on Bikemagic and in the associated forum thread.
On 26th September 2008, Mike Cotty - a previous record holder on the South Downs Double - recaptured his crown with a time of 19h 52m 26s, the first sub-20 hour time and riding Alpine-style to boot! There is an initial report of his ride online at Bikemagic.
Lydia Gould has just completed her attempt to become the fastest female rider on the South Downs Double, and succeed in doing so despite challenging conditions. Starting on Thursday at 9:00pm her ride spanned a total of 3 days, ending just after midnight on Saturday for a final time of 27h 26m 54s.
Back in 2006, Sharon Laws (Team GB) and George Budd (Salsa Factory Racing) rode the South Downs Way both ways, supported by Thetford MTB, in around 30 hours. George has sent in a report and photos of their ride - one of the pictures shows an unusual choice of bikes!
On 22nd July 2008 Neil Newell set out to attempt the South Downs Double on a rigid singlespeed, and completed the ride in 23 hours 20 minutes 32 seconds. More on Bikemagic here and here.
We've collected a bunch of interesting and informative links about the South Downs Way on this page - if you have any others you think should be featured, please let us know via the feedback page - thanks.
Read Rob's amazing tale of his record-breaking Double, in his own words here on BikeMagic (the same story is also here on the IronHorse-Extreme website).
Rob Lee, leader of the elite IronHorse Extreme endurance team, has broken the record - and entirely unsupported to boot! He carried absolutely everything he needed bar water (which he got from public taps along the way), and carried every last food wrapper and bit of rubbish back with him. You can read more about his ride on this page - during his ride it reported his current position along with the latest pictures in real time, and has several links where you can find out more about his extraordinary ride. His final time was 20h 55m 51s, and there has been a good deal of media coverage as a result - see the links here for a selection.
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