What is the Trafalgar Way?
Falmouth
It's a tale of great heroism that took place in 1805 a few days after the Battle of Trafalgar, Britain's greatest historic naval victory. It recounts the extraordinary journey travelled over sea and land by a Royal Naval officer, Lieutenant John Richards Lapenotiere, to bring home the official Dispatch (report) from the Battle. It took John 38 hours back then by carriage and horses.
Where Does it Go?
The Trafalgar Way, starts from Falmouth in Cornwall and runs to Trafalgar Square in central London. Along its 320 miles, it passes through eight counties (Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Berkshire - just! - and Greater London). Historic locations along the way include Truro, Bodmin, Launceston, Okehampton, Exeter, Honiton, Axminster, Bridport, Dorchester, Salisbury, Andover, Basingstoke, Camberley, Bagshot, Egham, Staines, Hounslow and Kensington.
Why Did You Choose This Route?
Nowadays it’s a popular walking and cycling route and includes an annual Audax – Ride the Trafalgar Way. I couldn’t do the official date for the Audax when asked to join a friend for the ride, so we settled on the weekend of June the 3rd to complete the ride over 2 days and through the night. Ant Grey, my cycling partner for the ride had asked me to accompany him as his longest ride to date was 185 miles and had never ridden through the night before – oh, he was in for a treat! We managed to get on the way on Saturday morning just a little after 6am. The Garmin climb Pro said there was 30 categorised climbs on the route as we hit the first one heading out of Falmouth towards Truro. The climbs came thick and fast and the pace was significantly slowed down by the amount of climbing. This didn’t bother us as we knew we had two days to complete the journey. Truro came and went and next it would be Bodmin. This was a great sign helping us tick off the miles and we left Cornwall feeling like we were making real progress.
Monuments
Along the route there are several columns marking the passage, this one was in Launceston, not that far from Bodmin Moor about 70 miles in.
Perfect Route
We had quiet roads in the summer heat and rode well together, when we weren’t climbing 😊
At Okehampton we stopped for a pub lunch, another of many fuel stops to come, 90 miles in and 7 hours of riding. The climbs were certainly taking their toll. We were at about 6,500 feet in!
The Sea at Dorchester
When we hit Exeter there was a quick ice cream and fluid stop before heading across to Axminister and onto the coast road to Dorchester.
Hardy Monument
At 175 miles, we were still technically heading east before the route would go northeast at Blandford Forum, the military base. It was now around 8pm. The climb over Black Down was nearly our last big climb hitting 17% in places and showing as 28 of 30 completed by 180 miles. At the top of the climb we passed the Hardy Monument which is set within the ancient South Dorset Ridgeway Landscape with panoramic views of the unique Fleet and Chesil Beach and the rolling Dorset Downs.
Pizza!
The key to night riding and staying awake is to constantly fuel and make sure that if you are not on your own there is some checking in with your riding partners. The night can feel extremely long and especially when you are normally asleep the wee small hours do put a strain on your eyesight. The speed slows and as you don’t know the roads and making sure you are safe your lights must illuminate further ahead that you can see to point out potential hazards. The Lezyne 1800i was perfect for this. A 2am Salisbury stop at a takeaway provided ‘suitable’ fuel for the remainder of the night, although it was fun mingling with the night club go-ers. A cheeky 7” Margarita hit the spot.
Sun Rise
After a through the night ride its always a great feeling to see the sun start to rise and that realization that you have made it through. We were lucky as it wasn’t a dark night as there was a full moon which really gave us some light for the 6 hour night shift.
We Made It!
As the miles ticked by so the roads became busier and the houses became more frequent around Basingstoke and here, we stopped for a Macca’s breakfast to see us through the last stint. We had around 30 miles to go and knew this would take longer than normal with the amount of fatigue and traffic lights we were encountering as we headed towards Camberley and Bagshot. London seemed extremely busy after the quiet lanes of the country. We made it, arriving at Trafalgar Square at about 10:15 am, taking just over 28 hours all in. Route can be viewed here - Ride The Trafalgar Way with Ant | Ride | Strava or here - The Trafalgar Way | road ride | Komoot.
Photo credit Rob @perfidiousalbion