 Well done Ian, Many congratulations on taking such a prestigious record - will anyone beat that time I wonder? 
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 You even make it sound enjoyable! 
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 Of course someone will beat the time, there seems to be someone doing it every week now. How about doing something original chaps?
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 Come on Mike,give them a break.Jeeez man.
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Come on Mike,give them a break.Jeeez man. Sorry, I'm bored with the weekly 'South Downs Double' reports. When a one legged sheep does it on a unicycle I'll show some interest.
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 *buys unicycle and starts to train two legged sheep*
Well, once he has mastered the basics I'll chop his other leg off. Have to give him a start.
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Its a sign of summer, like dry dusty trails and BBQs on the beach,a cool breeze through your bedroom window of an evening,seagulls waking you up at 4am.That sort of thing.
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 Fantastic stuff; that noise afterwards was mostly the sound of jaws being picked off floors! At, say, ten minutes a puncture could have been 17-hours something? Well out of my league anyway; and to anyone who thinks it's easy, well, come on then if you think you're hard enough - get out there, show us how it's done! Even doing it one way is seriously tough, and seeing how hard people will push themselves (esp. on the charity rides) is humbling stuff. Great write-up, Ian - mucho respect!
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Well out of my league anyway; and to anyone who thinks it's easy, well, come on then if you think you're hard enough - get out there, show us how it's done!
No, please try something different.
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 On one hand it's a bit of "good news" for the mountain bike media to report and some publicity for the sponsors. On the other hand every one of these performance-orientated, media-hyped record things I've followed has sooner or later tipped into the excesses of self-destructive training régimes which are all too often dope assisted. Whether we have reached that point yet I have no idea but if the hype continues we will. The first adventure races I did were populated by people out for adventure but big-buck sponsors arrived and I soon noticed competitors getting through on a mix of cortisone, anti-inflammatories and pain killers being administered by team doctors. As soon as climbers started using gyms they were exposed to the gym-based dealing networks. High altitude mountaineers literally rattle with pills for the most part. Non of these sports is subjected to dope testing and nor are point-to-point MTB records AFAIK.
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 High altitude mountaineers Most English high altitude climbers I've known rattle of beer and rolled ciggarettes...which pretty much goes for normal climbers too even the gym hungry power monkeys, one notorious welsh climber was ridiculed due to his ridiculous weight training which did sweet frigg all for his climbing apart from sending two or three North Wales boulder problems that nobody really cared about...the french sport climbers sure they might take some performance enhanchers but drugs and English climbers don't really mix...unless it's recreational. I think sport and drug taking is a very French thing.
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 I think that drug use in British sport is just as prolific as anywhere else, its just everyone likes to pretend its Johny foreigner that does it, not our good old British heroes.
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 Even with the punctures you slayed it Ian! Heaven help everyone if you get a clean run at it!
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British sport is as bad as if not worse than France. You only have to look at the BC site and its comments on the abuse of TUVs for hayfever induced asthma. What you call recreational drugs are performance enhancers BHB, particularly in sports such as climbing. Marijuana is associated with motorsport, downhill mountain biking, climbing, mountaineering, sex and other such sports that require fearlessness and/or calculating calm.
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sex and other such sports that require fearlessness and/or calculating calm. Who the hell have you been shagging?
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 ...speed pizza eating more like. 
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 Come on Mike,give them a break.Jeeez man.
Sorry, I'm bored with the weekly 'South Downs Double' reports. When a one legged sheep does it on a unicycle I'll show some interest.
Mike criticising someone for being boring.....ROTFLMFAO Well done Ian! that is another inspiring effort.
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 How can you be bored with it Mike?? Only 8 people have managed to do it !!!  Living so close to the South downs I find it inspires me to want to ride even more!!!
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If I lived so close to the south downs way, I would be inspired to move somewhere with more mountains!!!!
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 Thanks guys. It meant a lot to me as it's my local ride. Bikemagic is great as you have a huge variety of things going on and I know many enjoy the SDD stuff - it's a distance which most can relate to as its on a trail people know: I just dont read the stuff that doesnt work for me. As for drugs.. goodness me! I think anyone who knows me will testify to the fact that I enjoy 20pints a week and if you put me in a top xc race I'd be eaten up for breakfast. This is the realm of strong riders who love a hard day out not drugged out fools!... That said I think it might make sense to introduce some testing in the endurance races where there's money as the 24solos pay more than anything else in the UK and it would prevent the above comments!
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