Great British Escapades

The Escapade is back!

Edition #9 Thursday 28th - Sunday 31st May 2026

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Edition #9 of the Escapade goes on sale tomorrow - Sunday 14th September at 17:00

We’ve been super busy with ‘proper work’ so we are only getting the website and booking system updated today/tomorrow morning but it will all be up and running soon enough!

So, get ready to bag yourself a place on the ninth edition of the multi-award winning Great British Escapade on the 28th to 31st May 2026!

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Edition #8 of the Escapade starts tomorrow (Thursday 29th May) with over 100 riders taking the start of the 485km loop of the North Downs Way and South Downs Way.

Live tracking from Follow My Challenge is here -

LIVE: Great British Escapades 2025 Back for it's eighth edition, the Great British Escapades has become a firm favourite on the early season calendar.

Entries for Edition 8 of the Great British Escapade will go live at 06:00 on Thursday 5th September!

Dates for the 2025 event are Thursday 29th May to Sunday 1st June with the usual 17:00 start and 19:00 close.

The amount of riders already registering their interest is incredible so you’ll need to be quick this time…

Set your alarm, make a coffee and get ready to sign up!

With our 2024 events now complete, it’s time to start thinking about 2025….

Escapade Edition #8 will take place at the end of May 2025.

Registration will open by mid-September but you can register your interest now using the link below to ensure you get notified of all our news.

https://great-british-escapade.eventrac.co.uk/e/the-great-british-escapade-8798

And as it began to get light, we started to get riders into the CP at Grub at Ritual Coffee thick and fast. There was a lot of bacon sandwiches consumed, flapjacks stuffed into pockets and warming coffee inhaled as it was still bloody cold!!

Then in no time the lead riders started to arrive at CP1 Grub at Ritual Coffee in Farncombe.

p.johnson was first at 02:40am and was flying, but there was a but….. Harry had forgotten to check how much life there was in his brake pads pre-ride and it turns out there wasn’t much at all and he’d arrived with no pads in the front and not a lot more in the back. He had no choice to wait at CP1 and roll to Haslemere for 9am when the bike shop there opened. Unfortunately, when he did get to the shop it became clear that a suitably quick fix was not possible and with six hours or so gone by already it was game over. Next year Harry….

Second into the CP about 10 minutes later was who grabbed some food from Grub Ritual (who once again had opened up at 2am for us!) and then got going again.

Then it was our eventual first finisher followed by both of whom took a little time to eat and reset before pushing on as the very first hints of daybreak tinged the sky.

The overnight temperature had dropped and it was really cold at the CP but it was busy and we always had at least one rider there during the next 12 hours!

Straight after Detling we had a dash to Rochester and the trusty 24 hour McDonald’s there - it’s a great refuel spot that’s right on the route and a good half of the riders stopped there.

The mud and filth after the earlier downpour was more apparently now - much to the horror of the staff there who needed to sweep the floor a bit more than normal!

It was getting cold now too so the stops were fairly brief before the riders carried on their way just trying to keep warm.

For me, the motorway beckoned and a dash to CP1 which the lead riders were already closing in on.

Next on the photo op run was the NDW as it climbs Detling Hill.

This is a testy climb but thankfully it was bone dry and some of the water eroded bits have been repaired.

We had managed to get in front of all but the top 7 and had an almost constant stream of riders pass through while we were there.

Out on Wye Downs - one of the highest sections of the early route and always a favourite photo location.

The riders had set off at 5pm in groups of 20 every three minutes with some light drizzly rain falling. We had stayed at the hall for an hour to tidy up and then popped home (just down the road) to grab something before heading off.

As I turned off the Stone Street i knew something weird had happened with the weather…. the lane i was driving was under water - it was gushing down the road and thought there must have been a burst water main. Instead though it turns out there had been 90 minutes of torrential straight after the start that we had not had at the start!

Everyone was soaked but thankfully they were still in good spirits as they reached a dry section with the sun making an appearance. It turns out this was the most localised of downpours from a weather system that must have had our gpx files!