I’m going to wax lycrical about the nine mile, butter smooth Polegate to Lewes cycle track on a separate blog post, mainly because that’s where the drone photos will be placed and you really need to see this bit of new infrastructure from the air to appreciate its scale and ambition. (That blog posting also breaks down the £75 million, showing that the cycleway part cost £12 million.)

It wasn’t a terribly long or taxing ride today, partly because of the wonderful cycleway but also because I’m saving myself for a tough off-road book route tomorrow. This one is an A to B route rather than the normal loop. If all goes to plan I’ll also be wild camping tomorrow night.

Tonight I’m in the 10-storey Ibis hotel next to Brighton rail station and as I’ve been placed on the top floor I’m drying my washed cycling kit on the sun-soaked window sill.

A little before landing at the hotel I spent a considerable time cleaning my bike at Brighton Bike Hub, a community cycle workshop. After several sandy rides I’ve built up quite the grinding paste on my drive train and it was lovely to see the return of the holes in the rear derailleur jockey wheels — they’ve been caked in crud for too long.

I love these community workshops. They provide an essential service, selling bikes cheaply to those who can little afford them and up skilling people with try-out sessions.

I used a short discarded length of brake cable wire to dislodge many days worth of muck from the drivetrain and then sprayed the bike with a washing solution before rinsing and relubing. It made quite a difference to the ride feel, and is most certainly quieter now.

The muck and the sqeaks will be back, probably as soon as tomorrow, but at least the bike is clean for storing in my hotel room.

I donated £6 for the use of the liquids. Too much, too little?