Cycling UK Forum

Mick F wrote:I see they took the "wrong" route and went via Tavistock.
Far better and easier to have gone north via Wadebridge and Camelford.

Depends. Bear in mind this event has to move 600-700 riders of varying ability 100 miles every single day. It has to be "epic" enough to give them a challenge without being too hard, too much main road etc and because there are 2 feed stations per day, it has to also factor in where to site those. So the first one is at Bissoe (Bike Chain Bissoe), the second is just between East Taphouse and Liskeard and base camp is just outside Okehampton on school playing fields.

That is the main factor in deciding the route - it's all very well saying one route is "easier" or "nicer" but if you can't put a feed station near it or it takes in a large section of A-road, it's useless. Wadebridge and Camelford means riding on the A39. I'm not sure I'd like to be responsible for the complete carnage that would ensue with 600 riders (most of whom up until this point have never done much group riding, many of whom will be nervous/excited/scared at the challenge to come) on one of the main routes into/out of Cornwall on a Saturday.

Might be fine for a couple of riders on a fast schedule but some of these riders will take 10+hrs on the first day so you might as well put them on some nice roads for that time!

As has been mentioned before, it's not the event for everyone - some people would probably see it as hell on earth - but it serves a purpose and it has to be routed to cater for that purpose. FWIW, I really liked it as a first days' introduction although if I was doing it on my own I'd go down to Lizard Point as well. May as well call in on the southernmost point while you're down there!

toontra wrote:Blimey. How on earth did we manage to do this without support!?

I'm sure this will suit some busy people with money to spare, but for me half the sense of achievement came from doing all the planning myself (with the help of folks here) and being self-sufficient on the road. But as we say many times here, there isn't any "right" way.

It's the final day of the 2016 Ride Across Britain tomorrow. I've not been working on it this year but I've been following the photos and comments on Facebook.

I can see the appeal of that 5-day, in fact I might try chaperoning that ride instead of the 9-day one next year. I suspect it'll be a slightly different crowd to the normal 9-day lot though, probably consisting of a lot of Ironman style riders - the corporate contenders if you like.

Odd to go right through the centre of Birmingham as well unless it was for an overnight stop at a friend's house? Going over the Runcorn-Widnes bridge as well seems a bit off-route?

The numerous threads on here asking for route advice - I think anomalies like that highlight why it's so important to plan your own routes to cater for your own needs.

The riders back then seriously considered abandoning the ride.

There becomes a point where discretion is the better part of valour and it's better to admit defeat, live to ride another day and console yourself with the view that you did your best. I've done that before in weather where the only appropriate attire would have been full on arctic survival kit and unsurprisingly, I wasn't carrying that on a bicycle...

This is sort of a useful partner to that old "where have all the LEJOG'ers gone?" thread a while ago
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=103904

In other words, what is the point of the journey? Is it to smash it from A to B as fast as possible, potentially see less of the countryside but have the kudos(?) of doing it fast? Is it to take your time, visit some off-the-beaten-track areas but potentially have it costing a lot more (more nights accommodation, more food etc).

I suspect for most people it's a bit of a balancing act between those two - they want to do an iconic route but only have 5 days available. To be honest, if I only had 5 days I wouldn't ride LEJOG on main roads, I'd rather just go to Scotland and do a 5-day tour of the islands or out to Wales and ride the coastline.

More than 200 miles a day and I'd get bored of riding that amount each day (although, physically, I could do it). Equally, anything more than about 14 days of touring and I'd get bored of getting up each morning and having to ride AGAIN!

Mick F wrote:Hi, six or seven days is a bit fast, and as such, you need to use the trunk roads for much of the ride.
If you want a scenic route, it'll take you longer.

With respect, I disagree with this.
I detest trunk roads, A-roads etc and would never choose to use them for a tour. I simply factor in longer days.

I cycled from Manchester to London the other day, 221 miles and apart from a few unavoidable bits leaving Manchester and obviously the run in to London, we hardly touched any A-roads. Few little bits and pieces but more or less country lanes the whole way; it's incredible how close you can be to fairly major cities yet be on little backroads with country pubs. Wasn't even that hilly, only about 10,000ft the whole way and that included some intentional climbs on the edge of the Peak District.

Yes it was a long day (13hrs riding time) but factored in some nice stops in scenic places. The last part of the ride into London was in the dark (we had good lights) but doing it in midsummer would avoid that.

If you want to be fast it doesn't mean taking the horrible roads with lorries pounding past, it simply means you ride faster, leave earlier and/or finish later.

I actually don't mind riding on that road but I've always been on it at relatively quiet times - midweek afternoon rather than last day of summer holidays weekend!
The climb from Tyndrum up round the corner as that magical view opens up gets me every time. And the marshland on top is just stunning. I've been over it in beautiful weather, not a cloud in the sky, high 20's celsius and I've been over it in pouring rain, headwind, near zero degrees. But every time it is one of the most amazing roads in the UK.

Apart from that idiot endlessly playing Scotland the Brave on bagpipes at the Loch Tulla viewpoint - that's just annoying.

A82 up by Fort William
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-h ... s-37126618

Sad news.

That roundabout is dangerous, I had a near miss from an impatient motorist there last year as I was taking a group of the Deloitte Ride Across Britain participants through. She just thought that she could drive straight through us all.

Not entirely sure that ressurecting this thread is the best idea in the world but just in case anyone is interested they've just released for sale places on the 2017 event including a 5-day option and also an option to stay the nights in hotels rather than camping:
http://www.rideacrossbritain.com/

The 2016 edition is the usual 9-day one, 10th to 18th September.

One way car hire.
There's a EuropCar at both Penzance and Wick.

For the start, pick up the car wherever you are, drive to Land's End, unload as much as possible, drive into Penzance and drop the car off then cycle back to LE.

Finish at JOG, some poor soul then has to cycle the 16 miles or so to Wick Airport (there's a bus too, not very frequent though or you could easily get a taxi), pick the hire car up.
Or there's a number of other options to extend your trip a bit, the ferry from JOG to Orkney and then do some island hopping round to Aberdeen or even go round the north coast and island hop down the west coast. Obviously extends the journey by quite a bit that last option.

I'd go Wye Valley, it's infinitely nicer than skirting round the urban sprawl of Bromsgrove, Birmingham, Dudley and Wolverhampton!
Once you're out of Chepstow (assuming of course you cross the Severn on the old bridge, turn right and drop into Chepstow then climb out and head north) it's pretty flat the whole way up through Ludlow then on to Northwich and then you cross the Mersey somewhere around Lymm.

A lot of people go via Warrington but that can be slow as hell too.

You're on a fast schedule which means choosing fast roads but also trying to avoid towns as much as possible as all the stop-start will slow you down dramatically.

longwaytothepub wrote:I have a solar panel to recharge electronic gear and phone. Will post the intended route v soon and get some more opinion! Thanks so much. Ali

At a guess, you'll find that virtually useless. Mine used to take hours to add even 10% to the charge. A better option is to buy a small power pack (I've got one of these http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/anker-powerco ... lver-a45ux which can mount by the stem to recharge the Garmin on the go but other larger capacity ones are available) and then every time you stop at a pub/cafe etc, plug in everything you can while you eat!

@shoulders: Have you read that other thread on here about 4-5 day LEJOG?
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=101128

You'll see in there the guy having trouble with only 2 other riding companions and I think, if you're trying to do a 6-day with 8-10 other people, that'll be your issue rather than the route. The longer/faster you want to go, the fewer people you need to do it with.

Agree with Mick, trying to do it off other people's GPX files is a recipe for a bad start and arguments. A group of 8-10 as you say is pushing it in terms of what's feasible for that mileage per day given that for every extra rider it's one more person to suffer mechanicals, injury, get dropped etc. I'd prefer a max of 4 if I was doing that sort of daily distance otherwise you just end up with too much faffing, waiting and so on.

Sit down in advance and find out what route you all want, how long per day you're willing to be sat in a saddle, the climbing/distance/speed you're all capable of and work backwards from there. If you've got a van, there's always the option for someone to miss all or part of a day as well.

Personally, I'd avoid main roads at all costs; even with that sort of distance, I'd rather just be on the road at 6am, finish at 9pm and do the quietest route possible. I really can't see the point of riding a bike past (but not actually through) some stunning scenery while you stick to A-roads but maybe that's just me...

tbessie wrote: I'm in Newcastle, waiting 2 days as I couldn't find much weekend accommodation on the Northumberland Coastal Path.

I'm surprised you can understand ANYTHING that's being said in Newcastle!