Question for Mick F - 7 day LEJoG

Specific board for this popular undertaking.
toontra
Posts: 1190
Joined: 21 Dec 2007, 11:01am
Location: London

Re: Question for Mick F - 7 day LEJoG

Post by toontra »

amaferanga wrote:Well that sounds like pretty unusual weather for the end of May. I only had heavy rain most days.

Still, given typical UK summer weather, it's not really as big an undertaking as this example suggests. Many, many people manage in 5 days or less without it being a drama or an ordeal.


If you are cycling the length of the country you should be prepared for very nasty weather at any time of year. Doing the London-Edinburgh-London audax in 2009 I developed mild hypothermia due to gale-force winds, torrential rain and temperatures of 5c in the Scottish borders and Pennines, but managed to ride through it. Several others weren't so lucky and had to be hospitalised. Many riders abandoned. This was in July, so the height of a British "summer".

As Mick rightly says, no amount of planing and training can save you from the elements and you need some luck to complete fast rides. On both my rides i was prepared to bail if things turned nasty, and there would have been no shame in that.

BTW if you can cite examples of some of the "many, many people" who've completed 4 or 5-day end2ends in spite of atrocious weather (at any time of year) I'd be interested in reading their accounts!
Last edited by toontra on 9 Sep 2016, 4:51pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Mick F
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Location: Tamar Valley, Cornwall

Re: Question for Mick F - 7 day LEJoG

Post by Mick F »

The ride I supported was The Race Against Time.
They did it twice that year. The first one that year were some teachers. The Teachers' Race Against Time.
In fact, I'm at this very moment wearing a T shirt from it. :lol:

We all had a meeting afterwards, and we supporters all recommended that they put the ride out to six or seven days, because we very nearly failed at five days. The lads had raised thousands in sponsorship to do the ride publicised as five days, and it would have been far better to have set it at six days.

http://www.cyclinguk.org/local-groups/b ... meon-trust
Mick F. Cornwall
amaferanga
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Joined: 31 Oct 2008, 7:03pm

Re: Question for Mick F - 7 day LEJoG

Post by amaferanga »

toontra wrote:
amaferanga wrote:Well that sounds like pretty unusual weather for the end of May. I only had heavy rain most days.

Still, given typical UK summer weather, it's not really as big an undertaking as this example suggests. Many, many people manage in 5 days or less without it being a drama or an ordeal.


BTW if you can cite examples of some of the "many, many people" who've completed 4 or 5-day end2ends in spite of atrocious weather (at any time of year) I'd be interested in reading their accounts!


I think you need to re-read what I wrote. Who mentioned atrocious weather?

I'm still not sure why people make such a big deal out of a 5 day LEJOG.... and why taking a day or two extra really makes any difference if the weather's that bad.
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