Support vehicles and "rules".

[LittleGreyCat]

One advantage of a support vehicle could be that if you couldn't for some reason find accommodation directly on your route, you could cycle to the nearest point on the route and then get a lift to the overnight stop then back to where you left off in the morning.

This seems to be acceptable as you are riding every inch of the route, just not having to add miles to get to the overnight stop.

However using this logic you could, for example, quit early on a bad day (rain, wind etc.) then go back from your overnight the next day to pick up where you left off. Is this still OK?

A nice thing would be to be able to keep going on a good day and get some extra miles in before retracing your route in the support vehicle to the stop you have cycled past earlier.

All this makes me wonder if there are some accepted guidelines or rules for supported rides, or if you just do whatever feels right to you. It is, after all, your ride.

It might make accommodation choices easier. For example hopping from Travel Lodge to Travel Lodge.
More extreme might be to book into an hotel half way between route stops and get taken forward on the first day and backwards on the second.
Probably more important if you are doing 40-50 miles a day, when a 5 mile detour is quite significant.
If you are doing 100+ miles a day 5 miles isn't such a large percentage of your day.

No biggie; just pondering.

[mattsccm]

Doubt it matters one bit. After all it's just a long bike ride with no rules. Going for the record is of course different but I doubt anyone really gives a what ever otherwise.
Just have fun.

[PH]

OK with who?
It wouldn't be OK with me to use a support vehicle, it's offering just what the name implies. I'm free to ride to whatever "rules" I choose, others are free to impose their own, none of us are free to tell each other what they can't do. If you want to claim you've ridden from one to the other, then that's all that's required.

[horizon]

The misgiving that I have is to do with people's perception of what constitutes a human challenge, particularly cycling. Someone wrote on here recently that in doing LEJOG, the cycling was the easy bit, it was the logistics that was the challenge. Travelling by bike is hard when you arrive in a strange town at night in the pouring rain by yourself and not knowing where you will sleep. That's when people find their hitherto hidden resources and discover the joys of serendipity and human kindness. I'm not saying it isn't a wonderful feeling when the motorhome looms out of the murky mist and a welcoming energetic person announces that the kettle is on and a hot meal and warm and comfy bed await. I suppose I feel that there is more to cycling than just the cycling. But each to their own.

[Oldjohnw]

Since I am not remotely interested in being the first or oldest or quickest I would be quite happy to even get a lift some of the time should exhaustion take over. I would simply say that I cycled LEJOG but got a lift between X and Y.

When hill walking I now say I was walking on hill X, not that I climbed to the top. Unless I did, of course.

[Mike Sales]

Part of the appeal of cycling for me is the absence of rules. No referee, no umpire.
At school I was no good at formal team sports and so did not enjoy them. I cycle because it makes me feel good, and fit too, which also makes me feel good.
I have since become much more active than most who enjoy (watching) sport.
I have taken up various sports for the sheer joy of doing them, setting my own challenges and not ever thinking of rules. If it makes me feel good, great. If it doesn't...
If you want rules to give shape to your cycling, then fine. But they are there only to enhance your pleasure, and can be ignored.

[landsurfer]

Rules .."For the obedience of fools, and the guidance of wise men " .... sort of ...

I did the Lejog with a bunch of friends, wives and a baby, minibus, camper vans and tents ... on a couple of days i was the van driver .... I still enjoyed and completed MY Lejog... not your Lejog, or his Lejog, or her Lejog ,,,, mine .... my Lejog .... It was a amazing experience.

Next summer i will doing the JOGLE, with some of my friends from the Lejog, wives, our 3 children, camper vans and tents ..... So looking forward to it.

Cycling is about fun and adventure, tying it up in rules just sucks the pleasure out of it ......

[PH]

I still enjoyed and completed MY Lejog... not your Lejog, or his Lejog, or her Lejog ,,,, mine .... my Lejog .... It was a amazing experience.

Cycling is about fun and adventure, tying it up in rules just sucks the pleasure out of it ......

I think there's some contradiction between those two points of view - Some people pleasure will come from imposing rules on it, whether that be Audax style, or doing it in X days, or only eating in Weatherspoons, or on a budget of £5 a day, or whatever else they choose to make it their own.

[profpointy]

Once when driving up to John o Groates we came up behind and extremely slow van doing maybe 8 mph uphill. In due course we passed, to discover it was the "support vehicle" for a John-o-Groates lone cyclist. Seemingly the van had driven the whole way 10 yards behind the cyclist. Bizarre !

[landsurfer]

Once when driving up to John o Groates we came up behind and extremely slow van doing maybe 8 mph uphill. In due course we passed, to discover it was the "support vehicle" for a John-o-Groates lone cyclist. Seemingly the van had driven the whole way 10 yards behind the cyclist. Bizarre !

Hilarious !! I hope they got lots of tickets for obstruction ....

[Jamesh]

I got a lift further south from where I stopped the night before! Does that give me extra kudos or atone for the 2 ferries I used?!!

Also I've just realised I started from the car park and not from the literal lands end

Going to have to do it again I think.....

Cheers James

[rareposter]

Once when driving up to John o Groates we came up behind and extremely slow van doing maybe 8 mph uphill. In due course we passed, to discover it was the "support vehicle" for a John-o-Groates lone cyclist. Seemingly the van had driven the whole way 10 yards behind the cyclist. Bizarre !

Bet the clutch on the van was ruined by the end! Also, that must have been one hell of a dull drive for the poor person behind the wheel. The way to do support vehicle is to leapfrog. Cyclist sets outs, vehicle can hang around for an hour while the driver re-stocks on food, drink etc. Vehicle sets off, catches/passes the rider and waits at an agreed stop up the road somewhere. Do it right and you're never more than an hour away; modern phones and cycle computers have tracking options and importantly it gives the driver time to stop and eat and make sure things are ready for the cyclist - if it's a camper van you can put the kettle on for example. Cyclist then sets off again, driver repacks the vehicle and repeat.
Sitting behind a rider for the entire journey is an incredibly inefficient use of time and also very selfish and inconsiderate to other road users.

Someone wrote on here recently that in doing LEJOG, the cycling was the easy bit, it was the logistics that was the challenge.

That was me. I've seen it so many times with people posting about how they've been on the turbo for hours or done loads of hill reps but actually they've never ridden in the rain or packed a pannier or tried to find a B&B at short notice after a day plagued with mechanicals...

[Nickeveson]

I wholly agree with Landsurfer in that you do the Lejog or Jogle your way. I rode (and walked)it all, Landsurfer rode most of it. He completed his, I completed mine.
It was a pleasure ride.....it wasnt going for any records....it was whatever we wanted it to be.
Both Landsurfer and I started together and finished riding in together.....we BOTH did our Lejog.
Next year we will both set off together and finish together on our own Jogle.....how we do it is totally our choice.
For potential End to Enders I give but one word of advice......Ride and enjoy you own Lejog or Jogle, it's yours to savour!

[mattheus]

Once when driving up to John o Groates we came up behind and extremely slow van doing maybe 8 mph uphill. In due course we passed, to discover it was the "support vehicle" for a John-o-Groates lone cyclist. Seemingly the van had driven the whole way 10 yards behind the cyclist. Bizarre !

Bet the clutch on the van was ruined by the end! Also, that must have been one hell of a dull drive for the poor person behind the wheel. The way to do support vehicle is to leapfrog. Cyclist sets outs, vehicle can hang around for an hour while the driver re-stocks on food, drink etc. Vehicle sets off, catches/passes the rider and waits at an agreed stop up the road somewhere. Do it right and you're never more than an hour away; modern phones and cycle computers have tracking options and importantly it gives the driver time to stop and eat and make sure things are ready for the cyclist - if it's a camper van you can put the kettle on for example. Cyclist then sets off again, driver repacks the vehicle and repeat.
Sitting behind a rider for the entire journey is an incredibly inefficient use of time and also very selfish and inconsiderate to other road users.

I guess you know about RAAM? IIRC, there is a *requirement* for a follow vehicle the WHOLE WAY across the USA. Then because it's a long way, you need a 2nd vehicle to do the leapfrogging, which alternates with Van1 to allow crew some sleep during the 2 weeks.

Makes the mind boggle!

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Anyway, back to the OP: as others have said, make your own rules. If you want rules, that is...

[andrew_s]

I guess you know about RAAM? IIRC, there is a *requirement* for a follow vehicle the WHOLE WAY across the USA. Then because it's a long way, you need a 2nd vehicle to do the leapfrogging, which alternates with Van1 to allow crew some sleep during the 2 weeks.

That requirement is to try to reduce the chances of the cyclist just being driven over by some sleepy truck driver on one of those big, dead straight, dead boring roads that they have over there.

It also gives the support crew the opportunity to shout at the cyclist that they are slacking and should concentrate, or otherwise offer moral support.