July 11th 4 day LEJOG

[toontra]

Well done indeed! Truly inspirational.

[lindsaywill]

Here are a few (well actaully quite a lot) more details about our recent LEJOG in 3 days 22 hours .

Set off from LE at 16:10 on Monday 12th July with 2 colleagues from work who i had not really done any cycling with in preparation , so was quite concerned to see that Tomasz intended to ride the whole way in trainers on cleated pedals and that Lee was riding a very aggressive position on a TT bike , despite having done all his training on a gym bike . Anyway we set off and i soon realised that neither of them had ridden in a group before and so were not happy sucking wheel or having me doing it to them either .... "ah well there goes my cunning plan of drafting the whole way behind them " i thought , and we duly settled in for the A30 slog a good 20 metres apart. I had planned short stops every 30km or so and with us averaging 25kmh while on the bike this meant we were averaging around 18kmh including stops . We got through the night fuelled by macDonalds from Penhale services, Red Bull and a brief visit to a 24 hour Tesco at Launceston for supplies, spirits were high despite rain , hills and a puncture at 1am near Okehampton . Exeter was reached around 3am and negotiated with ease (i had previously done Exeter -London at night as a training ride) , then it was out onto the B-road to Cullompton to connect with the A38 towards Taunton , as a wet grey dawn broke the first signs of tiredness were showing and i was being asked every 5 minutes "how long till breakfast" . We hit Taunton at 05:30 so too early for cafes to be open and so headed on until, finally finding relief , and a full english breakfast outside Bridgwater.... spirits were lifted and we ploughed on towards Bristol . Disaster struck however in Highbridge when Lee's seatpost clamp broke and he had to get a taxi to a bike shop in Bristol (meeting us later on the A38 the other side of town). We were gutted for him that he wasnt going to complete the full route but we had to press on to have a chance of getting in under 4 days . Tomasz and myself went well up the killer hill past Bristol airport and managed to negotiate through the Avon gorge under Clifton bridge and up the steep climb of Bridge valley rd , joining back up with the A38 and Lee for a second 'full english in Filton on the other side of Bristol . Gloucester passed without incident , although we were joined on the road for a brief time by a group of 4 fellow LEJOGers and were very jealous when they pulled into a layby for a stop outside Tewkesbury to be greeted by a full support team with a minibus . A mapreading error on the edge of Tewkesbury cost us a bit of time but finally we were on the last 25k push into Worcester, arriving battered but elated around 4pm , 24 hours after leaving LE and 257 miles on the clock . Checked in to Travelodge and picked up the parcel i had sent to myself there containg bars , gels , PSP , chamois creme, wash kit and old clothes , then it was eat as much as you can from their in house menu , shower and bed by 6pm , with an alarm call for 11:30pm . Sleep was deep but had no trouble waking after 5 hours (although the others were 30 mins late on the bikes) at 00:30 we were away and onto the A449 to Kidderminster. Disaster struck again after stopping at a 24 hour garage outside kidderminster i had taken off my rucsac and then cylcled off without realising i wasn't wearing it , 7 miles down the road i realised with horror what i had done and had to turn back to retrace our route . Thank God it was still there where i had left it and we were finally able to make some progress northwards , Tomasz and I had let Lee go on while we went back for the rucsac , so spent the next few hours playing catch up through the night on fast flat roads through Wolverhampton , Stafford , Newcastle Under Lyme (where we finally met back up). Onto the A50 and a lovely fry up in Knutsford followed by a day of town-centre negotiating . i thought i was doing pretty well until a wrong turn in Warrington cost us 30 mins before reaching Wigan and then Preston around lunchtime and then a nice stop at Lancaster for sandwiches and cakes with Lee's family who live just off the A6. The rain then started working us over on the road to Kendal where we stopped for a re-fuel and to prepare for the Shap climb .
Shap was climbed very slowly in drizzle around 5pm followed by the much-appreciated long descent , through Penrith...a last re-fuel before a lovely empty rolling road to Carlisle and Travelodge number 2 around 19:30 with 215 miles on the day and 471 total done. When we finally found it i was depressed to discover that the manager had refused to accept my parcel and it had been returned to the depot , so we would have no fresh supplies for the next day , he then also told us that it was too late for food , so we hit the nearest restaurant (a thai establishment of debatable quality) for a quick fix of hot food (in relection probably a mistake, but we were past caring ) . bed at 22:30 and attempted to sleep , but had to visit bathroom and i couldn't wind down knowing we had to get up at 01:30 for a 2am departure.
This time the alarm call was horrific as we woke to the sound of torrential rain and protesting bodies and minds . Things got worse as i made a couple of stupid map-reading errors getting out of town which cost us at least an hour and a good 4 miles . Had one of my lowest moments on a bike shortly afterwards in the pitch dark hours when i got a lump of dirty cold water rammed into my face at high velocity by an oncoming juggernaut and then proceeded to have to mend Lee's back wheel puncture in a muddy ditch at side of the busy road. Signs eventually told us that we had got onto the right road and were on course towards Gretna but spirits were at an all-time low as it continued to pour with rain and we waited in vain for a much-needed breakfast stop . Eventually we reached the truck stop before Johnstonebridge and took on some vital hot food , but it was evident that lee was flagging and at this point he tried to quit but was persuaded to soldier on through the rain , however a few miles up the road he was struggling up the long climb past Beattock and had to get off to be sick , his back was in bits and he had bad saddle sores , so we sent him back down the road to a nearby B&B , knowing that he had done really well to get that far. Tomasz and i pushed on , making good progress as the weather and scenery improved , passing Abington , Biggar and taking the rolling back road to Carnwath followed by the tough A70 across the Pentland Hills and making our way via Kirknewton , Wilkieston and a back road into Kirkliston , onto the Forth Bridge and on into Scotland.
The sun actaully came out briefly for the big climb out of Inverkeithing and then the rolling hills and not so scenic towns along the old Perth road before a beautiful ride down a wooded gorge after Glenfarg . We were hit by more torrential rain outside Perth but were past caring by now and had received a text message from Lee that he was back on the road again and would meet us at our hotel that night. With the sun on our backs again we left Perth to take on the A9 , which was even more dangerous that i had imagined ....basically at that time of day (3pm) it was like a motorway but with twice the number of trucks , narrower lanes and no hard shoulder. gradually the traffic thinned out as we got further north , but this was a big mistake to attempt that road at a busy time of day and we felt lucky to have got away with it. We pushed on to start climbing the long drag of Drumochter Pass and realised how far we still had to go to our hotel in Newtonmore but we had forgotten how much we had climbed and soon were descending at 35mph , reaching the hotel at 20:15 with another 210 miles banked and a total of . We tucked into pre-ordered food in our room and fell greedily on the supply parcel i had sent , before being amazed as Lee walked through the door less than an hour behind us (still don't know how he did that !!) . Tomasz kindly worked out that he wanted us to be on the road by 1am as he had a sore achilles and didn't want to risk it if he was going to be slow the next day , so 2 hours sleep and we were back out on the A9 at 1am . It felt quite surreal as the heavy lorry traffic was missing and it wasn't even raining , however it was cold at that height and on the descent to Inverness we had to stop several times as we were too cold to control the bikes on the descent. After Inverness the driving rain came in again and we were cold and wet through , i was riding on adrenalin only at this point , was cold to the core and had an upset stomach , not a happy man. After finding a rare 24 hour services near Cromarty Firth and getting some warm food inside us , we calcualted that we needed only to average 11 miles per hour including stops to make our target and so duly set about eating into that with some quicker riding until, hitting the killer hills around Helmsdale . After crawling up Berriedale Braes we had the target down to 9 miles per hour needed so this took a bit of the urgency and adrenalin out of us and we hit a bit of a low with just 30 miles to go . In the end we had to stop at Wick for hot food and to get our mojo back for the final push in more driving rain . Finally John o' Groats was reached at 3pm , after what seemed an eternal last 16 miles (especially that last hill with 2 miles to go) of a 'short' final 162 mile day. We were too tired and empty of emotion for much in the way of celebration but managed a couple of drinks before being met by our taxi with trailer for the drive to Inverness to catch the sleeper .

To be honest writing this i am only just beginning to realise what we achieved , i still have numb fingers and toes and a sore undercarriage to remind me of what we did , but worrying i'm already thinking if it would be possible to go close to sub 3 days with the right preparation , support , conditions etc.

here is a link to my justgiving page for the LEJOG and another 24 hour ride i did earlier this year.

http://www.justgiving.com/ride270milesin24hours

Lindsay

[paul dormer]

Great write-up, I need my sleep to much, and like to get into a pub each night, to emulate that !

WELL DONE !!