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The stuff about 4 days in the rain on rough roads etc. put me off LEL initially. PBP, in particular, is such an amazing experience that you wonder whether LEL has anything to offer.
I am very pleased to have ridden it in 2013 - it was a fantastic ride and much better than expected.
The route is great - especially up at the top end. The Fens are a bit shit, especially when your nose is into the wind - but they have their own character and riding towards those massive horizons is pretty cool in itself.
Very little roadside support, even in the control towns - no great surprise as virtually everyone you meet thinks you're either 'mad' or doing it for charity. None of the respect you get in France.
Controls are great (and soooo much better organised than PBP) and the whole ride feels like a series of 80km rides punctuated by going to a control run by some mates (the controls are all staffed by volunteers, many of them regular AUK riders).
Don't discount it - it's a great ride. Whether I will do it again for a while, who knows - there's too much other stuff going on and I'm not one for repeating rides (PBP aside!).
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Don't discount it - it's a great ride. Whether I will do it again for a while, who knows - there's too much other stuff going on and I'm not one for repeating rides (PBP aside!).
Yeah, I'm not completely discounting it... Actually especially since reading what you say there about thinking similar things.
I suppose looking at the route can't hurt can it :-)
Well done for going out there. I hate it when you get the "why the fuck am I doing this?" feeling.
I've done a bunch of audax rides very slowly with a partner and it gets to the point where you endup thinking "well I know I /can/ turn the pedals all day, but /why/?". I think that I need to ride them quicker.
I'm wondering what to do next. I did PBP very slowly (but to my timetable, so all good). LEL doesn't massively appeal, I can't get the idea that it is 4 days in the rain on rough roads out of my head.