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Greenbank
marcusjb
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!).