LEL 2017 / London - Edinburgh - London Audax

Loads of people had a rough time on that night section, it was grim. Someone did actually persuade the police to let them kip in a station!

If it's any consolation... you've probably got a lot more of those lessons to look forward to.

That could just be me though.

Okay, you've all now persuaded me to buy a bivvy bag.

No, no its not.

Jokes aside, my bcm experience has actually been very useful, as nothing has even come close to how awful it was, which has allowed me to be quite clear headed in all the subsequent audaxes this year.

What doesn't kill you...

....emotionally scars you and stops you from ever being able to develop meaningful relationships with people ever again?

Hasn't done me any harm.

twitches
licks machete
punches that annoying motherfucking tooth fairy that keeps leaving her calcium droppings all over the carpet

"It puts the chamois on its skin, or else it gets the hose again....."

I've always slept in what I was riding in.

Back in 2009 (so different controls), 8am start:-

Day 1 ended at Thorne Rugby Club ~ 300km, bag drop there so had a shower and changed in to fresh kit, slept in fresh kit (on an airbed I had in my drop bag).
Day 2 ended at Eskdalemuir, 3 hours sleep on the floor under a table, no showers
Got to Dalkeith Rugby Club at about midday, drop bag there so had a shower and change of kit
Day 3 stopped at Eskdalemuir again (7pm-ish) although weather was dreadful, didn't sleep, left at 10pm-ish, got dozies, slept for an hour in a church porch in Brampton (no control there that year) - thank fuck for foil blanket I was carrying, got to Alston at ~5am and slept in a bed there (in dirty kit) for a couple of hours
Day 4 got back to Thorne again, shower, change of kit, sleep on air bed again
Finished at ~2am, drank beer, chatted, went home at 8am.

PBP '11 (no bag drops but carried 2 changes of kit with me) 8pm start:-
Rode through first night, no sleep although did lie down on the roadside for an hour or so
Day 2: Fuck knows, changed kit and slept in cot bed. Loudeac?
Day 3: Fuck knows, slept slumped on a chair in control cafe (Loudeac again?) in wet kit, also 45 minute power nap in a shed
Mid afternoon 1h nap at the road side somewhere
Rode through last night. Got to Dreux in the morning, had first shower of the ride, changed into fresh kit, romped home the last 80km.
Finished, drank beer all afternoon, got RER/Metro to CDG airport, didn't trust myself to wake up if I checked into cheap airport hotel so slept in the airport terminal.

#embraceyourinnertramp

PBP 2015. Start at around 17.00h. Shower and sleep (Rapha long sleeve merino and shorts) St. Nicholas 500km next evening.

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Late next evening Quedillac 750km same routine, not so nice showers might have changed into spare bibs. Woke up to this. Well after I had left the dormitory to have breakfast.

Might have had an hour kip midday on the grass next to secret control.

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Next day early evening they had very nice massages in Villaines which helped and then I rode until I arrived in Paris in the morning.

Sol emergency bivvie turned up (milldo for scale). Looks like a really nice bit of kit, and definitely small enough to pack for almost any overnight trip I'd say.

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I bet it doesn't go that small after you have used it!

Can't tell if great milldo pun or just talking about Bivvy....

Shit, didn't notice the thing next to it! Obviously I'm a bit too focused on bikepacking equipment...

Just plugged the route into the Epic Ride weather forecaster app. It's looking like quite nice cycling weather, actually - no rain forecast, highs in the low 20s. Lows go down to about 12, which is a little chilly, but nothing unmanageable. There's a bit of a headwind all the way up, but it's a tailwind on the way home again so I guess that evens out.

But, Met Office is saying that it has v low certainty in its forecasts for the period, so take that with a grain or two of salt.

Yeah still a bit early to start looking at weather forecasts :)

Weather Bagel (website) is good as well by the way.

Yeah, was just experimenting with the app really.

Lel strategy has been resolved...

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Hmmmmmm....
http://www.theweatheroutlook.com/twodata/gfs.aspx?run=06&charthour=360&chartname=precipratec&chartregion=uk&charttag=Precip%20rate

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Its not worth worrying about the weather, forecasts are rarely accurate, just prepare for the worst kit wise rain jacket, layers for overnight etc. If it turns out great you can always dump stuff in your drop bags on the way back.

Its not worth worrying about the weather, forecasts are rarely accurate, just prepare for the worst kit wise rain jacket, layers for overnight etc. If it turns out great you can always dump stuff in your drop bags on the way back.

I spend a lot of my working life worrying about the weather professionally, so I'm looking at the forecast maps anyway.

Hopefully the green blob of doom will drop out over the next couple of model runs.

Edit to add - the green blob of doom has indeed dropped out of the midday GFS run. Still a bunch of rain Thurs/Fri, but not so heavy.

the green blob of doom has indeed dropped out of the midday GFS run

Plenty of time for it to drop back in again!

Drop bags, what are people using them for?

I can probably carry everything I need, and whilst for clean kit they are a good option, having two means either putting the same stuff in both bags or living without something at the point you might want it!