LEL 2017 / London - Edinburgh - London Audax

Last leg was great, I was looking forward to getting out of the fens all day, but mostly so I could get out of the saddle and releave the pain!

As a Fen edge resident I know that feels. But get it after 75 miles, not 800.

Much respect from me to you.

Yes, it's pretty light. A change of kit and a change of saddle, neither of which I used in the end. Thanks Tony. That's a huge help.

This time 8 years ago:-

https://twitter.com/alexgreenbank/status/2938085195

I started the day at Thorne in a group of 5 or so and by the time we were 20 miles from the finish it had grown to 12 or so including some Belgians who were lost and only spoke Flemish. Earlier in the evening I'd chased one down as he didn't have any rear light and loaned him one of my spares. By mangling French and German I was able to give them directions as we rode along (for some reason they wanted to ride right at the front). The group also grew to include Rimas on his (I think) first ever Audax (he's riding TCR again right now having come 6th the other year).

We'd stopped at the side of the road as one rider was getting the dozies and I was fishing around in my rack pack for my emergency can of Red Bull to donate to keep him going. When I opened the rack pack one of the Belgian riders saw the 4 cans of 1664 in my bag, pointed, and pulled the most puzzled "WTF?" faces I've ever seen. He didn't take me up on my offer of one at that point. I guess he thought I'd been carrying them for the entire ride.

Happy memories (once all of the bad memories were wiped).

Just saw this video posted on rapha's instagram.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvUUyb1yb3M

With LEL what are the rules about this kind of rider support. I guess they have the bag drop system and volunteers who will wake you up, so it isn't a whole bunch different. But nice to have as much dry kit as you need.

Assume Rapha donated generously and got approval as officially there were only riders and volunteers allowed in the controls.

With LEL what are the rules about this kind of rider support.

Same as most long brevets (like PBP etc), it's perfectly within the rules and many choose to do it that way (seems very popular with the Italians).

Supporters must be registered and keep their vehicles off the route as much as possible between controls. Each control will have a designated support vehicle area so that the controls themselves aren't clogged up with anyone other than riders and volunteers although support people are allowed in the controls on LEL with appropriate permission (I remember some of LEL2009 that would help their rider out, get them on the road, and then do a few hours volunteering at that control before moving on to the next one, so it isn't always selfish).

There are various levels of hair-shirtedness within Audax. Some think that supporting riders like this isn't the spirit of Audax, others do. I couldn't care what others do, it doesn't change how I chose to ride those events. Some of the puritans think that bag drops are a step too far, but they'll still gladly use the control facilities and eat the food.

PBP seemed to have more supported riders (I remember what seemed like kilometers of motorhomes parked up in the run up to some controls), possibly because of the lack of bag drops (although some clubs like Willesden organise their own bagdrops).

Fuck me that was tough.

Need to write up the extensive list of mechanicals that occurred to me when I'm less dead.

Well done Tim! Big up for completing it

It's in hand, I'll be in Westminster from Tuesday - will PM to sort collection/delivery

YES Brad!!!! Well done mate

Well done!

Anyone know whose pompino this is?

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Entering A11 into the live tracking gives it as Tim Pickersgill.

On here? Was a nice set up. Very streamlined.

Ah sorry, misunderstood. No idea. The name is also clearly visible on the dossard anyway!

Danial posted on FB that the provisional DNF rate is 34% which makes the "toughest" LEL ever.

That seems very high. Hmm.

People were dropping like flies the last couple of days.

One of the most bizzare moments was passing an old gaffer with inner tubes around his shoulders and kneck to support his head (Schermer's neck i guess). We called "are you alright?", his response was "knackered!". I asked him if he needed food and he refused and we suggested he take a 10 minute sleep. His reponse was just "Can't, time limit".

Edit: not Shawn's, It's on the name card.

Thanks, likewise! That was hard, but never really felt pressured by time, I know so many ways I could improve though!

Thanks Fens is always so dependant on winds we can't really complain as in the ways up we had the opposite and got though it easily with the wind pushing us along!

Mate.... sleep? You're only this side of cogent. also, chapeau!

And that's the usual way round so it really ought to be ELE rather than LEL.

A following wind on the home leg is much kinder.

This is a picture of me being towed by a stranger after my derailleur hanger snapped and the chain was too bent to single speed it. Between moffat and Louth I was still slowly patching it back together with limited gears throughout including 80km of single speed beween moffat and Edinburgh. You cant fault the attitude of others on the ride, couldn't have made it without help from randoms and volunteers.

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