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I was shocked by the DNF rate on the ride when finishing.
What was that - were lots of people out of time?
frank9755-
Sounds like a real mixed bag of reasons from sickness, mechanical, lack of enjoyment or lack of progress.
I'm not sure how many people packed due to not making intermediate control timings. I know orgs can be quick flexible with these if you make the finish. Given how the quickly a lot of folks went from the start I think most of the DNFs were actually riders ahead of us within the first night and day.
motoko
I riode LLEL too and finished with 2.5 hours in hand. It was a lot more challenging to me than expected and the last day I felt the ever present stress of the time limit.
I had a false sense of confidence after a very smooth going 600 up here in Scotland. The 12.5 AAA points should have been a hint... For me the surprisingly hard hills were the Black Downs between Exeter and Langport, steep and relatively long in comparison to most of the stuff in Devon and Cornwall.
I agree with @honk that the level of traffic and driving in Cornwall on the A roads was diabolical. I pulled over at one point to let the back up of traffic pass and had to wait 5 minutes to get a gap to get going again.
I was shocked by the DNF rate on the ride when finishing. My riding partner Anne and I finished at 10.30 and were mid-pack of a total of only 12 potential finishers out of 33 starters.
A big chapeau to everyone who finished, and especially to Ivan for riding the route fixed.
If I was to do it again I'd not ride as a pair over such a long distance, it introduced a lot of challenges but on the other hand did make the travelodges half the price!