LEL 2013 / London - Edinburgh - London Audax

About this time 4 years ago I was somewhere between Longtown and Brampton hoping to find somewhere to sleep. I tried 2 hotels and a couple of B&Bs with no luck. I had to sleep somewhere as I was falling asleep on the bike. Eventually I found a church porch in Brampton where I got an hour warm and comfy in my emergency foil blanket. Did me fine until Alston where I got 3 hours in a bed.

edscoble and Vesalius are way ahead of that. Ed should be getting to Barnard Castle soon where he'll have ~12 hours in hand. Enough for a good sleep and then tackle the penultimate day.

Vesalius got to Barnard Castle coming up 2 hours ago so he'll probably push on to Thirsk and also have boat loads of time in the bank (~16h) for a good sleep.

Been getting jealous over the last few days, but then it's probably made me more determined to get to PBP 2015 given the fun I had in 2011.

What a day.
Woke to discover that the slight buckle in my rear wheel was due to a cracked rim. Rode it to brampton with kid gloves and concluded it would hold...

But at the top of yad moss it went completely plastic. Thought I might end up walking down to barnard castle, but limped down to find there were no suitable spares and no hope of sorting anything.

Eventually manned up and rode the thing to just outside Thirsk, where a samaritan had left a loaner. Changed the cassette over on the side of the road and hit Thirsk a bit after 1.

To top it off the front developed a wierd flat spot from a rock hitting incident on Sunday.

And somehow I managed during all this to cycle 300km in the borderlands.

Ps. The borderlands are road bike porn. Except for the logging trucks.

Alex, my mate Ian is C68. Could you perhaps add him to the list?

amazing zanda, good luck!

Amazing riding all those who've entered this...madness

Alex, my mate Ian is C68. Could you perhaps add him to the list?

He's already on there as he's Halloween on YACF.

well done zanda for carrying on. showing some true resolve right there

Just finished three days of volunteering at Brampton. Exhausting but very enjoyable. Great to meet cyclists from all over the world riding the most amazing variety of machines. Kudos to those on Bromptons and fixies, several things I can only describe as high tech pedal cars and to the 2 guys on what looked like cross trainers on wheels, arriving at Midnight from the south and returning 24 hours later. It's not over yet, of course.

Glad you all enjoyed the borders scenery, if not the weather.

Ed, if you're reading this, nice to meet you, hope you didn't get too wet. Loved your bike. A thing of beauty.

Very tempted to ride it myself next time.

Guessing Ed had a nice long sleep at Brampton and Vesalius at Barnard Castle:-

edscoble: http://www.greenbank.org/cgi-bin/lel2013.cgi?action=riderreport&rn=H27
Vesalius: http://www.greenbank.org/cgi-bin/lel2013.cgi?action=riderreport&rn=J45

That should set them up for a good day's riding today and then finish it off before it gets dark on Thursday.

^correct!

Just tagged along with an infamous tandem pair who set a roaring pace all the way to pocklington, we'll probably drop down to human pace again after this control though.

Good work out there zanda! Flying along despite all the adversity :)

He's already on there as he's Halloween on YACF.

Ah, cheers, should have noticed!

Tynans are different

Spotted an Austrian Randoneur at Euston just now. Sorry Sir.

Just seen this, it is probably the guy who arrived at the control at Brampton on Monday and said his knee hurt too much to carry on. We got him to Carlisle station and put him on the train to London.

Looks like zanda's nearly done. Amazing. Well done everyone, seriously impressive.

Zanda's finished. Well done.

edscoble at Kirton at 8.08am. That gives him 3h31m in hand.

Hats!!!

That gives him 3h31m in hand.

Sorry to be silly - but what does 'in hand' mean?

I always thought with Audax you don't have to finish in a certain time?

You thought wrong then.

Sorry to be silly - but what does 'in hand' mean?

I always thought with Audax you don't have to finish in a certain time?

There's a 116h40m time limit on the whole ride. Each intermediate control also has closing times that should (but not must) be kept within.

Well done Zanda!

Great work Alex - never in doubt, 24 hours in hand!
Vesalius just a 180km cruise to go - in the bag.

Really helpful riding tracking s/s Greenbank - thanks for that.

Still in awe at these guys.

I'd love to say I would ride it one day.

I'd love to say I would ride it one day.

Start doing some Audaxes then, it's the easiest way to start.

I went from wheezing my way through London->Cambridge in 2006 to riding LEL in 2009.

I've never been fast, I've never done a TT, never been in a cycling club. I finish most of my Audaxes with less than an hour to spare.

It's more my knees that are putting me off at the moment. Still bike fit at the end of next month, then build up my fitness again and hopefully on with the audax.