Prologue
I completed PBP in 2007 and 2015, so I decided to give LEL a go. LEL is a long-distance endurance ride from London to Edinburgh then back to London. The ride actually goes between suburbs of those two great cities, and traverses the countryside on smaller roads, some of them no more than a country lane. The southern portion is predominantly flat with the hillier sections on the northern portion where the ride goes into Scotland. There is also rain and wind to contend with along with nighttime riding and the accompanying cooler temperatures. At 1441 kilometers (895 miles), LEL is longer than PBP which is 1221 kilometers.
My youngest brother Sven Peterson also signed up for LEL and we were riding together on this adventure . My wife, Kathy DeWitt, also came along along with her sister Suzanne - they would be there for moral support but not doing the ride. Sven's wife Karen came over after the ride, and we also spent time in London with Karen's brother Karl and his wife Sue who live outside London. Finally our niece Meghan lives in London and we spent time with her before and after the ride sight-seeing.
Kathy, Suzanne, Sven, and I flew to London on July.26th from Chicago on a half-empty United flight. Arriving on Thursday morning we then took a van transport to our hotel in Waltham Abbey, where a number of other riders would be staying. We set to assembling our bikes when I discovered that I had forgotten to bring the front and rear wheel skewers - kind of important as they hold the wheels on the bike. Amazingly there was a group of Indian riders at the hotel and when I told them of my predicament they promptly handed over a spare set of skewers for me to borrow until I could locate replacements.
We had arranged for a rental car since Kathy is an amazing driver and would be doing a driving tour with Suzanne in the general area where Sven and I would be riding - except that they would be stopping in pubs and such and getting a decent nights sleep in comfortable beds. We picked up the car on Friday and I was able to find a bike shop with replacement skewers. Friday evening we took the Tube into London to see a performance of "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical" and though skeptical going in I found it to be a great tribute to Carole King, singers, and songwriters, with fascinating insights into the American music scene in the 1960s, with an excellent cast.
Saturday was the registration - Sven and I went over to the ride start to sign in, get our brevet cards and swag, and stuff our drop bags with items that we would need at designated controls on the ride. Like many other riders, we had broken the ride into five segments with drop bags at Louth and Brampton:
- Loughton - Louth: 152 miles
- Louth - Brampton: 196 miles
- Brampton - Edinburgh - Brampton: 191 miles
- Brampton - Louth: 196 miles
- Louth - Loughton: 165 miles
The idea was that we would have a change of clothes, and shower/sleep at Louth and Brampton. Like many of my riding plans it worked up to a point. Maybe someday I will get it all figured out and not have such optimistic plans. My goal was to finish in the time limit, whether or not I stuck to the plan.
For navigation I was using an old Garmin Vista HCx which showed the track but no turn-by-turn, plus I had printed copies of Nick Wilkerson's A6 cue sheets on waterproof paper. At the start another rider told me not to trust those, turns out it was Nick Wilkerson himself!
The London Edinburgh London 2017 route was 1441km long with about 11,128m of climbing. The ride was broken down into nine sections northbound and nine southbound sections. At the end of each section there was a checkpoint called a control, where you got your brevet card stamped and where food was provided along with sleeping facilities and showers at some controls. The entry price for LEL included food and services at all controls. As I found the food to be plentiful and tasty, this was a good deal. I also was able to use the sleeping and shower services.
Here we are at the first control enjoying some food. It was a nice day and we made good time. Sven kept asking me "if I was having fun yet". No issues on the ride so far, and we found plenty to eat at the Spalding control as well. We continued making good time to Spalding and then to Louth where we arrived at 23:10 to find a 10-minute line for the sleeping area.
So we went and got some food instead first. Still smiling at this point on the ride, as we were still on schedule. After food we managed to snag two of the remaining sleep spots.
Then we got our drop bags, showered, and slept for about four hours. I slept OK but Sven reported that he didn't get a lot of sleep. Woke up, got some breakfast food, and were back on the road at 05:49, just half an hour behind schedule.Day Two: Louth, Pocklington,Thirsk, Barnard Castle, Alston: 178 miles (530km in, 920km left)
Based on the number of drop bags, Brampton had looked to be overcrowded so we had arranged for a hotel room there for sleeping. Our initial plan was to reach Brampton before midnight, but from a combination of riding slower than planned, and taking longer at controls, as the day progressed it became apparent that we would arrive after midnight. The significance was that the hotel room was above a bar which closed at midnight, which meant that we now had to make arrangements through texts and phone calls so that someone would be there in the wee hours to let us into the hotel.
From Louth we cycled first to Pocklington through the countryside which was mostly devoted to growing crops like wheat and corn, so not too different than the US. There was also substantial pasture for goats, sheep, cattle, and horses - often all these animals would be grazing in the same space. Many of the roads featured hedgerows rather than fences, so you would be riding in a kind of green tunnel. These hedgerows help somewhat to block the sidewinds. This section included the crossing of the Humber river.
The Humber bridge is the eighth longest single-span suspension bridge in the world, and the longest that you can cycle over. It provides breathtaking views of the Humber river which flows to the North Sea.From Pocklington we continued on to Thirsk. This section passed through the Howardian Hills AONB (Area Of Natural Beauty).
After Thirsk we progressed to Barnard Castle, which was pretty much a long gradual climb with some nice views as we approached the control. This control was in a clubby sort of cafeteria with paneled walls with many sporting trophies.
Day Three: Alston, Brampton, Moffat, Edinburgh, Innerleithen: 144 miles (762km in, 688km left)
We finally got out of Alston around 01:50 and down to Brampton. After eating we collected our drop bags and rode to the Howard Arms hotel, where I needed to call a mobile number to have someone let us in. Despite being behind schedule we still showered and slept for four hours.
The original plan was to ride to Edinburgh and back to Brampton but we were seriously behind schedule - a word about that. All brevets have a total time limit along with intermediate time limits at each control. LEL is unique in that you don't have to make the intermediate time limits, which is why I was not too concerned about being "out of time" at these, as I figured that I could make up time towards the end.
Another thing about LEL is that on some sections they offered alternate routes. In particular there were two routes from Brampton to Moffat, one being hiller but slightly shorter. As it turned Sven and I had downloaded only the hilly version, so we went that route, a bit foolhardy since we were behind time, but there it is. It was quite beautiful as labored up and down over the scenic hills dotted with thousands of grazing sheep. We were quite happy though that it was not raining. We saw only a couple of other cyclists along the way, as most had opted for the flatter route option.
Leaving Moffat we experienced the second best climb of LEL which was something called "The Devil's Beeft
ub". It was a long gradual climb where you could see all the riders in the distance. It also started to rain on this stretch, I would say the heaviest rain of the entire ride.
After cresting the top I rode along with a couple of English riders from Bristol - Jason and Julian. Julian was quite talkative in a John Cleese sort of accent so I could clearly understand him. Turns out Julian has a thyroid condition which caused some heart palpitations prior to the ride for which he was prescribed a beta blocker - which had the side effect of limiting his heart rate so that he could climb only very slowly for the first two days until the effects wore off. They were now making up for lost time and speeding up the hills. After a while I had to let them go when I stopped for a clothing change. A bit further down the road I stopped again and discovered that I had lost one of my waterproof gloves. Sven meanwhile had gone on ahead. I decided to retrace my route holding up the one glove for 5 km looking for the missing glove. After a couple of kms numerous Italian riders would yell a bunch of Italian at me and gesture behind them. I took this as a good sign and after a while one rider came along holding the missing glove which he handed over to me as I rode by.
Edinburgh was probably the nicest control on the ride in a clean modern building with a great food selection. One of the volunteers was fascinated with the the mirror attached to my glasses and thought it was somehow connected with my mobile. He also asked if I was a doctor.
Sven now decided to go ahead as I was not quite ready to leave. His reasoning was that since I was going faster up the hills, I would catch up with him. This would be the last time I saw Sven on the ride. Typically randonneurs look at the next nibble to measure their progress, but I now took the opposite approach to convince myself I could complete the ride. Leaving Edinburgh at 20:16 meant that I had taken 56 hours to ride halfway, with about 61 hours to get back to the start. Fine, that would have to do.
Got to Innerleithen at 23:19 where I somehow used 51 minutes to eat and set up for the next segment. No sign of brother Sven.
Day Four: Innerleithen, Eskdalemuir, Brampton, Barnard Castle, Thirsk: 163 miles (1025km in, 425km left):
Leaving around 00:10, this next section had a number of long climbs - I measured one that took over 30 minutes, followed by long descents into the darkness. I'm sure it was quite scenic in the daytime, but I could see absolutely nothing, so it got rather boring after a while. At the bottom of one descent a rider was stopped with his hand raised, so I stopped. Seemed he was convinced something was wrong with his recently purchased front light, but not sure as neither of us spoke the other's language. I convinced him to go on and at that point my GPS batteries died so I had to dig around for the next set of AA batteries.
In Eskdalemuir I was pretty tired and was able to get a bed spot for one hour. With eating before and after, plus faffing, I did not get out of there until 05:39. On my second meal a phone alarm was going off for a rider napping on the floor next to me. I thought he would want to be awakened but it was like he was dead. It took me a minute of prodding and in the end some light taps to his face to wake him from his slumbers. Then it was off to Brampton.
Back at the Howard Arms I ate a cold breakfast plus juice and coffee. Finally I heard some news that Sven had gotten lost but was on the road to Brampton. After I showered and napped for two hours and was back on the road at 12:30, there was still no sign of Sven. According to the control card, I had 585 km remaining with almost 45 hours to complete. Since the time limit for 600k ride is 40 hours I still figured I had a shot at getting to the finish on time.
Day Five: Thirsk, Pocklington, Louth, Spalding, St Ives: 190 miles (1331km, 119km left)
Leaving Thirsk at 00:17 I had about 424 km to complete in 33 hours. As the time limit for 400k brevets is 27 hours, I knew I could do this!
As I left the control I encountered a small group with one rider who said he lived in the area and was offering to lead us on an alternate route on main roads rather than the hillier regular route. I found out later this seems quite common for UK Audax and is called "route hacking". I was game so five of us set out - the leader (Phillip?), Lawrence from Philippines, plus two women from Romania. This group ride quickly disintegrated: first the two women riders had to stop for a nature break, then there were a couple of quick stops where I almost crashed into the rider in front, and Lawrence almost crashed into me. Then the women dropped off for unknown reasons, and in the next town the two remaining riders stopped and sprawled on the sidewalk saying they needed to nap. So I went on alone. I located the Pocklington control on my GPS and navigated a route to it, which took me on a sequence of broad straight highways with very little traffic, with various roundabouts to navigate. It was straightforward riding on these even the portion where I believe I was on a limited access road with on and off ramps. At any rate I got to Pocklington in good time for which I was truly grateful.
On the way into Louth I stopped on A46 for some coffee at the "Top of the Wolds" cafe.
I think this was the Louth control where I took a picture of a Bianchi rider for my Bianchi-riding work buddy Jeffery Brown.
Since I had a drop bag in Louth I did take time for a shower and one last change into clean kit - just like Minnesota Fats in the movie "The Hustler" I told myself.Now came the long slog to Spalding. I remember napping in a bus shelter, stopping for a Coke and ice cream bar, and sharing pulls with a couple for a while, until they tired of this and dropped off the back. I did later hook up with a small group that I rode with all the way into Spalding - with one guy at the front pulling all the way. On this stretch we got stopped at a railroad crossing where I discovered that some crossings use manual gates the block either the road or the tracks - and that it is a manual operation to move these gates whenever there is an approaching train. Something we don't really have in the US.
Leaving Spalding around 19:16 my offer to ride with a small group was ignored, curious since one of them nearly took me out on a quick wrong turn near the Humber bridge. So I was solo until I came across a couple of stopped riders, one of who was packing it in because his knee was so swollen he could hardly pedal. The other rider was Thomas Krechel from Germany and I ended up riding with him to St Ives and into Cambridge. As a bonus Thomas had the "alternate" route that I did not which went through and not around Cambridge.
Day Six: St Ives, Great Easton, Loughton: 74 miles ( 119 km, FINISHED):
Tired in St Ives, we took a 10 minute floor nap then headed out at 23:50. St Ives was hopping with people including some drunks, one of whom tried to kick Thomas and his bike over, and kept yelling "Are you afraid of me?". Thomas avoided the guy and I replied that yes we were afraid of him because he was drunk and an idiot. This seemed to satisfy him and he left us alone.
From St Ives we then found our way on this great bike path to Cambridge that ran in parallel with a bus lane that I recall was to be avoided because the bus lane had sections with big holes called car traps which were designed to prevent cars from driving in the bus lane. Riding into one of these on a bike would have been a disaster - we managed to stay on the bike path and had no issues:
Still tired we stopped for a 10 minute ditch nap. As we got up a big group passed so we hustled to catch up with them and the adrenaline kept me going with this group all the way through Cambridge. We passed some local riders who knew we were riding LEL and they cheered us on.
All this was not enough as I was having extreme difficulties staying awake and my field of vision would keep transforming and I was seeing things that weren't there. So I drifted to the back then dropped off for another ditch nap. I woke just as dawn was breaking and with this I was able to stay awake to the last control at Great Easton at 0430, where I got some food and calculated I could definitely make it as there was just 48 km to go with over four hours left.
Sitting across from me was a tired looking rider, who said he had just two hours left and he was not going to make the cutoff, after riding almost 1400 kms. I gave him the can of Coke I had been carrying since Pocklington and wished him well.
On the final stretch I still had to stop twice for brief naps, but made good progress. I sped up and passed some riders, all the while checking my GPS waiting to see the final little red flag appear indicating the end of the course. Finally it came into view and then there was the final control. My posse of Sven, Kathy, and Suzanne were all there cheering me on - even though I had put them through the wringer of wondering when I was actually going to finish the ride. But now it was finally over and I finished at 08:31, after 116 hrs 16 minutes.
Epilogue
I found this ride harder to plan for than PBP in terms of breaking the ride up into chunks. I probably should have ridden futher the first day to get some time in the old sleep bank. As I was "behind time"
for most of the ride, most projections would have me DNFing because of fatigue and the headwind all the way back. But I was determined, never doubted I could complete in time, and managed to do so. According to RWGPS:
Moving Time: 72:32:19, Stopped Time: 43:45:21 (36:36 at controls, so 07:09 "on the road").
Maybe I got lucky, but the controls were GREAT! I always found plentiful tasty food, and I was able to sleep and shower when I needed to. The volunteers were very helpful, especially those waving you into the controls.
It was very special to be able to ride LEL with my brother Sven, who before 2017 had not even ridden a century. But in 2017 we did a number of long rides together and Sven really rose to the challenge for LEL in terms of getting in miles and equipment in preparation for the ride. Sven ended up DNFing in Brampton after initially missing the control at Innerleithen which resulted in a costly 3 hour setback by the time he figured it out. Sven was still riding strong though and I think he will be back for more randonneuring action in the future.
I got a lot of support from friends and family with IMs etc. As I rode along I could hear the steam whistle going off whenever someone added a new comment to the IM chain. So thanks everyone for that encouragement.
