London Edinburgh London (LEL) 2022 Edition
7 August to 12 August
Distance: 1,540 kilometers
Allotted time: 128 hours 20 minutes
Start time: 7 August 2022, 8:15 am
Finish time: 12 August 2022 8:47 am
- It is rated as one of the toughest if not the toughest ride in the Audax UK calendar.
- It is the most popular randonneuring event in the world after Paris Brest Paris (PBP). It has the largest number of participants after PBP
- Opportunity to experience and see England and Scotland on a saddle
- Opportunity to ride in Europe weather and feel the biting cold again
Do I Register?
The bags were packed in a hurry, route maps were printed and laminated, fit files were loaded onto the Garmin device, name was fixed onto the bike box and I was ready to go to the airport by 9:00 pm. Had about an hour remaining to start to the airport and the skies opened up. It was a deluge and road was getting flooded. I was unable to get a cab; fortunately my friend had come over, we quickly loaded the bike and cabin luggage into her car and she drove me to the airport. It was 10:00 pm and she was a God send at that moment, I wouldn’t have gotten a cab and even if I had, the road was flooded; it wouldn’t have been possible to get out of the house.
Gratitude:
Mohan Subramanyam – guiding and mentoring my cycling journey; providing the opportunity and platform to ride on routes which mimic the LEL route in terms of elevation and to prepare us physically and mentally to face the challenges on these rides. The work that you put in to prepare us for the ride was amazing; from arranging talks by the the previous participants to briefing us on the day before the ride about the challenges, you were relentless.
Tanu – sister dearest, thank you for your unconditional support and keeping me motivated and emotionally perked up. You have been my support system and this wouldn’t have been possible without your support, understanding and encouragement.
Audax India Randonneurs, Raghu Vishal, Dhananjaya S, Siddalinga Swamy, Mohan Subramanyam – for support during the visa process
Rajkumar Khot and Pritish Abraham – for not giving up on me
Pritish Abraham and Charlene Mathais – for arranging forex for my travel at the last minute and the heat patches
Srinivas Gokulnath – training rides with you kept me physically in shape for the ride
RR Cycles (Madivala) – For sourcing parts in a short time frame and getting the cycle ready to work well during the ride. Credit for the ride goes largely to the bike for holding up and not having any mechanical issues during the ride, cannot express how grateful I am to Rakesh and his staff for taking care of the bike
Sheriyar Unwalla – for providing the FL 400 light and the 4PM bars. The 4 PM bars kept me going through the first 500 kilometers of the ride when the food intake at controls was not sufficient. I alternated between the chocolate and white chocolate flavors to avoid flavor fatigue and it worked well.
Biju Kunnapada (Cycling Boutique) – bike fit. Got a bike fit done at Cycling Boutique and it’s the first LRM that I’ve done post bike fit. I did not suffer from numb fingers or neck/ankle pain at the end of the ride which were usual pains on earlier rides. Fair to say that I could have continued riding at the end of the event and did not feel washed up at the end of the ride, fair share of the credit goes to the bike fit for this.
Garmin – navigation worked seamlessly. Navigation was critical in LEL. In a route of 1,550 kilometers, I did go off route by 2 kilometers, although the Garmin unit did prompt about being off-route, I ignored the alert as my ride partners continued on the same route. The unit did hang on a couple of occasions, when almost 800-1,000 kilometers were done, so this was the only time I had an issue with the device as the GPS signal was not accurate, relied on ride partners devices at this time.
Ride Partners:
- Pritish Abraham – thank you for riding with me from the 200 kilometer mark till the finish. We have ridden together in Bangalore a lot and to be able to ride with you at LEL and finish together was fantastic. Thank you for pulling me through the low phases and keeping me motivated through the ride. Watching you ride was a pleasure and was happy to have your company through the ride.
- Rajaneesh K N – thank you for pulling me through when I was going through a rough patch on day 1.
- Rajkumar Khot, Mahesh Choudhary, Jayaprakash N, Abhishek Singh – thank you for the pull in the first 100 kilometers. The fast start helped to create a buffer and I was able to take it easy on account of the buffer for the rest of the day
- Siddalinga Swamy and Prasad S – always fun to ride with you guys. The 70 kilometer ride from St Ives to Great Easton was essentially a night ride and being the 5th night sleep would have been a problem, but the amount of chatter that we had kept sleep at bay. When we arrived at Great Easton at day break it did not feel like we had ridden 70 kilometers. Fortunate to have completed the ride with you all, it’s something that I missed out on at PBP, made up for it at LEL. Remember the phone conversation that we had prior to departure where Swamy had stated that we would finish LEL together, didn’t expect it to come true at the time, however, very happy that it did work out exactly like that.
Organizer/Volunteers – no ride is possible without the organizers and the volunteers. Thanks to Danial and Roger and the organizing team for putting together this event. The route was beautiful and it was curated to cater to all categories of riders whether you are a racer, climber, tourer, etc. Shout out to the volunteers for making this ride possible for us. Welcoming us with smiles and standing in the cold to guide us to the controls, waking us up on time every time. Special mention of the Indian volunteers at LEL; it’s nice to see familiar faces at the controls, you all definitely pepped me up, was great to interact with you all.
Bon Voyage:
 |
| Bangalore Randonneurs Team |
I synced up with the Bangalore Randonneurs team at the
airport. Around 17 of us were travelling on the same flight. Few randonneurs
came to the airport to wish us for the event. Checked in the luggage, cleared
cabin luggage and only when I sat in the flight did I finally believe that I
would be riding at LEL. Till then I had my doubts and did not believe that I
would be at the start line of the event. It felt like destiny had other plans,
but I was now on the flight to London and would be riding LEL 2022.
 |
| L to R: Me, Pritish, Charlene and Rajkumar |
 |
| Bangalore Randoneurs Team after the security check at the Airport |
Touchdown and settle in:
 |
| Hello London |
We were greeted by cloudy weather and intermittent rain when we reached London. Thanks to Grinshina K for making the travel arrangements from the airport to Best Western Hotel, Ilford. We were in for a surprise when we reached the hotel at Ilford, the room size was highly inadequate for us with our luggage. Further, the rooms were of different sizes. Some of us got small rooms whereas others had slightly larger rooms. We moved the luggage around amongst our rooms to be able to make space for us and our bikes in the rooms.
 |
| Night sky at Ilford |
I wanted to set up the bike as soon as we reached the hotel and wanted to ride the bike also so that if there are any glitches it could be identified and rectified. Raj and I set up our respective bikes and went on a small ride along with Raghu Nandan and Mahesh Choudhary.
 |
| First ride on English Soil |
The bike set up was fine, more than the bike the London roads were alien to us and I was distinctly uncomfortable to ride on the roads as I was not aware of which roads we could take, whether there was a cycle track, what are the traffic rules and how it was different to what we are used to in India. The 10 kilometer ride that we did was more to shed the inhibitions about riding in London and getting comfortable with cycling on London roads.
Keep the legs moving:
We had 6 days before the event started. I had planned
to ride for 3-4 of these days which would help to familiarize with the route,
weather and navigation.
1 August 2022:
Ride to Standon – 100 kilometers
Start time: 7:00 am
Total time: 5 hours 50 minutes
 |
| Cafe at Standon |
It was a sizeable contingent that started from Best
Western Ilford. We followed the route plotted by Mohan Subramanyam from the
hotel to the start point. I intentionally rode without gloves and could feel the
bite of the cold air. The distance from the hotel to the start point was 15
kilometers and it took about 5 kilometers for the fingers to start hurting due
to the cold. Took a further 5 kilometers for the fingers to get warm, as we got
closer to the start point the terrain was rolling and we were getting a feeler
of what lay ahead for us. We reached Davenant School, the start point for the
ride. The plan for the day was to ride about 35 kilometers of the start leg of
the ride. The navigation was set to head to St Ives and all of us set off from
Davenant School.
 |
| Roydon bridge |
First fear taken care off, the garmin device worked fine and navigation was working well on the device. Alerts were popping up for the turns and I was getting comfortable with the navigation feature. There was a lot of car traffic on the route and what we noticed was that they would wait for a clear line of sight to overtake us and gave us our room even on interior roads. It was refreshing to see this and also at the same time we made the effort to give them the way and not hold them behind us for too long. The route was rolling and there were a lot of turns. In spite of having the garmin device we missed a few turns and had to get back on route which broke the momentum. I realized that navigation was going to be difficult on the ride and also realized the value of the Garmin unit. Having been a person who had used the phone to navigate, it was easy to see the value that the garmin unit brought for this ride.
 |
| Interacting with locals at Standon |
We rode about 35 kilometers on the route. Stopped at
Standon, a lovely town, interacted with the locals and headed back.
 |
| Cafe at Standon |
 |
| Breakfast time |
Although the Sun was out there was a chill in the air and I was feeling a little cold through the ride. This changed as we reached Ilford. It was almost 1 pm and Ilford was boiling.
 |
| Back at Ilford |
2 August 2022:
Ride to Toot Hill – 58 kilometers
Start time: 6:50 am
Total time: 3 hours 28 minutes
 |
| Pine forest |
Start time was the same, this time with gloves. Big
group of riders; the air was cold as we headed to Davenant school. We met up
with Team Jammy (South Indian Actor Arya’s team) at the start point. Today’s
plan was to ride about 20 kilometers on the return route. We had Raghu Nandan
to lead us as he was the navigator for the day. All of us followed Raghu and
had a relaxed ride. The return route had rolling terrain with a let up only in
the last few kilometers of the route. So, if the ride became a close run thing,
then it would be a tough fight to get to the end point, the need to keep a
buffer was evident since the route was going to be tough.
 |
| With Team Jammy |
 |
| Revisit ISAN memories |
 |
| Brothers in arms |
 |
| Twinning |
London City – 42 kilometers
Start time: 6:30 am
Total time: 6 hours 18 minutes
 |
| Bangalore Randonneurs at Tower bridge |
Thanks to Sunil Gopala Chari for plotting the route
and leading us to the different locations in London.
 |
| Traffic Signals for cyclists.... |
It was again a large group of riders as we rode into
London city. We were about 15 kilometers from Central London, rode on the cycle
lane, saw that the cycle lane is seamless in London and a lot of commuters were
zipping on the cycle lane as they headed to work, felt like a snail while I
watched them go past.
 |
| Bangalore Randonneurs at the Tower |
The sights that we took in on this ride were Tower
Bridge, The Tower (which houses the Kohinoor Diamond), London Eye, Westminster
Abbey, Big Ben, Basavanna Statue, Buckingham Palace and Wellington Arch. We
were lucky to see the Royal Guard change at Buckingham Palace on the way to and
from Buckingham Palace.
 |
| Westminster |
 |
| Bangalore Randonneurs at Buckingham Palace |
 |
| Bangalore Randonneurs at Basavanna Statue |
4 August 2022:
I changed the tires from the worn out Vittoria Rubino
to a new set of Continental Gatorskins. With the road surface being rough, I
preferred a sturdier tire than a tire which was fast. However, on a short ride
to visit Pritish, the gear shifting was totally off. The gears seemed to have
developed a mind of their own and were shifting without being prompted. Riding
the bike had become painful.
 |
| Run Pritish Run |
Got back to the hotel, re-fitted the wheel and then toggled a little with the cable tension to rectify the gear shifting.
5 August 2022:
Ride to Chigwell – 18 kilometers
Start time: 6:20 am
Total time: 56 minutes
This was supposed to be a day with no riding. However,
with the gear shifting issues that I had the previous day, I wanted to test the
shifting after I had made a few changes to the cable tension. What started as a
short 3-5 kilometer ride soon had me riding a little further to test the bike
out on gradient under load. So went a little further till Chigwell, did a short
climb and was happy with the bike and headed back to the hotel.
6 August 2022:
Registration Day
Time had flown and there was just a day remaining for
the event to start. We had to go to the start point to hand over the stuff that
we wanted to put in the drop bags. Had a sumptuous breakfast, took the
pre-packed bags and headed to the start point by bus. Opted to go by bus rather
than riding as the drop bag items were weighing close to 4 kgs and I didn’t
want to tire myself out with less than 24 hours remaining for the ride to
start.
Davenant School was buzzing. Volunteers were guiding
us with were we had to go for the registration. A walk around the school and we
were handed our rider numbers, drop bags and pre-ordered apparel, water bottle
and pen were handed over. We had to fill in the drop bags and hand them over.
Took a little time to fill up the drop bags and then hand it over at the tent
where drop bags were to be handed over.
 |
| Registration day arrangements |
Having had an issue with the shifting and with the test ride continuing till yesterday, I had not had time to set up my bike with the bags and fill the bags with the necessary items. I was short on time as I wanted to get as much rest/sleep as possible and eat right. There was no time to waste as it was already 1:00 pm and I did feel that I was short on time to be ready for the ride.
 |
| Last minute tips by Mohan Subramanyam |
Headed back to the hotel, lunch was done, then the luggage rooms were sorted. Finally got to work on the bike and set it up with Raj’s help and was done by 7:00 pm. Mohan Sir had arranged a meet up for the riders to give us last minute tips for the ride. We had dinner after the meet up and then it was time to get as much sleep as possible. It was the last opportunity to get a good sleep in, since the next proper sleep that I might have would be after 5 days.
7 August 2022:
Time: 4:30 am
It was ride day. Had managed to get a 6 hour sleep in
and it was time to get ready for the ride and head to the start point. We moved
our luggage into the room which we had booked for the luggage and assembled
outside the hotel to ride to the start point. We were about 20 of us starting
from Best Western Hotel and as the riders started, Pritish had not arrived as
yet. As we waited, I realized that I had not taken the reflective vest and had
left it in the bag. As Pritish had not arrived, I had time to get the
reflective gillet. Pritish came and we started to Davenant School.
Time: 6:15 am
It was a familiar route to the start point. However,
there was a little nervousness. Within 2 kilometers of the ride, at a
roundabout I was late to notice an oncoming bus and was forced to brake hard
and stop. I did not have enough time to indicate that I was stopping to Mahesh
and he did not have enough time to react. Although he braked and slowed down
substantially, he hit my back wheel and as I turned back I could see Mahesh
take a tumble. It was a slow fall, but he was on his back. Pritish and Raj
helped him back onto his feet, there was no damage to Mahesh or his bike, after
a brief hiccup we were back on the bike heading to the start point.
We reached the start point at 7:00 am. We headed to
the cafeteria to have breakfast. Coupons were given for food and drink and anything
taken other than the set menu items had to be paid for. Breakfast was eaten and
now it was the anxious wait for the ride to start.
Equipment and Set Up:
 |
| Ready to start |
Groupset: Shimano Tiagra 9 speed (RD changed to
Shimano 105 to accommodate a 11-32 cassette at the rear)
Chain ring: 50-34
Lights: Cateye Volt 300 and FL 400
Handle Bar Bag: 2 spare tubes, Pump, phone and back up
phone, 2 cateye batteries, laminated route sheet, heat patches, clear lens, and
20,000 mah power bank
Saddle Bag: Trek N Ride Canguru Bag – kept the tool
kit, Showers Pass Elite 2.1 Rain Jacket, DHB Aeron Winter Jacket, DHB Water
proof gloves
Navigation:
Device: Garmin Edge 520 +
The 1,540 kilometer route was divided into 20 sections.
There were 20 control points and the organizers had shared the 1,540 kilometer
route and also 20 files for the control to control maps. Since this was largely
an out and back route, I had decided to use the control to control route rather
than the full course. In case we got onto the return route by mistake then the
full course would not show that we were off route, so decided to load the route
for the respective sections when we reached the control.
The routes had been downloaded on Ridewithgps and
BikeGPX apps and these were going to be used as backup in case the garmin
device failed. I had got a phone specifically for navigation in case the Garmin
had issues.
Weather update:
LEL is one of the toughest rides on the audax calendar
not only because of the terrain but because of the weather that we encounter
during the ride. Rain is a certainty and we were informed that we should
prepare for wet weather if not in England, then definitely in Scotland.
However, United Kingdom was going through a heat wave during this year’s event and
we were told that from a ride perspective it was the best weather since rain
would be minimal. Although it’s summer in United Kingdom, the nights are cold and
it was advisable to carry winter clothing for Asian’s. So I went in with a Gore
Winter jacket, Gore full finger cold weather gloves and a Showers Pass rain
jacket. Thanks to Jayaprakash N for researching and suggesting about the Gore
jacket and gloves, without this it would have been extremely difficult nigh
impossible to ride after sun down in the UK.
Total Time:
The total time for the ride was originally 125 hours.
The original route was 1,520 kilometers. However, the road to Yad Moss was
going to be closed on Monday morning and this required the route to be changed.
The diversion made the route longer and the gradual gradient Yad Moss was
replaced by the steep Chapel Fell climb. The route was longer and also had
gained an additional 100 meters in terms of elevation.
The organizers made a last minute decision to increase
the allotted time from the original 125 hours to 128 hours 20 minutes. An
additional 3 hours 20 minutes was given and since it was last minute, the
brevet cards could not be re-printed to have the changed time.
My start time was 8:15 am 7 August 2022 and as per the new additional time given, I had to complete the ride by 4:35 pm 12 August 2022.
Plan:
The broad plan for the ride was as follows:
|
Day |
Hours |
Target Distance (kilometers) |
|
1 |
24 |
400 |
|
2 |
24 |
300 |
|
3 |
24 |
300 |
|
4 |
24 |
300 |
|
5 |
24 |
240 |
|
|
|
1,540 |
The broad plan was for 120 hours. I ignored the additional 3 hours 20 minutes, decided to consider that the cut-off time was 125 hours itself. If required I could make use of the additional time, however, I thought it would be risky to start the ride with the thought that the ride was for 128 hours 20 minutes.
Although the plan was for 24 hours, it was effectively
a 20-21 hour day since I had planned to stop during the 1:00 am to 4:00 am
window on all the nights. Given my struggles of riding in cold weather, I was
better off sleeping in a warm place rather than battling it out in the cold.
The night rides would be done only if necessary or if things went wrong; I had
sufficient buffer in the plan and felt comfortable with being able to complete
the ride.
Drop Bag Locations:
I had opted for Hessle and Brampton as the drop bag
locations. Hessle and Brampton were on the north bound and south bound route.
Hessle: 300 kilometers and 1,224 kilometers
Brampton: 650 kilometers and 900 kilometers
However, accessing the drop bag is time consuming with
at least 3-4 hours being lost to access the drop bag. I did not want to lose
time at the beginning and the plan was that I would access the drop bag thrice,
that is, once at Hessle and twice at Brampton.
The Ride:
Day 1
Start time: 8:15 am 7 August 2022
Distance covered in 24 hours: 370 kilometers
Started at Davenant School, Debden and reached Malton
Control
Start point:
Standing around in the Sun at the start point, I was
feeling cold. A European rider saw me and said that if I was feeling cold here,
then it would be very difficult along the route. I was not sure whether I was
feeling cold because of the weather or it was a cold from the nervousness at
the start. I don’t know how time flew, we had 30 minutes remaining for our
start, when we were called to line up and get ourselves to report for the
start. We went in a single file towards the computer stall where we were
checked in and were marked to start the ride. Pre-ride few photos were taken of
the Bangalore riders, the 8:15 am start had majority of the Bangalore riders.
All of us decked up in the LEL India jersey with the Tiger and London Eye to
mark the presence of Indian riders at LEL. There was so much happening that I
forgot to start the navigation on the device. I had to scramble a little with
only 2 minutes remaining for the ride to start.
 |
| Bangalore Randonneurs at Davenant School, Debden Standing (L to R): Mohan Subramanyam, Mahesh Choudhary, Nitin Jagtap, Chaitanya R, Sai Srinivas, Anand P, Raghu Nandan, Santosh Sampige, Pritish Abraham, Rajkumar Khot, Dhanjaya S, Bharat Jayaprakash, Santosh Surendra, Satish Addanki Sitting (L to R): Me, Galin Abraham, Sunil Gopala Chari, Abhishek Singh, Jayaprakash N, Lorraine D'Costa, Sudarshan Gopinath, Siddalinga Swamy, Prasad S |
We were given last minute route instructions and then
were waved to start the ride at 8:15 am. The ride was a go and as we gingerly
rode out of the school, few last minute wishes to the riders as we set off.
Debden to St Ives - Got Off to a Flyer
|
Distance (kms) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
101 |
3 hours 41 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
- |
3 minutes |
34 minutes |
4 hours 18 minutes |
The first couple of kilometers were done slowly and it
took the first climb of the day to separate the group. Hardly done 4 kilometers
and 10-12 of us had formed a group. The group had Rajkumar, Mahesh,
Jayaprakash, Abhishek, Rajaneesh and me from India and the remaining riders
from the UK/Europe. Pritish had missed out on the group. The Europeans were
setting the pace as we sat behind. I was happy to sit behind and take the tow,
not wanting to stretch too much at the start. The pace was relatively high, the
guys at the front were happy to ride in the front and there was no pressure to
ride at the front. Rajkumar, thought otherwise and sprinted ahead and took the
speed up a few notches. I was grumbling about the increase in pace, however, I increased
my pace to stay with the group.
The initial kilometers were spent understanding the
etiquette of riding in the group, the signals to be given at turns and the
distance to be maintained. There was a head wind and it was easier to sit
behind than to ride ahead. There were some long climbs and the group would
split at these climbs or at a junction some would get ahead and some would be
forced to wait for the traffic to clear. The group which went ahead would wait
for us to re-join and I did find myself at the head of the group on a couple of
occasions. However, I did not sit there for long and would come behind to save
myself as I did find the pace to be high and even though I was sitting behind I
was beginning to tire.
The pace was in the 27-28 kmph range which to me felt
like a lot given that the road surface was rough. We were catching up and
passing riders who had started in the earlier batches, although it felt good to
be passing the riders, I did think if this was happening too fast. No time to
ponder for too long, have to keep the legs moving lest the gap opens and then
there is no bridging the gap given the wind situation.
The terrain was rolling with a few slightly long
climbs (not a climb but sufficient to break the momentum of the ride) and the
Sun was out. The ride pace was dropping a little but it was not sufficient to
recover. The legs were getting heavier, however, with only a few kilometers
remaining to the St Ives control. I kept pushing myself to keep riding in the group.
I could get to the control and recover during the break was the thought
process.
The ride with the group had it's benefits, in a short
while I was almost at the St Ives control. A few turns to negotiate and the
group got stretched a little. Empty road and a lot of gap to the rider in
front, my attempt to bridge the gap saw me go diagonally. I went towards the
pavement and brushed against the pavement and fortunately the bike got onto the
pavement. I was able to slow down a little and get back in control and got off
the pavement and back on the road. It was the first sign of trouble for me.
Under a kilometer and took it easy and pulled into the St Ives control.
I got off the bike, got the brevet card stamped and
entry made on the computer; I had reached at 11:59 am. It was a flyer and it
was now time to fill up on food and water and recover sufficiently to be able
to ride again.
Went in to take a leak and the dark yellow color of
the urine was an indication that I had dehydrated. Still had time to recover,
needed to eat and drink well and get started. However, the food was being
rationed for riders arriving at the control later and I did not get sufficient
food. I was happy to have carried the 4PM bars and was not very worried as I
knew that I had carried sufficient bars to keep me filled up till I get to the
next control.
Pritish and Swamy had arrived at the control a little
after us. We were ready to start and I gulped water before refilling the
bottle.
St Ives to Boston – The Struggle and the Plan is dumped
|
Distance (kms) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
91 |
4 hours 2 minutes |
8 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
- |
35 minutes |
5 hours 19 minutes |
The ride from St Ives to Boston is flat; a section where significant time gains can be made. The ride out of St Ives had a few turns to negotiate and some road work as well. Jayaprakash and Abhishek had started a little early, Rajkumar, Mahesh and Rajaneesh had sped ahead and when I did get into the open road I was unable to bridge the gap. The legs were heavy and mentally I was not ready to push to bridge the gap. The heat and wind were not much but mentally it felt like it was a lot and I was struggling to ride. The pace had dropped by 5 kmph as compared to the morning ride. In a short while Pritish came by and I could not keep pace with him either. This was in a sense a confirmation for me that things were not alright with me.
It was decision making time for me, I could push
myself to catch up risking a cramp and burning myself out by the time I get to
the 130-150 kilometer mark or I had to back off the pace and ride well under
the limit. This would mean that I would have to put in a night ride to pull things
back.
It was not a tough decision for me, I backed off the
pace. The heat was peaking and having ridden and faced a similar situation back
home, I knew that things would improve for me only when the heat begins to
reduce. Till then I had to ride in damage limitation mode and make steady
progress.
Being in flat terrain, the legs had to keep rotating
and at the time I wanted the legs to keep getting it's rests, a long descent
would help but was not anywhere in the vicinity. Kept my head down and was pedaling
when I saw Rajaneesh at the side of the road. He had a puncture and had fixed
it and was ready to start again.
He joined me and my repeated pleas to him to continue
ahead were not heard and Rajaneesh continued to ride with me. He set the pace
and tried to make me follow and was on the lookout for a store. We got a
provision store and made a forced stop to buy coke to help with my cramps. We
synced up with Gurpreet and Nayan Jain after this for a while as we rode along
Welland river. It was flat terrain and scenic along a narrow road, but the
constant wind did not make it easy. There were a lot of riders here, however
the group was spread out. Guru and Nayan stopped for a break while Rajaneesh
and I continued to ride. The pace was just above the 20 kmph mark.
We reached Spalding which was at 161 kilometers; in
2017 LEL Spalding was the control and I wanted to take a break and was thinking
if Spalding was the control I would have stopped and that would have given an
opportunity to recover a little. However, there was still 30 kilometers to the
control at Boston and there was no time to rest as this would push me back
further. The pace was not bad, but the more I rode at this pace it was clear
that I had to ride through the night to make up for the slow pace. I did think
that I could ride the first 650 kilometers, i.e., to Brampton control with a
power nap if required and catch up with my plan.
We had to take a diversion due to a road closure due
to an accident to a cyclist. We were guided by other riders to take the
deviation, a few additional kilometers added to the distance, and a little bit
of help from Garmin to get back on track.
A lot of thoughts, negative largely because of the
struggles and in between tried to calculate and re-plan the ride. Amidst these
thoughts, Rajaneesh and I reached the Boston control. It was a 4:45 pm when I
reached Boston. Pritish was still at the control.
Headed to the food counter and was welcomed by almost
empty food trays. Food was again rationed and this was now getting a little
frustrating. I was still ok to push on as I still had 4 PM bars and ate a 4 PM
bar at the control as well. By the time I was done with the sausage and
vegetables that was given Raspberry cheese cake was ready and I had a serving
of it. I was now eating a lot of sweet and wanted some savory stuff as well to
balance the diet.
I was mindful of the time being spent at the CP and
made an exit in about 30 minutes along with Pritish and Rajaneesh. I hadn’t
lubed my chain the previous day and took an additional 10 minutes to lube the
chain at the control. Felt like a novice error to have not lubed the chain, we
were given 3 in 1 motor oil as lube at the control, although I did carry lube,
I did not want to remove it from the bag so went for the easier option of
taking it from the mech at the control.
Swamy and Prasad had reached the control and just as
we were exiting Boston, Sunil, Santosh and Galin came in.
Boston to Louth – steady ride
|
Distance (kms) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
53 |
2 hours 23 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
56 minutes |
3 hours 19 minutes |
Pritish, Rajaneesh and I exited the CP. It was again flat terrain. We were in the Fens which is flat. This section was supposed to have a tail wind on the north bound and head wind on the return, however, on account of the weather change we had been informed that it was going to be a head wind on the north bound ride and if we were unlucky we would have a head wind on the return as well.
The distances to the first two controls were almost
100 kilometers each. This section was just 53 kilometers and mentally was not
as taxing as the earlier sections. Mentally it was, get your head down and put
an effort for 90 minutes and the remaining distance would be in the 20’s, so it
would be a countdown to the control if I could put in a shift for 90 minutes.
I was running through my stock of 4PM bars; having
only sweet was a concern at the same time I wasn’t keen on stopping in between
controls and wasting time. Also, there weren’t many options to stop and refill,
so even if I wanted to stop, I would have to go off route in search of the
store, which was not feasible.
Food was dominating the thought process in this
section, probably a bit too much for my liking. Having Pritish riding along
helped; we ride together in Bangalore and having a rider who knew my quirks and
riding style helped. Talked a little, tried to divert the mind a little and
before we knew it we were close to the Louth control.
It felt good to see a control; till I got to the
control, the thought was that I can get some food and rest at the control,
recover and then start; however the minute I reached the control, there was a
hastiness to get the stamping done, eat and get started quickly. The thought
was always at the back of the head that we shouldn’t waste time at the
controls.
However, the control point routine changed from Louth.
To start with, the food was again rationed and the volunteers at the food
counter were pretty much in a foul mood, once again stating that the riders
coming in later had to be served as well. Pritish
was told that he would be served food at Hessle and that he wouldn’t starve
when he asked for food. Ate what was served and lost track of time. I don’t
know what happened here or why we took so long, by the time we exited the
control almost an hour had passed.
We had begun to lose sight of the clock; a risky
thing, however we were sitting on an 8 hour buffer here and thought that this
was an odd indulgence and would not be repeated.
Louth to Hessle – back on track
|
Distance (kms) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
59 |
2 hours 43 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
1 hour 18 minutes |
4 hours 1 minute |
I had covered 245 kilometers in less than 12 hours. I was doing fine on the time front in spite of the troubles. However, an hour to exit the CP had pushed the time to 12.5 hours. It was 8:30 pm, the Sun had begun it's descent, although it was going to get cold, I chose not to get the cold weather gear on. I was warm enough and did think that a further hour of pedaling would heat the body up further.
We started from Louth in low light. With the distance
to Hessle being about 60 kilometers, this was another section which wouldn’t be
taxing on the mind. Once again, get the head down and do a 90 minute shift
without thinking about the distance and we would be in countdown territory.
Three of us rode well together at a steady pace. The
pace was not high, but the kilometers were coming down. It was around 10:00 pm
when we decided to make a stop to wear the winter gear. I could have pushed on,
but then knowing how fast things go south, stopped and wore the winter jacket
and full finger gloves. Rajaneesh and I wore winter jackets while Pritish was
going to manage on a rain jacket. He kept the winter wear at Brampton control
for the cold weather in Scotland.
 |
| On Humber Bridge |
Short stop to wear the jacket and we were back on. The terrain was mild rolling, the flats were almost done as we headed towards the Humber river. I hadn’t studied the route sufficiently, I had pulled away from Pritish and Rajaneesh a little and was surprised when I reached the Humber bridge. Volunteers were stationed in the cold night to guide us towards the bridge. The bridge is closed at night, however, it was kept open for the ride and this was communicated that it would be open till 11 August 2022 night 9:00 pm.
 |
| Humber Bridge |
I have a strict no photo policy as I’ve noted that the stop and start for a photo costs time and also upsets the rhythm. So the policy is to not take photos on the onward journey, build a buffer and if I’m in a comfortable zone on the way back, then I can click pics. However, crossing the Humber bridge, being an iconic place on this ride was sufficient for me to break this rule. Even though it was night and I wouldn’t get a good pic, still stopped and clicked just to mark the occasion of crossing the bridge.
Pritish and Rajaneesh caught up while I got back on
the bike and within a few kilometers we were at the Hessle control.
It was 11:20 pm when the card was stamped at Hessle.
300 kilometers were done in 15 hours. I was happy that I had pulled things back
as I had reached Hessle earlier than I had planned. The original plan was to
get a 3 hour sleep at Hessle and start from Hessle at 4:00 am. However, I was
feeling good and wanted to push further and get to Brampton with a power nap.
Further having reached Hessle at 11:20 pm, I was slightly ahead of schedule, so
thought that we could ride a little further. Pritish and Rajaneesh were ok with
riding through the night. So we stood in the queue for the food.
Well the food quantity had increased, however it was
still being rationed. The food was not up to the mark or rather we had expected
better. I can understand the rationing of food if there are options to get food
outside, if not information could have been given that food wouldn’t be
available and that we had to bring our own food. However, we were now riding on
bare minimum with the 4 PM bars being used to tide over the shortage, I was
running the risk of flavor fatigue setting in with the 4 PM bars.
We took our time to get out of this control, in
hindsight leaving the control in 30 minutes would have been better, however the
additional 45 minutes was going to come back to bite us. I didn’t access the
drop bag as I still had sufficient 4PM bars and neither did I need a change of
clothes, although a change would have been good, still opted to save some time
here instead of taking a further hour for a shower and change of clothes.
I was trying to get ahead of the plan at this place
and thought that I could pull it off; a decision which came back to bite us
hard.
Hessle to Malton – Costly error
|
Distance (kms) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
67 |
3 hours 55 minutes |
- |
2 hours |
30 minutes |
- |
21 minutes |
54 minutes |
7 hours 40 minutes |
The body had cooled down and re-starting the ride was going to be difficult. It was slow progress. The next 26 kilometers took 1 hour 40 minutes at an average speed of 18 kmph we had gotten nowhere.
Meanwhile Santosh Sampige had caught up with us and we
rode a few kilometers together. He stopped to wait for Sunil Gopala Chari while
we continued. We took a 10 minute break and then restarted. With day break at
4:30 am the pace improved a little to the 20 kmph range. It was a steady ride
and we reached Malton at 5:24 am. We were hungry and sleepy.
Went to the cafeteria and it was the same story. There
was bare minimal to eat at the control. There was corn flakes with milk, but no
bowl to have the corn flakes, had to put this on a plate and have. Bread was
available, but jam was almost over. We scooped the last bits of the jam liquid
from the tray and poured it onto the bread slice and ate what was available.
We met Jayaprakash and Mahesh who had slept at Malton;
they were about to start their day’s ride. We headed to the dormitory and were
given an air bed. I wanted to get an hour’s sleep, however Pritish wanted to
get two, we agreed on two hours of sleep. While we slept, we had put the
electrical equipment for charge, the power bank and garmin unit was being
charged.
We got a good sleep in, Pritish woke me up and when we
headed back to the cafeteria the situation on the food front was still the
same. Toilet duties were taken care and we headed out to start the ride.
Day 1 was done and the distance covered was 370
kilometers. I was 30 kilometers behind the plan, that’s approximately 1.5 – 2.0
hours behind which was essentially the amount of time spent sleeping. However,
having rested, we did think that we could pull this back.
Day 2
Start time: 8:15 am 8 August 2022
Distance covered in 24 hours: 280 kilometers
Started at Malton and reached Moffat
Malton to Barnard Castle – The Motivation is back
|
Distance (kms) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
113 |
6 hours 10 minutes |
30 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
30 minutes |
33 minutes |
7 hours 43 minutes |
 |
| Day break near Malton |
Pritish, Rajaneesh and I took our time to exit the control. We filled the water and the three of us started in formation. I was ahead, Rajaneesh behind and Pritish behind Rajaneesh. We exited the school and we needed to make a few turns immediately after exiting the control. We had ridden about a kilometer and when I turned around to check, Pritish was missing. The network was bad in the area and I was unable to call Pritish. I rode back to the control to see if Pritish had gone back to the control. I did not see Pritish, network still unavailable, so decided to ride ahead on the route and call when I get network. Rajaneesh was waiting for me and we rode ahead. It was rolling terrain and when we did get network, I called Pritish and was able to connect.
 |
| Butter smooth surface.....a rarity |
MC (frustration
in the voice): Hello, where are you?
PA (confused):
Hey MC, I’m riding, where are you?
MC: You’re off route, where are you?
PA: I’m in the long downhill, I can see riders coming
in the opposite direction
MC: Your on the return route you need to come back,
you were right behind us, how did you go off route
PA: My GPS was not working, was trying to get it to
work, send me your location
MC: Will, send the location, PA you need to come back…..PA can you hear me….hello…damn lost network again
 |
| Hawnby - climb to enjoy this view |
I shared the location and continued to ride on the route. After the initial elevation gain from Malton the road flattened out. Hunger pangs were biting and the minimal food at the previous control was taking a toll. I had eaten a 4PM bar, however I was close to bonking. We reached Helmsley town and saw a provision store at a Petrol Station. I stopped to eat along with a whole lot of us from Bangalore. It was a congregation of Bangalore riders along with a few other UK/European riders.
 |
| Need to put in a shift |
It was a half an hour stop which was necessitated
since the food at the Malton control was not sufficient. Behind the plan, some
time lost due to PA going off route and now a stop to re-fuel. The time losses
were adding up and I was falling further behind.
We started from Helmsley and within a short while we were hitting steep gradients. We were near Hawnby when we hit the first super steep gradient. From here on, it was a series of steep climbs. Many riders were getting off their bikes and pushing, a few of us stayed on and pedaled.
 |
| Some respite from the climb |
 |
| Legs are feeling good... |
This being the largest section on the route and being
on the northbound and southbound route, I expected that the secret control
would be in this section. As expected, the volunteers were present when we had
done about 60 kilometers of this section and guiding me to go in to the secret
control. I wanted to make this a quick stop, went in got the card stamped and
headed for a water refill. The water which was filled into the bottle was
filled with mud, had to empty the bottle and refill from another filter.
Refilled water and as I made my way out Pritish came
to the control. I told him that I’d wait ahead and exited the control. Pritish
caught up in a short while and we rode together as we tried to get to Barnard
Castle as quickly as we could. The heat was on and riding was not easy, rolling
terrain, although the gradient had eased up, the heat and constant cross wind was
making life difficult.
The clock seemed to be ticking fast and we were not
making very quick progress. As the clock ticked past 2:00 pm, I was getting
hungry and the pace began to drop. We were close to Barnard castle and had to
ride till Barnard Castle to have food.
As we had not had a good experience with food at the
controls, we were contemplating eating at a restaurant before or after the
control. We were thinking of getting the card stamped at the control and making
a quick exit and eating well at a restaurant. Pritish’s wife Charlene was a
volunteer at the Barnard Castle control. Pritish called her to ask for
recommendations for restaurants at Barnard Castle, she said that there was no
rationing of food at the control and we could eat what we wanted and how much
ever we wanted. This was music to our ears, however, it was difficult to
believe. We still wanted to go to the control and see if it was true.
We reached Barnard castle at 3:28 pm. The brevet card
was stamped and we headed to the cafeteria. Charlene was at the food counter
and we were indeed happy to see that there was abundant food and we were being
served as much as we needed.
The beef was heavenly and so too was the rice. Juice
was available and fruits were available too. We filled up on food and water and
for the first time in the ride I was going to start from a control with a
positive vibe.
Barnard Castle to Brampton – Steep Gradients and cold
night or was it actually cold
|
Distance (kms) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
89 |
5 hours 15 minutes |
24 minutes |
3 hours 15 minutes |
- |
1 hour 15 minutes |
1 hour 10 minutes |
50 minutes |
12 hours 9 minutes |
 |
| Chapel Fell |
Pritish, Rajaneesh and I started from Barnard Castle. I was feeling good and was happy to be starting on a full stomach. We were told that we had done the difficult climbs in the previous section and the climb ahead was easy. However, we were heading towards the deviation from Yad Moss; which meant that we had two steep climbs to contend with in this section.
 |
| Road to the top is steep |
The distance to Brampton was 89 kilometers. I had
divided this section into two parts, one till Alston which was about 60
kilometers and another from Alston being 30 kilometers. The climbs would be
done when we got to Alston, so it was a 60 kilometer section of effort and a 30
kilometer section of easy riding.
The start from Barnard Castle was rolling terrain and
then we were in a steady gradient increase section. Pritish was very sleepy; he
wanted to take a power nap. We found a patch of inviting grass and a bench and
Pritish and Rajaneesh took a power nap. I was not sleepy and spent the time
catching up and updating folks about my progress. Surprisingly, I had network
here, network was extremely patchy for me and especially at the controls, the
minute I went inside the control, I didn’t have network, so updating folks back
home was minimal.
 |
| Rough surface |
Half an hour later we were ready to get back on the bike. We started the ride; the Sun was now beginning his descent and the temperatures were not high. It was very scenic, we were already climbing; it was a gradual climb, which did not matter as the scenery took the mind off the gradient. In a short while we were at the deviation from Yad Moss, the road surface was rough, the road continued to climb gradually, made a turn a short descent followed and then the road climbed almost vertically. I could see riders up the road making slow progress, zig zagging and this was confirmation that the gradient was super steep. However, the top was not too far off, started off at 6% gradient and this kept edging up and went up to about 15% before settling in the 8%-10% range. Very scenic again, however, it was about getting to the top without getting off the bike which took precedence rather than the scenery. It took some time, but I made it to the top, happy to have made it to the top, what followed was a super steep descent. The sign boards indicated 18% gradient and 17% gradient. While the bicycle sped downhill the sign boards kind of killed the excitement of having done a steep climb since we would have to climb the 17%-18% gradient on the return. The descent was longer than the climb which meant the return was going to be tougher than what we had just done.
 |
| Done with the climb ....descend at speed |
 |
| Beautiful sunset...it's what you get when you crest a climb |
We were still in climbing territory; with the odd
descent giving a little respite to the legs. It was dusk, perfect temperature
to be on the bike. It was pleasant weather, the climbs kept coming and we were
making slow progress. A little bit of rolling terrain gave respite and then the
familiar sight, a super steep climb, the road going up vertically and rider’s
zig zagging to get to the top. It was effort time again and I was enjoying the
climbs. Being able to see the top made it a little easy on the mind. Kept the
effort going and made it to the top. I saw European riders had stopped at the
top and were wearing their jackets, now that’s a sign which cannot be ignored.
I stopped and although I was warm from the climb, wore my cold weather jacket
and full finger gloves. I don’t fancy wearing the full finger gloves on
descents as I have to keep the bike under control and not very comfortable with
braking with full fingered gloves.
 |
| Setting Sun....it's going to get cold |
MC: What is that, it’s moving?
PA: That’s from a flight, because of the condensation
it leaves streaks in the sky
MC: PA, in the morning when we took a break at the
Petrol Station after Malton, a British rider was saying that there is a meteor
shower through this week and we could see it if we are riding at night. I think
that’s a meteor
PA: Yes, that’s a meteor.
MC: There’s another one there, it's two of them
 |
| Is that a plane? Is that a bird?....No, It's a Meteor Shower |
 |
| Enjoy the view....don't forget to get to the control point |
As the light faded and darkness enveloped us, we still
had about 10-15 kilometers to reach Brampton. We saw 4 individuals walking on
the road. There were riders ahead and these individuals were not up to anything
good, they were chasing the riders and a barrage of expletives was being fired
at them. I was chased by one of them with the others encouraging him to do it
when I got to the stage of getting past them. Kept the head down and kept
pedaling and ignored the person.
Rolling terrain followed, we rode quickly and reached
Brampton at 22:54 pm. This was the bag drop location and having ridden 570
kilometers we needed a shower and change of clothes. Pritish and I headed to
collect our drop bags, while Rajaneesh went to have food and then sleep since
his drop bag was not at Brampton.
We had done 570 kilometers in 39 hours. We had a
buffer of almost 8 hours considering a 125 hour finish. Should have seen that
the buffer had dropped over the last 12 hours given the amount of climbing we
had done, however, we were oblivious to this and didn’t bother to see it.
Pritish and I headed in to take a shower. Saw that my
base layer had white patches. It was salt deposits. While riding in Bengaluru,
in spite of doing it in 35oC-38oC temperatures, I rarely
have salt deposits on my apparel. I was surprised to see the salt on my apparel
and in a way it explained the dehydration that I had suffered. The temperature
during the ride was lesser than 35oC but I still had salt loss.
Warm shower followed by a fresh set of clothes, it was
time to fill the stomach up. We headed to the cafeteria where Guru told us that
Rajaneesh had gone to the dormitory to sleep. We ate quickly, kept the
equipment for charge and then informed the volunteers that we wanted to sleep.
We were guided to a tent where the air beds were laid out on the grass. The
night was cold and the walk to the tent was tough, the grass was wet and I was
beginning to feel the bite when a volunteer wrapped me in a blanket. It was
around 12:00 pm and we asked the volunteer to wake us at 3:00 am. It was going
to be a 3 hour sleep. The grass was wet, it was very cold. We laid down our
drop bag, settled into the bed and went to sleep.
We were woken up by the volunteer at 3:00 am. It was
freezing and the first thought that I had was whether I would be able to ride
in this weather.
MC: PA, it's freezing
PA: Yes
MC: Should we sleep for another hour and wait for the
weather to improve, will we be able to ride in this cold weather?
PA: Yes, let’s get going
Thanks to Pritish telling us to get moving; when we
exited the tent, it was not as cold as it was inside the tent. The tent was
freezing and probably we would have been better off sleeping outside the tent
rather than inside. We handed over the drop bag; I had stocked up on 4 PM bars
from the drop bag, went in for a light meal and came out to start the ride.
We searched for Rajaneesh’s bike, it wasn’t there, he
had already started. We started from Brampton at 4:15 am.
Brampton to Moffat – Welcome to Scotland
|
Distance (kms) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
74 |
4 hours |
- |
- |
- |
- |
23 minutes |
55 minutes |
5 hours 18 minutes |
 |
| Scotland beckons |
It was cold, but was manageable, the jacket and gloves were on, so the effect of the cold was minimized. Within a short while of us starting, there was day break. Terrain was easy, nowhere as difficult as what we had ridden from Malton to Brampton.
Landscape was still the same, we were riding next to
the highway; windmills in the backdrop of the highway with large trucks on the
highway was the scene. The Sun was out and it was getting warm. We passed by a
few towns and then we were onto interior roads as we closed in on the Moffat
control.
The terrain was rolling and the road surface intermittently
was very rough. There were “Skid Risk” boards and the road looked like they had
glued small stones together. It was difficult to ride on this surface with the
pace slowing down a couple of notches. Getting close to the Moffat control,
these sections were painful to ride on as it delayed the arrival to the
control. The Sun was out, weather was pleasant, riding on interior roads, view
was scenic, however, hunger pangs were biting. Only a short distance remaining
to the control, ate a 4PM bar and motored towards the control.
We were welcomed by volunteers at the control, got the
card stamped and when we walked in, all the tables had fruits and energy bars
placed. The food counters were filled with a variety of food. Anju Luke,
volunteer from India, guided us to the food counters and told us about what is
available and suggested dishes we would like. We had biriyani available at this
control; we filled up on biriyani, juice, cornflakes and salad. I had a good
filling of food at Moffat. I didn’t take any energy bars as I was stocked up on
4 PM bars.
Day 2 was done and the total distance covered in 48
hours was 650 kilometers. I had ridden only 280 kilometers on day 2. Even
though we had ridden in hilly terrain, still 280 kilometers was not a good mileage
for the day. 20 kilometers short on day 2 meant that I was now 50 kilometers behind
where I wanted to be. Lot of work to do, however, with the good food intake in
the last 3 controls and the additional rest that we had taken at Malton and Brampton,
I was expecting to have a better day on the saddle.
Day 3
Start time: 8:15 am 9 August 2022
Distance covered in 24 hours: 295 kilometers
Started at Moffat and reached Longtown (15 kilometers
before Brampton)
Moffat to Dunfermline – Half way done….feeling good,
but it’s not done as yet…..it’s going to get easier from here…..will it?
|
Distance (kms) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
113 |
5 hours 42 minutes |
34 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
- |
1 hour 32 minutes |
7 hours 48 minutes |
 |
| Devils Beeftub |
This was another long section; 113 kilometers was difficult to take mentally. Further, I did not know any place mid-way to divide this section into smaller blocks. I decided to take it at one hour at a time and not to think of Dunfermline.
 |
| Breathtaking.....coz of the view not the effort |
 |
| It's a climb....but the view is worth the effort |
 |
We exited Moffat control and in a few kilometers had a gradual climb. It took a couple of kilometers to realize that we were on the Devil’s Beeftub Climb. Mesmerizing views with the hills and pine forests, heat hadn’t picked up as yet; perfect conditions to ride in. Legs were feeling good and it was time to push on a little. We caught up with Rajaneesh who had started about 10 minutes before us from Moffat. I took some time off on the climb as I couldn’t resist not taking pics and then rode ahead and made it to the top. The descent, just like the climb was a gradual one, it required that we pedal and these are the kind of descents that I don’t enjoy. I took it easy on the descent while Pritish and Rajaneesh caught up. Passed by an Equestrian club and got to see some majestic horses. It was close to 12:00 pm, hunger pangs were biting, reached Broughton and saw a village store where a lot of riders had stopped.
I stopped and went into the store and picked up ice
cream and was tempted to buy Bombay Mixture. I was craving for salt, the diet
had pre-dominantly been sweet and the salt craving was an indicator for sodium
deficiency, chose to eat potato crisps instead and headed out with an ice cream
and potato crisps. The ice cream gave some respite from the heat and also
served as an easy intake of calories and so too the potato crisps. Rajaneesh
and Pritish too stopped and we took over 30 minutes to get started from here.
We still had 70 kilometers to get to Dunfermline.
Still a task to get there, but Scotland was very scenic and the time and
distance lost it's essence. I was just riding and enjoying the scenery.
Windmills, pine forests, lakes, hills, the only element that was missing was
the rain. Although it was great to have dry weather conditions, I thought the Scotland
experience was incomplete since there was no rain. I did hope for a slight
drizzle just to make the landscape more beautiful.
 |
| Forth Bridge |
Dunfermline control was big, we were welcomed with
whisky shots available for the ones who wanted to have a taste. Being a
non-drinker it was get the card stamped and head straight to the cafeteria.
Long walk to the cafeteria where we were given sufficient food. We met Amitabh,
volunteer from India who chatted with us. I realized at this control that I was
still loaded with 4PM bars. I had not eaten a lot of the 4PM bars since the
food at the controls was sufficient and also had made a stop at a store, so the
bars (which I had consumed a lot in the start of the ride) were now unused. The
difference in the food quantities at the controls were evident from the number
of bars I had remaining.
I needed a toilet break at this control. It took a
while since I had to wait in the queue. I should have told Pritish and
Rajaneesh to continue riding instead of waiting. We lost about 30 minutes to
this. I met Satish Sharma at Dunfermline, he had started 4 hours after us and
had reached Dunfermline before us, he had taken a sleep break and was ready to
start.
 |
| Dunfermline Control: Fancy a shot ...it's Scotch Whiskey |
Dunfermline to Innerleithen – Beautiful Edinburgh, The
Maze through the city, it’s getting cold
|
Distance (kms) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
79 |
4 hours 49 minutes |
30 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
- |
53 minutes |
6 hours 12 minutes |
 |
| Forth Suspension Railway Bridge |
4 of us started from the control; made it past the
rolling terrain and past the Forth bridge and then onto the cobbled lanes in
the town of Dunfermline. The view of the bridge was very good as we stopped to
click a few pics. Satish Sharma had ridden ahead, when we stopped, it was three
of us from here.Few quick pics and we were back on. Got past a steep
climb and then we were onto a cycle track. We had to get past Edinburgh city in
this section. The route was on a cycle track and we made our way past narrow
lanes, parks, tunnels, crowded junctions, steep gradients inside the city,
palace, hills where people were practicing hill repeats. In short, this section
gave us a full experience of Edinburgh city. We did this in the company of other
Asian riders, from Malaysia and Singapore I guess.
We were at a crowded traffic junction in Edinburgh;
took a left and stayed on the cycle track, Pritish behind me and Rajaneesh
behind him. A two wheeler came close and was getting onto the cycle track. I
allowed room and noticed that the bike rider was not in control and was about
to fall. I couldn’t stop the fall, the bike rider fell beside me. Realized that
it was an elderly gentleman, his leg was stuck under his bike. Pritish and I
lifted the bike while Rajaneesh helped the gentleman up to his feet. Parked his
bike; enquired if he was fine and after he confirmed that he was fine we
resumed the ride.
 |
| Edinburgh |
Although we had got an experience of Edinburg, the ride through the city was slow and navigating through this section was very difficult. Thanks to the Garmin device, it made it easy for us, however, having started this section with the thought of having it easy on the return was soon lost, we had to ride for almost 40 kilometers to get past Edinburg which took 3 hours to exit the city and then get onto speed with the ride.
It was close to 8:00 pm and we had to ride 40
kilometers to get to the Innerleithen control. We were climbing and although it
was very scenic, we were making slow progress. It’s a constant effort, gradient
is not steep, it was a gradual climb, but we were climbing. There were meadows
on both side of the road, with sheep and cattle for company in addition to LEL
riders. As we climbed higher, we could see the Gladhouse reservoir; the sun was
descending the colors in the sky were beautiful. On the right the sun was
descending and the sky was beautifully illuminated, on the left the clouds had formed
a vortex and it felt like we were getting sucked into the vortex while we
climbed. Made a couple of stops to capture this, however, my camera couldn’t
capture the beauty of the place.
The climb was done, we had taken it easy on the climb
and made a few stops for photos and to wear the winter gear. I had not worn the
gloves as it was not very cold or so I thought. When we started the descent, it
did not take long to realize that I should have worn the gloves; no time for
another stop, just keep riding. A gradual descent again and we got the company
of other riders too and we paced with them, we were riding in between the
hills, constantly closing the fist to keep the cold at bay. The temperature was
dropping, the clock didn’t stop ticking, we kept riding and made to the
Innerleithen control at 22:39 pm.
It was cold, very tempting to call it a day and sleep
at Innerleithen; but we knew that we had to continue riding. I had told Pritish
that we have a put in an all nighter on at least one of the remaining nights.
Didn’t matter when it was done, but it had to be done. So we decided that we
should continue riding.
Went in to the control, they had lentil soup, Thai
green curry and bread (since rice was over and the fresh batch was not ready as
yet). Satish Sharma reached a few minutes after us, he had stopped to grab a
bite and we had passed him, didn’t see that he had stopped.
 |
| Another day...another sunset |
It was another round of good food, filled up water, a little bit of wait time, wore the winter jacket and gloves and set out into the cold night.
 |
|
Distance (kms) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
49 |
3 hours 20 minutes |
- |
1 hour |
- |
- |
15 minutes |
35 minutes |
5 hours 10 minutes |
It’s a short section, we have to ride under 50 kilometers and we have to be out on the road for only 2.5 hours is what I thought. The clock had gone past 11:30 pm when we exited from Innerleithen, a good ride in this section would mean that we could make it to the Eskdale Muir by 2:00 am, I was fine on the sleep front and did think that I could make it to Eskdale Muir and beyond if required. A power nap was always an option if we needed to ride through the night.
Had a lot of positive thoughts when we started from
Innerleithen; we had to climb from the control and I expected the body to warm
up on the climb. Contrary to that, I was still cold, we took about an hour to
ride 13 kilometers. 50 kilometers did not seem like a short distance anymore.
Let’s crank up the difficulty a little more, bring on
the mist. The mercury dipped further, there was a mist which only got thicker
and reduced visibility. Pritish was feeling sleepy and wanted to take a power
nap. We tried to keep riding and bring the distance down, however the thought
of taking a power nap was growing and we made a few stops to discuss taking a
power nap. Pritish and I were for taking a nap even though it was cold, Satish
and Rajaneesh were against it. We could not reach a consensus, however, every
time we took a break, and talked, we weren’t very sleepy and would continue
riding.
The cold was now seeping through the gloves, the shoes
and the bib shorts. We were questioning whether the gear we had was actually
winter wear or was it rain wear? A little bit of talk around this and we got a
few more kilometers done.
We were now riding next to a river (River Esk) and
this made it even more difficult. The mist was more like a fog, very thick,
visibility was very low, the cold was being felt by the bones. The cold was
making us feel sleepy as well. We still had about 13-15 kilometers to get to
the Eskdale Muir control, however had almost decided to stop and take a power
nap since the pace of the ride was falling. At this time Satish Sharma began to
sprint; what we thought was not possible given our condition was being done by
Satish, we followed suit. We upped the pace and tried to catch up with Satish.
It took a little effort, but the legs responded and we were now riding hard,
just what we should have been doing, sleep was now not in the thought and the
only focus was to get to the control.
Although the last few kilometers were more like a
descent, we pedaled hard and riding at 20 kmph felt like we were sprinting, we
made it to the control at 3:07 am. We had taken an hour over the estimate,
thanks to the cold and we were shivering when we went inside the control.
Hot soup was available to warm us up. I saw Swamy and
Prasad sleeping on the cafeteria floor. While we ate we decided that we should
take an hour’s sleep break and resume after that. Fortunately for us, there was
a small dorm available with air beds, we went in to sleep and requested the
volunteers to wake us up at 5:00 am.
On cue were woken up by the volunteers. Went to the
cafeteria, Swamy and Prasad had left, we ate a little, it was still misty.
Galin Abraham reached the control just as we were about to start.
It was warm in the control, day break had happened, we
stepped out in the cold and my hands were shivering. The bike was wet from the
mist and I couldn’t think about sitting on a wet saddle. I went to the bike
mech area and requested the volunteer for a cloth to wipe the saddle. As she
handed out tissue paper, I was shivering while wiping the saddle.
MC: Is it always like this out here?
Volunteer: Nope, it’s so misty coz of the heat on the
previous day, being next to the river the water evaporates in the heat and
condenses in the cold, so it’s mistier than usual
MC: Will it get better
Volunteer: Just an hour of sunlight will clear it up
Ok, so we needed sun light. At the time I first needed
the mental strength to get on the bike and start riding and not wasting any
more time. Yes, Sun light was not far off, it still had to pierce through the
mist and clear up the mist and make the road visible to us.
Eskdale Muir to Brampton – Welcome back to England
|
Distance (kms) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
61 |
3 hours 16 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
1 hour |
7 minutes |
1 hour 12 minutes |
4 hours 35 minutes |
After the initial kilometers, the body had warmed up, it was wonderful to be riding in this weather. It was still misty and the Sun was playing hide and seek with us. There was a beautiful view of the windmill. There was mist at the road level, an opening in the mist to see the wind mills and then mist above it. Beautiful views like this dotted our ride through Scotland, which took the mind off the rough road surface and that the pace of the ride was slow.
We were riding beside River Esk. We crossed Langholm when Satish who had sped ahead had slowed down. There was a problem with his bike, the gears were slipping and there was a lot of slack in the chain. He said that he suspects that the spacer had not been placed correctly in the rear hub and that he would sort it out when we reach Brampton. We stopped at a traffic signal and then took a right and crossed the bridge when we got the green. I got the “off route” prompt on the garmin device; I turned back and saw that Pritish and Satish were riding on the same route. Assumed that it was a gps error and continued riding on the route. After about 2 kilometers Satish said that he is getting the off route prompt. We checked and confirmed that we were off route. Had to ride back to the bridge and saw that we had to ride straight and not take the right at the bridge. Few minutes lost here, got back on route.
Satish sped ahead while Pritish and I rode steadily.
We had crossed Longtown and saw the “Welcome to England” board when the clock
struck 8:15 am for the day; about 12-15 kilometers still to reach the Brampton
control.
Day 3 was done and the total distance covered in 72
hours was 940 kilometers. We had ridden only 290 kilometers on day 3. We were
done with another 24 hours, 72 hours of the ride was done, we had 56 hours 20
minutes remaining and had to ride 600 kilometers to complete the ride. Although
it sounds like we were comfortably placed on the time front, the next 24 hours
would decide if we would have a comfortable last 24 hours or not. Scotland was
beautiful and I lost track of time and the distance while riding in Scotland.
Pritish and I rode steadily, there was a cross wind
and the Sun was out making the mercury rise. We reached Brampton at 9:06 am. We
had taken an hour for the 15 kilometers even though the road surface was good,
which was due to the gradual increase in elevation towards Brampton.
We saw that Satish was repairing his bike; this was
the drop bag location for Pritish and me; we headed in for a shower and change
of clothes. Took about an hour for us to change; I still had stock of the 4PM
bars, so opted not to take any further bars from the drop bag. We went to the
cafeteria to eat. Rajaneesh had reached before us on account of our off route
sojourn. Satish was done with his bike repair and had sorted the issue. We ate
a nice breakfast and were ready to start another day’s ride.
Day 4
Start time: 8:15 am 10 August 2022
Distance covered in 24 hours: 280 kilometers
Started
at Longtown and reached Brampton -
Brampton
to Barnard Castle – 18% gradient climb with a head wind
|
Distance (kms) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
90 |
5 hours 26 minutes |
23 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
28 minutes |
52 minutes |
7 hours 9 minutes |
 |
| It's a climbing day |
It was close to 10:30 am when we started from
Brampton, it was tough from the start. We had started climbing and it was
series of short steep gradient climbs. We were 200 kilometers from Malton when
we started from Brampton. Getting to Malton was going to be critical as this
involved a lot of climbing.
The progress was slow, we kept at it though. The wind
was picking up; a cross wind it was and I was wondering why is this becoming so
difficult. If the wind stays like this then we are going to be in trouble and
might struggle to finish the ride.
Rajaneesh: There is a snake in the fields there, it’s
got it's hood up
MC: Where did you see it?
Rajaneesh (pointing in the direction): It’s right
there, sitting on the log in the field
MC: Are you sure? It looks like a log
Rajaneesh: Not sure, it looks like one
I rode back a little to get a better view, it was a
log. Yes, we see a lot of things on the ride, unfortunately there was no snake
there.
Constant climbing kept the average speed low. The
meadows were now not very motivating and it was time to just keep riding. A
little bit of rolling terrain gave a little recovery time for the legs, we
pushed on and reached Alston. Rajaneesh had fallen behind; A host of riders had
stopped at a store and were filling up, Pritish and I stopped to eat and
refill. We met Satish Sharma at the store. I ate ice cream and chips and hoped
that the ice cream would cool me off as the heat was increasing.
20 odd minutes later we were back on the bike and
climbing again. Water consumption at this point was high and we came by the LEL
café just 20 kilometers later. We made the stop to refill water here as we had
the Chapel Fell climb coming up ahead.
 |
| Crested Chapel Fell |
We filled up water and made the turn towards Chapel
Fell. It was a head wind; and the climb started almost immediately. The
gradient started at 9% and it was only going to increase till we made it to the
top. A few curves until the view opened up. It was a straight line and the top
of the climb was visible. It was about 3 kilometers away and the road was
almost vertical. A long line of cyclists was visible on the climb, some riding,
some zig zagging, many pushing their bikes.
I have ridden on steep gradients, however not with a
head wind. The head was down as I pedaled, determined to ride to the top and
not push the bike. Pritish was doing the same a little behind me. The gradient
kept increasing on the garmin device and the cadence dropped. I tried to zig
zag, however the traffic density was surprisingly high with a cars and bikes plying
in both directions on the climb (nothing close to what we have at home,
however, getting off the line was difficult since the gradient was high) so had
to take a straight line as much as possible. As I got higher the wind speed
increased and so did the gradient, remembered the Epic Ride Weather app here
which gives the forecasted temperature and a “Feels Like” forecast; it was the
same here, the gradient was at 18% and with the head wind it felt like 25%.
 |
| Quick descent on a rough surface coming up |
On the left cyclists were walking, stopping for a
break and it felt good to be riding and going past them; at the same time on
the right I was being overtaken by rider’s and I was unable to ride anywhere
close to the pace/cadence at which they were riding. It was a case of look left
to feel good and look right to be put in place. As the top got closer, it was a
matter of sustaining the effort for a little more and soon enough I was at the
top. A lot of cars were parked at the top and they were helping the riders with
water and “flapjack” (similar to Granola Bars). Had eaten a flap jack at one of
the controls earlier, it was dry, however the flapjack served at the top of the
hill was soft and moist. The view was good, the adrenaline was kicking in as
the climb was done, it was time for a steep descent.
Road surface was rough, in spite of that the bike
gained speed very fast. Made it past the descent and then a short climb later
we had made it past the Chapel Fell section and were now riding towards Barnard
Castle.
Barnard Castle was 30 kilometers away and it was
rolling terrain to the control with a few descents. It was almost 3:00 pm. Only
60 kilometers covered in almost 5 hours; we were bleeding time now and worse
was that we weren’t pulling back anything. The thought was now to try and pull
back time, however, the terrain was not doing us any favors, it was rolling,
low on energy I wanted to get to Barnard Castle as soon as possible. Peeled a
banana, however, the vibration from the road was high, took a bite and the
remaining banana fell onto the road. It was time for a 4PM bar and this time
held onto it firm without dropping it.
 |
| Time to fill up |
4:34 pm when we reached Barnard Castle. We did not
have any time to waste, we had to eat and start from the control as soon as we
could. Brevet card was stamped, met Charlene at the control as we ate food and
stocked up on fruit for the next section. We still took 52 minutes to exit from
the control, we needed to be quicker, however having another tough section
coming up ahead, we took a little extra time at Barnard Castle.
Barnard
Castle to Malton – Are we going in circles?
|
Distance (kms) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
115 |
6 hours 13 minutes |
30 minutes |
2 hours 30 minutes |
15 minutes |
- |
20 minutes |
1 hour 28 minutes |
11 hours 16 minutes |
 |
| Ready for another section of climbs |
Satish Sharma, Pritish and I started from Barnard
Castle. A few turns and we had tail wind. Oh boy, where did this come from, it
felt like a different ride, we were flying now. It felt so good to have the
wind pushing us even though it was only for a few kilometers.
Pritish was having stomach issues and we had to make a
stop for him to ease his discomfort. As I was having network issues at the
control points, I took the opportunity to update folks about my progress. Saw
that Rajaneesh had a puncture after the Chapel Fell climb and he was delayed on
account of that.
When we restarted the ride, we were in rolling terrain
and the pace dropped. The section from Barnard Castle to Malton was not the
same route as we did on the north bound journey. After the start which was on
wide roads, we were now on narrow interior roads.
At this juncture, Satish Sharma told us that we had to
get past 8 climbs before we get to the control. The Garmin Climb Pro on his
device was showing that there were 8 climbs. While we spoke we got past a small
climb.
MC: Is this the first climb? Are we done with the
first climb?
SS: This is not the climb, the first climb starts further
ahead
In a few minutes:
SS: This is the first climb, we are about to start
climbing
After riding for few minutes the road flattened out
MC: Did we get past the first climb?
SS: No, this is part of the first climb, we have to
ride further to complete the climb
It was narrow roads, the top of the climb was not
visible and the light was fading. It was time to get the jacket and gloves on.
The pattern continued, we would ride get to the top, a little bit of flat and
the climb would continue again.
After few minutes, the moon was up, it was a beautiful
sight, the moon was glowing and it looked very close to us. It seemed like we
were climbing to get to the moon. A streak of cloud cut across the moon making
it a beautiful sight; so much so that for a few kilometers I did not mind the
climbing and had forgotten that I had a ride to complete.
LEL volunteers ahead, that’s perfect, they refilled
our water bottles and gave chocolates. All the while the efforts to photograph
the moon were coming a cropper. It just came like a light bulb in the sky and
the beauty of the moon couldn’t be captured on my phone.
 |
| It's the moon ....not a flood light |
When we were doing the north bound ride from Malton to
Barnard Castle, we did a lot of steep climbing, now that we were doing the
return journey, all be it on a different route, I expected to be descending to
Malton, however, we were still climbing. “How can we be climbing in both
directions?” this question kept playing on the mind while we made slow
progress. The landscape changed from village to forest/park (couldn’t identify
as it was dark) and then back to village, then narrow roads and climbing, I
could recollect making a lot of left turns and was left wondering if we were
riding in circles and possibly why we weren’t reaching the control.
Seeing riders on the road was confirmation that we
were on the right route, the Garmin device also was not giving the “Off route”
alert: The remaining distance to the control still hovered in the 15 kilometers
to go range. It was cold, Pritish wanted to take a power nap, Satish wanted to
keep riding. We told Satish to ride ahead while Pritish and I parked the cycles
and slept on the grass.
A 15 minute stop in which we slept for 10 minutes, we
were up and back on the saddle. A little more climbing and then we were on a
smooth surface and a downhill. We were happy to have the downhill, we made good
progress and the remaining distance dropped to 4 kilometers. It was a relaxed
ride from here as we were almost at the control.
We reached the control at 00:45 am; a little later
than we wanted to, but we had made it. Swamy and Prasad had reached a little
earlier, finished eating and were heading in to sleep. We followed the same,
Satish, Pritish and I ate and then went to the dorm to get a bed and sleep. We
asked to be woken up after 2.5 hours.
We had a sound sleep for 2.5 hours; were woken up by
the volunteers on cue. I sat on the bed and saw that Pritish and Satish were
taking a little time to get ready, I went back to sleeping position on the bed,
Pritish promptly woke me up.
PA: Why are you sleeping again?
MC: No….. nothing, let’s go
We made our way out of the control. It was day break
time and the sky was lit beautifully. It was cold, so the jacket and gloves
were on. Filled up water in our bottles and we were ready to start.
Malton
to Hessle
|
Distance (kms) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
69 |
3 hours 51 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
30 minutes |
- |
48 minutes |
5 hours 9 minutes |
 |
| Day break at Malton |
We started from Malton at 4:30 am; wanted to get to Hessle by 8:15 am. Had taken an apple from the control and had 4PM bars in the pocket which I planned to use up by the time we reached Hessle. Being the 5th day on the road, the appetite was monstrous and I knew that I would be constantly eating on this day.
 |
| Majestic...ain't it? |
It was misty and cold, but nowhere close to what had
been experienced in Scotland. We passed by farms with a horses, looked like
stud farms and then we started climbing. I liked that we were climbing as the
body warmed up quickly. Soon enough it was getting a little stuffy with the
jacket and gloves on. I took off the gloves and was comfortable to ride.
Was making steady progress, just as we reached the top
the mist became very thick. The climb was followed by a descent, with the
gloves off, the fingers were hurting. No time to stop, pushed a little to get
past the descent and thought that the cold would wear off; didn’t happen;
gloves were back on. In a short while, I was hungry, can’t eat with the gloves
on, took the gloves off and ate the apple.
Although I wanted to ride quickly, riding at an
average speed of 19-20 kmph seemed like I was doing well. Given that the
previous day with the climbs the average speed was hovering in the 12-15 kmph
range, the speed on this day seemed like I was riding very fast.
The rolling terrain continued and then reached the
outskirts of Hessle. Although I did not reach Hessle control by 8:15 am, I was
about 4 kilometers short of the control. Took a little time to get to the
control with a little wait at the traffic signals and reached Hessle at 8:34
am. Quickly collected the drop bag and headed to take a shower and change
clothes. I got a call from Rajaneesh:
Rajaneesh: I’m at Hessle but I don’t know the route to
the control, I’m ahead of Pritish and Satish
MC: OK
Rajaneesh: I don’t know if I’ve crossed the control,
I’m near a Porsche showroom, how do I get to the control
MC: Rajaneesh, I don’t know the places at Hessle, I
can’t guide you to the control, I will share my location on whatsapp, you will
have to find your way to the control with that
I shared the location and wanted to be in and out of
the control in 30 minutes. I got done with the shower and fresh clothes on. Pritish
reached in about 10 minutes after I reached the control. The earlier change
routine was taking an hour, cut it down to 30 minutes at this control. However,
every time I think I’ve done something quickly there is someone to show that it
can be done quicker. A European rider came in 5 mins after me and left the
change room 5 minutes before me.
I stocked on 4PM bars, handed over the drop bag,
garmin unit and lights being charged while I ate. Satish Sharma and Rajaneesh
were having their breakfast. Pritish joined in a few minutes.
Day 4 was done and the total distance covered in 96 hours was 1,225 kilometers. We had ridden only 285 kilometers on day 4. We had 32 hours 20 minutes remaining and had to ride 320 kilometers to complete the ride. The buffer as per the old 125 hours (not considering the additional 3 hours 20 minutes) time limit had dropped to 1.5 hours. We had eaten up the buffer which at one point was at 9 hours. An activity which we had ignored from Day 1 was to see the time of arrival at the controls and calculate the buffer that we had. We would have seen the number drop and probably done things differently, however, this was ignored and now we had only 24 hours to try to rectify this.
Day 5
Start time: 8:15 am 11 August 2022
Distance covered in 24.50 hours: 323 kilometers
Started
at Hessle and reached Davenant School, Debden
Hessle
to Louth – We are still oblivious about how close this is getting
|
Distance (kms) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
59 |
3 hours 6 minutes |
28 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
7 minutes |
37 minutes |
4 hours 18 minutes |
 |
| Humber bridge |
Satish Sharma and Rajaneesh started from the control about 15-30 minutes before us. Pritish and I started from Hessle at 10 am. The task was simple, ride steady, no breaks, get to Louth. It’s a smaller section, so the distance is easy on the mind, body feeling good, have had a change of clothes and now it was time to ride as quickly as possible.
 |
| Humber River |
 |
| Humber Bridge |
We synced up with an Irish rider who resides in
England. There was a slight cross wind as we rode past the flats. We got onto
the climb and it was time to get a move on. Tried to up the pace and began to
get into a rhythm, took the wrong turn at a junction, had to stop and get back
on route. Rhythm was broken, just as we made the turn Rajaneesh was resting
under a tree, he joined Pritish and me. The Irish rider stopped to take a break
while we rode ahead.
We were riding well and making steady progress. I felt
a little drag in the rear, the speed was dropping and the resistance was
increasing. I looked at the rear tire, it was sitting a little low; stopped and
confirmed, it was a puncture. I called out to Pritish that it was flat, he told
Rajaneesh to ride ahead and came back to help with the puncture.
 |
| Tube Punctured....not the will to ride |
I got about replacing the tube. Pritish checked for
the location of the puncture and we ascertained that it was a pinch flat and
that there was nothing piercing the tire. I replaced the tube and pumped air
into the tube. We had to get going as quickly as possible. I had carried 2
tubes with me and had kept spare tubes in the drop bags, however, we had
crossed Hessle which was the last drop bag access for me, I was worried that I
had only 1 spare tube remaining and would be in trouble if I had another
puncture. I was very flustered at this point, we were losing time, had to spend
time fixing a puncture, I accidentally stepped on Pritish’s iPhone and then
managed to drop my phone as well. My phone display developed a nice long crack,
could still operate it though. When packing the phone in the handle bar bag,
put weight on the FL 400 light and broke that too. Damn!!! Calm down, there is
still a long way to go on this ride, can’t keep breaking everything.
We got back on our saddles and started the ride. 20
kilometers to the Louth control remained. Maheshwaran came by just as we
started. We did a steady ride and reached Louth at 13:33 pm. Got the card
stamped and headed in for food. Had a filling meal and while we were chatting:
 |
| Boston |
Maheshwaran: We have only 1 hour buffer (considering the 125 hour finish)
MC: Yeah, it’s very close
PA: Sorry, only 1 hour? When did this happen?
MC: PA, we’ve been oblivious to the time, we have to
make up for it or we will be in trouble
PA: What’s the distance to the next control
MC: It's 50 kilometers, if we can reach by 5:00 pm then
we would have increased the buffer to 3 hours
PA: Yes, we can do it
MC: We haven’t been doing it till now
PA: Don’t worry we will do it; we’ll make up time in
the fens (Boston to St Ives as it's flat terrain)
MC: Provided we get a tail wind, if it’s a head wind
we are pretty much screwed
PA: Let’s go
Louth
to Boston – Diagonal Tail Wind…finally
|
Distance (kms) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
53 |
2 hours 41 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
- |
14 minutes |
41 minutes |
3 hours 36 minutes |
Started with a little bit of rolling terrain and then onto flat terrain. The two of us rode, now with the focus firmly on time. The calculations had begun and we had to put in a night ride if we wanted to finish the ride in 120 hours, that’s a 5 day target. I didn’t want to stretch it to the next day; the key to this I felt was for us to get as close to the finish as possible by 1:00 am. That would mean getting to the Great Easton control and then resting for an hour or two there and then riding the final 50 kilometers. Discussed this with Pritish and told him that we should consider doing an all nighter; we didn’t know the wind pattern and if we got a tail wind, then we could make it to Great Easton. Pritish was confident that we should aim for a 117 hour finish and said that we will ride through the night.
The heat was high, passed by a lot of wheat fields,
many harvested, some being harvested and many ready for harvesting. The Sun and
the dry wheat fields were not very pleasing on the eyes and I was feeling the
heat. Meanwhile Pritish was riding well and it was not a time that I could
slack.
We kept a steady pace, it was a case of riding quick
but not over the limit that we tire ourselves out. Mentally we had begun to
conserve a little bit for the night ride as we knew that even if we pushed hard
there was no avoiding the night ride.
We took over 2.50 hours but we made it to Boston. I
struggled to navigate in Boston; however we reached Boston control at 5:04 pm.
Got the brevet card stamped, headed in for food. Food
was being rationed even now at this control. I got a sausage, a little bit of
mac and cheese and few potato chips. Fortunately they served flap jack with
cream which was heavenly. I enjoyed the flapjack, ate a 4 PM bar and was ready
to start. Pritish’s knee was hurting, we decided to take a few additional
minutes for the pain to subside. Swamy and Prasad had rested and were eating
just as we reached the control. They started from the control while we ate.
After a small rest, we filled up water and started
from Boston.
Boston
to St Ives – Flat, it's flat….opportunity to build a buffer
|
Distance (kms) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
93 |
4 hours 11 minutes |
23 minutes |
30 minutes |
- |
- |
14 minutes |
1 hours 57 minutes |
7 hours 15 minutes |
We had put all our eggs in one basket. The finish time depended on this section of 93 kilometers. If we did this well then we would have a good buffer again. We started just before 5:45 pm and targeted to reach by 11:00 pm at least. We started slowly as we exited the streets of Boston. Pritish’s knee was hurting, we had 210 kilometers to ride and it was still a long way to ride given that his knee was hurting. A little bit of riding and the knee will warm up and be fine is what I told Pritish and hoped that the situation would not deteriorate.
When we exited the streets and got onto open roads, it
was a cross tail wind, the weather was in our favor and this was an opportunity
to make the most of it. We started well, told Pritish that we have to ride
steady and not go over the limit. As we were looking to ride through the night
we didn’t have to tire ourselves out. Pritish concurred and began to set the
pace, which was to hover around the 22-23 kmph range.
The distance of 210 kilometers remaining reminded me
of PBP, three years ago, I had to ride 220 kilometers in PBP and had about 20
hours to do it. I had managed to overshoot the time by 35 minutes at PBP as I
had hallucinated and slept near the road. It was a similar situation in LEL,
210 kilometers and considering the 125 hours original cut off I had about 20
hours to ride this. I told Pritish the same and told him that we should avoid a
repeat of it. The plan to beat sleep at that point was to chat with Pritish
through the night ride and make it to Great Easton after which we could take a
break.
We rode well for about an hour; reached Spalding. The
insufficient food at Boston had hit us again; we could possibly ride a further
30-40 kms but would need to make a stop for food before reaching St Ives. We
decided to make a stop at Spalding at a store and stock up on sandwiches for
the ride. We ate and drank at the store and stocked up a sandwich for the road
if required and started the ride after about 25 minutes.
We had taken care of the stomach, it was now down to
keep riding to the control. The road was flat but rough. We rode beside the
Welland river and saw three swan’s gliding in the water perfectly in sync. A
few more kilometers and then we saw a large swan beside the road. We didn’t
realize that it was there, until it opened it's wings which took us by surprise.
It was sunset time, however, I enjoyed the moon rise
more than the sunset on this day. It was almost a full moon and it was
fantastic to be riding with the Sun setting on the right and the moon on the
left. The road was straight as we were now passing through Whittlesey. As the
light faded, saw that my rear light was not working. We had to stop to change
the batteries and get the light working. Although we didn’t want to stop, we were
making small stops which were breaking the rhythm and then getting back on.
After the lights were fixed, there were no other
stoppages; Pritish was flying and in many places was riding at speeds over 30
kmph. I was surprised with the speed at the same time was enjoying the tow.
We made it past the straight stretches, needed to make
a few turns but the road was still flat. We kept the pace in the 22 kmph range
and made it to the St Ives control at 22:32.
A volunteer came by and took our water bottles to fill
it up and gave it back to us. We got the card stamped, buffer now at 5 hours.
We would eat dinner and start was the plan. However, Pritish’s knee was hurting
bad and he wanted time to apply balm on it and take a little rest. He was
limping while walking, it was an alarming sight; still 120 kilometers to ride;
I didn’t talk about the knee, told him that he’d be fine. Pritish was also
confident about riding, he said that he just needed some time and he would be
fine. He had applied the pain relief balm on the knee, we ate and Pritish
headed to catch a quick nap. We decided that we would start at 11:45 pm from
the control. After a few minutes Pritish messaged that he is going to the dorm
to sleep and that I should call him at 11:40 pm if he doesn’t come by.
11:40 pm was just 15 minutes away. I was getting ready
to ride through the night. So the first part of it was to drink black coffee. I
don’t drink coffee, but chose to drink black coffee with sugar at the control
as a fix to stay awake. The volunteer toasted two slices of bread to which I
smeared strawberry jam and ate while I waited.
The clock struck 11:40 pm; I called Pritish but he
wasn’t answering. I asked a volunteer where the dorm was, she escorted me to
the dorm. The dorm was almost full, could only see Swamy and Prasad in the
dorm, couldn’t see Pritish. The earliest time to wake up the riders was 12:30
am, so decided that I would sleep too till 12:30 am at least; so that I can
catch a power nap too. Went back to the cafeteria, picked up my stuff and came
to the dorm, requested the volunteers to wake me at 12:30 am and while I sat on
the bed, saw Pritish getting up and running out of the dorm. I followed and
caught up outside the dorm and told him that we will sleep till 12:30 am and
then start, we would rest here and not rest at Great Easton.
We were woken up at 12:30 am by the volunteers. We had
got a 30 minute sleep. We went to the cafeteria where Swamy and Prasad were
also getting ready to start the ride. We wore the jacket and gloves and got
ready to start. It was around 1:00 am when we started from the control.
St
Ives to Great Easton – Nonstop chatter……we are on a relaxed ride and not riding
a brevet
|
Distance (kms) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
70 |
3 hours 59 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
- |
9 minutes |
1 hours 4 minutes |
5 hours 12 minutes |
 |
| Chatter time on the Guided Bus way Bridleway |
We exited the control along with Swamy and Prasad. 110 kilometers and we had a lot of time. The weather was not very cold and it was a pleasant night. I was feeling fresh and was not sleepy, so there was no sign of sleep, so no panic. On exiting St Ives we were now riding on a cycle track next to the Guided Bus way Bridleway. There were lagoons on both sides of the road, a sight which we missed since it was dark.
We crossed the lagoons and then reached Cambridge. The
city had wonderful buildings and a lot of people were still on the streets;
many returning after a night out. There was a cycle lane and we were riding in
well lit streets for a while till we exited Cambridge.
It was a ride filled with chatter. We were speaking
almost continuously. We had crossed Cambridge and we were crossing a few more
towns/villages on the way. The chatter didn’t stop, but the kilometers were
coming down; not quickly, but the distance wasn’t being felt. We passed by
Audley End Estate and saw the beautiful Victorian Era mansion. It was lit and
the effort to capture the photo didn’t yield any results. Swamy gave us
chocolate muffins to eat before we re-started the ride.
We re-started the ride, and then there is an
“Off-route” alarm on the device. It can’t be, we are on the right route, it’s
because we are riding on the road instead of the cycle track, but there is no
cycle track, then the gps is picking up the foot path. Wait, I’ll try the foot
path, no still getting the off-route alarm. Pritish and Swamy are meanwhile
checking on ridewithgps. It took a couple of minutes to ascertain that we were
off route and had missed a left turn. We rode back and got back on route.
The route was rolling from here; lots of turns, and it
was day break time as well. It was getting a little misty and cold. I took the
opportunity of trying to sprint on climbs to get the body heat up. The talk
with Swamy would take a break during the sprint and we would continue where we
left off as soon as we synced up again. The topics revolved around cycling and our
ride experience. It felt like two riders had written a test and were comparing
their notes.
With day break there was a chill in the air. We were
now on narrow interior roads as we got closer to Great Easton. The climbing
increased as well. We were close to the control, a little more riding and we
would reach Great Easton.
We reached Great Easton at 5:00 am, got the brevet
card stamped. We were guided by the volunteer to the cafeteria. I had a good
fill and was very relaxed. We were not in a hurry. We had sufficient time, only
50 kilometers remained and we could take it easy from here. Prasad took a power
nap, while the three of us drank juice and rested.
 |
| Great Easton....only 50 kilometers remaining |
Great
Easton to Davenant School, Debden – Short sprints to get over sleep
|
Distance (kms) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
48 |
2 hours 24 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
- |
15 minutes |
- |
2 hours 39 minutes |
We started from the control at 6:00 am. This section was only 48 kilometers and was the shortest section of the entire ride. It was going to be a relaxed ride and we had to just bring it home.
The terrain continued to be rolling and there were a
lot of turns to make. We kept getting off-route alarms and had to get back on
route. Being comfortably placed on the time front, we saw the lighter side of
this.
The chatter had stopped for a while and we were stretched out for a bit. With the heat beginning to pick up I was very sleepy and almost dozed while I was riding. A couple of occasions when I was able to arrest the fall and the warning signs were there.
MC: PA I’m sleepy
PA: Let’s sprint, that will wake us up
So Pritish sprinted and I followed trying to catch up
with him. We went past Swamy and Prasad and in a short while we were sweating,
the heart was pounding and the sleep was gone. We stopped to remove the jacket;
Swamy and Prasad caught up. The jackets were off and we were bunched together
again. The chatter started, discussing bikes at this stage.
Few more kilometers and I was in familiar territory.
We had reached Toot Hill, we had ridden from here to the finish before the
ride. Being in familiar territory, it became very easy as the effort sections and
where we could back off was known.
We were riding in the road behind the school, just 3 kilometers to the finish when we saw volunteers. They guided us to take the back gate of the school and follow the path. The road ahead was closed, so the ride had been cut short by about 3 kilometers. The ride was done, we had made it to the finish. We followed the path and we were welcomed by the volunteers who cheered us to the line.
 |
| At the finish line ...with partner in crime |
Bangalore riders (Jayaprakash, Abhishek, Mahesh and Rajkumar) who had finished the previous day were there at the finish line and cheered for us. They congratulated us on the finish; however, the ride isn’t done until the brevet card is submitted and stamped.
 |
| It's picture time L to R: Pritish, Rajkumar, Me, Swamy, Prasad |
 |
| Pritish, Raj and Me |
We were now being directed by the riders who had
finished the ride yesterday. Take a photo of the brevet card, get your bike,
take it inside for the official photo, after that you can have your food in the
cafeteria. We followed their instructions; the photo was taken and then to the
cafeteria for breakfast. Eat up after that you can go and sleep in the dorm.
There was so much chatter and so many stories to exchange, the feeling that the
ride was done had not sunk in.
How did I Feel on completing the ride?
It took a good two hours after completing the ride for
it to sink in that the ride was done. We were lazing in the school ground when
it struck that LEL 2022 was done.
It was a relief to be done with this ride rather than
joy. This ride was not supposed to happen for me and I had written this ride
off as the visa was delayed. From being 1 hour away from cancelling the flight
ticket and cancelling LEL plans, I was relieved to be riding in LEL and
completing the ride. There was joy to have ridden with Pritish for most of the
route and completing the ride with him. Swamy and Prasad, was fortunate to
complete the ride along with them, I had missed out on this at PBP, we had
started from the control with 100 kilometers remaining and I managed to goof up
in that ride, didn’t happen this time though, always enjoyable to ride with
you all. The joy was tempered to a large extent with news that Mohan Subramanyam
had crashed and that he was hurt badly. It was a relief to hear him speak on
the phone; however, seeing him patched up was not a good sight.
Physically there were minimal pains. It’s fair to say
that I could have continued riding as I was not physically or mentally
fatigued. I hadn’t slept a lot, however, I did not hallucinate on this ride.
What didn’t work on the ride:
There is scope for improvement in all areas; however,
three areas which would have made a significant difference on this ride were:
-
Pre-ride rest and hydration
The day before the ride
was hurried and there were too many scheduled/unscheduled activities that
happened on this day. I should have paid attention to the rest and hydration
before the ride; possibly the dehydration at the start of the ride could have
been avoided/reduced
-
Drifting
After making a quick
start and building a buffer, I didn’t keep a tab on the time spent at controls,
the ride speed between controls, declining buffer. Allowed myself to get sucked
into the beauty of the landscapes and woke up late to the fact that the ride
could have gotten away.
-
Riding in Flat Terrain
Given that LEL has a
lot of hilly terrain, a lot of work was put in on climbs, however, flats had
been ignored. I will have to work on the flats too; riding in the Fens was the
least preferred section for me in LEL 2022
What worked on the ride:
- No Mental Fatigue
I was not mentally
fatigued on the ride. Even after going past the 1,000 kilometer mark I was
still able to think and although I did start tracking the ride on the last day,
I was able to do this as I was not fatigued. A small part of the credit for completing
the ride was since I was able to think, calculate and plan even in the back end
of the ride
-
Sleep
Overall 10 hours of
sleep on the ride (including power naps). There was a struggle with sleep but
not as much as I used to have on earlier rides. It could have been better, our
sleep breaks at the start was what we wanted and not what we required, but we
managed on minimal sleep after that
|
From |
To |
Distance (kms) |
Ride Speed (kmph) |
Ride time |
Refreshment Stop |
Sleep Break |
Power Nap |
Shower |
Miscellaneous Stop |
Exit CP |
Total Time |
|
Debden |
St Ives |
101 |
27.45 |
3 hours 41 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
- |
3 minutes |
34 minutes |
4 hours 18 minutes |
|
St Ives |
Boston |
91 |
22.58 |
4 hours 2 minutes |
8 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
- |
35 minutes |
5 hours 19 minutes |
|
Boston |
Louth |
53 |
22.27 |
2 hours 23 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
56 minutes |
3 hours 19 minutes |
|
Louth |
Hessle |
59 |
21.69 |
2 hours 43 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
1 hour 18 minutes |
4 hours 1 minute |
|
Hessle |
Malton |
67 |
17.09 |
3 hours 55 minutes |
- |
2 hours |
30 minutes |
- |
21 minutes |
54 minutes |
7 hours 40 minutes |
|
Malton |
Barnard Castle |
113 |
18.31 |
6 hours 10 minutes |
30 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
30 minutes |
33 minutes |
7 hours 43 minutes |
|
Barnard Castle |
Brampton |
89 |
16.95 |
5 hours 15 minutes |
24 minutes |
3 hours 15 minutes |
- |
1 hour 15 minutes |
1 hour 10 minutes |
50 minutes |
12 hours 9 minutes |
|
Brampton |
Moffat |
74 |
18.50 |
4 hours |
- |
- |
- |
- |
23 minutes |
55 minutes |
5 hours 18 minutes |
|
Moffat |
Dunfermline |
113 |
19.82 |
5 hours 42 minutes |
34 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
- |
1 hour 32 minutes |
7 hours 48 minutes |
|
Dunfermline |
Innerleithen |
79 |
16.39 |
4 hours 49 minutes |
30 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
- |
53 minutes |
6 hours 12 minutes |
|
Innerleithen |
Eskdale Muir |
49 |
14.71 |
3 hours 20 minutes |
- |
1 hour |
- |
- |
15 minutes |
35 minutes |
5 hours 10 minutes |
|
Eskdale Muir |
Brampton |
61 |
18.65 |
3 hours 16 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
1 hour |
7 minutes |
1 hour 12 minutes |
4 hours 35 minutes |
|
Brampton |
Barnard Castle |
90 |
16.57 |
5 hours 26 minutes |
23 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
28 minutes |
52 minutes |
7 hours 9 minutes |
|
Barnard Castle |
Malton |
115 |
18.49 |
6 hours 13 minutes |
30 minutes |
2 hours 30 minutes |
15 minutes |
- |
20 minutes |
1 hour 28 minutes |
11 hours 16 minutes |
|
Malton |
Hessle |
69 |
17.92 |
3 hours 51 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
30 minutes |
- |
48 minutes |
5 hours 9 minutes |
|
Hessle |
Louth |
59 |
19.03 |
3 hours 6 minutes |
28 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
7 minutes |
37 minutes |
4 hours 18 minutes |
|
Louth |
Boston |
53 |
19.78 |
2 hours 41 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
- |
14 minutes |
41 minutes |
3 hours 36 minutes |
|
Boston |
St Ives |
93 |
22.25 |
4 hours 11 minutes |
23 minutes |
30 minutes |
- |
- |
14 minutes |
1 hours 57 minutes |
7 hours 15 minutes |
|
St Ives |
Great Easton |
70 |
17.59 |
3 hours 59 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
- |
9 minutes |
1 hours 4 minutes |
5 hours 12 minutes |
|
Great Easton |
Debden |
48 |
20.00 |
2 hours 24 minutes |
- |
- |
- |
- |
15 minutes |
- |
2 hours 39 minutes |
|
|
|
1,546 |
19.06 |
81 hours 7 minutes |
3 hours 50 minutes |
9 hours 15 minutes |
45 minutes |
2 hours 45 minutes |
4 hours 36 minutes |
18 hours 14 minutes |
120 hours 32 minutes |
To average things out:
|
Particulars |
Time (hours) |
Time (hours) |
|
Total time in a day |
|
24.00 |
|
Less: Time spent at the control point |
3.65 |
|
|
Less: Sleep and shower time |
2.55 |
|
|
Less: Refreshments/Miscellaneous stops |
1.69 |
7.89 |
|
Ride time available |
|
16.11 |
On an average the time available to ride is 16 hours; the required mileage in a day ranging between 300-400 kilometers with an average elevation gain of 3,000 meters every day. The requirement at LEL is to do this on a daily basis for 5 days.
LEL 2022 was a ride which I looked forward to for 3
years and then had to write it off as I almost could not travel. However,
having made it to the start point, it is an unforgettable ride.
I liked the LEL route, there were sections which I did
not enjoy, but on a 1,540 kilometer route, we have to endure small parts which
lead us to the parts that we will like. I liked that I got the opportunity to
ride the Chapel Fell climb (Yad Moss you weren’t missed); absolutely loved
riding in Scotland. I liked the rolling terrain and the amount of climbing that
we did at LEL. The route is deceptive; the difficulty of it cannot be
ascertained by sitting in front of a screen and looking at a map.
 |
| Time to celebrate with the Bangalore Randonneurs Team |
It was a fantastic experience to ride and complete LEL 2022 in 120 hours 32 minutes. An unforgettable experience, all the beautiful sun rises and sunsets, the ride in bone chilling cold in Scotland, bright moon, pine forests, wheat fields, meadows with cows and sheep, majestic horses; a crazy and tough ride which makes us go through a lot of emotions and still want to repeat it all over again.
Amazing Writeup Monish!
ReplyDeleteUfff..what a write up Monish... even small incidents were perfectly explained. I was literally sunk on the story and i could imagine very vividly the journey you all went through on those 5 days, as I went through the blog.. once again congratulations .
ReplyDelete