London Edinburg London (LEL) 2025 Edition

Castle Howard LEL 2025

2025 – 10th Edition

3 August to 7 August

Distance: 1,015 kilometers

Allotted time: 130 hours

Start Location: Guildhall, London

Start time: 3 August 2025, 6:15 am

Finish Location: Writtle, Chelmsford

End Time: 7 August 2025, 6:40 am

 

Altitude Profile:

About the ride:

London–Edinburgh–London (LEL) is a randonnée bicycle event of approximately 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) over an out-and-back course between the capital cities of London (England) and Edinburgh (Scotland). LEL is the flagship event of Audax UK, it is held every four years. The 2025 ride will be the 10^th edition of LEL.

 

Why LEL?

Other than it being the most popular randonneuring event in the world after Paris Brest Paris (PBP) and one of the toughest if not the toughest ride in the Audax UK calendar

• Opportunity to stay in contention to complete the European Randonnee Challenge (4 rides in Europe in 4 consecutive years including PBP, 1001 Miglia and LEL)
• Experience the beautiful sun rise and sun set in United Kingdom
• Looking forward to riding in the picturesque locations enroute

Why London Start?

• Having experienced the vibrance of the mass start at Debden in the previous edition, wanted to experience the quieter London start
• Opportunity to experience an additional part of the route since the route to Chelmsford could be experienced on the return
• Convenience of staying in London

 

Visa:

The visa experience was very smooth this time. I was apprehensive about the visa, having received the visa at the last minute in 2022, I was hoping that the visa experience will be better this time around. The visa submission process was very smooth, soft copies of the required documents were uploaded and the bio-metric at VFS was also done very quickly. The visa was processed and received in 2 weeks.

 

Gratitude:

Chandana – I am fortunate to have you in my life and words don’t do justice to how grateful I am to you. I am grateful that you are part of my life. Thank you for the support during the training phase and also during and after the ride. This ride would not be possible if not for your support and understanding. Thank you for planning the trip around the cycling event and taking care of the logistics, food and planning which made this a stress-free trip for me.

Mohan Subramanyam – guiding and mentoring my cycling journey. Providing the opportunity to ride LRM’s and also providing the training routes which help in training for tough rides. The opportunity to ride the Bekal 1200 event set the ball rolling in terms of preparation for LEL 2025

Tanushree – 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.

Rajkumar Khot and Pritish Abraham – for the support in the training phase and also keeping track of my progress during the ride (before it got cancelled)

Rajkumar Khot - thank you for the cycle bag, made travelling with the cycle very easy and convinient

RR Cycles (Madivala) – For 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. Sourced the jockey wheels and bottom bracket in time to have a smooth ride.

Bangalore Randonneurs – the support of the community has been very motivating and keeps us going even when things begin to get tough. Having a large contingent from this community at LEL 2025 was very encouraging

 

Practice Rides:

After the 1001 Miglia ride, the rides were very sporadic and I had gained a lot of weight. A crash in between led to forced rest due to concussion was another period of weight addition. Before I could start practicing for LEL, I did the Bekal 1200 ride; it was an unsupported ride and it was a reality check. Although I completed the ride in 88 hours, the ride was not without its difficulties.

I had to get rid of the additional weight before I started putting in miles on the saddle. It was largely indoor rides for 3 months, managed to bring the weight down by 7 kilos. I had spent the summer months indoor’s, managed to avoid the extreme heat outdoors and it was now time to get outdoors and get comfortable spending long hours on the saddle. Thanks to Rajkumar Khot and Pritish Abraham for joining me on the rides, always a pleasure to have their company on the rides.

The main rides that were done as practice for LEL 2025 were:

1. Bekal 1200 – February 2025 – 1,200-kilometre LRM

2. Savandurga – Guddadahalli – May 2025 – saddle time

3. Nandi Hills – 24 May 2025 – climb practice

This hill has always been a marker for my climbing ability. With new asphalt laid on the 7-kilometre climb, rolling resistance being low, minimal traffic, the conditions were right to test myself. Managed to climb in 33 minutes which showed that there is still a long way off from where I wanted to be. The second climb was even more disappointing as it took 44 minutes, the time gap between the two climbs was alarming.

4. Anchetty – 31 May 2025 – rolling terrain

A week after it was an attempt to ride relatively quickly to Anchetty with minimal breaks. The ride went well with a time of just under 9 hours; ended with the feeling that there were areas where I was conservative and could have pushed a little harder.

5. North Kodagu – 10 June 2025 – flat to rolling to climbing

I had completed volunteering for the 3^rd edition of the Kodagu 650 race. Took the opportu

nity to stay back and do a ride in Kodagu. Plotted a route which included sections of the Kodagu 650 route and some new sections as I wanted to explore a bit and loaded the map on the Garmin unit. It was about 120 kilometres with about 2,900 metres of elevation and the plan was to start early and complete the ride in about 6 hours with minimal breaks.

Things were on course till about the 50-kilometre mark, at which point the Garmin unit did not give the “off route” prompt. I rode 8 kilometres off route before realizing the blunder, I could join back the route, however opted to go back and try to do the route which I had plotted. This off-route soujourn cost me an hour. Then when I got back on route, there was the “no road” situation, so had to try to find an alternate, all of this costing time.

There was a plethora of short climbs with steep gradients, although they did not seem to be very difficult. Road conditions were also largely good. There was a cloud cover and moderate temperatures which made it easy to ride. A downpour at the end of the ride was like the prefect sign-off to Kodagu.

The ride went well and was satisfied with the progress made on the climbing front.

6. Nandi – 14 June 2025 – climb practice

A ride with Rajkumar Khot is always challenging. It is an effort to stay with him when he takes off, had to hold back in the city while he pushed me when we got onto the highway. When we reached the hill, it was a steady climb for the first 4 kilometres and then pushed a little in the last 3 kilometres, ended up with a time of 35 minutes, slower than a month ago, but much more comfortable on the bike, however climbing is still on the slower side.

7. Jawalagiri – 21 June 2025 – rolling terrain

Another ride in rolling terrain with Rajkumar Khot. This was a relaxed ride and legs were moving well, however, the volatility in riding one week to the other was not very comforting.

8. Kolar – 30 June 2025 – flat terrain

An out and back ride, not to forget the flat terrain at LEL, the fens in particular had not been a pleasant experience in 2022, so tried to get a little training done in flat terrain and with head winds on the way back it was a good syncronisation ride

9. Nandi Repeats – Quarter Everesting – 5 July 2025 – climb practice

Under a month to go for the event and still not enough confidence in the climbing ability. Time to test it out and also mindful not to push too hard. Started the ride late and managed to complete a quarter everesting just as the light was fading

10. Indoor Ride – Snowfall Mountain – Quarter Everesting – 12 July 2025 – climb practice

Tried a quarter everesting on the indoor trainer to get some more climb training done. Another fruitful session, progress being made slowly, however not quick enough

11. Mallappa Konda – 13 July 2025 – rolling terrain and climb practice

Having done a multi-day ride way back in February, the confidence to do a multi-day ride was wavering, so forced myself to go for a ride and do a climb the day after doing a quarter everesting just to get a feel of riding on consecutive days. Not an eventful ride, which being just 2 weeks before the event is a good way to sign off the training for LEL.

 

Bon Voyage:

I wasn’t travelling with the Bangalore Randonneurs group this time. Only Chetan C J was on the same flight as Chandana and me. It was a direct flight to London from Bengaluru. I did find that the flight to London was a long one, 10 hours seemed to be a long time to stay on the air and not get the usual break after 3-4 hours at a transit location.

 

Equipment and Set Up:

Bike: Trek Emonda ALR 5

Frameset: Aluminium

Group set: Shimano 105 11 speed (50-34 at the front and 11-32 cassette at the rear)

Tires: Continental GP 5000

Lights: Cateye Volt 300 and Cateye AMPP 400 for the front and Niterider Cherrybomb for the rear.

Top Tube Bag: Phone, 2 cateye batteries, clear lens, 20,000 mah power bank, few candies and 2 chamois cream pouches

Saddle Bag: Trek N Ride Canguru Bag – Tool kit, Lube, Tire levers, puncture kit, Showers Pass Rain Jacket, DHB Aeron Winter Jacket, Gore Cold Weather gloves, pump and 2 spare tubes

Navigation:

Device: Garmin Edge 520 +

The 1,560-kilometer route was divided into 20 segments. There were 18 control points; the organizers had shared the 1,560-kilometer route and also 20 files for the control-to-control maps. Having had a good experience with loading segment routes instead of the full route, decided to go with the segment routes and load each segment when I reached the control. This helps as the control points wouldn’t be missed as opposed to the full route where the control locations will not be marked.

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.

Weather update:

Since a year there were messages being floated around that the weather for this edition was going to be closer to the UK weather and that the Asian riders would not have it easy like in the 2022 edition which had a heat wave. It was expected to rain and be cold; temperatures would be in the 20 – 22^oC range in the morning and would dip to single digits at night in Scotland was the expectation which was set.

As the event date got closer, there was news that Storm Floris would pass through the Island nation during the event. High windspeeds and drop in temperatures could be expected during the storm.

 

Total Time:

The total time for the ride was 129 hours 40 minutes. My start time was 6:15 am 3 August 2025 from Guildhall, London and I had to complete the ride by 3:40 pm on 8 August 2025.

 

Plan:

The plan was to do 400 kilometres in the first 24 hours and 300 kilometres thereafter in every 24 hour block. This was the plan provided that the weather would be favourable, however would be changed based on the weather conditions. Also, Iwanted to avoid riding between 1am to 4 am every night as I wanted to avoid staying out during the cold hours.

 

Drop Bag Locations:

For the 2025 edition the organisers stated that we had to choose 1 drop bag location in England and 1 in Scotland. The England drop bag could be accessed on the northbound and southbound routes, while the Scotland control was accessible only once, making it a total of 3 times access to the drop bag. The locations that I opted for were:

• Malton – km 392 and km 1,175
• Moffat – km 740

The thought process was to try and match the locations where I would stop for a sleep break and also to try and break the route up into 300 - 400 kilometre sections. Malton was not my preferred control, the experience in 2022 was not very good, however, I took the risk as I prioritised sleep at the right time at night over the food at Malton, in other words, I was ok with limited food at Malton.

There was strict weight limit enforced for the drop bags. 2 sets of clothes and a power bank were the only things kept in the Malton drop bag and 1 set of clothes and a power bank in the Moffat drop bag. The enforced weight restriction added a little additional weight to be carried on the bike.

Touchdown and settle in:

29 July 2025:

Morning flight at 6:50 am on 29 July 2025 with a touchdown in Heathrow London at around 1:00 pm. By the time we reached our accommodation in Leyton it was around 3 pm. First task was to set-up the bike, did it carefully this time around (rushes job in Italy resulted in a broken screw of the Garmin mount), no hiccups in bike set-up.

 

30 July 2025:

Ride around Leyton – 6 kilometers

Start time: 6:00 am

Total time: 20 minutes

This was meant to be a short ride; just to test that the bike had been set-up correctly and also get a feel of riding on London roads. No route map, just get on the bike and ride. I stepped out to a cold and drizzly morning; I wasn’t wearing any cold weather gear, it took a little while for the cold to get to me, however, I was able to make it back in time before the chill got under the skin.

 

1 August 2025:

Ride to Guildhall and a little bit of the route – 34 kilometers

Start time: 6:12 am

Total time: 2 hours 45 minutes

Guildhall

Just 2 days remaining for the start of LEL, I wanted to ride to the start point and also to get a little familiar with the route itself, no long rides, just about 10-15 kilometres on the route and then get back.

Stepped out and tried to get the navigation going on the Garmin Edge 520 + device. The map was taking forever to load; I was getting cold waiting for the map to load; decided to get going and used the phone to navigate. The map was very slow, when it did load, every time it had to refresh, it would move to a blank screen and then load after a couple of minutes. It was futile to keep waiting for the map to load at junctions, and at turns. Used the phone and reached Guildhall; it was not a comfortable ride with frequent stops and missed turns.

A few photos and then tried to load the route map from the Start to CP 1. It loaded and I considered the route to start point difficulty as a blip in the device’s performance. Guildhall is near the finance hub of London with all the banks having their offices in the high rises nearby and then there is the Bank station. A little sight-seeing around the block and then onto the long straight or so I thought. I got a ‘off-route’ warning on the Garmin, stopped checked on the map and it was back to the blank screen and loading message. I loaded the route on the phone and it looked like I was on the parallel road to the route, so trudged back on the footpath; however, whichever direction I went in, it didn’t seem to get me onto the route. I must have spent about 20 minutes walking around and trying to get onto the route, until I realized that I was on the route and the off-route alarm was a false alarm. I was doing this walking around on the footpath since London traffic gets busy by 6:00 am and stopping every 5 metres to check on the route was not feasible on the road.

The Garmin device was not working, this was a red flag, for now I had to use the phone. Riding in London was not very enjoyable; it was traffic lights every 50-80 metres to start with and then there was the constant checking of the phone.

London sites

The route passes by the Tottenham football stadium, a few photos there and it was onward on the route. I rode a few more kilometres before I got frustrated with the constant checking of the phone and the frustration that the navigation was not working on the Garmin device.

The ride back with cluttered thoughts was a difficult one. I had informed Chandana about the predicament and she had tried to find a couple of locations where I could go to get the problem fixed. Got back to the room and checked with Pritish and Raj about the Garmin issue as well, was told that the base map which I had loaded was too heavy for the device and that I had to load a base map which took up lesser space on the device. Pritish sent the condensed filed and now I had to find a store to load the map.

There was one a few kilometres away, however, enroute I passed by a cycle store. I was like, why not give it a try, went in and explained the problem and requested them to load the new map on the device. The staff were friendly and obliged to load the map, even though it was their lunch time. The map was loaded; tried loading the route, however, it was still not working seamlessly like it should. The device was slow, the refresh to a new screen was taking ages.

I decided to use the phone for navigation and was going to be dependent on fellow riders for navigation in this event. I had one more day and was going to try and reload the route map files and hoped that it would work on the event day.

  

2 August 2025:

Registration Day

I had received a mail stating that my registration time was 9:15 am. We started early from Leyton, then a wait for a bus from Chelmsford station to Writtle. The bus was late, we tried to book a cab, no luck, finally the bus arrived, it was a short ride.

Registration formalities
PC: Chandana Puttalingaiah

Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) was the venue for the start and finish at Writtle and also for the registration. It is a beautiful university; riders were already at the venue for the registration formalities. Chandana and I were guided to the registration desk based on my registration number (LF3), I was handed over my pack which contained the brevet card, the drop bags, the band to be fixed on the wrist, the bib card with the rider number to be fixed on the bike and the event jersey which I had opted for.

I packed the drop bags and headed to the tent where the drop bag had to be handed over and also the event water bottle could be collected. The drops bags were being weighed, a strict 2.5 kg limit, which considering the wet weather forecast and the cold weather gear that we Indian’s require on the ride is a little short, especially for the bag which we can access twice. I required 2 drop bags at Malton rather than only 1 to meet the weight limit.

Interesting weighing scale for drob bags

Having handed over the bag, I met few of the riders from Bangalore and India and them headed back to the bus stop. I wanted to get as much rest as possible before the event, so wanted to head back to London as early as possible.

Bus from Writtle to Chelmsford and then the train from Chelmsford to Writtle. We got back by mid-day fixed the bib-card onto the bike and got the bike ready for the event. Saddle bags loaded with the rain and cold weather jacket. I spent time deleting the route maps and re-loading the maps to the Garmin device. I was hoping that the Garmin device would function well, maps were loaded on the phone, in case the Garmin does not work.  

 

3 August 2025:

I got about a 6-hour sleep. It was time to get ready and get to the start point at Guildhall. It was day break by the time I started from Leyton.  I did not load the route to the start point on the Garmin, having couple of days earlier, I re-traced the route. A little bit of a hurry to get to the start point as I did think that I might not make it in time.

At Guildhall London

I reached Guildhall at 5:45 am. Earlier than I had expected, I had sufficient time for the start. Less crowd, mostly riders and volunteers here, since the rider crowd is less, also, the earliest start time being 5:30 am, there were not many people around at Guildhall. Chandana reached in a short while, while we were clicking photos, Malavika also reached, she helped with the photos. I met Chiu, my friend from Taiwan with whom I had ridden at 1001 Miglia, he was starting at 6:30 am. Chetan who was supposed to start before me, reached the start point late, he started a few minutes after 6:00 am.

It was nice sun rise, warm light around Guildhall, map loaded on Garmin. It was time to line-up for the briefing and get ready to start. Danial, the organizer was at Guildhall, he briefed about the route, wished us the best and also sounded out the warning that Storm Floris was expected to hit Scotland during the event and they would keep us informed if it did happen.

 

The Ride:

I’m covering the ride in separate 24 hour sections

Day 1

Start time: 6:15 am 3 August 2025

Distance covered in 24 hours: 406 kilometers

Started at Guildhall, London and reached Howardian Hills

Guildhall to Northstowe – Garmin sorted but the legs are

Distance (kms)	Ride time	Refreshment Stop	Sleep Break	Power Nap	Shower	Miscellaneous Stop	Exit CP	Total Time
108	4 hours 10 minutes	-	-	-	-	5 minutes	8 minutes	4 hours 23 minutes

Time to start

We were flagged off at 6:15 am. I bid my bye to Chandana and Malavika. Started the ride on Garmin and followed the group. In half a kilometre, the same location where the Garmin had stopped working couple of days ago, the Garmin stopped again, an off-route notification and then the map screen went blank. I followed the group, the traffic lights split the group, some went ahead, while we had to stop at the red. The next 10 kilomteres had intermittent stops at the traffic lights. When we got past the traffic lights, I stayed in the group as I was dependent on them for navigation. It was a steady ride on the streets of London, early morning traffic and road work at locations to avoid and we slowly moved into the outskirts. About 20 kilometres done when we had exited the high-rises and were getting to the interior roads. The Garmin device came back to life here, we had exited the high rises and the map had loaded, I was not dependent on others, however, I rode for a bit more to ensure that the device working was not a false dawn, the device held.

The group split up on a small climb, I accelerated from here and caught up with two riders who were riding at a fair clip. We rode as a group and the speed was around 30kmph which would slow down when we passed through a town or on a one of the climbs in the rolling terrain. The road surface was not very smooth, having left the streets of London, the road still felt better. The traffic was non-existant here, just the cyclists on the road. The 2 riders stopped for a break and I continued riding alone. I was coming across other riders on the road, so it was a case of riding by myself, but not really alone.

Empty roads after exiting London

The London route merges with the Writtle route at km 80. I had carried two banana’s and two boiled eggs; the plan was to eat one banana and one boiled egg around the 80 km mark and have the other around the 150km mark. I expected the control at Northstowe to be crowded and would take time if I stopped at Northstowe for food, so eat on the bike and don’t stop for food at Northstowe was the plan. I peeled a banana, however, with the bumpy road surface, the banana dropped onto the road, there goes the nutrition plan. I ate the boiled egg and would take a call on eating at Northstowe when I got there.

I didn’t want to stop and click pics, so was clicking pics on the go during this event. During one of the attempts to click a pic, in my attempt to hold a steady position on the bike, I ending up cramping. It was a bad cramp; I managed to keep going; however, the legs were hurting from this point. I backed off the pace for a few kilometres and hoped to recover, although with the heat having picked up, I knew this was again going to be a long wait for recovery.

The ride became a mix of wait to recover and then ride at the regular pace for sometime and the legs would cramp again, back-off recover. I came by Vandana and then in a few minutes JP came along with a peloton, I joined at the back of the group. I was comfortable at the back of the group until one of the riders in the pack tried to get his water bottle from the water bottle holder and ended up dropping it onto the road. The rider behind him was unable to avoid the bottle and went over it and crashed. The rider ahead of me managed to avoid the crash and so was I. We stopped to check on the rider who had crashed. Couple of other riders also, stopped, the rider had already sat up, seeing that there were three riders already there and the rider was also looked to be ok, I continued the ride.

The pack had sped ahead, I did not want to chase, I did not want to cramp again, having doubts I preferred to take it easy. I reached the Northstowe control at 10:30 am. As I entered the control JP and the group were exiting. It was a long entry to the control, then parking the bike, walking to get the brevet card stamped and then headed inside. There was a queue for the food, I did not want to spend time here (I still had one boiled egg and a banana), I was feeling ok on the food front, only the cramp was holding me back. I filled up the water bottle, chugged it down at one go, refilled the bottle again and was back on the saddle. It was a relatively quick exit from the control. 100 kilometres to go for the next control.

 

Northstowe to Boston

Distance (kms)	Ride time	Refreshment Stop	Sleep Break	Power Nap	Shower	Miscellaneous Stop	Exit CP	Total Time
101	4 hours 14 minutes	7 minutes	-	-	-	17 minutes	36 minutes	5 hours 14 minutes

It was getting hot; I was not sure if the decision not to extend the break at Northstowe would make it a struggle to get to Boston. The legs were still hurting and had not recovered from the cramp. I ate the banana and boiled egg as soon as I exited from the control, way ahead of schedule. I was now without anything to eat, made a stop at Somersham and bought a coca cola. I hoped this would help with the cramp also.

Villages enroute

We passed by a lot of villages, many having boards which stated that they had been awarded for being the best village in the county. It was a nice distraction to be passing through a lot of beautiful villages. The roads opened up and when we did hit the open roads, we were introduced to the winds. I caught up with Sunil and Prakash here and in a few more minutes caught up with Ashish Joshi and Santosh Bijur. Meeting riders and chatting with them was a nice distraction from the cramps and the pain setting in every time I tried to ramp up the effort.

We could see dark clouds in the distance. It was a matter of time before it started to rain. The ride took us into the clouds and soon enough it started to drizzle. It was not hard enough to warrant a stop; however, I wanted to test the rain gear, with the storm expected the next day, I wanted to be ready for it. I stopped and wore the neoprene shoe cover (bought this when I came for LEL 2022, hadn’t used it since). I should have been careful when wearing the shoe cover, rushed it and ended up tearing it near the cleat on the right leg. I was careful with the left leg one, I was back o the bike and riding in the rain.

Introduction to wet weather

The shoe cover worked well, it was only a drizzle and would it stand up in heavier rain was a question that was running through the mind. I caught up with Sunil and Prakash again, the rain did not last long, it got dry and then the shoe cover was becoming uncomfortable. Although it was not raining, the socks were now getting wet with sweat, the shoe cover was not breathable, I had to stop and get the shoe cover off.

We were riding along River Welland, I stopped while Prakash and Sunil rode ahead. Ashish and Santosh also passed me when I had stopped. The shoe cover was off, the shower had brought down the temperature, this helped with the recovery from cramps also.

It was flat terrain, I was feeling better, the roads seemed familiar as this section was the same as what we had ridden in 2022. I crossed Spalding and counted down the distance to Boston. I had recovered from the cramping; I did not push too hard lest the cramps return, I increased the pace only a little. Just being pain free while riding was comforting.

I reached Boston at 3:15 pm. It was a crowded control, however, having completed 210 kilometres I needed to stop, eat a little and get some rest before resuming. After the brevet card seal and the check in was done, water bottle filled up, it was a long walk to the cafeteria and then a long queue for the food.

Considering the queue for the food, it was a relatively quick exit from the control in only 30 minutes. Sunil and I exited from the control, we didn’t see Prakash around and thought he had started.

 

Boston to Louth

Distance (kms)	Ride time	Refreshment Stop	Sleep Break	Power Nap	Shower	Miscellaneous Stop	Exit CP	Total Time
56	2 hours 34 minutes	-	-	-	-	-	31 minutes	3 hours 5 minutes

The long sections were done, now the smaller sections were coming up. After doing 100+ kilometres to each control the next at just 56 kilometres was a short one and easy on the mind to count down. It was windy, Sunil and I were chatting about the wind and about how we were struggling to identify the wind direction, it seemed to be blowing from different directions.

Traffic jams caused by cyclists, try to be in a group in the fens

Prakash caught up with us here, he was still at the control when we had started. The terrain was changing from flat to rolling as we were exiting the fens. In general, a section where my pace was beginning to drop just a little. Sunil and Prakash had ridden ahead, I was joined by Abhishek, he was riding quick and he pushed me to up the pace while I chatted with him. He had not stopped for food as yet and was looking forward to the stop at the next control. There was relatively more traffic on this section of the route, however, the drivers waited behind the cyclists and gave sufficient room before overtaking; this led to long convoys of vehicles behind cyclists.

With rolling terrain, and a nice chat with Abhi, we pushed to get to the control. The kilometres came down quickly; we moved from open roads to roads with a canopy and soon enough were pulling into the control at Louth.

I got the brevet card sealed, the check in also completed, headed in for food. The control was busy with riders, a small queue for food, nothing like the queue at Boston. The food however, was being rationed at this control, only a small serving was being given. This was a repeat of 2022, the same control, the same rationing of food; this was very disappointing. The distance to the next control was only 60 kilomteres, would take about 3 hours to get there, hoped that the food scene would be better at Hessle.

 

Louth to Hessle

Distance (kms)	Ride time	Refreshment Stop	Sleep Break	Power Nap	Shower	Miscellaneous Stop	Exit CP	Total Time
57	2 hours 51 minutes	-	-	-	-	3 minutes	49 minutes	3 hours 43 minute

Sunil, Prakash and I started from Louth. This section of the route is rolling terrain, with it being evening hours, it was good hours to be riding here. Binu caught up with me and after a brief chat went ahead. Daylight was fading, I tried to ride as quickly as possible and make the most of the last bit of daylight.

Flat roads to rolling terrain

The distance again being under 60 kilometres, mentally this was an easy section to countdown, the road surface was relatively good. It was a steady ride; the average speed was dropping as the fatigue of being on the road was showing up. The plan was to get to Malton before stopping for a sleep break, still a long way to go for that, I had to get to Hessle and make a quick exit from there.

Pushed a little when the distance dropped to under 20 kilometres, reached the Humber bridge, not as windy as I expected on the Humber bridge; the bridge was well lit, would have preferred to have reached here with day light, probably if I hadn’t cramped early, might have made it in time to see the Humber river at sun set.

Humber bridge

I reached Hessle at 9:50 pm. The parking lot was packed, a lot of cycles, the cafeteria though was relatively empty. Food was not rationed here, had a sufficient fill here to be able to get to Malton.

Exited the control with Sunil and Prakash. On our way out of the control, we chatted with a rider about the storm, he said that its very calm at present and should have been windy if the storm was going to arrive in the next few hours; fingers crossed there would be no storm.

 

Hessle to Malton

Distance (kms)	Ride time	Refreshment Stop	Sleep Break	Power Nap	Shower	Miscellaneous Stop	Exit CP	Total Time
70	3 hours 38 minutes	-	2 hours	-	-	-	1 hour 10 minutes	7 hours 19 minutes

I was possibly an hour behind where I would have wanted to be, would have made this easier on the sleep front. This was another relatively smaller section at 70 kilometres, however, being night time and sleep beginning to set in this was going to be on the slower side.

Rolling terrain and a few turns to take. Having Sunil and Prakash for company here helped on the sleep front. Prakash was feeling sleepy and stopped to take a nap, he told us to continue and we would catch up. Sunil and I rode ahead.

We were coming up to the Thixendale valley. I would have liked to have ridden in the Thixendale valley in daylight, a beautiful section of the LEL route in England. A long descent into the valley was followed by a steady climb to come out of the valley.

In 2022 I was struggling with sleep a lot on this section, however, this time around, I was not very sleepy and was riding without struggling with the cold or sleep. Prakash caught up with us, we were close to the Malton control.

It was around 2:20 am when we reached Malton. The plan was to eat and then sleep for a bit and then resume the ride. By the time Prakash and I were done eating, Sunil could not be spotted. We guessed that he had gone to sleep, we went to the sleep area to request for a bed, however, the sleep area was full. We were then guided to another sleep area which was across the sports field. This was a minimum halk a kilometre  walk, the place was relatively empty, we asked for a wake up in 1.5 hours and slept.

We were woken up in 1.5 hours and then had to trudge back across the field. The walking around in the control was time consuming. Chandana had messaged that her train to the Lake district had been cancelled due to the storm and enquired if there was any news about it on the ride. I enquired with the volunteers if there was any news about the storm, they said they had no news. Informed Chandana that I would be resuming the ride as there was no news as yet. We tried to contact Sunil; he was not answering. Prakash and I got ready and started from the control at 5:30 am.

 

Day 2

Start time: 6:15 am 4 August 2025

Distance covered in 4 hours 25 minutes: 79 kilometers

Started at Howardian Hills and reached Richmond

Malton to Richmond

Distance (kms)	Ride time	Refreshment Stop	Sleep Break	Power Nap	Shower	Miscellaneous Stop	Exit CP	Total Time
93	4 hours 44 minutes	20 minutes	-	-	-	-	-	5 hours 4 minutes

 

It was a misty when we started from the control. I was slow off the blocks and was struggling to keep pace with Prakash, I told him to ride ahead and not wait for me. Prakash rode ahead, we were in the Howardian hills and I was looking forward to this section as we pass by the castle. We couldn’t see the castle from the road; we pass under the gate. A beautiful section, it had started to drizzle and it was a wet morning ride.

It was a slow morning for me, not riding well enough, I was making slow progress. The drizzle did not require the rain jacket; I wore the cold weather jacket which is water resistant and continued the ride. In a short while the rain got heavier, I wore the rain jacket on top of the cold weather jacket expecting that this would not last long and I would be removing the rain jacket quickly.

I was wearing 5 layers, base layer, jersey, cold weather jacket, rain jacket and reflective vest. A bit too much for this weather, it was getting hot inside. The rain abated soon enough, back to a drizzle, I took the rain jacket off, continued with the cold weather jacket.

I reached the pop-up control at Rainton. An opportunity to get some food in. This was a small pop-up café, but the variety of food on offer was excellent. Soup with bread, cakes, cookies, juice all for a price, however it was better than what was available at most controls. I had a nice early morning breakfast here. I was out of the café in 20 minutes.

I was 42 kilometres from the control at Richmond. Rolling terrain and a little wind. It was cloudy and the Sun was playing hide and seek with the clouds. I continued with the cold weather jacket and tried to keep the pace steady. It took a little while for the energy to kick in, I was riding comfortably and felt better than when I had started from Malton.

I got through to Richmond relatively easily, the weather conditions were holding up, I did think that the storm would have passed and that we could continue the ride. When I got close to Richmond, the Sun was out and the wet roads were beginning to dry. It was a climb to Richmond, I was sweating wearing the cold weather jacket, couldn’t wait to take it off at the control. The jacket in the constant drizzle had become wet by then. With the sweating due to the climb, the jacket was not wet on the inside also.

I reached Richmmond at 9:30am. It was bright and sunny. Brevet card signed, used the rest room, headed out as I didn’t want to eat here having had breakfast at Rainton. I came out to a misty and cold Richmond. Just 20 minutes and a significant change in the weather. I was heading out to start and Sunil had just reached, he asked me to wait for 5 minutes and we could start together. The wind speed had picked up significantly while I waited for Sunil.

In the next 5 minutes Danial (Organiser) came to the control and made the dreaded announcement. The Storm had arrived and the conditions had deteriorated; wind speeds were high which were not conducive to riding and made it risky to be out on the road. The event was being suspended for 4 hours and we were told to stay at the control until further update. Our next update would be in 4 hours, but were told that we should expect to be in the control for significantly longer while the organizing team assessed the conditions.

Richmond Control – period of uncertainty and then the knock-out blow

The Richmond control was relatively empty at this point as there was a moving crowd of riders. I laid out the helmet and jacket to dry, realised how wet it was only after getting them off. In about an hour the control was getting crowded with riders arriving. 4 hours seemed to pass quickly as other riders arrived and we caught up with our experiences on the road. The riders arriving after an hour were saying that the wind speed was high and staying on the bike was difficult. Four hours passes quickly and the next update came saying that the event was suspended for a further 4 hours.

Rather than staying awake and waiting, it would be better to catch up on sleep, in case the event did start at the end of this 4-hour period, I would have to be riding through the night. Meanwhile Danial had posted a video of the wind at Yad Moss which showed the wind to be very strong and unsafe conditions for riding. Getting a bed at this time was difficult as the control was very crowded. The volunteers got additional beds and set up an additional space for sleeping. I got a bed and got couple of hours of sleep. Woke up just before 5pm and just as I was looking around, the news trickled in that the Event had been cancelled and the announcement was being made.

I went out and the volunteer was making the announcement. The conditions hadn’t improved and it would not be possible to continue the event. We were advised to stay at the control and not step out until further notice, however the event was cancelled. The entire effort of preparing for the ride and coming all the way to UK to ride had been brought to a nought due to the storm. It was very disappointing and a hard blow. When I went back to the bed, we were told to vacate the space and give it up to the riders who had just arrived and needed rest.

Scenes at Richmond control

I vacated the space and went down to check on the bike. The volunteers had already laid down the bikes from the standing position so as to avoid them falling due to the wind. It was Sunny now; however, the wind speed had not come down as yet. The volunteers were doing an excellent job with respect to managing the control, especially the food arrangements, it was fantastic as they were now catering to almost 1,000 riders at this control. There was no shortage of food here, however, there was a shortage of space. There was no place to sleep and getting a small space on the floor was also a difficult. Deepak and I walked around and finally managed to get a space to sleep.

In the morning there was still uncertainty about what was going to happen. Chandana informed that the train services had resumed and that she was going to the Lake District, I was hopeful that the ride would be resumed. In an hour an announcement was made, we could resume the ride but were discouraged from riding north and that we could ride south and the controls would remain open and we could use the control facilities on the southward ride. Locals were encouraged to arrange their own transport if they could to get back, we were welcome to ride south if we wanted to. We had lost almost 24 hours, were almost 500 kilometres from London. Having a sizeable contingent this was going to become a touring ride while we headed South.

There was a serpentine queue for breakfast, it would take almost an hour just to get to the food counter if we waited. Sunil, Deepak and I decided to ride to Barnard Castle and have breakfast en route rather than waiting at the control. The three of us started off from the control.

It was short trip to Barnard castle and then we rode southward, we enjoyed a strong tailwind on the south ward route. By end of the day, we reached Hessle where there was a rush to grab the last available air bed. I got one, but Deepak didn’t, then the search for a place a sleep.

The next day it was retracing the route that we had ridden on the onward journey. We kept meeting riders on the route and also at the controls, this was a relaxed ride and gave opportunities to visit places which we had missed out on during the onward ride. Reached Northstowe in the evening, it was still early to stop the day, decided to ride to Henham and stop for the night so that it would be under 50kms to the finish the next day. It was a exciting ride through Cambridge and as the night set in, we were trying to get to Henham early so that we could avoid the rush to get a bed. I was riding with Nakul and Rohit here, heard Nakul calling out that Rohit had a puncture, coincidence, I also had a puncture. My front tire was flat and the reason for this was a thumb pin, Rohit’s bike also was flat due to a thumb pin. This was a case of an intentional sabotage, someone had strewn thumb pins on the road, fortunately Nakul had escaped. We found a spot to change the tube and get going.

Few kilometres ahead, another rider fixing his flat and few more another rider had a flat on both tires all caused by the same thumb pins. By the time we got to the control at Henham it was late and the last bed was already taken. We had to wait for a few riders to get up to get a bed. We got the bed, it was in the tented area, it was extra cold here. Got a couple of hours of sleep; woke in the early hours and started from the control.

Henham Control
PC: Raghu Nandan Nagaraja

It was a quick ride with Abhishek and Xerxis to get to the ARU campus in Writtle. Got the brevte card signed, collected the drop bags and headed back to London.

As I was trying to complete the Europe Challenge Randonnee (ECR) and the LEL ride is a requirement for it, I didn’t if I would have to repeat the cycle all over again due to the cancellation. At a later date it was confirmed that the riders whonhad checked into the control at Writlle would be considered for the Europe Challenge Randonnee. The decision to have ridden back to Writtel rather than taking transport back to the Writtle had kept me in contention for the ECR.

 

The Numbers:

Control to Control data:

Summary:

LEL 2025 was a ride where the ‘needed to do” outweighed the “wanted to do”, however, I did expect a better experience than what I had in 2022. I was looking forward to riding in English weather unlike the heat wave in 2022. On account of the storm, I was able to make it only till Richmond, the route becomes scenic from Richmond and I had gotten past the flat and had to stop at the doorstep of the climbs. The exciting part of the route was not done.

LEL 2025 being cancelled due to the storm was a hard hit, however, overall, it was not a pleasant experience. The experience at Louth with respect to food being rationed in 2022 and 2025 and also saying that the controls would be operational for the riders riding South and shutting down the Malton control by 7pm for the riders coming South were not what was expected.

I have contemplated many times if it would have been possible to allow us to complete the ride after having stopped the ride for almost 24 hours. The weather conditions seemed to have settled down when we were riding South. Having said that, when I travelled to Scotland post ride, it was still windy. Overall, LEL 2025 was a dampener and a bitter pill to swallow.