London Edinburgh London 2022

Five years ago, in January 2017, I read on a cycling forum about a long ride called "London Edinburgh London" or LEL. It was next due to run later that year, at the end of July, and although it was tempting to enter it, I thought I'd wait until the next one, in 2021. That should give me time to prepare, and it also let me get guaranteed entry: I joined Audax UK that month, knowing that four years continuous membership would give me guaranteed entry to LEL.

At the end of 2020, it was announced that, owing to the lockdown, LEL2021 would be postponed until 2022. I had been gradually increasing the amount of cycling I was doing, and had done some fairly long rides, some almost 250km. The postponement put a bit of a damper on my training, and at the start of 2021, I took a bit of a break.

In May that year, that started to change. Although I'd been a member of Audax UK for over 4 years, and had often browsed their website, I didn't actually enter an Audax until May 2021. My first Audax was "The Waveney Wander", a 100km Audax starting and finishing in Carlton Coleville in Suffolk. I drove to the start, and had a fairly quiet ride for most of the way as I was starting in the last group, the other two members of which were much faster than me. I didn't understand the concept of "info controls", but did manage to take a photo of the appropriate road sign more or less accidentally. About half way round I caught up with some other audaxers, and after some tea and a cake I rode with them until the end. Amongst them was Ian Lovelock, who I swapped Strava details with and promised to take a look at riding one of his audaxes later in the year.

Over the next year and a bit, I got more heavily involved into entering Audaxes, eventually officially extending them for extra Audax points, rather than riding to and from them separately the day before and the day after. I extended Ian's "Grand Tour de Stour" from 200km to 600km! In the 2022 season, I'd amassed 27 Audax points prior to starting LEL.

I had been talking about entering LEL pretty much since I learned of it, and when entries opened that January, I entered as soon as I could! My Audax UK membership guaranteed my place, but entries to the ballot were lower than in previous years, so in the end everyone who applied for a place got one. As the year progressed, I kept entering Audaxes, or doing other long rides roughly once a fortnight. Including my extensions, I did a 500km in January, a 600km in April, and an 800km (though too slowly) in June. By August I was as ready as I was going to get!

London Edinburgh London 2022 started on Sunday the 7th of August. My start time was 13:15, and I had 128h20m to complete the 1540km route (an average of 12km/h). Registration was on Saturday. I took a train to Marylebone and cycled to Debden, the start. In a bizarre coincidence, I met an audaxer I had previously met, another Ian. He was starting much earlier than me, and had only recently recovered from covid, so wasn't particularly optimistic. Having registered, collecting the merchandise I'd ordered, and the GPS tracker I was hiring, made it feel real for the first time! Excited, I cycled to my brother's in Walthamstow.

Before I started, outside my brother's.

I didn't have any bag drops, as I had accidentally let the deadline to choose them pass, so I had as many clothes as I could fit into my rack top bag. That wasn't much: a spare pair of bib shorts, a spare pair of socks, and two spare jerseys. I also had a long sleeved winter top, a gilet, arm warmers, leg warmers and a thin waterproof. These latter took up most of the space! A first aid kit, an inner tube, sun cream (well, spray) and chamois cream filled up the rest of the space. The clothes were wrapped up in a carrier bag in case it rained. I put all my tools in one side pocket, toothbrush/paste, cafe lock, camera selfie stick and earplugs in the other side. There was also a top pocket, containing the tracker (7 days of battery), my brevet, a bank card and my driver's license. I had two crossbar bags: below contained my front light battery, charging apparatus from my dynamo hub to one power bank, spare front light battery, several spare rear lights, charging cables for my power sensor pedals, and sunglasses. The top bag had a solar charged power bank in its phone window, a bag of charging cables, another bag for camera bits, and Veloforte energy chews. I had a GoPro camera mounted at the front, along with a light, a bell and my Garmin in the middle.

My brother came with me to the start on Sunday. My rider number was AG37. The letters were based on my start time. Everyone starting with me was in the "AG" group. I had a meal and a cup of tea, and eventually it was time to go! We had a short briefing about some roadworks that were passable, and then we gathered together behind an invisible line, and then, suddenly, it was 13:15 and we could go!

As we set off, I saw Ian Lovelock walking into the control, but only had time to call out "Ian?" and he briefly wished me luck. His start was 45 minutes after mine, at 2pm.

I rode with some of the faster riders from my group to start with. There were four or five of us, but I only remember one name: Indi, from Bromsgrove, so fairly local to me in Warwick. At one point, during the first leg to St Ives, the left hand bolt holding my rack and rear mudguard on fell off. I stopped as soon as I realised, and walked back (down a hill) to see whether I could find it. Other cyclists were pessimistic about my chances, but I found it! Three of our group had stayed back to wait for me and soon we were off again! Before long, though, a couple of other cyclists joined us, we sped up a bit, and I fell back. It wasn't sustainable for me to go that fast all day! That first leg was 100km.

The Great Ouse, in St Ives, shortly before the control.

St Ives was the first control. Bikes were all over the place! I got my brevet stamped, ate some food, filled my water bottles, and was off. 90km to the next control, Boston! This leg involved cycling across the Fens, which are, as you probably know, very flat, being reclaimed land from the sea. There was a bit of a headwind, but nothing unmanageable. I had a long conversation with a Frenchman named Philippe, who has an Italian wife and works in the UK, managing a team, which explained his good English, though he was proud to have retained his French accent.

At Boston, I met Indi again. He had joined a big group of Spanish cyclists: Randonneurs Valencia! They were all wearing a custom LEL jersey, with pictures of landmarks from Edinburgh and London. On Indi's advice I joined them. There were at least forty of them, perhaps they were the entirety of their starting group, AF. He said they'd been going at a fairly regular pace, which sounded good to me! There was only 53km to ride that leg.

Indi was chatting to an ex pat Brit who was part of the Spanish club, and learned that their game plan was to cycle 600km before stopping to sleep. This was far from my plan: I was vaguely planning to cycle each day until it got dark, and then make it to the next control, where I would sleep. However, I was happy to stay with them at least until the next control, Louth. It wasn't long, though, before I realized that they were starting to push really hard! I lasted pretty long, but eventually I had to back off and let them go on ahead. I did see then again at Louth, but they were just leaving and I was ready to sleep! I arrived there at 01:40, ate, and selected a 5am wake up call. I chatted to Justin, who was in the same group being taken to sleep, and who was an old hand at LEL.

The way that sleeping works at controls, is that you are assigned a bed, which is an inflatable mattress with a blanket or two, and you decide when you want to be woken up. A volunteer will then come and gently wake you up at your chosen time. Unfortunately, in Louth, in the room I was in that night, the light came on automatically on movement, so every time a volunteer came in to wake someone, the light came on and everyone woke up! I did manage some sleep, a little under 3 hours, but was still sleepy when I was woken at 5.

It took me a while to get myself sorted and to eat some breakfast. I had charged everything overnight from my power banks: phone, Garmin, light battery, AfterShoks. Eventually, around 7:20 I was ready to go!

So: Day 2. I actually set off from Louth at 7:24, and the first leg, to Hessle, was 58km long. I cycled for a while with a trio of riders from Team Vegan. They were wearing matching team kit, and were a good bunch of people: Jason, Justin and Stu. As I was riding in a group, my speed was higher. The highlight of that leg was the crossing over the Humber Bridge, shortly before the control at Hessle.

At Hessle, whilst I followed my routine, I tried to find John, who I knew from an Audax I entered in February: "Rutland and Beyond", near Leicester. He had warned me about the weather front I later cycled through on my way back to Warwick. I had seen on Strava that he was volunteering at Hessle, but he was nowhere to be found. Team Vegan had waited for me long enough and we set off again.

During the next leg to Malton (67km), I continued to cycle with the vegans to start with. I'm vegetarian myself, and I had an informative discussion with Jason about vegan alternatives to egg amongst other things. My main takeaway was that the liquid from tins of chickpeas can be used to substitute egg in cake recipes. Eventually, I let them head off whilst I conserved my energy.

I reached Malton by myself, but Team Vegan was still eating when I got there. I had settled into a routine at controls by then: park the bike, remove shoes, cover feet with shoe covers, check in at the control, grab some food with a cup of tea, eat, chat, fill up water bottles, toilet, back on bike, load the next route, off I go. The next leg, to Barnard Castle, was challenging.

This leg was 113km long, the longest of the whole event. It was also the first really hilly section. As we got closer to Barnard Castle, there seemed to be more frequent, longer, and steeper climbs. I'm fairly good at climbing hills, so had some fun yoyoing with another rider early on that leg: he would pass me going downhill, and then I'd overtake him going uphill. We did this for three or four hills, and eventually rode together for a while.

Later, I was cycling with a Scottish guy named Ian, when we were funneled into a field by some LEL volunteers. This turned out to be the first secret control! We were warned beforehand that there were two secret controls, the point of which is to ensure that everyone follows the route. This one was just some tables in a field. The control table stamped our brevet cards, and we could fill our water bottles at the other table. They weren't officially providing food, but they had some leftover parsnip soup that the volunteers had had for tea, and let us have a cup of it. It was delicious, but I shouldn't have accepted it: after cycling a few more miles, I was feeling bloated. I suspect my stomach was actually full from all the food I'd been eating all day, so there was nowhere for the soup to go. I felt like I really needed to belch, but when I stopped, leaned over and tried to burp, I actually threw up a little. I rinsed my mouth out with water and felt much better, hoping that it wasn't a stomach bug!

After many more hills, I arrived in Barnard Castle at 22:24. The bike park at that time was completely full! I ended up parking my bike on the far side of a barrier that backed onto a flower bed. I was stopping for sleep, but the volunteers arranging sleep advised to get everything done (eat, shower, etc) before arranging my sleep, so I was carrying my luggage around for a while. The toilets were fairly distant, as were the showers. I grabbed some food, left my things on a table, took a banana for the following day, showered (eventually) and then went back to the sleeping area. The main sleeping hall was full, so I was taken to another building around the back, where I signed in and fell asleep very easily. I slept for around 3 and a half hours before being awakened at 4am.

Day 3. I spent an hour getting up, eating breakfast, brushing my teeth, packing my things and getting ready to go. I changed into fresh clothes for the first time. Although I only had one change of socks and bib shorts, I decided to let the ones I had been wearing for two days dry out a little before wearing them again. Next time I will definitely use bag drops!

Before I set off, Ian Lovelock arrived. He had slept at a hotel, it turned out, and was riding with a friend of his, Andrew. We didn't have much time to chat, though, as we were both in a hurry to get going!

I set off at 5am. On leaving Barnard Castle, there was a bit of a climb as the sun rose.

Sunrise in the hills north of Barnard Castle

The next leg, to Brampton, was 89km but had the most challenging climbs! Originally this went over Yad Moss, in the North Pennines, which would be challenging enough, but that road was closed, and the diversion we'd been given went up two separate peaks instead of one, and it was a bit steeper in places too. Nevertheless, I managed to cycle up all of the climbs, despite seeing others walking. Some of those walkers later overtook me, and walking is well within the rules, but I'm happy I was able to cycle them. There was a pop up café between the two peaks at a small chapel, but I missed that and carried on. I deliberately went on past another café that looked very inviting later on that leg, too.

At Brampton, I saw Scottish Ian again. He had been ahead of me but he said he'd stopped at both cafés, allowing me to overtake him, so he arrived in Brampton after me. He had entered LEL once before, but that time had to pull out on the return through Barnard Castle owing to a sickness bug. I also think that Brampton was where Robert caught up with me. I have met Robert at several different Audaxes in the last year; we kept bumping into each other, and eventually we followed each other on Strava.

The next leg (74km) was to Moffat, the first Scottish control. The route went through Gretna Green, and then along the same road I had cycled earlier in 2022, at the end of my 48 Hour Challenge ride in May. That was a ride arranged by Paul Berney, a YouTuber ("Riding the Long Way Home") and a member of my cycle club in Warwick. The idea was to cycle for 48 hours along a route unshared with other entrants, attempting to travel the furthest away from our starting point, as the crow flies. We started at 6pm on Friday, most of us from the centre of Warwick. Sadly for me, I suffered a slow puncture after parking my bike in a hedge on the first night, which became less slow on Sunday afternoon. I failed to correctly insert an inner tube into my tubeless tyre; the valve was too short and I think I also pinched the inner getting the tyre back on, after spending an hour on it. My ride that time ended at a hotel just short of Lockerbie, 3 hours before the end.

This time I had no puncture, but I did identify the place I spent so long attempting to fix it back in May, as well as the hotel that I walked to after failing. I carried on to Moffat. I had been expecting Scotland to be hilly, and perhaps it is, but the roads through northern England were more challenging than those we took heading north through Scotland! At Moffat, I chatted with Stephan and Rosie. Stephan had only been cycling for a couple of years, and he was bemoaning his unsuitable bike: it was a lovely bike, but it was better for speed than for endurance. Rosie came from a long line of cyclists, but was finding the hills quite challenging. 

The next leg, 111km, was to the half-way point, Dunfermline. This is actually across the river Forth, north of Edinburgh. I'm not sure why the control wasn't in Edinburgh itself; perhaps this was due to the Edinburgh Fringe being on.

Out of Moffat, there was a long (~10km) climb followed by a longer descent along the Tweed valley. The rolling hills, with their patchwork green and purple patches were beautiful. Eventually, at Broughton, the route diverted up and over some hills, leading past Edinburgh, over the Forth, and eventually to Dunfermline. I stopped at the village store in Broughton, where a few cyclists were sitting outside. I bought some rolls and processed cheese slices. I ate two cheese rolls and have the other two away. They would have been squashed if I'd taken them with me!

I then set off and missed the turn just past the shop, so had to turn round. When I started up the hill, I almost immediately caught up with Rosie, who must have just overtaken me. We rode together for the rest of that leg. At some point, Philippe (the Frenchman I rode with across the Fens on the first day) joined us; sadly, he was having an issue with the tendons on one leg, which was causing him a lot of pain, but it helped to ride as part of a group. I don't know whether he continued after Dunfermline. We didn't go particularly fast, but had a lovely social ride. We stopped to take photos of wind turbines as the sun set.

Sunset on the way to Dunfermline

Near the end of that leg, as we were riding past Edinburgh, Rosie commented that the weather was "close". I didn't understand what she meant initially, but she was talking about the alternately warm and cold pockets of air that we were cycling through. I hadn't noticed this on previous night rides, it was strange. We arrived in Dunfermline at around 23:20.

At Dunfermline I had a small reunion. Ian Lovelock, who I'd briefly seen arriving at the start as I started, and then briefly again at Barnard Castle, was eating there. I had been sorting out my charging, putting my warm clothes back in my rack bag, eating, slowly, and chatting, but eventually everyone I was sitting with had disappeared. I hadn't noticed Ian arrive, despite there being only a handful of people still around. "Are you going to say hello, David?" I heard. It was good to catch up with him, and to meet Andrew, but eventually I was ready to sleep. By then it was quite late: almost 2am. I asked to be awoken at 5. Sleep came easily again.

The next day was Wednesday, otherwise known as "Day 4". I breakfasted, and headed out wearing the same clothes a little after 6am. The route started by heading to Edinburgh, where it then went along a few narrow, sometimes cobblestoned lanes, through the city centre, and out alongside Arthur's Seat, an ancient (long inactive) volcano. The sights and views were lovely! This first leg, including the ride through Edinburgh, was 80km to Innerleithen. There were more hills. This was as hilly as I had expected Scotland to be the previous day. I was fine! 

Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh

The next leg was shorter (49km) and slightly less hilly, to Eskdalemuir. On this leg I rode with Steph much of the way. The control at Eskdalemuir was at a café called "The Old School". Being an actual café, the food was great! I met Andrew there, who had been riding with Ian. He was not in a happy place: he had decided to retire from the ride. He'd also lost Ian! Luckily, I knew that Ian had a tracker like mine, so I could show Andrew where he was on my phone. He was somewhere behind us. I was a bit tired, so after eating I bid Andrew my best wishes, told Steph I'd see him later, and lay down for a nap. This control didn't officially have sleeping facilities, but there were a few mattresses available. Perhaps luckily, before my "wake" time, the mattresses they did have were needed by another control, so I had to get up.

As I was getting up I heard Rosie arrive. Sadly, she had decided to retire, too. She wasn't very happy about it but I think she'd had enough of hills! I also saw Ian Lovelock, who was trying to convince Andrew to carry on. I was rested enough to carry on.

The next leg was 59km to Brampton, back in England. I mostly cycled this one by myself. I had been expecting to ride back along the road we went out from Gretna Green on, as I'd seen some cyclists cycling the opposite way that looked like they were doing LEL the day before, but it turned out to go a different way entirely, rejoining the route northward only after getting to England. In Brampton, I met Ian Lovelock again, who was now cycling with a guy from South Africa called Derek. Andrew had gone off to sleep in a hotel. I imagine he slept very well! I was keen to cycle another leg before sleeping, as it seemed necessary to finish the ride on time, and as Ian and Derek were also doing this, I arranged to cycle with them that night.

The next leg, 89km back to Barnard Castle, was probably the hardest leg of the whole event! I had been talking about avoiding the detour, and going back straight over Yad Moss, but Ian convinced me to take the official route. I was a bit nervous about this, as I'd seen the signs going northward that we were descending 18%, 17%, etc., but was happier to do this as part of a group!

We headed off without too much delay, filling our water bottles first. We cycled at a consistent pace, eventually reaching a village, Nenthead I believe, looking at the map. Here we stopped at a pub which was still open, where Ian bought a round. He and Derek each had a pint of coke, but I fancied a pint of IPA. We drank outside. Some other cyclists stopped to talk, but didn't stop to drink. Once we'd finished our drinks we headed onwards. The first peak wasn't actually too bad, and I felt better about taking this on. The descent from there went on for much longer than I was expecting! Eventually, we reached the chapel where the pop up café that I had missed on the journey northward had been. It was no longer open. There we met Nigel, an American that Ian had met previously. He was also looking for the pop up café. He was quite tired and getting cold, so Ian got him to rest beside the chapel entrance. Even though it was closed, it was warmer there than in the street!

Leaving Nigel behind, we headed up to the second peak. This climb was the hard one! The gradient just seemed to keep getting steeper as we were going up it! I somehow managed to continue to pedal fast enough to stay upright. Ian wasn't quite as lucky. He veered off to one side and had to stop, after which he had no choice but to walk up the rest of the climb, which was quite hard in the dark! Derek was not far behind him. Once we had traversed the peak, we still had quite some way to go before we reached Barnard Castle! We were all tired but relieved when we got there, at around 3:40am.

When we got to Barnard Castle, we learned that the control was closing. We would not be able to sleep later than 6am since everyone would be woken then. We ate, Ian showered, but Derek and I decided to sleep as soon as we could.

After being woken as promised at 6am, and getting our things together, we headed off a few minutes before 7. That day, Thursday (Day 5), I cycled all day with Ian and Derek. We went at a steady but not particularly fast pace, and had plenty of opportunity to talk. I had a great time with these two, and am glad to have ridden with them. Derek, it turned out, is the chairman of the South African Audax association. I was trying to remember the name of my first Audax where I first met Ian, but couldn't remember at the time. As I've written further up, here, it was the "Waveney Wander", in May 2021.

The first leg, to Malton, was 111km. It avoided the really hilly section from the northward leg. However, after a few hours, we were finding it hard going in the heat! England was in the midst of a heat wave, and temperatures were starting to head towards the 30s, getting hotter as we progressed! We were suffering a little when we met a cyclist heading in the opposite direction wearing a PBP jersey. He told us of a café some way ahead in the village of Kilburn. It was along the route. Ian knew of this café, or at least of the furniture makers it was part of: the "Mouseman" furniture makers, who carve a mouse into each piece of furniture they make. It took us a little longer than his description suggested to get there, and when we did we were disappointed: the café had not been there for some time before, but we did see some furniture with the trademark mice. Luckily, there was a pub next door serving lunch, where we spent a little too long owing to an order mix up. The rest (and the food, and the drinks of coke) were welcome, though! Eventually we headed off, reaching Malton around 14:45.

The next leg, to Hessle, was 68km. We knew that the Humber bridge would close at 9pm, reopening at 5am, so we planned to get there before that time! Hessle was just before the Humber bridge, so we wanted to get through there as quickly as we could without eating, and to get some food on the other side of the bridge. We did pretty well, checking in at Hessle at 19:30. This time I did see John, who had been touched that I was looking for him on my way northward, but only recognised me from my jersey as he knew I was from Warwick. I chatted briefly with him at the control, and then we all had a bite to eat before heading out to cross the bridge.

Across the bridge, we found a pizzeria and each bought a pizza plus a can of coke. We sat on the bench inside and ate our pizzas. Delicious! We then headed off, after Ian and Derek had visited the mens room in a friendly restaurant next door. The next leg was 60km to Louth. Ian and Derek had decided to cycle through the night, to attempt to get Derek past the finish within his time. He had started much earlier than us at 08:30 on Sunday, so needed to finish by 16:50 on Friday! We agreed to let each other know if we were getting "dozey", i.e. if we were in danger of falling asleep in the saddle, and we had a way of staying awake if that happened: cycle very hard!

Ian almost succumbed to temptation: he saw a sign to Louth along a major A road and suggested we take that route. We almost went along with it, but this time I was the one who pulled us back. This was my first attempt at LEL, and the rules specified a mandatory route. I wanted to ride it properly! Ian agreed, and we took the hillier way. I almost regretted that decision! We were heading across the Lincolnshire Wolds, and kept going down through deep cold misty valleys and then up over high hills, where the air was bizarrely warm in comparison. I was getting dozey, but was some way behind the other two. I stopped for 5 minutes to rest, just standing astride the bike with my eyes closed, and then went on. Luckily they'd stopped. I let them know that I felt dozey, and we tried pushing hard for a while! Somehow I kept awake and kept going until we reached Louth at around 00:50!

With some food in my belly I felt much more awake, but decided that I should stop and sleep. Ian and Derek were carrying on. Ian gave me a good pep talk, and told me that I could still finish on time if I gave myself enough time the following day, Friday. I needed to finish by 21:35 on Friday, and had 4 controls left: Boston (53km), St Ives (91km), Great Easton (70km) and the finish, Debden (48km).

That was 262km in total, and I decided to get woken at 5am. I was ready to go and left at 5:44. That gave me almost 16 hours. To finish in 15 hours I needed to average 17.5 km/h. I disabled auto-pause on my Garmin so that I could track my average speed! I also got someone on WhatsApp who wasn't sleep-deprived to check my workings.

It was Friday. Day 6. I had a target. I was (fairly) rested, and I was cycling by myself. I could do this!

There was a thick covering of mist that morning, so I had to keep my eyes peeled; my lights couldn't pierce far into the mist and I didn't want to run into a parked car! After an hour or so the mist started to dissipate. It was going to be another hot day! The first leg was to Boston (53km). I just pedalled, keeping an eye on my average speed, which I managed to keep around 20km/h. I didn't see any other cyclists until I got to the control, where there were a few others.

I had seen a warning from my pedals that they were low on power during that leg, so once I had checked into the control, I asked whether I could charge them. Luckily, they had a spare charger they could plug in. I learned with my previous pair of Assioma pedals that they can stop working altogether if I allow their power to drain completely, so I always carry charging cables for them on long rides, now.

I had a couple of cups of coffee and some toast. This control was also closing down. Certainly the kitchen staff had finished! I lingered a little longer to let my pedals charge a bit more, but I didn't have much time to waste, so was soon off again!

I was now cycling through the Fens. This leg was 91km to St Ives, so I was pleased to find out that the tailwind we'd been promised for the last couple of days actually turned up! I caught up with and cycled with another LEL rider during this time. St Ives marked the end of the Fens. I had another coffee.

After St Ives, there was a 70km leg to Great Easton, which was an extra control we didn't visit on the northbound route. Initially the route left St Ives along the guided busway to Cambridge. The centre of Cambridge wasn't too busy, luckily. After 40km or so, the route entered the hills of Essex, and became lumpier, around which time I actually started to enjoy the climbing! Scottish Ian passed me a few times: I kept overtaking him on the uphill sections. In the end I arrived at Great Easton just before him.

At Great Easton, as I was checking in, one of the volunteers who had been looking at the bikes asked: "I see there's an AG here". That was me. He told me that I still had time to finish within my deadline. I was well aware of this, but it was nice to hear!

Ian Lovelock was just leaving Great Easton, but he warned me that he wanted to ride alone. He told me that he and Derek had split earlier that day so that Derek could try to finish within his time, but that he finished 20 minutes too late. I wasn't ready to leave anyway, so I let him go on.

I stopped for a slice of cake and a cup of tea, and chatted with Scottish Ian. I also met Addy, from London. She had entered LEL but with much too little cycling experience! After the first day, she reached Hessle, and decided to stop. Rather than head home, she helped out as a volunteer, and had been slowly cycling back to Debden. She left on the final leg to Debden as I did, but I didn't wait for her; I had a deadline to meet!

There were 48km left to Debden, and when I reached there, I would finish! This leg was almost all hilly. Not as hilly as in the north, the actual climbs were pretty short, but some of them were quite steep. I was still enjoying the hills, and my average speed, that I'd been keeping an eye on all day, was nicely high: around 19km/h! My legs almost felt fresh as I powered up the hills, and I overtook a fair few cyclists. There was one other cyclist who tried to overtake me back, but I managed to pull away.

About 2.5km from the end of the route, I came across the second secret control! And there was another cyclist who had just arrived ahead of me: Ian Lovelock! After they stamped our brevets, they directed us through the back entrance of the school which Debden control was based at. After another 500m or so, we had finished! I finished in 127 hours, and so Ian, starting 45 minutes later than me, finished 45 minutes quicker than me.

We saw Derek at the end, and it turned out that Ian had been mistaken: Derek actually finished 20 minutes before his deadline! So all three of us who had ridden together the day before finished within our times!

My completed brevet card

One of the volunteers at the end, Peter, was from a local cycling club to me, Kenilworth Wheelers, and he insisted on taking a photo after he recognised my Warwick Lanterne Rouge kit.

I was pretty ecstatic to have finished. Ian disappeared to a pub with a cloud of supporters: he's fairly local to the start! I'm not sure where Derek went, but he'd been waiting for us to finish so he could go. My brother arrived to greet me just a few minutes after I'd finished. I spent my meal and hot drink vouchers (the Debden control was the only one not to have free meals), chatted with other cyclists I'd met. Scottish Ian finished shortly after me, and we traded Strava details and war stories. I hope he doesn't mind me referring to him as "Scottish Ian" ;)