London-Edinburgh-London 2022

For those who may be interested, here’s a bit of a write-up on my recent London-Edinburgh-London (LEL) ride. There were 1500 riders in all, and we started off on Sunday morning in small groups of around 25, I was off at 10:15.  We rode steadily all day, just stopping at the control points to get our cards stamped, and eat some food.  By late Sunday night, we had reached Hessle at 369km, and I had a short lie-down for 1.5hrs, but didn’t really sleep, and then continued on into the early hours of Monday morning.  The first sections of the route were the easiest, and then it built up from there, over the Howerdian Hills, Lincolnshire Wolds, Yorkshire Dales, each set of hills steeper than the last.  We continued on through the hardest section of the route all day Monday, with steep climbs and descents all day, quite a few of the climbs involved a bit of walking on the steepest sections for many riders, including myself.  I arrived into Brampton (570km) at 2am on Tuesday. I had a bag drop here, so after a shower and change of kit and after having some food, got 5 hours sleep.

I got to Dunfermline at 6pm on Tuesday, the Northernmost point of the route, and turned back south through Edinburgh.  The route twisted and turned on cycle paths through the suburbs, and then through the middle of the city during the Fringe festival, so there was lots of activity going on.  An alternative and more direct route had been offered as an option, and in hindsight it would have been easier, but I stuck with the main route proposed by the organisers.  I went on through the controls at Innerleithin and Eskdalemuir, through the spectacular scenery of the highest mountains on the route, with 3 long climbs, each followed by a long descent.

The LEL route normally includes the highest paved road in the UK, over “Yad Moss” both ways, which is a big but not too steep climb.  Unfortunately due to ongoing roadworks, this road was closed, and the alternative meant an extra 20km, and 2 even steeper mountains !  By Wednesday night I had got back through this steepest section as far as Barnard Castle (1035km), and had another 4 hours sleep, and left again by 6am.

Thursday was a battle through the hilly Lincolnshire countryside, up, down, and across never-ending plateaus of farm crops, with harvesting going on late into the night all around.  The heat during every day was exhausting and it was almost impossible to take in enough fluids and food to keep the energy topped up. We stopped regularly at shops to refresh with coke and ice-cream, but it was surprising to me how many English villages have absolutely no shops or garages where you can buy anything.  Most had pubs, but they were often only open later in the day, so it was a relief to ride through the night in the cooler temperatures, under the light of a spectacular full moon all night.

Friday was back to the flatter part of the route, starting off with the Fens, 100km of flat riding across reclaimed farmland, with marshes and dykes.  This is usually a battle into a southerly headwind, but I was lucky, and only had a light wind, which was more of a crosswind, and didn’t cause any problem.

St. Ives at 8:30 on Friday (1421km) marked the end of the Fens, and the start of the last section of the ride, with 120km left to go.  For part of the route we followed the Cambridge Guided Busway, a segregated busway and cycle-path, where the busses run on concrete tracks, and then continued on through the beautiful centre of Cambridge, where I joined the tourists for a delicious early-morning coffee and ice-cream.

After Cambridge, there was just 100km to go, over the rolling countryside to Great Easton, and on to the finish.  I stopped in Saffron Walden with about 20km to go to Great Easton, to get refreshments from a Tesco Express.  The shop was on a fairly steep hill, and when I was getting ready to leave, a large truck was crawling up the hill.  I jumped on my bike to try to get going ahead of the truck, but in my rush, I messed up clipping in to my pedal, and I couldn’t get going, or get off the bike. 

I toppled over in “slow-motion” onto a sloping mud bank at footpath level, and landed with a bang on my ribs.  As you do, I jumped up again as quick as possible, and headed off mortified at my stupidity.  From then on, my ribs started to hurt, and gradually got worse all the way home, until I was barely able to bend over by the time I got to the ferry, and it took several months to recover fully.

The last stretch to Great Easton and then on to the Finish in Debden seemed to take a long time to pass by, and at times I thought I was going around in circles, but I got there eventually at 16:30, 2 hours inside the extended time-limit.

After checking-in and saying Hello to a few others, I headed back to the nearby campsite, and got showered and changed.  I went to Zizzi Pizza in Loughton for some decent food, but I was so exhausted at that stage, that I couldn’t keep myself upright on the chair.  I think I was leaning over at about 45% to my left for most of my dinner, and I’m sure the staff thought I was going to end up on the floor.  I got through the dinner eventually, and went back to the campsite for my first decent sleep in 7 days.

Early next morning it was time to pack up and head off for the Ferry home.


Long-distance cycling in Ireland