LEL

Our Story of London-Edinburgh-London 2017
by Jack and Clint

I got out of the Uber and helped the driver empty it.  He gave me a “good luck” and drove off; leaving me on a gritty London sidewalk, in smelly bike clothes, going on 29 hours with only 30 minutes of sleep, with my CamelBak, drop bags, bike frame, and two wheels. Alone, behind my Airbnb, my nice expensive gear in a heap - having just completed the ride of my life. –Jack

Riding the 1400KM London-Edinburgh-London (LEL) was something we had been planning for about two years, ever since we got spots in the early registration in 2015. Riding for Severna Park Peloton (Severna Park, Maryland, USA): Chip, Jack, Clint. Hoping to join us (but couldn’t): Mike C and Scott C.

Jack: This was the only item on my bucket list. I had been looking forward to it ever since I discussed the event with Susan Otcenas at dinner before the 2014 Lap of the Lake (LOL) 1000K. I had even gotten my boss to guarantee that I could have the time off, even if it meant he would have to give a major presentation for me.  I have to say I have never planned and prepared for something more carefully, or devoted so much time and money, into anything that did not involve family or work before.

LEL was fully supported, with controls about every 30-60 miles that provided great food, drinks, showers, beds, massages, mechanical assistance, and drop bag opportunities.  You were allowed 2 drop bags, and since the route was essentially out-and-back, you had up to 4 opportunities to access your stuff, change clothes, restock on supplies, etc.  With 9 controls in each direction it’s important to carefully select those two controls!

Our main objective was to maximize riding during daylight hours in order to catch the scenery, and to minimize riding in the dark to avoid having to navigate strange and sometimes bad/narrow roads with an unfamiliar signage system.

Because of the drop bag rules, our desire to minimize night riding, and the 10:45 AM start time we were assigned, we sent our drop bags to Louth and Brampton.  Louth would have us stopping just after dark on the first day, a short day of riding followed by a short sleep stop. That would set us up to ride during daylight and sleep during darkness for the rest of the Event. Days #2-#4 would each be ~190 miles (~300K), with nights #2 and #3 both in Brampton (reaching Edinburgh between those nights, with Brampton being analogous to Loudeac in Paris-Brest-Paris).  Night #4 would be Louth again, then finish the next day (hopefully), or thereafter.

Two days before the start (Friday) we all arrived in London - Jack and Christine flying in from Baltimore, Clint, Sherri, & Nicole after a UK cruise from Dover, and Sherri’s sister after a week in Paris.  We all checked into an Airbnb in London, where the non-riders played tourist during the ride.  After assembling our bikes we went for a spin through London just to make sure everything held together.
 

The elevator in the Airbnb building was a little tight

Shakedown on the streets of London

On Saturday morning we took the London Underground and an Uber to register at the start location at the Davenant Foundation School in Loughton, a suburb northeast of London.  We picked up our “route cards” and filled our drop bags with the stuff we brought.  Each drop bag was color coded for its control, so the accumulating bags provided a living histogram of rider preferences. We were not alone in our Brampton strategy, as was borne out by the number of pink Brampton drop bags. There were so many pink bags that there was also a truck filling up with them when this photo was taken.

The histogram. Brampton is pink

Jack and Clint with their two 5 lb drop bags filled to the max

We managed to catch up with most of the 10 DC Randonneurs (Washington D.C.) riders at registration.  Here we are with DC Rand President Mike W.

Jack, Mike, and Clint

Sunday morning was the start.  We posed for a quick photo and left the Airbnb for a train ride to the start.

Departing our Airbnb in SPP team colors

During a previous business trip to the UK, Jack had ridden the London Underground from the Airbnb to the start to scout it out. Confidently, we took our bikes to the Dalston Junction station and Clint bought a ticket (Jack had his “Oyster Card” pass).  After some quizzical looks from the ticket seller and question about our destination we headed down to the platform.  Right as we got to the platform an excited employee came running down to us.  At first it seemed he was going to tell us we would not be allowed to take our bikes on the train. Jack had checked out the bike rules – technically we weren’t allowed to have bikes on the train between two of the intermediate stations later on our route, but the LEL organizer had responded to a query from Jack that this rule was rarely enforced. Instead, the employee told us was that one of the three trains we were going to ride to the start didn’t start running on Sunday morning until a couple hours later.  Jack missed this detail in his scouting because he had scouted on a Friday morning, and the previous day’s trip to register was on Saturday.  The employee’s intervention was clutch – he saved us from an ill-fated trip that would have had us miss our start, and got us on an acceptable alternative.  The only glitch in the planning, but no blood no foul.

We got to the start and were soon called into the start box just prior to 10:45 along with the other 50 riders in our start group, all of us whose rider numbers started with “R”.  As background, riders are pre-grouped in blocks of 50 starting with letter A at 6:30am.  B riders launch at 6:45, etc.  This would be important later to gauge our progress as we “caught” lower letter riders who started before us, and the later letter riders who caught us. The gate opened at 10:45 and we rolled out onto the course. 

Jack: The first few kilometers were completely familiar although I’d never been there before.  A US cue sheet will instruct you how to turn at an intersection by providing the direction of the turn and the name of the road to turn onto. In the UK, road names are not always present at an intersection. Instead what you frequently get is a signpost that tells you which town is down each road at an intersection.  As a result, the LEL “route sheet” has an extra column called “signed” to tell you what you might find on a sign pointing down that next road.  The route sheet also uses some different abbreviated instructions from what is commonly used on a US cue sheet.  For example:

0.3	SO @ X [A1121] !CAUTION! BUSY ROAD	(Brothertoft, Langrick)	B1192	27.7
5.3	R	(Sibsey, Frithville)	B1184 Armtree Road	33.0

To prepare for LEL, I had ridden the first few km on Google Street View back at home with the route sheet in hand to ensure I could navigate and the route sheet and the signs along the way all made sense.

The first control, St Ives, was 100K down the road.  The “R” group pretty much rode as a pack through gently rolling terrain.  However, after one turn there was some confusion as a couple of the lead riders suddenly stopped as if it was a wrong turn.  This caused the whole group to hesitate for a moment, however Clint and I were confident of navigation and kept up our speed.  Suddenly we were ahead of almost the entire group, then pretty much off the front. The group ride ended there, but losing the group was not a problem because of a nice tail wind.  The prevailing winds typically provide such a tail wind here, and a corresponding head wind for the return trip.  Our ride plan factored this in. Based on actual progress during LOL, our ride plan had us averaging (not including nightly sleep stops) 20 kph overall before stopping in Louth for 5 hours (all other sleep stops 6 hours), 17 kph until Edinburgh, and 15 kph for the return trip to account for anticipated fatigue and head winds.  We were flying and we felt great. We hit the first control and had a quick meal – the cornish pasties were outstanding. The organizers tell you to label your shoes, because controls are usually schools with wooden floors that you can’t walk on in cleats.  People have lost their shoes to other riders who mistakenly have left in the wrong shoes.

Imelda Marcos’ closet

We continued to fly with the wind at our backs, ahead of plan.  Staying on or getting ahead of plan was important because we had booked hotels at our Louth and Brampton sleep stops for two reasons.  Although they provided air beds, controls were frequently overwhelmed with the number of riders looking to sleep during LEL 2013.  And LEL 2017 had 50% more riders than LEL 2013.  Also, controls could not guarantee charging connections or Wifi.  Essentially none of the hotels you find along the route have a 24 hour front desk, so if you arrived after about 10-11 PM you might not get to check in. We had hoped to get ahead of plan, and it was happening.  At one point along the way we encountered Bob C. from DC Randonneurs, who snapped this picture of the two of us.

We were soon in an area known as the Fens, a low board-flat marshy area with beautiful canals and views.  The ride was playing out exactly as envisioned – fast and flat through the Fens. It was playing out so well that we were catching earlier groups: Q, P, O, even one rider from L!  Nobody from a later group passed us.

Flying through the Fens

We arrived at the Louth control at 9:21 PM then went to our nearby hotel with our drop bags, over an hour ahead of our ride plan and with over 9 hours “time in hand” (buffer ahead of the pace to make the time cutoff). The hotel was one of those British deals with a pub downstairs and rooms above it.  We checked in with the bar maid, who we asked about arranging to get into our room on the return trip if we arrived after the bar closed that evening (our plan had us arriving at 2:00 AM).  She was not very knowledgeable/helpful on this point, so we just headed for our room for a short night’s sleep.  The room was up several flights of narrow stairs, and the last one involved a turn too tight to get out bikes around, so we just stashed them as best we could on the floor below ours and got to our room, showered, and slept 3 hours until 2:00 AM, then got up and got ready to roll.

Jack:  I didn’t sleep much, because I just wasn’t all that tired from the short first day. When I bent down to fasten my shoes water was spraying everywhere around me.  It turned out I had lost the bite valve on my Camelbak somewhere, and even sitting fairly upright on the bike caused water to run out the tube.  So I drank down the Camelbak quickly and gave up on using it.

We took our drop bags back to the control, got something to eat, and took off around 3:00 AM Monday. 

We made an impromptu coffee stop around sunrise, and shortly afterwards crossed one of the landmarks of the ride, the Humber Bridge. It’s the eighth longest suspension bridge in the world, and the longest with a bike lane.  As the sun rose on the River Humber…

Scenes from the Humber Bridge

We continued on through the Pocklington and Thirsk controls.

Brunch in Pocklington

Jack: the second day was a bit demoralizing for me – I was slow.  Clint wanted to latch onto the groups that passed us, but I didn’t have the legs to hang on.  So Clint stayed with me throughout the day, as we were passed by what seemed like hundreds of riders, with letters towards the end of the alphabet, and then double letters (AA, BB,…).  I started to doubt my prospects for finishing, and contemplated sending Clint down the road without me (along with my AWESOME Wahoo GPS that was keeping the two of us on course).  However, at a control later in the day we were told that the majority of riders were still behind us, which salvaged my spirits.

One of the more annoying bits of terrain along the way was in the Howardian Hills AONB (area of natural beauty).  Lots of short, steep stingers around a large estate known as Castle Howard.

Castle Howard

The Barnard Castle control was memorable.  Not only is there a beautiful castle ruin along the way and the a beautiful control building, but we met Shab, wife of Hamid A. (another DC Rand rider) volunteering there.  She couldn’t do enough for us, even getting Clint head-of-the-line privileges for a much-needed neck massage.

The Barnard Castle Control

Shab could not do enough for us

Clint felt much better after the massage

We then headed for the big climb of the ride, Yad Moss, a crossing of the Pennine mountain range that cuts across England. The summit is around 2000 feet, with a climb that’s not overly steep but long and relentless.

Nearing the summit, sunset on Yad Moss

From Yad Moss we descended into the town of Alston, doing about 35 mph when we were passed by a guy on a recumbent that must have been doing 50 mph. Good thing we held our lines.  It seemed really steep…more on that later. 

A few miles later we were in Brampton for our second sleep stop, 15 minutes ahead of plan with 10 hours time in hand.  It had been an excellent day, not as slow as it seemed. What made it even more excellent was our sleep spot for the next 2 nights, The Oakwood Park Hotel. 

Jack: Thank God I had also checked Google Street View for the hotels because there is no sign along the road, just a long winding driveway into the darkness, leading to a stately-residence-now-hotel.  I recognized the concrete posts at the beginning of the driveway.

In previous emails our hostess Wendy mentioned that we’d get there too late for dinner so she would put food in our room.  Boy did she ever.  Lots of sandwiches, chips, fruit, cheese, etc. for dinner, and more for breakfast for when we got up.  All included. “Would you guys like some lagers?”  We looked at each other like “well…should we??”, but ultimately decided to skip the beer.  Another LEL pair checked in a little later. 

After a luxurious 4 hours of sleep, we got up at 3:00 AM Tuesday and got ready for another day of riding.  We had the luxury of staying in our room again the next night, so we just left our drop bag stuff in there and headed north for the third day.

It wasn’t long until we reached the Scottish border, where we found ourselves in a daisy chain of picture taking.  Upon reaching the sign you would find the last rider to arrive and ask them to take your picture. As you were about to leave the next rider would arrive and ask you to take their picture, etc., etc.

Progress!

We pressed on into Scotland, passing solemnly through Lockerbie thinking about Pan Am flight 103.  Then onto the Moffatt control.  We were riding well, moving quickly through light rain and fairly level terrain.  The sun came out by the time we took on the next big climb of the ride, the Devil’s Beeftub, so named because rustlers used to hide stolen livestock behind the big hills. Sheep were everywhere during LEL, and were particularly thick here.

If we count sheep to fall asleep, what do sheep count? Answer at the end

We got over the Beeftub with little trouble and stopped for coffee in the tiny village of Broughton, cheering on our fellow riders as they rode by.

Coffee stop enroute to Edinburgh

Before we knew it we found ourselves at the halfway point, Edinburgh.  Jack had visited this control, Gracemount High School, two years before just to see what the halfway point looked like, and here we were.  One of the other Severna Park Peloton members, David K., splits his time between Maryland and Scotland.  He had us keep him apprised of our progress, so he could meet us at the control.  He also asked us what we might need, so when we got there he handed Jack a replacement bite valve for his Camelbak and Clint some lube and a rag for his chain.

Edinburgh!  With David!

There was another big climb leaving Edinburgh, on the B7007, to over 1200 feet.  The Edinburgh control was not in downtown, but if you looked over your right shoulder as you were grinding up this hill you could see into downtown and see such landmarks as Edinburgh Castle and Arthurs’s Seat.  The ride back to Brampton was a series of climbs as well as beautiful remote valleys that invited you to forget the pain and the fatigue and the clock long enough to “stop and smell the roses.”

If you get too wrapped up in riding, you might just miss it

We were a bit disappointed to not find the sheet cakes and scotch at the subsequent Scottish controls that LEL 2013 ride reports delighted in, but we got over it.  Perhaps the hardest rain of the whole trip hit us here.  It wasn’t torrential, but it was the only time that rain got into Jack’s waterproof sock covers.  The other showers we encountered were short-lived, light, and wind driven. Most times, if you decided to stop to don rain gear the rain would stop almost immediately. We felt way over-prepared for the rain encountered this trip, but learned later that had we been a couple hours behind our pace we would have encountered some real deluges during LEL.  We soldiered on towards our second night in our Brampton hotel.

Jack: it was here that my most regretful part of the ride happened.  I was getting very sleepy, and told Clint that I wanted to go straight to the Oakwood Park Hotel and not check in at the control until we returned our drop bags the following morning.  We would arrive 30 minutes ahead of plan, with almost 10 hours time in hand, so we didn’t have to check in upon arrival.  Besides, the hotel was before the control.  Clint said he was concerned that those who were tracking us on the LEL website, which displayed our arrival at each control, would be concerned that we had not checked in at Brampton that night. But we never made a decision on this.  Later, when I spotted the hotel’s unmarked driveway, I turned in and told Clint to turn, but he did not.  I then yelled to him, but he kept riding towards the control.  Figuring he had decided to go to the control first, I went up to the room.  Clint arrived about 20 minutes later, although the control was only a couple blocks away.  He had not heard me and had gotten lost. 

Back in the room we feasted on restocked sandwiches, fruit, etc. and enjoyed the breakfast Wendy provided when we awoke.

Some of Wendy’s hospitality

We departed the hotel at 5:00 AM Wednesday, checked in to the Brampton control, and returned our drop bags.

Jack: Clint and I joined two other riders coming out of the control and were rolling through Brampton when I noticed my legs were in trouble again.  Even on the gentle hills in town I could not keep up with the other three riders.  Remembering that Yad Moss lie immediately ahead of us, and how steep the Brampton side seemed as I coasted down it two days ago,  I saw no way that these legs were going to get me over that 2,000 foot ridge today.  Despite the despair, I decided to give it a go.  If my legs finally gave out, I’d just turn around and coast back into town and find a ride to London.  So off we went. Little by little we ascended Yad Moss.  Calista P. from DC Randonneurs passed us on the way up, which was a welcome surprise. As the summit came into sight, what started as despair was becoming jubilation.  I knew we were going to finish this ride – everything else that lie ahead seemed trivial by comparison. Something else that came into sight was a small white van on the side of the road – a makeshift café.  Clint asked me if I wanted to stop for coffee, and I was ready to celebrate conquering Yad Moss, so we did.  We learned later the roadside café was run by “audax legend” Drew Buck, who had been shadowing the ride, appearing from time to time along the way.  He was like the “Banksy of LEL” – appearing briefly along the route on several occasions then disappearing again.

Atop Yad Moss.  We got this!

We coasted down the back side of Yad Moss, and rolled into the Barnard Castle control.  We were both feeling a little sleepy, so we decided to experiment with control sleep facilities for the first time.  We got air mattresses in a dark gymnasium, complete with a pillow and a blanket that was cheap and rough but felt great.  It took 5 minutes to fall asleep, and 15 minutes later when we were awakened it felt like we had been sleeping much longer and felt much better.  At the next control in Thirsk we did it again, this time for 45 minutes, and felt good about it again.

Between the naps and just wearing down over 4 days of riding we started slowing down and falling behind our plan. Over that day we had been emailing the Louth hotel, trying to arrange an after-hour check-in for this evening, and they agreed to let us in if we told them when we’d be getting there, but now it looked like we would not arrive there until about 4:00 AM, way too late for me to even ask.  We asked if we could cancel, and they let us off the hook.  A better plan seemed to be to spend this night on an air mattress in Pocklington, which we reached around 9:00 PM.  Time was becoming a problem, as we were now 1.5 hours behind plan, time in hand had dwindled down to 5 hours, and we were stopping for 6.  The gymnasium there was a wonder: 300 mattresses in the dark and quiet - excellent sleep. We slept from 9:30pm - 2:00am and were rolling by 3 AM Thursday.

We once again crossed the Humber bridge at dawn - the bright sun to the east, and the wind (more on that coming up) and a perfect rainbow to the southwest.  Soon we were hit by a pretty good shower which, if you considered the rainbow and wind direction in combination, you could have predicted.  But like most rain on our ride, it ended about the time we donned rain gear.

Humber Bridge, southbound

Just before Louth, our original sleep destination, we spotted someone laying in the grass on the side of the road.  As we went by we recognized him as Pat O. , another DC Randonneur, so we circled back to see what was going on.  He said he was suffering from Shermer’s neck and was giving it a rest.  When we continued to the control, things were getting challenging.  We arrived with only 1:20 time in hand. We retrieved our drop bags for one last time and got showers, a change of clothes, and as always something to eat. We later learned that Pat abandoned due to neck issues (couldn’t turn his head to see traffic).  We were also bummed that Mike W. and Bob C. abandoned, as did Jerry S. due to food poisoning just 30 miles from the finish.

The wind intensified as the day went on.  The forecast was 40 mph, and it felt and sounded like it. Our perception of speed started to distort -it felt like you were going over 20 mph, when your cycloputer said you were only doing 12.  We just soldiered on, determined to get to the finish, before the time cutoff (or otherwise).  That afternoon Clint had an urgent need for some ice cream, so we pulled off the route onto High Street in Horncastle and found a place.  There was no place to sit so Clint sat on the floor and had a milk shake, to the amusement of the proprietress.

Table for one

Further down the road Clint needed some caffeine, so he ducked into a business that might (he hoped)  have some coffee or Coke.

Jack: I continued down the road looking for coffee or Coke for Clint.  After about a mile I found nothing, and stopped to wait for Clint to reach me.  He showed up about 15 minutes later, having found no caffeine other than some caffeine goo he was carrying. He rode by with a couple other riders. Unfortunately, because of a few seconds delay in getting rolling, I could not close the gap into the headwind.  I tried for a couple miles, but could not get there.  Then bad went to worse, when the train crossing gate at Hubberts Bridge closed between Clint and me for about 5 minutes.  When it opened, I was alone.  I rode solo for several miles, or so I thought until I looked behind me and saw 4 riders lined up behind me. When I stopped pedaling for a periodic stretching of my sore lower back, they went around me and took off.  Several miles later things got much better - a large group of Spanish riders came by and I jumped on.  They kept to themselves, speaking excited Spanish amongst themselves, but seemed OK with hangers-on like me hitching a ride.  They swept me along to the Spalding control, arriving just seconds after Clint did.  Time in hand was only 1:12.

We set off across the Fens towards St Ives.  The flat lands were indeed windy, but the winds were starting to slacken as the sun began to set. At St Ives time in hand had dropped to 1:00 and we still had 119K to go in this howling headwind.  Things were looking dicey.

We set off for Great Easton, stopping almost immediately at a Shell station / Costa Coffee. As it was after hours, the attendant was behind bulletproof glass and served the coffee via one of those armored bank drawers. Many other riders stopped and joined us. We then found ourselves on the most amazing bike path. A flat and straight cross-country affair with little white lights on its edges like an airport runway.  It was a pleasure to ride on, and we were on it for many miles.  We soon found ourselves riding through Cambridge on a summer evening, students walking about everywhere taking in the nightlife. Impressive architecture everywhere.  Departing the city, we were alone on a small road when suddenly they returned – the Spaniards!  We hopped on and took off.  In the group was a nice lady from Ireland – an English speaker who chatted for miles and miles.  Every so often all the Spaniards would stop together (nature break?), leaving the hangers-on to ride in a small group, then catch us and carry us along further.  The roads were interesting, much of the way was nothing more than a paved goat path with lots of gravel on it, over rolling hills.

We rolled into Great Easton at 1:47 AM Friday, with time in hand increased to 2:04 thanks to the Spaniards.  We knew we had this ride in the bag now, over 6 hours to cover just 48K (30 miles). We felt so good that we decided to take a 30 minute nap there. It was the smallest (30 beds) and noisiest (a guy talking on his cell phone, people carrying on a conversation) of any sleep spot we had visited.

Jack: I needed that nap.  During the day before I had developed something you might call “sideways Shermers”.  My head hung to the left, although it didn’t hurt to do so.  During the ride to Great Easton, because of the tilt to my head, I started hallucinating that all the bikes ahead of me were leaning to the right.

We got going on the final leg.  We took it easy, knowing we could slow-roll it all the way in. The sun was coming up and Friday morning rush hour traffic into London was starting on motorways we over-passed.  Then, we were into the final turns and the finish was in sight. 

Jack: I could not believe we were back where we started.  It felt like we had never left.  When I thought of all that preparation that went into this and the challenges we had overcome, I have to admit I choked up a bit as I rolled up the final street. As soon as I got off my bike, I felt like a bouncy house whose fan had just been turned off.  Like I was crumpling up, like it was finally OK/possible to feel as tired as I really was. 

We checked in one last time, handing our route cards to the volunteer …

and he handed us our finisher medals.  Wow, what a feeling of accomplishment!  890 miles since Sunday. Our ride plan had us finish with 6 hours time on hand, but we had used up over 4 hours of that margin because of uncertainties: the wind, not knowing the fatigue that came from riding that far, both more than anticipated.

The one element of planning we had not really finished was how we were going to get our bikes, drop bags (which were at the finish), and other stuff back to the Airbnb 13 miles away.  At the last minute we called an UberXL, but none were available.  So several of us each called a regular Uber, one rider and one bike per car.

Jack:  Everyone else got a good-sized Uber that picked them up along with their stuff and took them home. Me, I got a guy in a minivan who refused to take me.  He said this was an Uber XL job, and despite me pointing out that there was no Uber XL available and that my stuff would easily fit in the minivan, he cancelled my Uber request in front of me and drove off.  I summoned another Uber, and a guy in a Mercedes E class sedan showed up.  I immediately told him that it wouldn’t work because of my bike, but he insisted we try.  By taking both wheels off we got my bike in his trunk.  Off we went, to drop me off on that London sidewalk. I did my best to get my wheels on, but didn’t really get the chain on the cassette. It didn’t matter.  I called Christine and she came down and helped me get my stuff up to our Airbnb.  When I got there everyone was awake. They asked me if I’d do it again and, having just ridden for 5 days with only 30 minutes sleep in the previous 29 hours, and I barked “definitely not!”  But it’s been a couple of weeks now, and I now think it would be cool - what an adventure!  (That’s what they call “rando-nesia”)

Dinner and the theatre the day the ride ended. 2 hours sleep in the last 45, but somehow we stayed awake all evening 
 

Took the Wahoo to the theatre so Clint could play with it before he flew home the following morning. Christine was not pleased

Clint: Hats off to Jack for capturing so much detail I forgot.  This was my longest ride at 1400K (890 miles), more than PBP and Alaska (each 1200K), and more than the Lap of Lake Ontario (1000K) we did twice.  We finished with a comfortable cushion of about 90 minutes under the max of 117 hours 5 minutes with no flats or other mechanicals.  Jack’s awesome Wahoo GPS and his careful review of the course before riding it helped to keep us on course, preventing any bonus miles.

This was a very well supported event with about 1650 riders from all over the world.  The scenery was awesome and the volunteers (hundreds of them) took excellent care of us.  At each control we had to park our bikes, remove shoes, check in (scan control card, time stamp, and initials) and sometimes scan out, fill water bottles, use restroom, eat, sometimes nap, find drop bags (at 3 controls), shower once in Louth, find shoes, find bike (amongst hundreds parked on the racks), find next cue sheet (every control started on a separate sheet at mile 0), load the next GPS file (my Garmin rarely worked), locate Jack at his bike, turn on bike lights if dark, then find the exit from control parking lot.  Then you wonder, “did I forget anything?”  Is there time to use the wifi to send the picture and a short caption to SPP and a “we’re fine” text to both spouses?

This was also a brutal LEL.  The normal attrition is about 20%, but as of this writing it was somewhere between 36% and half the field that didn’t finish within the time limit.

Olaf Storbeck captured an image of us crossing Yad Moss and posted it on his blog

The whole trip (Disney UK cruise, week in Paris seeing the Tour arrive, sightseeing in London, then riding LEL for 5 days) was a dream come true, another checkmark on the bucket list.  Although the ride was over, we still had to fetch an Uber, clean and pack our bike & gear in the bike box back in the Airbnb, shower, get a wonderful massage, take a nap, dinner with wives and family, and stay awake for the show, Kinky Boots.  The next day we were back in Baltimore, dream over.

*  *  *  *  * 

Answer to the question: what do sheep count to fall asleep?  LEL Riders

We can't claim credit for that joke. That was told to us by Guy Roefs, somewhere between Yad Moss and Edinburgh

Clint and Guy