Tag: LEJOG

The weather during the night was atrocious. Heavy rain and strong winds. The thought of losing the tents on the first night crossed my mind as I lay awake.

They survived but we woke to wind and rain and had to pack up in the wet. It was full waterproofs weather and it was torrential during the short cycle to Hayle on the A3074.

By some miracle however it blew over and the Sun came out so that we removed our waterproofs before we’d even got to Portreath. The rest of the day was mostly sunny with very brief heavy showers. The very strong southwesterly was still with us helping us along the way.

We had our first navigation error in Porthtowan, only minor but I think it gave us one extra steep climb.

We stopped for lunch in Perranporth. The cycling had been pretty straightforward to this point, not really any of the dreaded Cornish hills to worry about.

They came between St Newlyn East and Rumford. Up and down with some fairly steep ascents. Nothing really bad though. We stopped for supplies in Treyarnon and loaded with food bags stopped at the first available campsite which is a rather tacky holiday camp. Never mind, it was cheap and we’ll have better some nights I’m sure.

Distance : 51.80 miles
Time cycling : 4h58m
Ascent : 1382 m
Average speed : 10.4 mph

We’re off! The train journey was long and dull and we got stung for excess fares as there were only two of us on a party saver ticket. Ho hum. We did say hi to Andrew and Peter who joined at Swindon and were starting their end to end today.

Penzance was very windy and quickly left behind as we retrieved our bikes and headed into the wind on the NCN 3.

This part of the journey seemed fairly pointless as we hadn’t really started yet. We followed the NCN route all the way to Sennen via Mousehole and St Buryan. About 15 miles later we were at Lands End having our photo taken and formally started LEJOG 2009!

We chose to take the B3306 to St Ives which we had been warned was hilly. With a very strong tailwind though it was fantastic cycling with only two short climbs to trouble us. The weather was brill, sunny, cool with the odd brief heavy shower which the wind soon dried.

Found a great campsite in town and walked down the hill to eat. A great start to the adventure, long may the good days last!

Distance : 19.62 miles
Time cycling : 1h47m
Ascent : 445m
Average speed : 11.0mph

Packed. Ready. Let’s Go!

I hope the website all works for the trip. Thanks for visiting and enjoy following us, and thanks to all of our sponsors. Got to be up for the train in a few hours.

Both riders took it easy for the final weekend before the off. I did 14 miles with the family along the NCN 5 and 44 to Didcot and Upton at a nice gentle pace. The bike also got cleaned and polished. I cycled to work yesterday, hope the wind dies down or changes to another direction for Saturday! Actually the forecast is nowhere near as bad as it was earlier, not too bad at all now.

I’ve added my Twitter to the site, it’s not all LEJOG at the moment as you will see, I’ll try and tweet on the road when I can. It really depends on mobile battery power and how much I need to conserve juice. The Live Tracker should all be working, it’s not given me any problems the last few times we’ve been out, so I’m hopeful all the technology will work. I’ve also added a few other blogs to your left mostly of guys who are end to ending at the same time as us.

I’ve added the route to my GPSr (Garmin Geko 201) in ten chunks of 500 points each (the maximum it can hold) thanks to CourseCompacter, so that should be OK. Andrew has a copy on his Garmin too. I also have printed out a full set of paper maps, mostly at 1:250k scale with some 1:50k for the cities/tricky bits. Quite a few to start with but I will throw recycle them as they get used.

I think we’re ready, I’ll get packed up over the next couple of evenings. Nothing left to get I think…

I’ve finalised the probable route for the LEJOG now. Including some major changes in the southwest. We’re now going to do a more north coast route via St Ives, Hayle and Perranporth.

The idea is to join the Camel Trail at Padstow and follow that to Wenford Bridge before skirting Bodmin Moor and heading along the old A30 to Okehampton.

After that the route is similar to before, it now goes through Bristol and over the Clifton Suspension Bridge and a more easterly route near the Welsh Border through Leominster and Ludlow. North of this the route is identical to before apart from a slight reroute through Blackburn and Carlisle.

The distance is about the same but the ascent has reduced a bit. We’re also planning to do a short first day to St Ives from Land’s End if the train is on time!

No training over the Bank Holiday as it was time for family things before we’re off. Both riders did some bike tweaks and checked their packing arrangements though. We also went to the Middle Barton pre-school féte to collect some sponsorship for Andrew. We are extremely grateful to all the kind people who have donated money to our charities and we have both raised amazing totals so far.

This weekend we might do the Classic Oxfordshire ride but no other plans. The forecast for the following weekend and first week of our ride is ‘unsettled’. Boo.

Riders	John & Andrew
Distance	72.97 mi
Time	6h02m33s
Average Speed	12.08 mph
Ascent	1473 m
Run.GPS Training Profile

As planned we went out for a good training run on Sunday. The weather was cool and cloudy to start with but it soon brightened up to a lovely afternoon with a northerly breeze. It was hard to decide whether it was jacket on or off weather as the wind did have a chilly bite.

We met in Long Crendon and headed south through Thame town centre and out along the B4445 to Chinnor. Pretty uneventful cycling with the Chiltern ‘mountains’ directly ahead of us. We crossed the Ridgeway and then needed to climb up Chinnor Hill, a pretty steep and steady climb to gain 200 m (600 ft) of altitude. We declined the turning along Bledlow Ridge and headed to the more minor road through Crowell Hill and Radnage. This single-track road seemed to attract a number of cars as we descended steadily towards West Wycombe.

We climbed back up the adjacent valley to Saunderton. We stopped briefly at the bottom of what looked like a minor hill on Small Dean Lane, its looks were deceiving. It was short but boy was it steep, we reckon that was probably the steepest hill we have encountered whilst training. From the map I’ve calculated it as 1:5 and it was a job keeping the front wheel down! From the top we had an undulating ride to Speen which had a steep hairpin approach.

After the climbing it was a gentle descent into Great Missenden and a coffee-stop at the caf

Not long to go now and with Easter out of the way it’s time to schedule the training in the next few weeks. As well as commuting as often as possible we have the following training planned.

This Saturday we plan to do a 70 mile circular ride in the Chilterns. The following weekend will be our shakedown test run where we go fully laden and camp somewhere and cycle back the following day, full LEJOG distance each way. No plans for the following weekend but the Isle of Wight Randonnee looks tempting! John has been invited to do the Classic Oxfordshire ride on 10th May with some colleagues from work which he might do as well.

Then it’ll be time to LEJOG!

Riders	John
Distance	33.74 mi
Time	2h20m19s
Average Speed	14.43 mph
Ascent	262 m
Run.GPS Training Profile

Only John was able to go out training this weekend and he did a short half-day ride on Saturday afternoon. It was a very pleasant day but with a teasing brisk westerly wind.

The route climbed up to the NCN route to Wantage from East Hendred. This uses very minor roads and/or farm tracks and is quiet and the surface is generally good and surfaced. After Cycling through the centre of Wantage the bridleway from East Challow to Childrey was used to cut off a stretch along the B4507. This track is narrow but surfaced and is a useful little cut through.

Sticking to minor roads through Sparsholt and Westcot John had to briefly join the B-road to get to Kingston Lisle and the steep descent back into the Vale of White Horse. Familiar roads followed to Goosey, Charney Bassett, Lyford and the Hanneys. This area is very flat and with a tail wind the pace was pretty speedy. Finally the long, straight, boring road to Steventon and on to Drayton and home.

An easy ride just to keep the legs from seizing up.

Andrew and John went to Evan’s Cycles in Milton Keynes on Sunday to top up on equipment. They had a very poor selection of panniers which John wanted to look at but they both came away with a few essentials. We think we have most equipment sussed now and are aiming to put it all to the test later in April on a training run.

No joint training ride this week. John was in Portugal for a long weekend but Andrew did a 60-mile ride near Salisbury on his racing bike.

In other news, Tom has decided to step down from the challenge. He hasn’t been able to do as much training and has felt it would be better if he didn’t try the LEJOG at this time.

Here is the potential route for the final few days of the trip. After eleven days cycling we should be in the vicinity of Loch Lomond. We’ll head westwards up Glen Croe to Rest and be thankful (I think we will be!) before descending alongside Loch Fynne to Inveraray. The A819 and A85 will take us through the Pass of Brander to Connel for an overnight stop near Loch Creran.

Day 13 starts alongside Loch Linnhe all the way to Fort William. We’ll try and cycle as much of the Great Glen Cycle Route to Fort Augustus as possible. The route uses minor roads, forest tracks and the Caledonian Canal towpath to avoid the busy A82. We’ll avoid the worst of the forest track sections though which will mean using the A82.

We’re going to avoid the A82 alongside Loch Ness on Day 14 as it is busy with tourist traffic and not pleasant to cycle along. We’ll climb on the B862 on the east bank of the loch down into Foyers and alongside the loch to Inverness. Using the NCN 1 to get us across the Moray Firth we’ll use minor roads alongside Beauly Firth to get to Muir of Ord. From here we turn north through Dingwall before using minor and B-raods past Alness and a planned stop at Bonar Bridge.

From Bonar Bridge the route is north past Lairg into the wilderness of central northern Scotland. At Altnaharra we can either continue north to Tongue or take the slightly shorter route via the B873 to Bettyhill. Quite a short day this, it will probably be the shortest cycling day. The final day is also quite short and will use the NCN 1 route to Thurso and John o’ Groats. This route uses mostly minor roads and avoids the A836 as much as possible. We’ll probably have time for a diversion to Dunnet Head (the most northerly point in mainland Britain). After celebrating the finish I’m sure we’ll head out to the lighthouse at Duncansby Head to complete the trip from SW to NE.

We’ll probably camp at John o’ Groats before the short journey to Wick to arrange travel back home.

So, that’s the plan, I’m sure we’ll modify it as we go but we think it’s a good idea to have a general route in mind before we set off. It’ll be interesting to see how close we stick to it!