LEL Stage by Stage Breakdown

[ealer]

The amount of climbing in the new table seems materially lower, even with the 10km saving: 10,807m v 14,115m

Is that correct?

[alwyn]

It is. I'm not sure where the original figure came from. Hence the ongoing comprehensive review.

[chrisbainbridge]

You still get 125 hours, giving you an effective minimum speed of 12.08 kph.

More sleep. Yay!

[Lightning Phil]

Noticed the latest LEL complete track does not fully match the stage by stage.    The complete track goes through Puckeridge as per 2017 where as the Debden - St Ives stage GPX has the track still going through Furneaux Pelham.  I'd imagine the complete GPX is correct as the Furneaux Pelham lanes are a bit small for the group sizes that early in LEL, and quite a bit of ongoing pot hole repair around there a month or two ago.   But not something that needs clarifying until the final route checks and changes have been made, and final GPX set published.

There's also a problem with the complete GPX in the zip file, in that the control waypoints have lon first followed by lat (it needs to be lat followed by lon), this fails the XML schema (for GPX) validation as I found out when trying to import to Garmin Basecamp.  Whatever the GPX waypoints have passed through, the coding is wrong. 

Anyway here's a tidied up (correctly formatted) control waypoints GPX with them all correctly named (rather than stuff like control11 etc) if anyone wants it. Use at your own risk.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9scsxa784wspcic/LEL%202022%20Control%20Waypoints.gpx?dl=1

[abc123]

I had the same problem importing the full route to Basecamp, and ran the file through GPS Babel to clean up the file so it worked.
I also noticed that the track currently has a relatively low number of points, so it quite "angular", and in a lot of places doesn't follow the roads very closely on the open source mapping that I am using. This is not a huge problem, as long as you have the map zoomed out enough to confirm you are heading in the right general direction, but if you zoom in too close, there are sections where the straight line routing between successive track points means that the track won't be visible next to the mapped road you are following.
However, it is still officially a work in progress, so I am just waiting to see the final official version before I set it up on my GPS.

[alfapete]

There's been a lot of work this week tweaking and finalising the tracks, including work around the Puckeridge area. There's also a draft routesheet in preparation which riders will be encouraged to test ride for us. Await further info from Alwyn before long.

[alwyn]

There's been a lot of work this week tweaking and finalising the tracks, including work around the Puckeridge area. There's also a draft routesheet in preparation which riders will be encouraged to test ride for us. Await further info from Alwyn before long.

Alfapete is being far too modest here. Basically he has worked night and day since Saturday to draft our routesheet. As he made his way up to Dunfermline he was followed by Andy who checked the routesheet and that it matched the tracks. He's currently heading back south. Meanwhile I've rebuilt the webpage and created a new set of tracks.

The previous set of 250pt tracks lack sufficient points so Andy has also created new tracks that follow the road.

Although we posted an updated set of tracks last weekend, we're going to publish these freshly updated tracks in a further update this weekend, alongside the checked routesheet. The overall route mapped on the website should then match the stages. We're then going to have a major push to encourage folk to test the route as it stands. I've already checked Malton to Dunfermline and back but it needs lots of eyes and lots of opinions.

Noted about Puckeridge. I reverted to Puckeridge, the 2017 route, to try and get the route distance down. 1522 was getting flabby and I've bad enough rep as it is for bloated routes. Glad to learn it also solves another problem. It's been really good having lots of chats like with alfapete and Andy this weekend - there needs to be more of them. Shout out too to Andy Berne for keeping us on the low roads as LEL risked becoming too hilly.

[mr ben]

Alfapete is being far too modest here...

Thanks to all for your massive efforts.

[Can’t swim won’t tri]

Latest version of the route has gained 6km, but also 3,000m of ascent according to ridewithgps.  New total 13,408 of ascent vs 10,486 in previous version.

I’m not looking forwards to riding up those extra 6km.  Might take me a while 

I have a provisional plan to ride Debden to Yad moss and back over the long royalist weekend. I’m happy to test the gps files, not sure I can quite handle a route sheet as well tho!

[alfapete]

I have a provisional plan to ride Debden to Yad moss and back over the long royalist weekend. I’m happy to test the gps files, not sure I can quite handle a route sheet as well tho!

Go on, try old school, you'll love it, and somebody's got to do it (the routesheet probably needs more checking than the .gpx).

[Lightning Phil]

Latest version of the route has gained 6km, but also 3,000m of ascent according to ridewithgps.  New total 13,408 of ascent vs 10,486 in previous version.

I’m not looking forwards to riding up those extra 6km.  Might take me a while 

I have a provisional plan to ride Debden to Yad moss and back over the long royalist

It’ll just be that the new GPX have a lot more trackpoints which will have caused the change in ascent figures.  The previous tracks were quite sparse for calculating ascent. If it is 3408m in 6km I’ll bring my ropes as it’ll be a pretty cool rock slab to climb.

[madcow]

Q1. Is the route through Edinburgh compulsory ?
ISTR some talk of a free choice through the city.

Q2. Has anyone created an Excel spreadsheet for the ride? 
I  know some people denigrate them but others, especially first timers , might find one useful.

[Flâneur]

Re Q1

I believe Danial has said it is a free choice of route between Cramond Brig and Lasswade

[Lightning Phil]

Ride with gps now shows 1527, whilst table below is 1520km.  Some extra km appear to have crept in.

[aidan.f]

I believe Danial has said it is a free choice of route between Cramond Brig and Lasswade

Is that confirmed? This  looks like a nice alternative, especially the bit along the Union canal

FRB - Ratho Station - Braid Hills - Liberton

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/40139346?privacy_code=h6ZMh6YTPhcdDIAb

[Flâneur]

Confirmation from the organisers would be helpful, in case my recollection is incorrect or the situation has changed. If it isn't/hasn't, I don't think that route would work as it doesn't cross Cramond Brig at the north-west of Edinburgh (basically where NCN 1 crosses the River Cramond). Canal can be a bit of a faff depending on the time of day (dog walkers, joggers etc). I can heartily recommend trying to work Braid Hills Rd into any route - tremendous views.

[sibi]

Is that confirmed? This  looks like a nice alternative, especially the bit along the Union canal

FRB - Ratho Station - Braid Hills - Liberton

In case it is allowed: Join the canal via Newbridge - Hillend - Ratho. It is much nicer than the stretch along the Glasgow Road (at least in daytime)

[zacklaws]

Ride with gps now shows 1527, whilst table below is 1520km.  Some extra km appear to have crept in.

I looked at the route early last week or the week before with the intentions to start planning for the event. First thing I noticed was a message saying that the route cards had now been updated and the GPX tracks had still to have the alterations added, so that may be the reason why.

And yesterday I received an email and no doubt yourself saying that the final updates to the official route have been applied.

So I presume now, I will not waste my time looking at the route and doing some planning to find it all changes again.

[aidan.f]

Confirmation from the organisers would be helpful, in case my recollection is incorrect or the situation has changed. If it isn't/hasn't, I don't think that route would work as it doesn't cross Cramond Brig at the north-west of Edinburgh (basically where NCN 1 crosses the River Cramond). Canal can be a bit of a faff depending on the time of day (dog walkers, joggers etc). I can heartily recommend trying to work Braid Hills Rd into any route - tremendous views.

Yes, confirmed must include Cramond Brig. Plus Braid hills following your recommendation
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/40149800
I was hoping to be allowed to avoid the South Queensferry  c..o..B..B..L..e..s !

[Flâneur]

I was hoping to be allowed to avoid the South Queensferry  c..o..B..B..L..e..s !

Me too, it seems... unnecessary

Comments on your new route

1) Watch the Drumbrae/St John's Rd roundabout, can be a bit of a cycle blender at busy times

2) Craiglockhart Avenue is a steepish hill to go up voluntarily at that distance

3) You can avoid a bit of descent and reascent after Braid Hills by cutting right onto Alnwichill Rd then left onto Captain's Rd to get to Gracemount

[alwyn]

Yeah, the free route is between Cramond Brig and Gracemount, giving you the potential to avoid all the cobbles in town.

[Ivo]

Yeah, the free route is between Cramond Brig and Gracemount, giving you the potential to avoid all the cobbles in town.

Cobbles are part of cycling. Just keep the classic frames, they soak up the cobbles.

[Flâneur]

@alwyn, I rode the route from Langdon Beck to Great Smeaton at the weekend, no roadworks present or notified and pretty good surfaces throughout 

[Lightning Phil]

Ride with gps now shows 1527, whilst table below is 1520km.  Some extra km appear to have crept in.

So I presume now, I will not waste my time looking at the route and doing some planning to find it all changes again.

I am familiar with all the terrain the route passes through, even if not familiar with the exact roads LEL will take.  I think my main planning will be to look at the Moffat - Dunfermline leg as that’s quite a long one. Hopefully somewhere to top up water and / or pick up fresh on the bike snacks along there.  There was a burger van I stopped at along there in 2013, but the chances of it being there again.

As the for the tracks I’ll create a single northbound and a single southbound, run those through my simplification web app to ensure gps doesn’t terminate the tracks due to too many track points, and add proximity alarms for the control waypoints. I also note there are some waypoints for specifically jumping on cycle ways, I will also add alarms for those. I won’t amend Edinburgh as I have no local knowledge to add or improve  it. As is my preference for all audaxes I ride.

Anco De Jong used the single northbound and southbound tracks I generated for LEL 17 when I was in the central organising team.

[madcow]

Moffat to Dunfermline is indeed a long leg but it passes through Biggar  and last time that I was there , it had plenty of shops.