Right then... gluten freeness.
I have to be gluten free. Eating it makes me sick. Like in pain for a couple of days, about the same level of discomfort as eating a bad Indian meal. Not a little windy, not a little inconvenienced, but in bed for a day or two. On top of the stresses of the ride eating gluten is probably a ride-ender.
So... how I normally cope on rides is by going to a control and seeing what's there. If there is nothing there I can eat then I bounce and usually, through local knowledge or research, I can find somewhere to get something. Experience means I can go into a service station and know what I can eat. Also The Spoons has a GF menu! It's certainly a lot easier than it was ten years ago. However it can still be a right pain - PBP for instance. Next time I will be doing it supported just so I can eat something. It was a miserable experience and the ride became about hunger rather than a cycling challenge.
My experience of LEL was generally good. I ate a lot of jacket potatoes and a lot of rice pudding - fine, to be expected. There was almost always something I could eat which was great. Louth, well we know all about that! Edinburgh was a bit empty, I think I had a couple of puddings and no main. Ironically the one control where I really suffered was actually very well catered for GF I later found out. I missed the sign about GF food and I was so tired I didn't ask the assistants if there were any options. I had a packet of GF chocolate biscuits with me which became dinner and breakfast. It seems that some controls 'hid' their GF food from view. I can't remember what the control was but I remember seeing two loaves of GF bread just sitting there as I was leaving which was frustrating as it is grains that are hard to find and really needed.
All in all my impression is that provision was done on a control by control basis. Generally I have no great problem or objection - there was enough to get me through and compared to PBP it was GF heaven, trust me.
I have three suggestions, a reminder and a thought experiment.
Suggestion 1: A protocol for riders on GF or Vegan or Veggie: A statement to make, a set of magic words, whatever, that 'unlocks' that controls provision - this will remove the effort of trying to figure out what is going on at each control which gets increasingly difficult with less and less sleep. This could be sent to the people who indicated on the signup form that they were x, y or z.
Suggestion 2: Ingredients lists. It matters to me what brand the vege stock is! Knoor is great, some others have a wheat base. This removes the russian roulette element of eating things like currys... I had one but then shied away from them.
Suggestion 3: I am happy to work around food provision but ideally I need to know in advance what is catered for and what is not. If the team could communicate the policy to those who indicate on the entry form then that will make things clear.
Moral point: I was happy with the cost of the event and chancing the food as I knew I could probably get around on service station stops if I really had to and by carrying more food. However if you specially stated that you were not supporting GF/vegan/veggie menus then I would certainly not wish to contribute to the general food pot!
And a reminder: This is not a choice. I have looked up whether GF intolerance/coeliacs is a disability and officially it isn't. But please remember that Coeliacs is a lifetime auto immune disease for which the only effective treatment is to not eat gluten.
And a thought experiment: I want you to imagine that you are in queue for food and there is a lot of it out but you realise that it is all effectively poison. That sounds dramatic but that's what my mental outlook on entering a control is - I am looking to get through without being made ill by food. Believe me being GF gives you a very warped way of approaching food and eating.
And finally as a matter of interest how many of us ticked the Gluten Free box?
A