Yet Another Cycling Forum

General Category => Freewheeling => Racing => Topic started by: morbihan on 18 May, 2018, 07:43:45 pm

Title: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: morbihan on 18 May, 2018, 07:43:45 pm
Best of luck to Ian To, a TCR veteran and ultra rider as he attempts to beat the record early tomorrow.
A link here if you want to watch is progress.
http://www.ultracycling.uk/project-44-lejog/
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: DuncanM on 20 May, 2018, 01:17:27 pm
He has stopped thanks to heatstroke and digestive issues. :( It's a tough record to attempt.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: LittleWheelsandBig on 20 May, 2018, 01:26:58 pm
By no means can the E2E be considered a soft record, male or female. I look forward to the next attempt, with better-aligned stars.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 20 May, 2018, 02:29:47 pm
I've been surprised by an attempt in May. It goes against convention. It's felt that tailwinds are likeliest in late August/ September.

Quote
Worldwide, tropical cyclone activity peaks in late summer, when the difference between temperatures aloft and sea surface temperatures is the greatest. However, each particular basin has its own seasonal patterns. On a worldwide scale, May is the least active month, while September is the most active.[1] In the Northern Atlantic Ocean, a distinct hurricane season occurs from June 1 to November 30, sharply peaking from late August through September;[1] the season's climatological peak of activity occurs around September 10 each season.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_hurricane_season
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: 24hourmaths on 20 May, 2018, 04:21:21 pm
The men's tandem record (2015) and the mixed tandem record (2000) were both set in May with howling tailwinds... <fingers crossed>
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: 24hourmaths on 02 June, 2018, 08:59:16 pm
Stupid May  :facepalm:
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 02 June, 2018, 09:18:57 pm
At least you kept your powder dry. It could have been worse for me. If I'd known about it, I might have filmed some of the failed attempt.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: 24hourmaths on 03 June, 2018, 07:52:30 am
At least you kept your powder dry. It could have been worse for me. If I'd known about it, I might have filmed some of the failed attempt.

Here's to June, the new May  ::-)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: vorsprung on 03 June, 2018, 05:14:10 pm
has the other guy (Michael Broadwith) had a go yet?

http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/lands-end-john-o-groats-break-unbreakable-cycling-record-379965
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 03 June, 2018, 06:00:31 pm
has the other guy (Michael Broadwith) had a go yet?

http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/lands-end-john-o-groats-break-unbreakable-cycling-record-379965

I think he's keeping his powder dry, hoping for a suitable weather window in June, and that someone might film his ride for him. But that's just a guess.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Karla on 03 June, 2018, 07:03:14 pm
has the other guy (Michael Broadwith) had a go yet?

http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/lands-end-john-o-groats-break-unbreakable-cycling-record-379965

He's the poster above you!
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: 24hourmaths on 03 June, 2018, 09:52:27 pm
has the other guy (Michael Broadwith) had a go yet?

Front room has been full of stuff, ready to roll since the end of April. I have enough respect for Gethin to know that I will need favourable conditions to be competitive and they just haven't come along. I'm happy to wait through June... although if nothing is on the horizon then I may bail, ride the Mersey 24 (which I really want to ride this year) and then try again in September.

It's tough though as I have a wife, four kids and a support crew who have all put their lives on hold for 5 weeks and counting... on the upside, I have been bowled over by the positivity, support, believe and patience that people have shown. I know I have the best team, best kit and a good chance of breaking the record if only the wind would play ball.

Have a look at https://twitter.com/endtoend2018 for updates on the (non) action  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 04 June, 2018, 11:30:35 am
The interplay of place-to-place records and the 24 hour TTs is an interesting area. Road Records Association records were the province of professionals at one time, and depend on the right weather conditions.

24 Hour TTs are a purer test, but have been subject to improvement from bike design, nutrition and training. There are also lots of different 24's. We've got the 'World 24 Hour Champion' on here. That's an event promoted by the company that now owns RAAM. It's all a bit like the various boxing titles. With lots of room for fans to decide who is 'The Greatest'. There's no money in it though, so it has a bit more purity.

As Wheels of Fire hints, a lot is down to the team behind these rides, both on the road, and domestically. As a spectator, one has more contact with the team than the rider.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: duracellbunnyonabike on 07 June, 2018, 12:18:51 pm
The interplay of place-to-place records and the 24 hour TTs is an interesting area. Road Records Association records were the province of professionals at one time, and depend on the right weather conditions.

24 Hour TTs are a purer test, but have been subject to improvement from bike design, nutrition and training. There are also lots of different 24's. We've got the 'World 24 Hour Champion' on here. That's an event promoted by the company that now owns RAAM. It's all a bit like the various boxing titles. With lots of room for fans to decide who is 'The Greatest'. There's no money in it though, so it has a bit more purity.

As Wheels of Fire hints, a lot is down to the team behind these rides, both on the road, and domestically. As a spectator, one has more contact with the team than the rider.

Let's hear it for the women too please. Here is a blog by the 'World 24 Hour Champion';-)
https://duracellbunnyonabike.com/2018/06/07/the-women-of-the-end-to-end/ (https://duracellbunnyonabike.com/2018/06/07/the-women-of-the-end-to-end/)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 07 June, 2018, 12:33:53 pm
The distances in the 'World 24 Hour Championship' seem to be about 20 miles short of the Mersey Roads distances. I wonder what that's down to?

https://my5.raceresult.com/65136/results?lang=en#24_322C57

Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: duracellbunnyonabike on 07 June, 2018, 12:42:30 pm
The distances in the 'World 24 Hour Championship' seem to be about 20 miles short of the Mersey Roads distances. I wonder what that's down to?

https://my5.raceresult.com/65136/results?lang=en#24_322C57

come ride it and find out ;-)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: mattc on 07 June, 2018, 12:44:14 pm
American Miles?
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: rob on 07 June, 2018, 01:00:46 pm
I think I saw Hippy comment that some of the circuit is a bit rough and it's lightly traffic'd.   The Mersey course does benefit from traffic drag - I had some very close passes from fast moving trucks last year.

Other riders going over there from the UK found it very hot during the day and pretty cold on the night sections.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: duracellbunnyonabike on 07 June, 2018, 01:06:50 pm
I think I saw Hippy comment that some of the circuit is a bit rough and it's lightly traffic'd.   The Mersey course does benefit from traffic drag - I had some very close passes from fast moving trucks last year.

Other riders going over there from the UK found it very hot during the day and pretty cold on the night sections.

it is not a fast course; worse surface every year; hardly any traffic at all; there is one place one each lap where you MUST stop or slow to walking speed; it is hot in the day and cold at night; your supporters are not allowed on the course; there is little room for handups, I have never been able to do one, so you need to stop each time you want more bottles, food, ice etc; ... BUT it is a lot of fun too and Christophe Strasser has done 550+ miles on this course, which is quite a bit more than the CTT comp record or the best distance ever done on the Mersey course, so perhaps the rest of us are just weaklings.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 07 June, 2018, 01:20:51 pm
The distances in the 'World 24 Hour Championship' seem to be about 20 miles short of the Mersey Roads distances. I wonder what that's down to?

https://my5.raceresult.com/65136/results?lang=en#24_322C57

come ride it and find out ;-)

If I ever did a 24 again it would be to get the VTTA standard, so travelling thousands of miles to do fewer miles wouldn't appeal.

I suppose that there could be a LEJOG time trial, and that could compare the various current long-distance riders. But the roads don't lend themselves to more than one supported attempt at a time.

The interplay of sponsorship, media coverage and prestige is the most interesting aspect to me. Things were simpler when it was bike manufacturers sponsoring attempts. The closest modern equivalent is probably Ultra-Cycling, where sales of 'Adventure' bikes can be promoted.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: duracellbunnyonabike on 07 June, 2018, 01:50:29 pm


If I ever did a 24 again it would be to get the VTTA standard, so travelling thousands of miles to do fewer miles wouldn't appeal.

The interplay of sponsorship, media coverage and prestige is the most interesting aspect to me. Things were simpler when it was bike manufacturers sponsoring attempts. The closest modern equivalent is probably Ultra-Cycling, where sales of 'Adventure' bikes can be promoted.
[/quote]

In that case, just do the Mersey 24hr, it is THE best TT in the UK each year, in my biased view.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 07 June, 2018, 02:27:07 pm


If I ever did a 24 again it would be to get the VTTA standard, so travelling thousands of miles to do fewer miles wouldn't appeal.

The interplay of sponsorship, media coverage and prestige is the most interesting aspect to me. Things were simpler when it was bike manufacturers sponsoring attempts. The closest modern equivalent is probably Ultra-Cycling, where sales of 'Adventure' bikes can be promoted.

In that case, just do the Mersey 24hr, it is THE best TT in the UK each year, in my biased view.
[/quote]

It's nice to see a new generation sing its praises. The Mersey Roads certainly deserves to be better known. It was renowned as a friendly event when I did my first 24 at the North Roads Centenary in 1998.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Karla on 07 June, 2018, 02:28:06 pm
Yebbut I've already got him booked to sorry my attempt in 2019, he just doesn't know it yet.

Ain't that right ESL  ;)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: mattc on 07 June, 2018, 02:39:27 pm

Quote
If I ever did a 24 again it would be to get the VTTA standard, so travelling thousands of miles to do fewer miles wouldn't appeal.

The interplay of sponsorship, media coverage and prestige is the most interesting aspect to me. Things were simpler when it was bike manufacturers sponsoring attempts. The closest modern equivalent is probably Ultra-Cycling, where sales of 'Adventure' bikes can be promoted.

In that case, just do the Mersey 24hr, it is THE best TT in the UK each year, in my biased view.
Just to bring you upto speed on the natives, Ms Duracell, ESL and I actually raced each-other for 24hrs on the Mersey a few years back. It wasn't his first. Sadly neither of us troubled the podium. (In fact, that may have been Wheels-of-Fire's year, certainly around then ... )
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: 24hourmaths on 07 June, 2018, 02:42:02 pm

In that case, just do the Mersey 24hr, it is THE best TT in the UK each year, in my biased view.

It's nice to see a new generation sing its praises. The Mersey Roads certainly deserves to be better known. It was renowned as a friendly event when I did my first 24 at the North Roads Centenary in 1998.

Those marshalls at Epsley island on the night circuit were particularly friendly  :thumbsup: ;)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 07 June, 2018, 02:49:50 pm
I suppose the LEJOG route might go along part of the Mersey Roads route. The A49 ends about a mile from my house, and becomes the A6. Those two roads must account for a lot of the distance in England.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: 24hourmaths on 07 June, 2018, 02:55:50 pm
I suppose the LEJOG route might go along part of the Mersey Roads route. The A49 ends about a mile from my house, and becomes the A6. Those two roads must account for a lot of the distance in England.

I think my route turns left off the A49 about 35m before it ends. Up "Old Lostock Lane" to join the A6 before the big roundabout that heads north... then pretty much stick on that to Carlisle.

Route here: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/26405677
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: duracellbunnyonabike on 07 June, 2018, 03:11:05 pm
I suppose the LEJOG route might go along part of the Mersey Roads route. The A49 ends about a mile from my house, and becomes the A6. Those two roads must account for a lot of the distance in England.

My LEJOG route takes in most of the Mersey 24hr. I will post a link to route, schedule and tracker shortly (as slightly different from last year)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Ian H on 07 June, 2018, 03:31:27 pm
It was interesting chatting to a certain Mrs Boon about the different approaches taken by the recentand current attempts.  Good luck Mr B.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Karla on 07 June, 2018, 10:16:33 pm
The interplay of place-to-place records and the 24 hour TTs is an interesting area. Road Records Association records were the province of professionals at one time, and depend on the right weather conditions.

24 Hour TTs are a purer test, but have been subject to improvement from bike design, nutrition and training. There are also lots of different 24's. We've got the 'World 24 Hour Champion' on here. That's an event promoted by the company that now owns RAAM. It's all a bit like the various boxing titles. With lots of room for fans to decide who is 'The Greatest'. There's no money in it though, so it has a bit more purity.

As Wheels of Fire hints, a lot is down to the team behind these rides, both on the road, and domestically. As a spectator, one has more contact with the team than the rider.

Let's hear it for the women too please. Here is a blog by the 'World 24 Hour Champion';-)
https://duracellbunnyonabike.com/2018/06/07/the-women-of-the-end-to-end/ (https://duracellbunnyonabike.com/2018/06/07/the-women-of-the-end-to-end/)

I'm looking forward to it soon also being by a reigning LEJOG record holder  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: αdαmsκι on 14 June, 2018, 06:32:40 am
Starting 8 am tomorrow. Good luck :thumbsup:

https://twitter.com/endtoend2018/status/1007001246753009667
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Ian H on 14 June, 2018, 09:48:16 am

Those marshalls at Epsley island on the night circuit were particularly friendly  :thumbsup: ;)

Oo-er, Missus!
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: cygnet on 14 June, 2018, 02:30:17 pm
Gook Luck WoF

More dot watching... (Cheers Ivan)
https://frrt.org/endtoend2018/map?center=53.10722,-3.37280&zoom=7 (https://frrt.org/endtoend2018/map?center=53.10722,-3.37280&zoom=7)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: gonzo on 14 June, 2018, 05:00:59 pm
Do we know what he'll be wearing? I will be leaving work about the time that he's cycling past tomorrow and I'm tempted to stand on the roadside and cheer!
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: rob on 14 June, 2018, 06:31:21 pm
Do we know what he'll be wearing? I will be leaving work about the time that he's cycling past tomorrow and I'm tempted to stand on the roadside and cheer!

Arctic Tacx kit.  Riding a red/black Specialized Shiv.  If you google him you should get some pictures from last years 24.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: essexian on 15 June, 2018, 08:13:57 am
And he is off  ;D

The weather in the midlands looks okay this morning, so good luck and good speed.

I am planning to stand at the top of the only climb in Stafford (hardly a climb really.... the double rise over the railway line and then up by the speed camera)  just after 10pm this evening to have a cheer. If its light enough, I will try to take some photos.


Good luck.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: rob on 15 June, 2018, 03:21:40 pm
Running about 30mins up on his own schedule which is to break the record by 34mins.

Should be through Bristol by the time I knock off for the day.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: gonzo on 15 June, 2018, 03:48:31 pm
Running about 30mins up on his own schedule which is to break the record by 34mins.

Very decent of him; it means that I don't have to stay at work quite so late!

How's the weather in Scotland. Still a strong tailwind?
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 15 June, 2018, 06:02:51 pm
He's done approximately 230 miles in the first 10 hours. Looks to be about 35 minutes ahead of schedule.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: gonzo on 15 June, 2018, 06:30:11 pm
Photo from between Bristol and Gloucester. Blue skies, tailwind and lots of lorries. What more could you ask for?
https://photos.app.goo.gl/9yuY1qLwnUoUpbzv7

While I was sat on the side of a busy road waiting for about 45 minutes, I got a lot of odd looks from drivers going past. Several people hooted at me. Apparently this is not a normal way to spend one's Friday evening! I also happened to have parked in the local garden centre thinking they'd be open late. They weren't. As I walked back to my car, they told me that it had nearly been locked in overnight. Ooops.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: essexian on 15 June, 2018, 09:56:19 pm
Just seen him at Dunston a couple of hundred metres from J13 on the M6 at 21.30. I make that he is approximately 42 minutes ahead of schedule: that's some going!

He has been lucky with the weather as there was almost no wind at all, unlike when I went out for my post work, pre chip ride earlier: it was blowing quite strongly from the north.

Good luck for the rest of the ride. Its quite an undertaking over 10 days, let alone in less than a couple!

Not a great photo...sorry

(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1729/41921234835_a9836d231d_n.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/26SrhAX)2018-06-15_10-02-38 (https://flic.kr/p/26SrhAX) by essexian (https://www.flickr.com/photos/26068282@N07/), on Flickr
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 16 June, 2018, 03:27:24 am
Video here soon hopefully.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVk0XL3mlyM
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: tonyh on 16 June, 2018, 04:52:39 am
Thanks ESL. Delightful!

Essexian too, there's atmosphere in that photo.

MB was looking very good indeed going into Bristol yesterday about 4.20pm, about 30 minutes up.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: tornandfrayed on 16 June, 2018, 07:11:18 am
He's in Scotland! Still ahead of schedule.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: rob on 16 June, 2018, 07:46:26 am
Looks like he’s through the 24hr record already.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: andyoxon on 16 June, 2018, 05:01:19 pm
Seems like it's getting difficult out there...
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: gonzo on 16 June, 2018, 05:34:21 pm
Seems like it's getting difficult out there...

Cripes, looks like he's 9 minutes down on the last time check. Apparently the neck's going too. Fingers crossed!

I do wonder why no one has produced a magnetic device to pull the TT lid tail to one's back to ease this...
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Karla on 16 June, 2018, 05:46:22 pm
With 170 miles to go, he can afford to lose about another hour and a quarter over schedule to still get the record.  It sounds like it might be staying to brighten up?

Come on WoF!
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Greenbank on 16 June, 2018, 07:10:42 pm
Recovered slightly by the next checkpoint...

18:54 Michael Broadwith has arrived at CP46 19:00 - 6 minutes up
17:21 Michael Broadwith has arrived at CP45 17:12 - 9 minutes down
15:37 Michael Broadwith has arrived at CP44 15:49 - 12 minutes up
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: D.A.L.E. on 16 June, 2018, 07:59:05 pm
Is 'X minutes up/down' on his schedule or the record?
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Ian H on 16 June, 2018, 08:14:35 pm
Someone's fetching a neck-brace to keep him going.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Sea of vapours on 16 June, 2018, 08:14:59 pm
Up/down applies to the 42h42m schedule, not the record, so you can add 1h22m leeway to all up/down times.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: JonBuoy on 16 June, 2018, 08:56:18 pm
42h42m schedule is to Reiss - 13.54 miles short of JOG.  Schedule to JOG is 43:29 - approx 35 minutes inside record.  Leeway is only 35 minutes
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Greenbank on 17 June, 2018, 03:58:22 am
(Jun 17th) 3:26 Michael Broadwith has finished
2:29 Michael Broadwith has arrived at CP52 02:31
1:30 Michael Broadwith has arrived at CP51 01:33
0:19 Michael Broadwith has arrived at CP50 00:31
(Jun 16th) 22:27 Michael Broadwith has arrived at CP49 22:49

3:26 with an 8am start means...

43:25:13. Record b0rken!!!1!!!one!!eleven!!!
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: gonzo on 17 June, 2018, 06:11:09 am
Woop woop. Massive congratulations!
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: basset on 17 June, 2018, 06:49:51 am
Fantastic achievement
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: cygnet on 17 June, 2018, 08:11:14 am
Wow WoF

Congratulations Mike. Who knew Twitter plus a dot on a map could be so gripping.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: andyoxon on 17 June, 2018, 08:15:39 am
Amazing.  Congrats!
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: essexian on 17 June, 2018, 10:44:10 am
Wow WoF

Congratulations Mike. Who knew Twitter plus a dot on a map could be so gripping.

This! I got up twice in the night just to check how he was going!

Extremely impressive riding in not the best conditions. Frankly, I don't know how people ride for 24 hours let alone for 43 or so without sleeping/a major stop. Super human  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: gonzo on 17 June, 2018, 02:14:23 pm
I went out to ride the same a38 Bristol Gloucester leg he did on Friday evening and tried to match pace. He looked calm and collected. I was a sweaty puddle of mess. After 20 miles!

I am suitably awed!
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: thesloth on 17 June, 2018, 04:17:10 pm
Phenomenal performance!
Very exciting to follow that. When the weather turned bad and his neck gave up I was certain that it was over. I've experienced Shermer's Neck on a 24. It's no joke, your neck muscles just stop working. It's not a case of digging a bit deeper and overcoming it. You simply can't lift your head up. It's awe inspiring that he managed ride for so long in that state and at that pace.
Kudo's to his support team as well. It seems much like his 24s they ran a slick operation.

Looking forward to Jasmin's next!
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: rogerzilla on 17 June, 2018, 05:53:12 pm
Very well done.  I had to get up early to check Twitter!
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: DuncanM on 17 June, 2018, 06:17:27 pm
This is fantastic! What an achievement. Chapeau to all concerned!  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 18 June, 2018, 10:20:46 pm
Some of the video from Shap to Wick, in remembrance of my Dad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LTFDLDE7o4
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: andyoxon on 18 June, 2018, 10:37:10 pm
Some of the video from Shap to Wick, in remembrance of my Dad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LTFDLDE7o4

Very good.  Notice someone familiar cheering on MB at the end...    :)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Peter on 18 June, 2018, 10:40:47 pm
Thanks, Damon.  I thought it was going to be a horror film when I heard Bill Medley's attempts to hit some correct notes in the introductory bars!
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 19 June, 2018, 12:29:57 am
Thanks, Damon.  I thought it was going to be a horror film when I heard Bill Medley's attempts to hit some correct notes in the introductory bars!

Beyond the lyrics fitting the images, and the presence of a football stadium in the film, I was alerted to some of the deeper themes of 'You'll Never Walk Alone' while listening to Elaine Page's Musicals show on Radio 2 on the journey home. It's also an early example of bitonality, so Bill was probably spot on.

Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Frank9755 on 03 July, 2018, 08:56:01 pm
Jasmijn has just announced that she is going to wait until September.  Too hot and not windy enough for her now (and it seems she can't go during the school holidays).
Seems like a good call as the heat would sap energy. 
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Karla on 03 July, 2018, 09:04:19 pm
Jasmijn has just announced that she is going to wait until September.  Too hot and not windy enough for her now (and it seems she can't go during the school holidays).
Seems like a good call as the heat would sap energy.

The school holidays thing is due to extra traffic around e.g. Cornwall and the Lake District afaik.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 26 August, 2018, 02:15:43 pm
I've been struggling to sort out what to do with the footage from the LEJOG record. I wrote a piece shortly after the event, to crystallise my thoughts on what I'd recorded, with a view to that providing the structure of a film.

Michael's record didn't come out of the blue, it was the culmination of a journey towards ever-longer distances. I've got footage of some of the important stops along the way, featuring the last three record holders, Michael Broadwith, Gethin Butler and Andy Wilkinson. I can imagine how that film would fit together, and how it would look.  I'm quite capable of producing it, so in that sense I've got nothing to prove to myself or others.

I'm at the stage where I've got most the components of a film in place, I've got an outline, and a vision of how it would look, but I can't think of any tangible benefit in making the film, other than to get it out of the way. I'd be making the film to please myself, but it already exists in my head, in a  form that will always be better than what I could produce.

The word on the street is that Gethin would like his record back. Meanwhile, here's what I wrote soon after Michael got the record.

Filming LEJOG.

Long distance cycling is something of a family affair. My own involvement with competitive endurance racing was inspired by Cycling Weekly. There was always a double-page spread on the 24 Hour National Championships, and all the finishers were listed. I knew it would impress my Dad if I finished, especially if I was in the top half of the field. So I entered the North Roads 24 Centenary event in 1998.

I’ve ridden the Mersey Roads 24 a few times since then, and I’ve marshalled most years. But I’ve also morphed into the uncle with a video camera, recording the highs and the lows. I’ve witnessed some of the key moments over the years; Andy Wilkinson’s record 542 miles in the East Sussex 24 in 2011 being the highlight. Andy marshals on the Mersey Road 24, and was impressed by the performance of a new name to the 24 in July 2015. Michael Broadwith was emerging as a surprise leader of the event that year.

Michael wasn’t really known  in ’24’ circles, but his 537.35 miles was the second best UK distance ever. I’d met his team boss, Sam Williamson, before, when he’d been going for the Hemel Hempstead 24 hour club record. Broadwith’s team had been impressive, and clearly contributed to his result. Michael’s Arctic Tacx team dominated in 2016 and in 2017, but Michael didn’t get any nearer to Wilko’s outright record. Sam Williamson was diagnosed with prostate cancer in November 2017, and passed away in February 2018.

Michael had expressed interest in the Lands End- John O’ Groats record in 2016, and wondered if I’d like to film it. I Iive in Leyland, 385 miles into the route, so I filed away the thought of filming from home onwards. An attempt on LEJOG is very weather-dependent, and the chances of success or failure would be more obvious at that point of the ride.

The last record had been set by Gethin Butler in 2001. Some of the technology we now take for granted was around, but trackers and power meters were a fair way off.

Contenders for the record submit a schedule to the Road Records Association, who provide the  observers to verify the ride. That schedule is available to spectators, so they can turn out to support on the road. That’s now supplemented by a real time tracker, so we can dot-watch as well. I was fed the tracker information from home, to predict where I could get footage.

I filmed Michael at Bamber Bridge, close to home, edited and uploaded a short film, and drove to Shap Summit, where a short stop was planned. Gethin Butler was there, he’d been helping marshal on the route from Wigan. Michael’s team duly arrived, including his 8 month old daughter Poppy.

It was pretty obvious that no-one had got much rest in the 20 hours or so since the start. One of the main reasons for starting to film from just South of Preston was to try to limit sleep deprivation. Supporting a 24 hour time trial is difficult enough, and anyone who’s done that is more equipped than most to support LEJOG. But it’s almost twice as long, the team is tied to being close to the rider, and the plan was to challenge Gethin Butler’s 1,000 mile record of almost 56 hours.

I’d been riding a lot of long Audaxes in the late 1990s and early 2000’s, and Gethin was doing those as well. He was one of the old school, putting in the miles. I’d read that Michael favoured higher intensity training over short distances, that suited a busy father of four young children. So the question marks were around whether he was sufficiently hardened to withstand the distance, and how well his team would cope with the sleep deprivation.

The weather was relatively kind up to Southern Scotland, but was due to become cold and wet for about 10 hours. Morale had been sustained by setting a new Road Records Association 24 hour record, at 507 miles, beating Gethin’s 505 miles from 2001. But at Beattock, the cold was starting to seep into Michael’s bones. At that point he was 59 minutes forward of the schedule, the most he was ever ahead. The rain was now constant, and it’s hard to film in the rain, so I decided to head for the Forth Road Bridge, and sort out a good location.

At the bridge he was due to be followed by a rider with spare wheels, in case of puncture. I stationed myself below one of the towers, and waited. Michael was now 45 minutes ahead of schedule, in light rain, and was putting his spare wheel carrying companion under some pressure.

I took the M90 and A9 to Perth, where a stop was scheduled. I didn’t meet the crew, as they stopped just short of the lay-by I’d decided to film from. Michael had a bit of an adventure in Cowdenbeath, where he threaded his way through the streets that were closed for the carnival. The wet conditions had taken their toll and only 6 minutes remained of the time cushion over the schedule. Keeping to that schedule would beat the record by 42 minutes, but the hardest part of the ride lay ahead.

The highest, coldest and wettest part of the ride was at the 1,508 feet high Drumochter summit. It looked like a very bad place to try to film, so I drove on to Aviemore. At Drumochter Michael was 9 minutes behind schedule. By Aviemore he’d made up 15 minutes, and was 6 minutes ahead. When I saw him he was propping up his head with his arm resting on the tri-bar rests, that wasn’t a good sign.

There’s a condition called ‘Shermer’s neck’, which afflicts extreme endurance cyclists, it seems to come on at about 1,000 km into a ride. Michael’s lack of long ride training had raised a question mark about Shermer’s. It’s something I’d seen a lot of on Paris-Brest-Paris and London-Edinburgh-London. It would require a lot of determination to push through it, and reach John O’ Groats on time.

I guessed that the team would stop in the lay-by before the Kessock Bridge in Inverness, opposite the Caledonian Thistle stadium. I met Michael’s brother there. He’d been to the local hospital to pick up some immobilisation collars, to try to counter the Shermer’s. I’d seen many attempts to combat the condition over the years, I’d be interested to see if this worked, especially as the time cushion over schedule was only 12 minutes.

Other members of Michael’s family had arrived by plane at Inverness, to cheer him on. I’d seen the A9 to Inverness as the most hazardous part of the ride. It’s a fast arterial route, with no real alternative, and driving conditions had been atrocious,

Traffic had apparently been relatively light, but I was relieved that he was now on the less busy Northern section of the A9. The main risk was now that his morale would collapse, so support was critical.

The weather was now fairly benign, temperature had fallen to about 9 degrees Centigrade over Drumochter, in lashing rain, but beyond Aviemore it had been calm and dry enough for me to fly a drone for the first time since Gretna.

The LEJOG route has been altered the years by road improvements, with bridges over the Forth of Firth in the 1960s, the Beauly Firth at Inverness, and the Cromarty Firth in the 1980s, and the Dornoch Firth in 1991. These are good punctuation marks in a film, so I planned to get some footage at them all. By the time he arrived at the Dornoch Bridge, Michael was 22 minutes up on schedule, and I’d got the pictures I wanted before the light finally faded.

I’d now been filming since 01.30. and tiredness started to show as we went into a new day at Helmsdale. I’d need to find well-lit streets to counter the headlights of the following vehicles, and I found that in Helmsdale. It was also steeply uphill. so I practiced a panning shot on the bend next to the hostel. I was a bit distracted by supporters trying to light sparklers next to me, so I pressed the start button out of sequence, so I wasn’t filming as a supporter ran next to Michael shouting encouragement. At least I checked to see if I’d got that almost perfect moment. I hadn’t, so I would have to be on the lookout for street lights in the tiny settlements up to Wick.

There were a few opportunities, but I was getting frustrated at the problems of filming in pitch darkness punctuated by bright headlights. I did try flying the drone on the Berriedale Braes, a steep climb. but it couldn’t get a lock the GPS satellites which would hold it steady, so it drifted in the wind, while I tried to direct it towards Michael and the following cars.

The trick to success in following these long rides, is to leave enough in the tank for the end, it’s the interesting bit. With about 30 miles to go, I suddenly acquired a passenger. Steve Abraham, who had initiated the revival of the year record, changed vehicles at short notice, and needed a ride to the finish. That entailed shifting all the equipment I was using from the front seat of the car. I was not best pleased.

Steve and I chatted about his year record as we approached Wick, and I spotted a sign indicating 17 miles to John O’ Groats, at the last turn before the end of the End to End. It was raining lightly now, so Steve helped me by holding an umbrella while I sent up the camera. I got a shot of Steve, the one-time year record contender, cheering on Michael, the LEJOG heir apparent. There were now 2 minutes in the bank against the schedule.

We set off into the creeping dawn. I have a long standing affection for the bleak Caithness landscape, a look in the mirrors with 5 miles to go revealed a tempting vista, with just enough light to be viable as a shot. At least I’d be able to locate all four cameras I might use at the finish, so I set up there. It would still leave me about a quarter of an hour to reach J O’ G, and prepare for the big finish.

I did perhaps leave myself with a lot to do as Michael approached the climax of nearly two days of effort. I had just got the drone into position over the finishing point, and was sorting out the main camera I would use, when I was asked if the firework being set off would cause problems. Everyone’s a cameraman these days, me included, so I’m confident I can cobble something together to cover the gaps, from the smartphones and tablets that were wielded.

I’ll admit to being a bit torn by the elitism in such an event. One person spearheads a team, and gets the plaudits. But on the road it’s not like that. the team has to have faith in their rider, and rider has to have faith in their team. I’ve seen a variety of approaches to winning 24s, and now a LEJOG, and I have to acknowledge the existence of ‘The Right Stuff’. That quality revolves around the idea of ‘Grace under Fire’.

Often that concept has a  strong ’macho’ element. In this particular endeavour I was most impressed by Helen Simpson, managing to guide Michael to a new LEJOG record, with 8 month old Poppy in tow. A true ‘Family Affair’, resulting in an improvement of 26 minutes and 6 seconds on the record.

Michael Broadwith now holds the Lands End to John O’ Groats record, and the RRA 24 Hour Record. He was in on condition to challenge Gethin Butler’s 1,000 mile record. Andy Wilkinson still has the fastest time in a Human Powered Vehicle for LEJOG, and the 24 Cycling Time Trial record. As the saying goes; “Come on and have a go, if you think you’re hard enough”.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Laid Back Rich on 26 August, 2018, 02:46:04 pm
a new record attempt has begun!

 https://twitter.com/Elliott_LEJOG

 :thumbsup:
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: mattc on 26 August, 2018, 04:27:30 pm
Has Elltio published his schedule??

If not, anyone fancy making a prediction? :)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: duracellbunnyonabike on 28 August, 2018, 01:28:56 pm
a new record attempt has begun!

 https://twitter.com/Elliott_LEJOG

 :thumbsup:

And then there is Rhoda (aged 4) too: https://twitter.com/FamilyByCycle/status/1032620562932293633


Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Nuncio on 28 August, 2018, 10:08:17 pm
a new record attempt has begun!

 https://twitter.com/Elliott_LEJOG

 :thumbsup:

And there's another one in progress too, I think.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-45227627 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-45227627)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: teethgrinder on 30 August, 2018, 04:38:47 pm
Duracellbunnyonabike is off at 5 am this Saturday 1st September.


I'll be in one of the support vans "looking after" the food... :demon:



Links for live tracker, schedule, route etc

Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/28410504
Schedule: https://www.lejogrecord.co.uk/schedule
Tracker: https://www.lejogrecord.co.uk/live
Progress vs current record: https://www.lejogrecord.co.uk/progress
#CRUK: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/lejogrecord …
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Fidgetbuzz on 30 August, 2018, 05:00:46 pm
I have been involved a tiny amount .. but can not make the Saturday start.. so not in the actual "on road" support crew .. gutted.

This is a well planned , well thought out , well organised attempt.

Fingers crossed that it goes well for Jasmin
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: hulver on 30 August, 2018, 05:06:27 pm
I have been involved a tiny amount .. but can not make the Saturday start.. so not in the actual "on road" support crew .. gutted.

This is a well planned , well thought out , well organised attempt.

Fingers crossed that it goes well for Jasmin

Echoed here.

Duracellbunnyonabike is off at 5 am this Saturday 1st September.


I'll be in one of the support vans "looking after" the food... :demon:


Let's hope there's some food left for her!  ;D
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 30 August, 2018, 05:14:44 pm
Interesting. Saturday is my 60th Birthday, and we were thinking of going to North West Scotland, as that's my favourite place. I'd not been wanting to spend any of my own money on filming, but this might fit in, especially given the footage I already have of the male record.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: teethgrinder on 30 August, 2018, 08:00:06 pm
Interesting. Saturday is my 60th Birthday, and we were thinking of going to North West Scotland, as that's my favourite place. I'd not been wanting to spend any of my own money on filming, but this might fit in, especially given the footage I already have of the male record.

Ha!
Reading your report and your reluctance to make the film, it looks like fate is giving you a raw deal. Just to whet your appetite a bit more and as your videos tend to have multi faceted stories, there is also the two very (youngest is 4) young girls riding tag alongs, Katie and Rhoda. They are due to arrive at John O Groats on Sunday afternoon but have run into big problems so it's a bit of a nailbiter, so you possibly have 3 stories to tie in there and arguably 3 different takes on the end to end record (though the two young girls on the tagalongs isn't being sanctioned anywhere as far as I know) so this could re-set the storyboard in your head and give you the inspiration you need to make that video.

Or not....

Can't fault you on NW Scotland being your favourite place either and happy 60th!
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Phil W on 30 August, 2018, 09:14:04 pm
Best of luck and don't eat all the sausages.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 30 August, 2018, 10:47:22 pm
Interesting. Saturday is my 60th Birthday, and we were thinking of going to North West Scotland, as that's my favourite place. I'd not been wanting to spend any of my own money on filming, but this might fit in, especially given the footage I already have of the male record.

Ha!
Reading your report and your reluctance to make the film, it looks like fate is giving you a raw deal. Just to whet your appetite a bit more and as your videos tend to have multi faceted stories, there is also the two very (youngest is 4) young girls riding tag alongs, Katie and Rhoda. They are due to arrive at John O Groats on Sunday afternoon but have run into big problems so it's a bit of a nailbiter, so you possibly have 3 stories to tie in there and arguably 3 different takes on the end to end record (though the two young girls on the tagalongs isn't being sanctioned anywhere as far as I know) so this could re-set the storyboard in your head and give you the inspiration you need to make that video.

Or not....

Can't fault you on NW Scotland being your favourite place either and happy 60th!

Michael and Helen are very keen on the film about John Woodburn by Ray Pascoe and Peter Dansie. That's based on very little in the way of actual footage of the record, and is padded out with stuff from TTs, a failed attempt the previous year, and lots of interview. A bit more footage might get my project nearer to the film I have in my head.

I did LEJOG in 1998 as a way of avoiding the possibility of a surprise 40th party, spending the day in pouring rain from Tarbert to North Ballachulish. So there's a bit of a personal echo there.

Jasmijn's timings aren't good for filming. Shap will still be dark, the same at the 24 Hour record point, which is 2.15 ahead of schedule anyway. That leaves the Forth Road Bridge, Drumochter and from Latheron onwards. The finish would be quite good.

I'm having a bit of a 'do' from 4 pm onwards on Saturday, so I'll see how the ride looks against the schedule to decide if I can I hit the booze.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: cygnet on 31 August, 2018, 09:57:01 am
Good luck duracellbunnyonabike!
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Malmesbury Monk on 31 August, 2018, 01:54:27 pm
Blacksheep's Mr Pickwick Goes To Hay in a Day 200km from Tewkesbury is taking place tomorrow. Anyone returning around 6.00pm should see her in the High Street.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: alfapete on 31 August, 2018, 06:51:09 pm
Happy Birthday ESL, and best of luck to Jasmijn.
I'll be cheering Jas on from the roadside near Tewkesbury and might pop to the Hop Pole afterwards. If so I'll get to meet the riders I normally never see on Black Sheep's 200's cos I'm normally two hours behind them!
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: aidan.f on 02 September, 2018, 06:54:12 am
Not looking good,. Tracker at service station in Kendal. Not moved for 30 mins to
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: JonBuoy on 02 September, 2018, 07:03:25 am
There are some photo's on Twitter posted at 0655 which are captioned:  'Getting ready to tackle Shap after a short power nap.'
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Revellinho on 02 September, 2018, 07:42:40 am
There was supposed to be a good fresh tailwind now, but here in S Lakes it is depressingly calm.  Hope it is better for her up Shap way.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Fidgetbuzz on 02 September, 2018, 09:31:20 am
Stop at kendal was for a brief sleep stop.... but she is slipping back from her own schedule .. although we do not know whether her schedule takes the record by 2 hours say or just 15 minutes. Not getting the tail wind predicted. Fingers crossed . Go JAS
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: LiamFitz on 02 September, 2018, 12:20:44 pm
Not looking good,. Tracker at service station in Kendal. Not moved for 30 mins to
Always happy to respond on the event twitter feed in real time @LejogRecord.  Unfortunately the tracker seems to getting a bit dozy and has been nodding off for a few minutes at a time ever since we left Lands End
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: aidan.f on 02 September, 2018, 01:57:46 pm
The weather Shap summit @05:30 was miserable. Poor visibility. The wait there explains my negative response!
Good tail wind now.  :)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Fidgetbuzz on 02 September, 2018, 10:13:16 pm
Sunday 10.00 pm .. a brave effort but this o me now looks to hard a task for the last 12 hours.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: quixoticgeek on 02 September, 2018, 11:42:52 pm


Her twitter account has announced that she's stopping. They don't say why, just more info in the morning.

Hope she's ok.

J
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: teethgrinder on 04 September, 2018, 06:32:46 pm
Just got back home from crewing.
I wasn't there at the start and joined Jasmijn just south of Bridgewater to hand up a bottle with the sleep support van in case the other two support vans lost her in traffic in bridgewater, which is a bottleneck for traffic. (We lost Wheels of Fire in Bridgewater and never caught him until just before bristol, where he lost us again and recaught him up the A38)

Jasmijn looked very good and as if she was pacing herself very well, which she was. We nearly missed feeding her because the tracker was lagging quite a lot but as it turned out, she had already picked up a bottle and had eaten er food, so just threw me the wrapper to put in a bin.
Jasmijn made very good progress and looked very strong and was more or less on schedule. But going into the night she was becoming a bit spaced out. She looked very good on the bike and rode very well but showing signs of tiredness.
Just before the 24 hours were up she stopped to change clothes etc and she was still spaced out and tired. She was also not eating or drinking to her food schedule. Not eating enough. Not a good sign that she'd get through a second night but you can never always tell and she was still well in time to get the record, even if she hadn't managed the 24 hour record. She still rode 419 miles in the 24 hours, to my knowledge (best to check that than take my word for it)
Thereafter, Jasmijn was stopping for changes of clothes more often and losing a lot of time. She was still spaced out and  feeling cold, so stopped in Kendal before climbing Shap. We would have stopped a bit later but it was drizzling, not very warm and there's not really anywhere to stop on Shap so we pulled the support van into a closed petrol garage where she could change clothes sheltered from the rain under the garage roof by the pumps and have a sleep in the van.
This didn't revive her as much as I hoped it would but it was still quite early, so I hoped she'd ride steady, which was still fast enough, and start recovering before going into the second night.
We encouraged her to keep going steadily and get her eating and drinking more but wasn't having much luck. Jasmijn was still very spaced out but riding very solid and starting to recover, but not very much. The team were doubtful but hopeful and asked me what I thought.
I said that it doesn't look good. It's still possible but she needs to recover if she is going to get through another night and even then, when you struggle through the first night, it doesn't bode well for the second night, so if she does recover enough to get through another night it will be very hard.
We managed to get Jasmijn eating and drinking a bit more, which was encouraging but it was still tough going and she told us a few times that she wouldn't do it or that the end to end was over but the 1000 might still be on. I told her it was still possible and she still had a chance and to just take it steady and keep moving. But she was fighting a hard battle. After feeling l, she got hot and there were stops to change clothing etc which were eating up time. She did start to perk up a bit but was still tired and a bit spaced out.
At around Perth, I had done 2 crew shifts in the supple van and swapped to the sleep van so we could go ahead up the A9 to get some sleep in the van before doing another supply van shift, which was leapfrogging Jasmijn so we could hand up food and drink.
When I awoke in the seep van ready to my next shift, I read the message in our What's App team group, that Jasmijn had packed.
I wasn't surprised. She fought a hard battle for about 18 hours. Not physically. She always looked very good on the bike and was strong. I think it was down to not getting enough sleep in the run up to setting off and everyone on the team, as we as Jasmijn seemed to agree that it probably was a significant factor.
I was glad that when I saw her in the morning that she wasn't beating herself up about it and in good spirits. She looked very good physically and walking OK. Not hobbling around and stiff as you might expect for someone who had just ridden over 600 miles in well under 2 days.
So we had breakfast then spent all day driving back to unload helpers, observers and then sort out the 3 vanloads of bikes, clothes and other stuff.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: alfapete on 04 September, 2018, 06:54:50 pm
Thanks for the update, Steve, it's good to hear about it all in more detail. It was a brilliant ride but perhaps a step too far.
We can all theorise about what might have been managed differently, but we will never know the outcome of any of the helpful suggestions which are sure to follow. Just hope she doesn't let it get to her too much as she's had a lot riding on this for a long time...
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: morbihan on 05 September, 2018, 03:34:37 pm
thanks for the feedback Steve. How great to have someone like yourself with all that experience on the support team.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: ian_oli on 06 September, 2018, 10:00:09 pm
a new record attempt has begun!

 https://twitter.com/Elliott_LEJOG

 :thumbsup:

And there's another one in progress too, I think.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-45227627 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-45227627)

I'm sorry to say he's been overtaken

https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/87-year-old-probably-oldest-man-complete-lands-end-john-ogroats (https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/87-year-old-probably-oldest-man-complete-lands-end-john-ogroats)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Nuncio on 07 September, 2018, 08:02:27 am
Quote
Mr Wells wasn’t cycling for any particular cause, just for the sheer enjoyment of riding his bike. He likes to keep active and is part of a walking group at home.

Donald said of his adventure, “I’m pleased with what I did but it’s just like any normal cycle ride for me, I don’t see it as anything particularly daring.

“I felt fine after I finished the ride – no aches and pains. I don’t rush and tear around, I take it easy.

“I suppose it’s what’s I’ve been doing all my life. I feel at home on a bike.”
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 09 September, 2018, 09:46:24 pm
I've been wondering what I think about LEJOG.

I live just South of the City of Preston, which is where all the North/South routes on the West side of England converge. Our local economy is about movement, I can see the largest truck assembly plant in Europe, on the other side of the railway line from London to Glasgow from where I’m typing this.

I’m quite taken by the German word ‘Heimat’, which has no direct equivalent in English, but this might be one meaning.

‘"Home functions as the close environment that is understandable and transparent, as a frame, in which behavioural expectations are met, in which reasonable, expectable actions are possible – in contrast to foreignness and alienation, as a sector of appropriation, of active saturation, of reliability.”

The irony is that my ‘Heimat’ is a place that people pass through, it’s a transient space. That means that some of my sense of home includes the routes that intersect within a mile of where I live. ‘Heimat’ extends to the ribbons of steel and asphalt that radiate from Preston.

The single longest of those routes is from Land’s End to John O’Groats, and that’s become something of an iconic challenge. It’s a realistic achievement to aim at, and it’s readily envisaged. In 1891 the first ‘official’ record for a bicycle was set by George Pilkington-Mills in 4 days 11 hours and 17 minutes.  Lilian Dredge set a women’s record of 3 days 20 hours and 54 minutes in 1938. Those records were officiated by the Road Records Association, founded in 1888.

I think it’s possible to have a temporal ‘Heimat’. That’s what nostalgia is, a fondness for a time as well as place. Much of the fabric of my ‘homeland’ dates from the period between 1880 and 1910. So it’s hard to avoid the echoes of the era that was the highpoint of Lancashire’s relative prosperity.

I’m pre-programmed to be interested in Lands-End to John O Groats, as part of a continuous tradition of long-distance cycling stretching back to the 1880s. It’s also genetic. My father was a keen cyclist and cheered Gethin Butler on during his record ride in September 2001. Dad passed away in late May this year. A week after the funeral Michael Broadwith attempted to break the LEJOG record.

It’s now possible to follow the progress of these rides online, via a tracker. I wasn’t inclined to follow the attempt from Lands-End, partly out of superstition, partly for reasons of economy. So I kept an eye on Michael’s progress, with a view to filming him close to home. Dot-watching is quite popular, but it’s not close enough to the 1880s to satisfy my tastes. So it was inevitable that I’d be tempted to follow what was looking to be a successful challenge on the road. I had all the right equipment to convey some of the feeling of the ride on video, and I’ll get around to doing that when I’ve worked out how what I feel about it.

I’m not sure what the Irish equivalent of ‘Heimat’ is, but I got the feeling of a series of ‘homelands’ while following a 1200km Audax called ‘Mile Failte’ mainly in Cork, Kerry and Clare. Each peninsula had its own character, and the Burren was obviously a world unto itself. We visited another extreme point of the British Isles, at Slea Head, the most Westerly point, a compensation for not going to Lands End.

I suppose the French version of ‘Heimat’ is ‘Terroir’. We visited the Vosges area of France in August, a historic crossover between the French and German worlds. That was for the annual gathering the French Cycle Touring Federation, which explores a different home turf every year. We encountered Gethin Butler stringing together all the most difficult rides on the day out in the Vosges mountains. I wonder if he fancies his record back.

There’s been an increased interest in women’s long distance cycling, and last September Jasmijn Muller tried for the LEJOG record, following a very full season of distance riding. I was poised to film some of that, and followed the online dots to the nearby village of Coppull, where they stopped.

LEJOG record-breaking is an odd business. The fastest times result from bad weather, ideally a storm which brings a following wind for the longest period. But the Roads Record Association requires 48 hours notice of an attempt. The weather had been remarkably stable throughout the Summer of 2018. Michael Broadwith had been lucky to get one of the few breakdowns in the good weather, which made for an uncomfortable, but fast ride.

Jasmijn had prepared for a July ride, but the weather stayed resolutely hot and still. September was set for the attempt, and she announced a start on September 1st, the day of my 60th Birthday. There was a certain symmetry in the two main events of my year, my Father’s demise, and my 60th. That made me inclined to do some filming, especially as we planned a trip to Scotland. But I felt the need for some sort of party.

The dots were trending down from a fast start, and the iconic locations of Shap and Gretna were likely to be visited in the dark. It was also a very warm and still evening, ideal for a back-garden barbecue, not so much for LEJOG records, So I felt able to hit the booze and burgers. On Sunday we decided to head for Pitlochry as a first stop on our Scottish Tour, with half an eye on filming the LEJOG finish.

Jasmijn’s schedule put her well beyond Pitlochry by our arrival time, but coming onto the A9 at Perth we saw a lone female cyclist, well-lit, and well-equipped. We debated if it was Jasmijn, and tried to get the dots on Heather’s smartphone. Reception was poor enough for that operation to be inconclusive, so we headed to Pitclochry, and fired up the laptop at the Backpackers Hostel. Jasmijn seemed to be stalled about 10 miles South, near Dunkeld, so we headed down the road to see what was happening. We found Jasmijn, her team and the RRA officials stopped in a layby on the A9.

Jasmijn was having a short sleep, so we had a chat with Jon Williams, the RRA observer. The attempt was clearly in the balance at that point. Jasmijn got on her bike, as her team stressed their overriding concern for her safety. We drove about five miles up the road to set up for a shot of her riding in the dark. There wasn’t enough light for a planned drone shot, all we could do was to switch to infra-red on the video camera, and hope to get something.

It was surprising how much traffic there was on the A9 on a Sunday evening. It came in batches, perhaps because it was delayed by the following vehicle. Jasmijn came past, and didn’t look too bad. By the time we bought some chips for dinner, and got back to the Hostel, the website announced that the attempt was over. We’d been the last people to cheer Jasmijn on.

We hadn’t really planned where we’d go in Scotland. I’ve long seen the area North of Ullapool as a sort of spiritual homeland.. But I do wonder if that’s just a sort of fixation, amplified by interaction with the internet.

We now found ourselves in Perthshire, so we went with the flow, climbing a succession of 3,000+feet mountains, in a non Munro-Bagging way. By Saturday 8th September we’d logged 12, in a spirit of Munro-denial.

We’d been treating Pitlochry as a place to to bypass on the A9, on the way to somewhere else for over 35 years. It took a stalled LEJOG attempt for us to connect with a new ‘Heimat’ including Schiehallion, Meall Nan Turmachan, and the Glen Lyon Horseshoe. One irony is that we’d been across a good part of Breadalbane on the Daylight 600 Audax on a number of occasions. It looks a lot different when you’re not on a bike, and not on a schedule.

I do wonder if it’s possible to disconnect yourself from performance indicators in the modern era. Heather’s phone could tell us how many steps we took in our exploration of our newly apprehended part of Scotland. Our temporal and physical homelands can be as detailed as we want, and we can readily compare them with others.

I suppose one appeal of LEJOG is that all that effort, and all that detail, can resolve itself down into a single entry in a book that you might have got for Christmas as a child. I wonder what that will mean when no-one has a memory of getting the Guinness Book of Records, and such information is spread across the web.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: duracellbunnyonabike on 10 September, 2018, 10:22:24 am
Just got back home from crewing.
I wasn't there at the start and joined Jasmijn just south of Bridgewater to hand up a bottle with the sleep support van in case the other two support vans lost her in traffic in bridgewater, which is a bottleneck for traffic. (We lost Wheels of Fire in Bridgewater and never caught him until just before bristol, where he lost us again and recaught him up the A38)

Jasmijn looked very good and as if she was pacing herself very well, which she was. We nearly missed feeding her because the tracker was lagging quite a lot but as it turned out, she had already picked up a bottle and had eaten er food, so just threw me the wrapper to put in a bin.
Jasmijn made very good progress and looked very strong and was more or less on schedule. But going into the night she was becoming a bit spaced out. She looked very good on the bike and rode very well but showing signs of tiredness.
Just before the 24 hours were up she stopped to change clothes etc and she was still spaced out and tired. She was also not eating or drinking to her food schedule. Not eating enough. Not a good sign that she'd get through a second night but you can never always tell and she was still well in time to get the record, even if she hadn't managed the 24 hour record. She still rode 419 miles in the 24 hours, to my knowledge (best to check that than take my word for it)
Thereafter, Jasmijn was stopping for changes of clothes more often and losing a lot of time. She was still spaced out and  feeling cold, so stopped in Kendal before climbing Shap. We would have stopped a bit later but it was drizzling, not very warm and there's not really anywhere to stop on Shap so we pulled the support van into a closed petrol garage where she could change clothes sheltered from the rain under the garage roof by the pumps and have a sleep in the van.
This didn't revive her as much as I hoped it would but it was still quite early, so I hoped she'd ride steady, which was still fast enough, and start recovering before going into the second night.
We encouraged her to keep going steadily and get her eating and drinking more but wasn't having much luck. Jasmijn was still very spaced out but riding very solid and starting to recover, but not very much. The team were doubtful but hopeful and asked me what I thought.
I said that it doesn't look good. It's still possible but she needs to recover if she is going to get through another night and even then, when you struggle through the first night, it doesn't bode well for the second night, so if she does recover enough to get through another night it will be very hard.
We managed to get Jasmijn eating and drinking a bit more, which was encouraging but it was still tough going and she told us a few times that she wouldn't do it or that the end to end was over but the 1000 might still be on. I told her it was still possible and she still had a chance and to just take it steady and keep moving. But she was fighting a hard battle. After feeling l, she got hot and there were stops to change clothing etc which were eating up time. She did start to perk up a bit but was still tired and a bit spaced out.
At around Perth, I had done 2 crew shifts in the supple van and swapped to the sleep van so we could go ahead up the A9 to get some sleep in the van before doing another supply van shift, which was leapfrogging Jasmijn so we could hand up food and drink.
When I awoke in the seep van ready to my next shift, I read the message in our What's App team group, that Jasmijn had packed.
I wasn't surprised. She fought a hard battle for about 18 hours. Not physically. She always looked very good on the bike and was strong. I think it was down to not getting enough sleep in the run up to setting off and everyone on the team, as we as Jasmijn seemed to agree that it probably was a significant factor.
I was glad that when I saw her in the morning that she wasn't beating herself up about it and in good spirits. She looked very good physically and walking OK. Not hobbling around and stiff as you might expect for someone who had just ridden over 600 miles in well under 2 days.
So we had breakfast then spent all day driving back to unload helpers, observers and then sort out the 3 vanloads of bikes, clothes and other stuff.

Steve you are a legend, both in terms of your own rides and how you support others. The same counts for Liam and Aidan and Roger and lots of other amazing Audaxers and yacfers who have been closely involved with and/or have been very supportive of my record attempt.

I am healing. Both physically and emotionally at the moment. I am not beating myself up as I know I did far from the ride that I am capable of (I know that sounds arrogant and perhaps can be seen as being disrespectful of the current record but it definitely isn't meant in that way). But I am very sad and coming to terms with the fact that I need to let this dream go before it takes up too much of me.

People can be cruel on forums. I am happy to see that is not the case here. It is precisely through nice Audax rides that I hope to find back my love for cycling. I hope to see many of you on the road.

Give me a little time, but there is a blog in the making where I will expand a bit more about why I failed.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 10 September, 2018, 11:51:30 am
What we shot of Jasmijn's ride. An hour later we were watching the customers at the Mc Kay hotel in Pitlochry drinking their beers on the terrace in the 18 degree C heat. We went for a stroll down the high street in short sleeves.

https://vimeo.com/289059509
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: duracellbunnyonabike on 10 September, 2018, 12:50:29 pm
What we shot of Jasmijn's ride. An hour later we were watching the customers at the Mc Kay hotel in Pitlochry drinking their beers on the terrace in the 18 degree C heat. We went for a stroll down the high street in short sleeves.

https://vimeo.com/289059509

Thank you for the cheering Damon and thanks for the video. Sorry I couldn't make your efforts more worthwhile.

I was shit scared of another massive speed wobble occurring on the long descend into Inverness in the dark, in the wet, in the wind, on this lovely A9 after the massive speed wobble I had on the A30.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: paddyirish on 10 September, 2018, 01:42:22 pm
This was the first LEJOG attempt that I had followed and it was gripping.  Reading around the web page, and he twitter feed it all had some fascinating insight into the history of the record, the amount of planning and the on-road co-ordination required which was news to me. Some videos on crowded dual carriageways also brought home how unpleasant parts of the route were. Kudos to all involved – even getting to the start line was a major achievement.  We were certainly willing Jasmijn on and the ride was remarkable in itself, even if it wasn’t everything that was hoped for. 

In terms of success or failure, I think Mike Hall had it right (http://bikepacker.com/mike-hall-tour-divide-champion/)

What would you like to say to all of the aspiring Tour Divide enthusiasts, and the riders currently on route?
Enjoy it, don’t lose sight of just how lucky you are to be there, and above all, manage your expectations. I was chatting about this with some friends in Banff. I think if we treat things as a pass or fail test that we can torture ourselves mentally over the outcome, but if we consider it more as an experiment with an uncertain outcome from the start, then we always at least get an answer.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 10 September, 2018, 02:07:18 pm
I interviewed Michael Broadwith about his experience on the A9.

https://vimeo.com/289076221

One interesting part of LEJOG is that the families of the riders are close by. They're usually supporting. The risks are less than on dual-carriageway TTs, as there's a following vehicle. Night time is the big difference. The A9 from Dunkeld to Inverness at night with no moonlight is a big ask. Unless you diverted through the towns, it's 98 miles without any lit road.

The schedule was to ride that section in daylight. I was a bit concerned by the 'smoothed record' graphic on the tracker. I took that to mean the average speed of the current record superimposed on the whole ride. So it seemed inevitable that the time ahead indicated would constantly fall.

I would have liked to have seen a graphic of Michael Broadwith's actual timings, adjusted down to a record-beating time for the women's record. There's been a step-change in the detail available since the last women's record in 2002.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 11 September, 2018, 09:15:12 am
In terms of success or failure, I think Mike Hall had it right (http://bikepacker.com/mike-hall-tour-divide-champion/)

What would you like to say to all of the aspiring Tour Divide enthusiasts, and the riders currently on route?
Enjoy it, don’t lose sight of just how lucky you are to be there, and above all, manage your expectations. I was chatting about this with some friends in Banff. I think if we treat things as a pass or fail test that we can torture ourselves mentally over the outcome, but if we consider it more as an experiment with an uncertain outcome from the start, then we always at least get an answer.

A lot of wisdom in there, and not just about ultra cycling. That is a philosophy for life.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: hulver on 11 September, 2018, 09:31:18 am
Thank you for the cheering Damon and thanks for the video. Sorry I couldn't make your efforts more worthwhile.

I was shit scared of another massive speed wobble occurring on the long descend into Inverness in the dark, in the wet, in the wind, on this lovely A9 after the massive speed wobble I had on the A30.

The effort was worthwhile. I think you could do it, as long as you get a bit of luck as well, which seemed to miss you this attempt.

Just getting to the start line was a massive effort, with the amount of organising and planning and training.

I hope you don't lose your love of cycling.

I was in awe of your performance when I met you on LEL, and I aspire to be 1/4 as good as you. I would be well content with that. You're an inspiration.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 11 September, 2018, 01:18:11 pm
It's interesting to see how the past becomes widely accessible as more documents come online. The annual report of the Anfield Bicycle Club from 1891 is one such item. G.P. Mills had a good year.

Quote

© Anfield Bicycle Club

At midnight on 23rd August, Mr. Lawrence Fletcher left the Land's End on a Safety Bicycle hoping to beat the John O' Groat's Record. The weather held fine until 5 o'clock at night, when the rain began to fall, and after riding through awful weather for 9 hours, he abandoned the attempt at Kidderminster, being even then some 7 hours ahead of the previous best.
A few weeks later Mr. G. P. Mills started from the Land's End on a Safety Bicycle, and despite bad weather, heavy roads and the long dark nights of late September, succeeded in reaching John O' Groats House in 4 days, 11 hrs. 17 mins., thus beating by 14 hours his own Record which has stood since 1886. Throughout this journey Mr. Mills was paced and generally looked after by Messrs. J. D. Siddeley, R. H. Carlisle and W. W. Shaw, and desires to express his sense of the unfailing kindness and invaluable help freely accorded to him by these Members.

Quote
Perhaps the finest performance of the whole year was that of Mr. G. P. Mills in the International Road Race from Bordeaux to Paris, when, riding under Anfield colors, he not only beat all the leading French Amateurs, but also such "crack" riders as Messrs. Holbein, Bates and S. F. Edge, and covered the distance, 361 miles, in 26h. 34m. 25s. winning by 1 1/2 hours, and proving that he was still entitled to be considered the finest long distance rider in the World. For this capital performance your Committee awarded Mr. Mills a special prize.

Reading the annual report gives an insight into a time when 12 and 24 hour rides were the boundaries of endurance for man and machine. It's still possible to experience long distance riding in much the same way, by attending club dinners and AGMs, and riding or marshalling events. The essentials remain unchanged, while new ways of following events have evolved.

http://www.anfieldbc.co.uk/annual_reports/ar_1891_oc.pdf
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: fimm on 11 September, 2018, 01:46:11 pm
It is interesting that
Quote
Mr. Mills was paced ... by Messrs. J. D. Siddeley, R. H. Carlisle and W. W. Shaw
(empasis mine). Does "paced" imply drafting?
What on earth would the roads have been like in 1891? And did Messrs Siddeley, Carlise and Shaw cycle LeJoG as well? Or I suppose it is more likely that each took a section.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 11 September, 2018, 02:04:32 pm
Paced does mean drafted. The record became unpaced in 1905, and it wasn't until 1908 that the record exceeded the paced record. The arrival of the motor car might have generated the change.

I don't know how pacing was arranged for LEJOG. On Paris Brest Paris there are references to pacers waving to riders as they passed on the train. LEJOG shadows the rail route from Penzance to Wick, so that's one possibility.

The current way the record works requires quite an investment, and means riding in front of a following vehicle. RAAM is much the same, and that's led to 'looser' formats, as the cost is restrictive. The two approaches look similar if you're watching dots, but there's a big difference on the ground.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: fimm on 12 September, 2018, 09:49:18 am
I am an idiot. I hadn't even thought of trains...
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 12 September, 2018, 10:24:24 am
Quote
The current fastest route on land public transport takes a timetabled 22 hours 45 minutes, departing Land's End car park at 14:35 on day 1 and arriving at John o' Groats ferry terminal car park at 13:20 on day 2. This involves a bus to Penzance, trains to Crewe to meet the London–Inverness sleeper train, then the following morning buses via Wick to John o' Groats. As of January 2011, an ordinary one-way railway fare for the rail section of the journey cost £216.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land%27s_End_to_John_o%27_Groats#Public_transport

I wonder how long it took in 1891? Bradshaw's guide will tell you the rail element. Services would probably be more frequent in the shooting season.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Frank9755 on 12 September, 2018, 11:36:51 am
Ian To is having another go:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bnnls88hdDQ/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=45tgd145vv6o (https://www.instagram.com/p/Bnnls88hdDQ/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=45tgd145vv6o)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Salvatore on 12 September, 2018, 10:47:23 pm
I am an idiot. I hadn't even thought of trains...

Many years ago I read a book about the history of the LeJog record. Before he started breaking the record himself, G P Mills acted as a pacer on a record attempt. So effective was he that he and the rider attempting the record  beat the train to the station where he was meant to be relieved of his pacing  duties, so he had to carry on pacing for the following leg.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 13 September, 2018, 10:22:18 am
The other technology that facilitated long distance cycling as 'News' was the telegraph. Events that unfolded over a period of days made good copy for the mass market papers that were becoming more popular in the late 19th Century.

PBP was a prime example, instigated by the 'Petit Journal' to sell that paper during a slack time. The Tour de France is still under the control of the parent organisation of 'L'Equipe'.

The fact that paced rides relied on trains to organise the pacing made it inevitable that cheating would become an issue. That led to the formation of validating bodies, such as the Roads Records Association, which observed events impartially.

The concern for validation also led to 'Brevets', identification cards, with a photo of the rider, which could be checked by the organisation. Otherwise how could the identity of the rider being paced be assured? The second Tour de France in 1904 was a low point.

Quote
During the race, nine riders were excluded because of, among other actions, illegal use of cars or trains. The Tour organizers were happy with the result, but the Union Vélocipédique Française (UVF) started an investigation after complaints from other cyclists. Their investigative committee heard testimony from dozens of competitors and witnesses, and, in December 1904, disqualified all the stage winners and the first four finishers (Maurice Garin, Pothier, César Garin, and Aucouturier). Ten of those disqualified were banned for one year, Maurice Garin for two years and the remaining two for life.[1] In total, 29 riders were punished.[4] The reasons for the disqualification were never made public.[23]

Fifth-placed Henri Cornet, aged 19, then became the youngest ever winner of the Tour.[24] Cornet had also been warned after he had received a lift by a car.[4] Only 15 cyclists from the original 27 that finished were not disqualified.[25]

Following the disqualifications, the Tour de France came nearest in history to being permanently cancelled.[26] The race organiser Henri Desgrange, said he would never run the race again because it had been overtaken by the "blind emotions" of those who attacked or helped riders as they passed. Desgrange was also upset that the UVF had imposed judgement on his race when he had already disciplined riders as he saw fit.

An angry exchange ensued between Desgrange and the UVF but the letters and the detailed complaints that led to the UVF's actions were lost when the Tour de France archives were transported south in 1940 to avoid the German invasion and were never seen again.[25]

Until the end of his life, Garin always said that he was the rightful winner of the 1904 Tour de France, but according to Les Woodland, Garin confessed to a friend that he had cheated.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1904_Tour_de_France#Disqualification

The Audax Randonee formula, with cards and secret controls, is a remnant of the measures used to ensure that the individual rider has done what they say.

Obviously there isn't the incentive in Audax to cheat that pro-racing has. There aren't the commercial pressures, or the coverage to provide prestige.

Long distance cycle sport seems to have been revived by technology, in an echo of how technology gave birth to it. It's interesting to see how the various systems of validation operate. LEJOG is constantly observed, give or take the occasional problems with traffic in towns. Obviously there are other factors to take into account, and those are regularly rehearsed in threads on pro-racing.

The fact that long distance cycling is reported by proxy, and isn't visible in the way that track cycling is, has led to a whole literature about 'cheating', and commercial pressures. It's as much a part of the scene as the pictures of the agonised cyclist on some excruciating climb.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: zigzag on 13 September, 2018, 03:14:19 pm
The Audax Randonee formula, with cards and secret controls, is a remnant of the measures used to ensure that the individual rider has done what they say.

Obviously there isn't the incentive in Audax to cheat that pro-racing has. There aren't the commercial pressures, or the coverage to provide prestige.

it still happens occasionally, i've seen one instance during the pbp2011 where a van slowed down next to one rider in the distance, who grabbed onto the mirror and they slowly disappeared into the distance. i've seen another case of cheating on 1001 miglia italia, but these were the only two throughout my ten years of randonneuring. i wish there wasn't any, but some people are wired that way unfortunately.. :)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Ian H on 13 September, 2018, 05:36:58 pm


it still happens occasionally, i've seen one instance during the pbp2011 where a van slowed down next to one rider in the distance, who grabbed onto the mirror and they slowly disappeared into the distance. i've seen another case of cheating on 1001 miglia italia, but these were the only two throughout my ten years of randonneuring. i wish there wasn't any, but some people are wired that way unfortunately.. :)

I heard some interesting stories last year from a man in Loudeac, who said he was a commissaire for Paris-Brest-Paris, regarding drug-taking and motor-home transportation.  Just a conversation in a bar.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 13 September, 2018, 06:54:14 pm
I saw one of the support vehicles for the Deloitte Ride Across Britain on the M6 yesterday. That's a corporate/charity event, and it has a sponsorship requirement, as well as an entry fee.

Validation as part of charity fundraising is an interesting area from a 'cheating' point of view. I'm less certain I'd begrudge someone a bit of help if they'd bitten off more than they could chew in support of a charity, especially following a bereavement.

That's where the binary natures of Audax and LEJOG present problems. An event such as the Mersey Roads is more suited to that, although an HD classification helps accommodate charity riding.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 13 September, 2018, 07:57:41 pm
I'm gradually working towards the sort of film I might make about LEJOG.

https://vimeo.com/289741118
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: duracellbunnyonabike on 15 September, 2018, 08:29:27 pm
Blog as promised: https://duracellbunnyonabike.com/2018/09/14/and-in-the-end/

Damon - I hope it is OK I embedded your vimeo video.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 15 September, 2018, 08:35:23 pm
That's fine Jasmijn, it's not as if we went out of our way to film it, and we had a lovely week in Perthshire.

(https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/41813069_1909095642461370_1700974625954988032_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=ee07a79974d70b72112dd167115069eb&oe=5C292715)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: DuncanM on 15 September, 2018, 09:18:25 pm
Blog as promised: https://duracellbunnyonabike.com/2018/09/14/and-in-the-end/

That's a really good piece of writing, and I salute your honesty and your spirit. Good luck with your future plans, and I look forward to watching your dot moving around the continents over the next few years!
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 16 September, 2018, 12:59:47 am
I asked Michael Broadwith about the relationship of adventure racing to LEJOG and the 24 prior to the Mersey Roads. Jasmijn is visible in the background a couple of times as she warmed up.

https://vimeo.com/290081713

Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: mattc on 16 September, 2018, 08:07:52 am
I asked Michael Broadwith about the relationship of adventure racing to LEJOG and the 24 prior to the Mersey Roads. Jasmijn is visible in the background a couple of times as she warmed up.

https://vimeo.com/290081713
Nice. The line I most notice in there is:
"I only race because I don't have the time to go touring."

It illustrates that most cyclists do have huge overlaps of interests. And IMO it's the great thing about the bicycle - once you've learnt to ride one, you can ride pretty much any discipline/niche. You can even use the same bike across (almost) all niches, if you have to!

(I've gone from BMX flatland to Ultra-Randonneur. Took quite a few years mind. And not on the same bike.)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 16 September, 2018, 06:38:53 pm
I see that Ian To is on the road. It's a flat calm and overcast here just South of Preston at the moment. The forecast is for rain and some wind further North.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 17 September, 2018, 09:08:41 am
It looks like Ian To stopped somewhere around Shap.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Frank9755 on 17 September, 2018, 09:32:58 am
I asked Michael Broadwith about the relationship of adventure racing to LEJOG and the 24 prior to the Mersey Roads. Jasmijn is visible in the background a couple of times as she warmed up.

https://vimeo.com/290081713

There's a surprisingly small number of us who have done both.  I expect it will grow in the near future as Jasmijn has entered Race around the Netherlands next year and I'm aware of other 24 hour riders with plans. 

Both involve pedalling for a long time at as high a speed as you are able to sustain but, otherwise, I'd say that they are not that similar. 

On the 24 you have to be much more focused on riding round the same roads over and over again, and you are going a good 5mph quicker - so for someone like me there would be a similar speed difference between a 25 mile TT and the 24 and the 24 and, say, TCR. 

Ultra-races are mentally much easier as you are going from A to B, often through pretty scenery and places you may have long-wanted to visit - nobody says that about Prees or Tern Hill!  You have lots of other challenges, from routing to finding food and somewhere to sleep, but, in the grand scheme of things, they are not as hard as the one big challenge of racing for 24 hours.

Anyway - apologies for going further off topic!
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Scrantaj on 17 September, 2018, 10:45:22 am
I asked Michael Broadwith about the relationship of adventure racing to LEJOG and the 24 prior to the Mersey Roads. Jasmijn is visible in the background a couple of times as she warmed up.


There's a surprisingly small number of us who have done both.  I expect it will grow in the near future as Jasmijn has entered Race around the Netherlands next year and I'm aware of other 24 hour riders with plans. 

Both involve pedalling for a long time at as high a speed as you are able to sustain but, otherwise, I'd say that they are not that similar. 

On the 24 you have to be much more focused on riding round the same roads over and over again, and you are going a good 5mph quicker - so for someone like me there would be a similar speed difference between a 25 mile TT and the 24 and the 24 and, say, TCR. 

Ultra-races are mentally much easier as you are going from A to B, often through pretty scenery and places you may have long-wanted to visit - nobody says that about Prees or Tern Hill!  You have lots of other challenges, from routing to finding food and somewhere to sleep, but, in the grand scheme of things, they are not as hard as the one big challenge of racing for 24 hours.

Anyway - apologies for going further off topic!

Sorry to continue hijacking the thread but I found this really interesting.  I rode the 24 in July, my first attempt. Having ridden a lot of Audax previously I actually found the 24 mentally quite easy.  No worries about routing, controls, food etc.  Just ride the bike.  After a couple of laps I knew where I could push, where I needed to go steady, where I could make up time etc. and very quickly found a rhythm to it.  I really enjoyed the simplicity of it all despite having to swap bikes early on and bonking spectacularly at around 22 hours, losing around 40 minutes while the crew poured lucozade and jaffa cakes into me.  Hoping to ride the TCR next year but also want to go again in the 24 as I know I could go further with the lessons learned on the first one.  The timing will make that a challenge though.  Is a week enough to recover from a 24?

Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 17 September, 2018, 11:04:29 am
There's usually a conversation on the 24 about which Tour rider would be able to do the biggest distance. So there's a desire to be able to calibrate the various disciplines against each other.

Stuart Birnie and Ultan Coyle have straddled a lot of the boundaries. But has anyone done 24 Hours, RAAM, LEJOG, PBP and Transcontinental adventure racing? The 24 and LEJOG are essentially cycling under laboratory conditions, and the 24 feeds into the UMCA system. RAAM is now controlled by the same company as the 'World 24 Hour Championship'.

So there's always the potential for a 'unification', an answer to the question of who is the best long distance cyclist. But the waters are muddied by the question of safety. I think that the road is a truer test than the track, but I do breathe a sigh of relief when everyone is safely home.

LEJOG is interesting in that there is an inherent jeopardy in starting out. There is potential for a consolation prize at 24 Hours, but the aim is to exceed the record, and you don't get the chance to post the second fastest time ever. So it's all or nothing, with considerable logistical costs.

I'll stick with George Pilkington-Mills as the best long-distance cyclist so far. Partly for his engineering contributions to cycling. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pilkington_Mills
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: teethgrinder on 17 September, 2018, 12:28:49 pm
There's usually a conversation on the 24 about which Tour rider would be able to do the biggest distance. So there's a desire to be able to calibrate the various disciplines against each other.

Stuart Birnie and Ultan Coyle have straddled a lot of the boundaries. But has anyone done 24 Hours, RAAM, LEJOG, PBP and Transcontinental adventure racing? The 24 and LEJOG are essentially cycling under laboratory conditions, and the 24 feeds into the UMCA system. RAAM is now controlled by the same company as the 'World 24 Hour Championship'.

So there's always the potential for a 'unification', an answer to the question of who is the best long distance cyclist. But the waters are muddied by the question of safety. I think that the road is a truer test than the track, but I do breathe a sigh of relief when everyone is safely home.



Chris Hopkinson has done most of those, but even admits himself, he'd be useless at self supported racing. I'd put RAAM under the lab conditions category if you're putting the LEJOG there. You bring your house with you instead of living off the land in unsupported races.



Quote
LEJOG is interesting in that there is an inherent jeopardy in starting out. There is potential for a consolation prize at 24 Hours, but the aim is to exceed the record, and you don't get the chance to post the second fastest time ever. So it's all or nothing, with considerable logistical costs.

Yes. Anyone can turn up and have a punt at the 24 or other races etc. But to have a crack at a record, you have to at least show that you have a chance of success, unless you have access to all the necessary resources that go with it.

They're all different challenges that challenge you in different ways. It's as hard or as easy as you want to make it for yourself.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Frank9755 on 17 September, 2018, 01:28:36 pm

Sorry to continue hijacking the thread but I found this really interesting.  I rode the 24 in July, my first attempt. Having ridden a lot of Audax previously I actually found the 24 mentally quite easy.  No worries about routing, controls, food etc.  Just ride the bike.  After a couple of laps I knew where I could push, where I needed to go steady, where I could make up time etc. and very quickly found a rhythm to it.  I really enjoyed the simplicity of it all despite having to swap bikes early on and bonking spectacularly at around 22 hours, losing around 40 minutes while the crew poured lucozade and jaffa cakes into me.  Hoping to ride the TCR next year but also want to go again in the 24 as I know I could go further with the lessons learned on the first one.  The timing will make that a challenge though.  Is a week enough to recover from a 24?

No, a week isn't long enough.  It's personal but people typically say a month to recover from a 12 or 24.

But whether you need to be fully recovered depends on your TCR ambitions.  If you want to race it, then it doesn't make sense.  But many people are happy to take it a little bit easier than racing pace.  In practice, fresh riders always go fastest on their first day on the TCR.  Then speed and power gradually decrease day by day.  By about day 3, most people have settled down to what they can sustain for the rest of the race.  If you started with the 24 in your legs, you might be starting at that kind of power level without the extra speed on days 1 and 2.

When you do your next 24, and build on the lessons learned, etc, to try to get the best distance you can, you might find it mentally, as well as physically, harder.  Racing a 24, or a 12, flat out, at what you know is the maximum power you can sustain, with only a few minutes off the bike in the whole event, is much tougher than doing a first one with an experimental approach - that was what I found anyway!
 


Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Frank9755 on 17 September, 2018, 01:37:35 pm
There's usually a conversation on the 24 about which Tour rider would be able to do the biggest distance. So there's a desire to be able to calibrate the various disciplines against each other.

Stuart Birnie and Ultan Coyle have straddled a lot of the boundaries. But has anyone done 24 Hours, RAAM, LEJOG, PBP and Transcontinental adventure racing? The 24 and LEJOG are essentially cycling under laboratory conditions, and the 24 feeds into the UMCA system. RAAM is now controlled by the same company as the 'World 24 Hour Championship'.

So there's always the potential for a 'unification', an answer to the question of who is the best long distance cyclist. But the waters are muddied by the question of safety. I think that the road is a truer test than the track, but I do breathe a sigh of relief when everyone is safely home.

LEJOG is interesting in that there is an inherent jeopardy in starting out. There is potential for a consolation prize at 24 Hours, but the aim is to exceed the record, and you don't get the chance to post the second fastest time ever. So it's all or nothing, with considerable logistical costs.

I'll stick with George Pilkington-Mills as the best long-distance cyclist so far. Partly for his engineering contributions to cycling. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pilkington_Mills

One of the other big differences is the cost of doing an event.  Support crews are expensive so doing RAAM costs tens of thousands of dollars.  A support crew for the 24 might cost a few hundred pounds, but LEJoG would be a lot more. 

But you could do the 24 unsupported for not very much (you don't even need accomodation!) and an ultra-race like the TCR is not expensive relative to other 2-week holidays.  Same for PBP.

One of Mike Hall's aims was to make the TCR accessible to people who were not well-off.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: rob on 17 September, 2018, 04:51:28 pm
The 24hr used to cost me probably getting on for £800 by the time I had covered fuel, accommodation and food for myself and my crew.   On the 2nd go I didn't even finish.   I also have to take 2 days off work.   I need to be really sure before I do it again and it's unlikely to be next year in and around my other plans.

I would quite like to do the Breckland 12hr next year as it's close enough to home, a really fast course and the National champs.....but......it's the weekend before PBP.   7 full days of recovery may not be enough if I batter myself.   I tried to do a 12hr 6 weeks after the 24hr in 2016 and had nothing - I'm a lightweight weakling though so other more hardy souls may be able to recover better.

As for RRA attempts I'll leave those to the strong guys and girls and sit back and watch.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: DuncanM on 17 September, 2018, 05:11:38 pm
I assume that younger people recover better as well. I used to be able to play football matches on up to 7 or 8 consecutive days as a teenager/20 something. I reckon if I tried to do 1 hour sweet spot workouts on 3 consecutive days I'd break now (I just can't play football as my knee/back isn't up to it).
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: cygnet on 17 September, 2018, 05:45:27 pm
George Marshall did TCR4 as a duo a week after close to 500miles in the MR24. His partner scratched after 3 days but he finished.

He's a young 'un though.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: mattc on 17 September, 2018, 06:07:58 pm
One of the other big differences is the cost of doing an event.  Support crews are expensive so doing RAAM costs tens of thousands of dollars.  A support crew for the 24 might cost a few hundred pounds, but LEJoG would be a lot more. 

But you could do the 24 unsupported for not very much (you don't even need accomodation!) and an ultra-race like the TCR is not expensive relative to other 2-week holidays.  Same for PBP.

One of Mike Hall's aims was to make the TCR accessible to people who were not well-off.
:thumbsup:

i would add:
You mention that budgets for the 24 can vary hugely; well riding LEJOG is the same, but the oddity there is that loads of people ride it outside the official attempt framework. One presumes that none of them are aiming to break a record, but you can't be sure! (I know our club has a semi-official record holder - he's a tester, not an audaxer, but rode it with his tent in ~93hours. No gps, no strava, no RRA, no Guinness.) Almost everyone that stumps up the official fee will also get a support crew - so there is a 2-tier culture there (with a few leaking through the barrier!)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 17 September, 2018, 06:44:35 pm
I was reminded of Chris Hopkinson today. I was doing some maintenance on trees I planted on a site next to the A49 at Coppull Moor.

The entrance is a lay-by where Chris's team were stopped while Hoppo slept during his LEJOGLE attempt, and I met them at the end of a day's tree-planting. I mentioned it on a thread here at the time. It was March, and there was a viscous cold headwind, so I wasn't surprised when he packed. Jasmijn stopped round about there in 2017.

Chris always seemed to be able raise the money for his various activities, which were always very ambitious, and well publicised.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Frank9755 on 17 September, 2018, 09:19:54 pm
One of the other big differences is the cost of doing an event.  Support crews are expensive so doing RAAM costs tens of thousands of dollars.  A support crew for the 24 might cost a few hundred pounds, but LEJoG would be a lot more. 

But you could do the 24 unsupported for not very much (you don't even need accomodation!) and an ultra-race like the TCR is not expensive relative to other 2-week holidays.  Same for PBP.

One of Mike Hall's aims was to make the TCR accessible to people who were not well-off.
:thumbsup:

i would add:
You mention that budgets for the 24 can vary hugely; well riding LEJOG is the same, but the oddity there is that loads of people ride it outside the official attempt framework. One presumes that none of them are aiming to break a record, but you can't be sure! (I know our club has a semi-official record holder - he's a tester, not an audaxer, but rode it with his tent in ~93hours. No gps, no strava, no RRA, no Guinness.) Almost everyone that stumps up the official fee will also get a support crew - so there is a 2-tier culture there (with a few leaking through the barrier!)

It was 96 hours, he was telling me about it yesterday!

I think by LEJoG we're meaning attempts on the RRA record, but sure, an unsupported ride, like kristof's recent LEJOGLE, would not cost much
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 18 September, 2018, 11:14:20 am

You mention that budgets for the 24 can vary hugely; well riding LEJOG is the same, but the oddity there is that loads of people ride it outside the official attempt framework. One presumes that none of them are aiming to break a record, but you can't be sure! (I know our club has a semi-official record holder - he's a tester, not an audaxer, but rode it with his tent in ~93hours. No gps, no strava, no RRA, no Guinness.) Almost everyone that stumps up the official fee will also get a support crew - so there is a 2-tier culture there (with a few leaking through the barrier!)

There are quite a few tiers. Obviously you can do the ride wholly on your own, or with company. Many seem to have camper-van backup. Many seem to have a charity link-up. There are commercial tours, and there are big corporate events. Mark Hummerstone offers four different permanents for LEJOG, including a Randonee. http://www.aukweb.net/perms/detail/MH01/

There is a permanent from Calais to Istanbul, http://www.aukweb.net/perms/detail/SJ01/ but that's not such a popular route. It might pick up if people are inspired by TCR. I recall an Arrivee article  when George Hannah and others rode it.

I had a think about the crossover between the various bodies concerned with long distance cycling in the UK. RRA, AUK and the 24 Hour Fellowship, and the common factor is Jim Hopper. That reminded me that the only current LEJOG record holder to have ridden PBP is Jane Moore.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: teethgrinder on 18 September, 2018, 04:24:32 pm

You mention that budgets for the 24 can vary hugely; well riding LEJOG is the same, but the oddity there is that loads of people ride it outside the official attempt framework. One presumes that none of them are aiming to break a record, but you can't be sure! (I know our club has a semi-official record holder - he's a tester, not an audaxer, but rode it with his tent in ~93hours. No gps, no strava, no RRA, no Guinness.) Almost everyone that stumps up the official fee will also get a support crew - so there is a 2-tier culture there (with a few leaking through the barrier!)

There are quite a few tiers. Obviously you can do the ride wholly on your own, or with company. Many seem to have camper-van backup. Many seem to have a charity link-up. There are commercial tours, and there are big corporate events. Mark Hummerstone offers four different permanents for LEJOG, including a Randonee. http://www.aukweb.net/perms/detail/MH01/

There is a permanent from Calais to Istanbul, http://www.aukweb.net/perms/detail/SJ01/ but that's not such a popular route. It might pick up if people are inspired by TCR. I recall an Arrivee article  when George Hannah and others rode it.

I had a think about the crossover between the various bodies concerned with long distance cycling in the UK. RRA, AUK and the 24 Hour Fellowship, and the common factor is Jim Hopper. That reminded me that the only current LEJOG record holder to have ridden PBP is Jane Moore.

Gethin Butler rode the 2003 PBP.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: mattc on 18 September, 2018, 04:24:58 pm
There is a permanent from Calais to Istanbul, http://www.aukweb.net/perms/detail/SJ01/ but that's not such a popular route. It might pick up if people are inspired by TCR. I recall an Arrivee article  when George Hannah and others rode it.

You could well be right; TCR certainly inspired me to ride the slightly lesser Eiger Sanction (Dunkirk-Eiger-Nice) http://www.aukweb.net/perms/detail/ML01/


(One positive from this discussion - I've finally got round to finding where the heck    Igoumenitsa (http://www.aukweb.net/perms/detail/SJ05/) is.)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 18 September, 2018, 06:41:36 pm


I had a think about the crossover between the various bodies concerned with long distance cycling in the UK. RRA, AUK and the 24 Hour Fellowship, and the common factor is Jim Hopper. That reminded me that the only current LEJOG record holder to have ridden PBP is Jane Moore.

Gethin Butler rode the 2003 PBP.
[/quote]

Quite right, he was the current holder when he rode in 2003, and he recorded the then fastest time for a Brit at PBP. Since then John Barkman is recorded as the fastest rider from the UK, although that's moot, as he's from the USA. http://shprung.com/pbp/?mode=info&frame=A054  I think John was one of the group which rode the Orient Express permanent. George Hanna being one of the others.

I remember being asked for advice about turning some video through 90 degrees at the time.

Michael Broadwith is the current LEJOG record holder. I don't think he has any Audax history, so is probably unlikely to do PBP. Without a 600 he'd be in a later group anyway, which tends to lead to slower times. Gethin Butler started in the second group in 2003, and his support had difficulties finding controls, which is fairly common for fast Brits.

Jane Moore is the current ladies tricycle LEJOG record holder, and rode PBP 2015 on a tandem trike with Mark Brooking, who observes for the Road Records Association, and has held a number of records at various distances, he's probably still part of the fastest tandem trike on PBP, but that would take a bit of research.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: rob on 18 September, 2018, 07:08:06 pm
The Indian Mail was ridden by John Barkman, George Hanna, Simon Kolka and Danny Fisher.

There’s a really good Arrivee article written by Simon.

Bit OT now....
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 18 September, 2018, 07:42:59 pm
The Indian Mail was ridden by John Barkman, George Hanna, Simon Kolka and Danny Fisher.

There’s a really good Arrivee article written by Simon.

Bit OT now....

What edition was it? I'll have it somewhere. I suppose it will be in the results if we can remember the year.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: rob on 18 September, 2018, 07:49:50 pm
The Indian Mail was ridden by John Barkman, George Hanna, Simon Kolka and Danny Fisher.

There’s a really good Arrivee article written by Simon.

Bit OT now....

What edition was it? I'll have it somewhere. I suppose it will be in the results if we can remember the year.

I’ll have it somewhere.   I’d suspect early 2000s.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 19 September, 2018, 11:23:59 am
The Indian Mail was ridden by John Barkman, George Hanna, Simon Kolka and Danny Fisher.

There’s a really good Arrivee article written by Simon.

Bit OT now....

What edition was it? I'll have it somewhere. I suppose it will be in the results if we can remember the year.

I’ll have it somewhere.   I’d suspect early 2000s.


It was September 2004. The listing seems to break down into two sections, as far as I can make out.
http://www.aukweb.net/results/archive/2004/listevent/?Ride=P0138

So John Barkman has two certificates.
http://www.aukweb.net/results/certificates/2004/cert/?Ride=P0138&Rider=5524&Serno=R1830
http://www.aukweb.net/results/certificates/2004/cert/?Ride=P0138&Rider=5524&Serno=JR206


The permanent results contain some of the more Audacious undertakings, and give us an indication of how popular LEJOG is as a perm.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Legs on 04 October, 2018, 09:32:53 am
Nick Clarke is currently attempting to beat Marina Bloom's 14-year old Side-to-Side (Pembroke to Gt Yarmouth) record - set off at 6:01 today.  Tracker here (https://livetrack.garmin.com/session/3000923d-1907-4833-b2da-dbdc476b4172/token/5BF62D876E653C7F6911E2613D4CBE).
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: cygnet on 04 October, 2018, 01:13:22 pm
WheelsofFire is also posting schedule updates on his twitter

https://twitter.com/24HourMaths (https://twitter.com/24HourMaths)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Ham on 04 October, 2018, 03:57:52 pm
Nick Clarke is currently attempting to beat Marina Bloom's 14-year old Side-to-Side (Pembroke to Gt Yarmouth) record - set off at 6:01 today.  Tracker here (https://livetrack.garmin.com/session/3000923d-1907-4833-b2da-dbdc476b4172/token/5BF62D876E653C7F6911E2613D4CBE).

I notice he had the opportunity to Gibbon and passed it up.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: rob on 04 October, 2018, 10:01:33 pm
Provisionally a 90 minute improvement
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 05 December, 2018, 01:41:35 pm
I've been looking back at the LEJOG record footage, and wondering what I think about it.

I followed the attempt from just South of Preston, largely without preparation, as the ride took place over a weekend, so I could use Heather's company car. I had a drone, bought for LEL filming, so I thought I'd use that if it was calm enough and not raining. Previous filming had shown the pit-stops are good subjects, and I also knew a few of the key scenic points would yield some good footage.

I also had footage of the back-story, revolving around the Mersey Roads 24. This assemblage of those components starts with a discussion at the 24 in 2016, when the subject of LEJOG first came up. I used that partly because it has Jasmijn Muller in the background. When I did this very loose edit, Jasmijn was still to do her attempt, and I was thinking in terms of a film which combined both rides.

Looking back at the footage, the most striking elements are the team aspect, and the sense of history. The support needed is so great that there's an obligation to finish if you possibly can.

Events such as LEJOG are transmitted across the traditional media and the internet, and there are a variety of views which fit the pre-conceptions of the various audiences. It's difficult to know where to pitch a film to satisfy those audiences. There's lots of other footage of the attempt, so mine might be a spine of key shots, and someone else can attempt to carve a narrative out of all the video.

I'm most struck by the family element, Helen driving Michael on, with a baby crying in the background. That gives the finish a multiple sense of relief, Mike is safely home, and Helen doesn't have to go through this again.

The question of why you might put yourself through this remains, but people do. Jasmijn's two attempts show that. The actual ride is the tip of the iceberg, most of which is submerged.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuK3jTNmmDk

Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: rob on 05 December, 2018, 02:06:58 pm
Reminds me.   There's a long interview with Mike on the Cycling Podcast this week.   It's very good.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: DuncanM on 05 December, 2018, 03:53:45 pm
Yeah, the interview is really good.  It's on the Cycling Podcast - Explore sub-brand, rather than the regular cycling podcast, though I get it through the same url.
NB - Michael Broadwith didn't actually say "never again" - he seemed like he actually thought he could go faster...
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 05 December, 2018, 03:56:51 pm
That's a good interview with Michael, and with Gethin. It covers some of the themes that I'm interested in. The relationship between adventure and social media, and the contrast between the lone adventurer and the spearhead of a team effort.

The extreme example of that is encapsulated in the U2 song 'Beautiful Day', which mentions the fires of the Bedouins in the desert being visible to astronauts in space. Both are in an extreme environment, and can see each other, but one is self-supporting, while the other depends on a huge support apparatus. It's nice that Michael mentions Steve Abraham, who did more unsupported riding in the course of year than anyone.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 13 January, 2019, 02:38:36 pm
More refining of my project on Michael Broadwith's Lands End to John O' Groats cycling record. There's probably a film to be made about long-distance cycling in general, Shermer's neck and tinned tomato soup. This video is 13 minutes odd, and is in full HD, if your Broadband has the bandwidth, otherwise let if buffer for the full effect.

It reminds me that it is possible to film with three cameras at once, but it becomes more difficult as sleep deprivation kicks in, and the drone comes under attack from fireworks.
Comments on how to make the film more understandable are welcome, it is a work in progress.

https://vimeo.com/311018869
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: tonyh on 13 January, 2019, 06:32:02 pm
Thanks Damon! It's very beautiful already.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: sg37409 on 13 January, 2019, 08:54:42 pm
Brilliant film.  A great record and commentary of the endeavour
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 17 January, 2019, 10:54:45 am
Further research reveals that there's never been a female tandem record, although there is a standard of 3 days 12 hours to be beaten. That might be a nice project for someone.

It occurred to me that two LEJOG record holders have ridden PBP, Gethin Butler in 2003, and Hubert Opperman in 1931, who won PBP in a sprint.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8nRj_tPvZk

Opperman did LEJOG in 1934, and inspired a board game.
http://www.cyclingboardgames.net/g_landsend.htm

So a 'Blue Sky' project for me would be Michael Broadwith riding PBP, aiming to beat 'Oppy's time.

(http://www.cyclingboardgames.net/images/landsend3.jpg)
(http://www.cyclingboardgames.net/images/landsend4.jpg)
(http://www.cyclingboardgames.net/images/landsend5.jpg)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: zigzag on 17 January, 2019, 12:29:20 pm
So a 'Blue Sky' project for me would be Michael Broadwith riding PBP, aiming to beat 'Oppy's time.

from what i've read in the pbp rules, there has been a small amendment as they will not homologate if the finishing time is less than xx:xx hours (28kph overall average). so for the really fast ones, if they are ahead of time, they could have a lie-down/nap/beer just before crossing the finish line.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Frank9755 on 17 January, 2019, 12:43:33 pm
If I was able to get round pbp at 28.01kph I would not give a stuff about homologation!
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Karla on 17 January, 2019, 12:47:30 pm
I love that game: you can collide with two cars, a sheep, a dog and a motorcycle!  That is some seriously sleep-deprived riding!

So a 'Blue Sky' project for me would be Michael Broadwith riding PBP, aiming to beat 'Oppy's time.

from what i've read in the pbp rules, there has been a small amendment as they will not homologate if the finishing time is less than xx:xx hours (28kph overall average). so for the really fast ones, if they are ahead of time, they could have a lie-down/nap/beer just before crossing the finish line.

I think I'd prefer to be the man who was too fast for PBP.  That very much comes under 'nice problems to have' though.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 17 January, 2019, 12:55:10 pm
So a 'Blue Sky' project for me would be Michael Broadwith riding PBP, aiming to beat 'Oppy's time.

from what i've read in the pbp rules, there has been a small amendment as they will not homologate if the finishing time is less than xx:xx hours (28kph overall average). so for the really fast ones, if they are ahead of time, they could have a lie-down/nap/beer just before crossing the finish line.

They open the arrivee when the first group A riders have turned up at 28kph average. That means that later Vedette groups can record a faster time over the mat. That time won't be homologated, but will be visible online. An organised group from the later 80 hour starts could target that scenario.

Opperman's time was 49 Hours 23 minutes, which stands close to the AUK record, and is within 28kph. So there's a cascading series of targets, faster than 28kph from a late 80 hour group, 28kph, the AUK record and Oppy's time. Broadwith's average on LEJOG was 31.28 kph.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: rob on 17 January, 2019, 01:06:09 pm
So take away the ability to ride a full-on TT bike and have roadside support.   Add the ability to ride in groups and co-operate.

Would the average speed be lower or higher ?
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: zigzag on 17 January, 2019, 01:12:38 pm
average rolling speed would be similar (we were rolling at 35kph for the first 300k, iirc), but much more time spent at controls during pbp.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 17 January, 2019, 01:13:50 pm
So take away the ability to ride a full-on TT bike and have roadside support.   Add the ability to ride in groups and co-operate.

Would the average speed be lower or higher ?

The problem for testers is that they like to climb at their own speed.  Broadwith would exceed his power limits attempting to keep with a group of roadies. So the logical approach would be to form a team of 500 mile plus 24 hour riders, but then the problem is co-ordinating sleep patterns.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: rob on 17 January, 2019, 01:37:01 pm
I think the crossover between PBP and 24hr testing is not necessary a natural one.   I think PBP isn't really on the radar for them and there's only a handful of people that ride long TTs and Audax.

In recent times I can think of Gethin, Warnock and Hippy having a go.   Gethin did a decent ride but, IIRC, couldn't get away in the A group.   Warnock broke his front wheel in 2011 and hasn't been back.   Hippy tried it out last time but not everything worked OK so I think he's going back this year.

I'm not sure that it's quite the same discipline.   As Mike pointed out in his last interview he really didn't have to think during the End-to-End attempt as his crew were running things - he just had to ride.   I know that's an oversimplification but running in and out of checkpoints, filling bottles an grabbing food makes it into a different experience.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 17 January, 2019, 01:45:14 pm
I think the crossover between PBP and 24hr testing is not necessary a natural one.   I think PBP isn't really on the radar for them and there's only a handful of people that ride long TTs and Audax.

In recent times I can think of Gethin, Warnock and Hippy having a go.   Gethin did a decent ride but, IIRC, couldn't get away in the A group.   Warnock broke his front wheel in 2011 and hasn't been back.   Hippy tried it out last time but not everything worked OK so I think he's going back this year.

I'm not sure that it's quite the same discipline.   As Mike pointed out in his last interview he really didn't have to think during the End-to-End attempt as his crew were running things - he just had to ride.   I know that's an oversimplification but running in and out of checkpoints, filling bottles an grabbing food makes it into a different experience.

Ultan Coyle is another of the 500+ riders who have done PBP. George Berwick was one of the earlier winners to ride PBP. Then there's lots of 'evens' 24 riders such as Simon Bever or Zigzag, and Sheila Simpson of course.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: zigzag on 17 January, 2019, 02:08:54 pm
<...> but then the problem is co-ordinating sleep patterns.

this would be easy as no-one aiming for a fast time is planning to sleep (two days without sleep is bearable, if unhealthy)..

i'd like to know what has the winner of the first pbp consumed to stay awake for more than  t h r e e  days in a row! :)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Frank9755 on 17 January, 2019, 02:55:46 pm
Hippy tried it out last time but not everything worked OK so I think he's going back this year.

He may come and answer for himself but he was only going to do it as a post-TCR tour jolly with his partner.  I think he's since decided to do another ultra in Spain instead
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Frank9755 on 17 January, 2019, 02:59:26 pm
I'm not sure that it's quite the same discipline.   

I would agree with that.  Last time, having done it once with no expectations and done a decent ride, I was targeting a faster time.  Once it was underway I realised I had missed the point by approaching it as a TT.  I'd ridden conservatively at the start, to pace myself, missed the groups and ended up riding a long way on my own - a basic fail!
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Frank9755 on 17 January, 2019, 03:01:36 pm
The other person who springs to mind is John Barkman, who I think did the 24 the year after his UK PBP record.  I thought he would do well.  He didn't do badly but was not near the podium
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Frank9755 on 17 January, 2019, 03:03:38 pm
average rolling speed would be similar (we were rolling at 35kph for the first 300k, iirc), but much more time spent at controls during pbp.

That's faster than all but the very strongest long-distance TTers would achieve over rolling single-carriageway terrain (even allowing a bit for smoother French tarmac)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 17 January, 2019, 04:39:07 pm
I'm largely thinking of what would make a good film subject. Michael does good interviews, he likes to get his friends and family involved in support, and I've got lots of back story.

His lack of a pre-qualifier last year is probably a stumbling block. The connections with Oppy and Gethin would be an obvious introduction to the story.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Frank9755 on 17 January, 2019, 05:01:01 pm
Biggest challenge is that I doubt he'd want to do it. Certainly the qualifiers don't fit what he does
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: rogerzilla on 17 January, 2019, 05:23:29 pm
<...> but then the problem is co-ordinating sleep patterns.

this would be easy as no-one aiming for a fast time is planning to sleep (two days without sleep is bearable, if unhealthy)..

i'd like to know what has the winner of the first pbp consumed to stay awake for more than  t h r e e  days in a row! :)
"Pot Belge" sounds like pretty awesome stuff.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: mattc on 17 January, 2019, 08:04:48 pm
Biggest challenge is that I doubt he'd want to do it. Certainly the qualifiers don't fit what he does
2 short days and 2 long days out on the bike? Useful shakedowns, shirley!  ;)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Carlosfandango on 17 January, 2019, 08:26:20 pm


It occurred to me that two LEJOG record holders have ridden PBP, Gethin Butler in 2003, and Hubert Opperman in 1931, who won PBP in a sprint.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8nRj_tPvZk


Also Jane Moore, LEJOG trike record holder has completed PBP twice.

She`ll be ACME`s secret weapon on this years PBP, leading to the finish at 28km/hr.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: 24hourmaths on 18 January, 2019, 10:48:23 am
Opperman did LEJOG in 1934, and inspired a board game.
http://www.cyclingboardgames.net/g_landsend.htm

This game looks amazing, I was lucky enough to have the Kessock and Cromarty bridges to jump me from square 50 straight to 53.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 18 January, 2019, 10:52:10 am
Opperman did LEJOG in 1934, and inspired a board game.
http://www.cyclingboardgames.net/g_landsend.htm

This game looks amazing, I was lucky enough to have the Kessock and Cromarty bridges to jump me from square 50 straight to 53.

It's an Australian view of Britain, the inlets are all shown oversize. It doesn't make much difference on a map of Australia, where it's important to show the inlets around the major cities, but it looks weird to our eyes. You had the Dornoch Bridge as well, that avoids the loop to Bonar Bridge, so straight to 56.

Work on incorporating Opperman into the film is underway, and a revised edit will be available soon.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 19 January, 2019, 09:04:09 pm
I've been doing more work on the LEJOG film. Research on Hubert Opperman gets me to PBP, via his LEJOG record. It's now up to 18 minutes, with cunning use of scenic and wildlife footage from Duncansby Head, the real most North-Easterly point of Great Britain.

Opperman praises the work of 'English' cyclists in monitoring his record. He was speaking in Australia, and the term 'British' had wider meaning in the past. The historic dependence of LEJOG on large numbers of volunteers gets me to the modern PBP, LEL et al, as does Shermer's Neck. I can incorporate some of the 24 hours as well. Opperman is informative on the nature of time-trialling in the 1930s.

https://vimeo.com/312108499/8dba79c4c4
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 23 January, 2019, 09:04:28 am
Development continues on the film, with added 1200 Audax, 24 Hour and Opperman content. I showed the previous edit to 70s and 80s pro Bill Nickson. He wondered why Mike didn't start at 5am, as Bill had done on the 250 mile London-Holyhead race.

Bill had met Sir Hubert at the finish of one of the 5 stages of the Herald Sun Tour he won in 1981. That's the premier stage race down under, won by Wiggins and Froome in their time. The latest PBP news is that LEJOG challenger Ian To is said to be giving it a go.

https://vimeo.com/312847068
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: duracellbunnyonabike on 24 March, 2019, 01:50:28 pm
Ian To just announced he is planning a 3rd go this year (some time between May and July). Christine Mackenzie will try to break the female record in August 2019. Good luck to them both. Give them a follow and a cheer.
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: 24hourmaths on 25 March, 2019, 12:45:12 pm
Ian To just announced he is planning a 3rd go this year (some time between May and July). Christine Mackenzie will try to break the female record in August 2019. Good luck to them both. Give them a follow and a cheer.

Christina Mackenzie - she was the silver medalist in the National 24 Hour last year with 431.6 miles

She then followed that up with a new Scottish National record in the Breckland 12 Hour of 256.3 miles

She is currently planning to set off from Land's End during August (or September...) - I imagine that I'll probably draw some graphs...

Twitter feed is here: https://twitter.com/Lejogmack

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dy9BSfUWsAEyQbK.jpg:large)
Title: Re: LEJOG record attempt.
Post by: rob on 11 June, 2019, 03:51:52 pm
Wheels of Fire will be on stage on Saturday morning at the Herne Hill Velofete :-

http://www.hernehillvelodrome.com/velofete/