[LEL] Nice/funny/strange etc. anecdotes from en route

[pioto]

What did you see or hear of on your way to Edinburgh and back?

For me it was a quite unspectacular event in terms of "no major problems". Very much enjoyed the ride, even though I missed out on Hummers's beer seminar.

Here's what I heard of:
A French rider lost one pedal, I think while riding his bike. It fell off the crank and flew into high grass next to the road. Poor guy apparently had Speedplay pedals, special system and very small. He couldn't find the damned pedal. After a while he gave up and contacted the next bike store, which only carried standard (Look?) pedals. He ended up buying new shoes and pedals in order to not DNF. Must have been about 150-200k before the finish line. I asked him how much shoes and pedals cost. He just answered "please don't ask".... The same guy was very lucky to 1) not fall off his bike and 2) break his rear wheel when the rain jacket got into the rear wheel thoroughly (I happened to see that personally).

This story is nowhere near the one with the Canadian on his way to Paris (PBP2011), who thought he'd already been in Brest, but in fact had only made it to the stop before Brest and accidentally went left instead of turning to the right side towards Brest. When he was told that one stamp is missing, it was too late for a second try, so he rode back to Paris.

Would love to hear of some more stories of this kind. There must be dozens around.

PS. In Pocklington "One flew over the cuckoo's nest" was shown on TV on my way back. Don't know whether it was a video or a TV rerun. Had to smile when I saw Mancini say: "I'm tired and it's a lot of baloney", because I felt the same way and a few other real-life lunatics were around as well.

[Lightkeeper]

At Barnard Castle, a French rider exploring the menu with a kitchen volunteer and translating for his friend:

French rider:  "What is this?"
Kitchen volunteer: "It's beef with vegetables."
French rider:  "Boeuf et legumes.  And this?"
Kitchen volunteer:  "That's cassoulet."
Both French riders:  "British cassoulet?"
Kitchen volunteer, patiently explaining cassoulet to Frenchmen:  "It's like a bean stew."

[Lightkeeper]

The rider wearing a jersey sponsored by the German regional savings bank Sparkasse Neunkirchen.  The jersey design features the slogan "Gut für die Region" ("Good for the region").  Anglophone riders of a certain age might be less keen on a jersey with "Gut" stretched in large letters across the area prone to middle-aged spread.

Pictorial evidence:

[wilkyboy]

• Getting hit in the face by a bat while on the road to Moffat in the dark.
• Lifting Peter's trike over the central reservation barriers of the A15 (road over the Humber Bridge) to get to the southbound lane.  And then later back again when we missed the junction (it was about 3am).
• Passing Drew setting himself up for a snooze on a verge after Market Rasen: it was a very methodical and practised setting everything out: his bike, himself, his phone for the alarm, all aligned and spaced properly.
• Whisky and porridge at Traquair: the rumours are true 
• Attempting to bunny-hop cattle grids at speed (after Traquair).
• Diverting to a third bag-drop at home in Cambridge on the penultimate leg to drop off unneeded gear and being ordered into the shower (alone) because of the smell and my entire kit getting a quick laundry cycle ... and actually making up a small amount of time   

[Somnolent]

The French rider who told me the highlight for him was riding a stage with John Spooner.
He was happy to have ridden it slower than he would otherwise hae done just to be with the legend himself, and was clearly intending to dine out on the tale when he got back to his club mates. 

In all corners of the world do they speak his name with awe...   
 

[Chris S]

Farts. We heard a lot of farts.

I'm looking at YOU DrMekon! 

[L CC]

Farts. We heard a lot of farts.

I'm looking at YOU DrMekon! 

Our ride soundtrack:

"sorry"
 pbfft.

Repeat 1/km

 

[Chris S]

You still hold the timing record though.

Perfect fart/cattle-grid synchronisation 

[hulver]

The controllers at Market Raisen trying to stifle their giggles (and failing) as I left the sleeping room at 1am in my special sleeping pants.

[hellymedic]

Farts. We heard a lot of farts.

I'm looking at YOU DrMekon! 

Try attending an AUK Reunion in a wheelchair (or maybe not!)
The nose is at bum level of the standing AUK 

[DrMekon]

Chris S timing his perfect pitch wind for precisely the moment a dapper gentlemen emerged from the Haslingfield village shop.

The exploding deer was amazing - could not have been closer for Chris S and Boab, which would have taken out the tandem train. Equally, was amazing to look around and see Mark, Gadget and Jordan not covered in entrails, given I was showered with headlight and bumper shrapnel.

My own flatulence was perfectly normal, and needs no comment.

[mds101]

Farts. We heard a lot of farts.

I'm looking at YOU DrMekon! 

Our ride soundtrack:

"sorry"
 pbfft.

Repeat 1/km

 

Over time we developed a great system with enough time between "sorry" and fart to allow for a sideways dodge.

[Bunker22]

1-spotting the first rider about to go back over Yad Moss when I had just gone over it northbound! So already 400 k ahead of me.
2- Stopped at the large Sainsburys garage between Kirton and St Ives I overheard a rider telling someone else that due to tiredness they had got to St Ives to find they had missed out the Kirton control so had gone back to Kirton and were on their way south for a second time.an extra 160k!

[Chuffy]

I found a newt.

[tubbycyclist]

I was surprised by the owner of the newsagents in the small village in Terrington in the Howardian Hills, when I stopped to get a coke and he asked my cut off time to get back to London.
He had been tweeting photos and comments about the event to others in the village including this one featuring j cloths, marigolds and frozen peas.

[hellymedic]

I was surprised by the owner of the newsagents in the small village in Terrington in the Howardian Hills, when I stopped to get a coke and he asked my cut off time to get back to London.
He had been tweeting photos and comments about the event to others in the village including this one featuring j cloths, marigolds and frozen peas.

We have a winner!

[wilkyboy]

I got flagged down by two French-speaking riders upon leaving two different controls in the dark on two different days, both of whom had ridden past the control and had realised their possible error 3km or so up the road.  "Have we passed the control?"

[321up]

Day 2 was surreal, we kept passing lone cyclists standing at the side of the road gazing into the distance

[simonp]

Riding with a group of 5 Japanese riders. I picked them up on the ride from Kirton to St Ives. They were pleased that I knew a few words. We stopped at a cafe about half way through the stage for coffee and ice cream in a tea shop. I sat on the front and kept my speed down a little to hold the group intact. Because the pace was moderate but faster than the solo riders we caught, the group grew and grew on the way to St Ives. It grew to about 20-30. One of the Japanese riders took turns on the front as well as a Danish rider in an older PBP top and later a British guy who we caught. We caught one group on the fenland drain road but they didn't speed up to join ours, they were sitting at 20kph.

After some time we caught a group at Kings Ripton. Inititially our group just sat on the back but this group was the same size as ours so I made a break in attempt to split the group, breaking from the middle and dragging some riders with me. It was lovely to have company for the whole stage and the Japanese riders in particular were great value. Could have gone a fair bit faster but the group riding made the stage much more fun.

[Humpdoc]

Dogging is alive and well around the lanes of Malton

[Rainmaker]

Dogging is alive and well around the lanes of Malton

Not in Yorkshire, surely!

[Kentrider]

More scary than funny (although my wife thought it was hilarious) was on the way back to Market Rasen heading south I got to the top of the never ending climb in the dark and in the rain (Wednesday night) and my batteries went in my front light so I pulled over to change batteries and realised my rear light battery also needed replacing. Getting out my "emergency torch" (a cheap led hand-held, like a maglite) I searched in my Carradice and was dumbfounded to only find 2 aa batteries whereas I was sure I'd carried enough to replace everything. I rationalised this in my fatigue in that I must have miscalculated as I'd had to replace the 2 batteries in my Garmin earlier that day. So having to adapt I replaced the rear light battery and did the last 5 miles (mostly a very slow decent) with my hand held torch held in my mouth! Probably the scariest 15-20 mins of riding in my life-so imagine my lack of amusement when after a sleep at Market Rasen I remembered I'd put all my new spare batteries from my bag drop in a waterproof bag along with my "emergency phone" ( my works Blackberry)-and I'd actually taken that bag out of my Carradice when searching for batteries and put in back not thinking about what was in it. I'd love a photo of my decent with the torch in my mouth and likely a look of terror on my face! Fortunately the photo doesn't exist though as the only people I saw all the way to the checkpoint were 2 other cyclists who flew past me on my crawl down the hill.

[cygnet]

I met my brother on the northbound ascent of Yad Moss at High Force. He knew I was riding but

• He was on holiday with his family
• He had no access to the rider tracking
• He had no idea of the route

He saw some bikes outside the hotel with the LEL numbers on, and had just tried ringing my parents for an estimate of where I was (They were out). He was roadside for ~5 minutes, and I met him!

[Tynan]

Two stories with third party idiots staffing the Market Rasen control

On the way up they were doing fish and chips. a yank before me asked a bad tempered and rude 'head chef' if there was any tomato sauce

'are you taking the piss? if you want tomato sauce, go down the road to the shop and fucking buy some'

we met at a later control and yank pointed out that every other control had tomato sauce, even those not serving fish and chips

and Market Rasen South, the same outfit had no hot food at 4.30am, only muesli and bread, a bad tempered second chef grudgingly agreed to cook a plate of scrambled eggs only when asked to and did it one plate at a time when asked, when I was a minute late coming to collect mine he told me he was very busy and didn't have time for time wasters

it was so ludicrous, he was doing nothing other than chat to the other kitchen staff, that I could only solemnly thank him, there were loads of riders still there and they were doing absolutely nothing about making anything for then

MR and Pockington were noticeably substandard regarding food and attitude because they used professional caters at least in part, Pockington had only a sausage and an egg on a side plate, dried under a heat lamp with a dish of dodgy pasta, lukewarm on top and cold at bottom, and their orange squash was rank

no better on the return after getting cold and wet in the rain they served lukewarm food, no pudding and had the aircon for unfathomable reasons

the other controls were all anything between good and splendid with lovely volunteers, Kirton for me, all home cooked food from some very cheerful and encouraging catering students

[Tynan]

oh and I was told of a rider going direct from Brampton to Traquair following his gps, to be asked where all his missing stamps were

and a friend picked up another rider who was a bit lost a mile out from Barnard Castle, to be asked 45 minutes of going quick over hillls, 'how far to the control?' and an oath when the friend said 50km, the slightly lost chap was heading for Barnard Castle when slightly lost

So and extra 75km for him, said friend said e hadn;t arrived at the next control in time

For a ride as huge as that some riders seemed very casual regarding navigation and time planning, I'm wondering about DNF and packs, we saw a lot of riders already struggling on day one