Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => Audax => Topic started by: Brakeless on 03 August, 2017, 09:48:11 pm
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Ignoring the wind across the Fens I reckon one of the toughest parts this year was in and out of Louth through the Lincolnshire wolds. I'm sure someone has some stats but definately a lot harder than straight up through Market Rasen in 2013.
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I just loathe the Howardian hills. This may because I am increasingly republican in my views. Or it may be the utter stupidity of riding up and down a switchback of hills like that!
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Ignoring the wind across the Fens I reckon one of the toughest parts this year was in and out of Louth through the Lincolnshire wolds. I'm sure someone has some stats but definately a lot harder than straight up through Market Rasen in 2013.
Having lived up that way for four years, yes I'd agree entirely with that.
As for the wind, home to start Ives control this morning at 27.4 kmh average, return this evening at 35.5 kmh. The riders had it as head/cross.
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This was our first LEL, but from reading previous reports this was definitely the section we were most unprepared for. By the time we reached pocklington I was truly pockled. We had as much time in hand as any point in the ride, about 5 hours, but I felt worse than on day 3 of many other Grand randonnees. The terrain was surely a bit of it, and it being a long stage over Humber.
I really would have packed then if Emma hadn't gently but firmly talked me back onto the bike. In my mind I was just going to ride to Edinburgh then get a train home! I could convince myself to give that a go.
I actually quite enjoyed the Harwardian hills to Thirsk after that. Lovely views really highlighting the kind of riding we lack in USA, and some great tandem country too.
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Missed seeing the Things at Loughton both Saturday and Sunday
Got up on $MORNING only to be informed that the Things had been and gone :(
Got up on $MORNING only to be informed that the Things had been and gone again :(
Got to Loughton yesterday pm only to be informed that the Things had been and gone :(
Maybe in 2021...
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I just loathe the Howardian hills. This may because I am increasingly republican in my views. Or it may be the utter stupidity of riding up and down a switchback of hills like that!
I love the Howardian Hills, seeing as I live here it's where I do most of my riding. Not that I'd ever attempt the LEL, so I can see why you'd hate them in that context!
I saw some of the LEL competitors on my way to work the other day, you're all mad - BRAVO!
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I just loathe the Howardian hills. This may because I am increasingly republican in my views. Or it may be the utter stupidity of riding up and down a switchback of hills like that!
I love the Howardian Hills, seeing as I live here it's where I do most of my riding. Not that I'd ever attempt the LEL, so I can see why you'd hate them in that context!
I saw some of the LEL competitors on my way to work the other day, you're all mad - BRAVO!
That's participants, not competitors
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No I was definitely competing against the Wind all the way back to St Ives with my mind body and soul and felt like I was losing miserably 🙄🔫
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By the time riders got to St Ives they were 5 hours behind on predictions, which would suggest that the overall combination of route and conditions was more difficult. But it may be difficult to assess the proportions down to route and the wind - everyone arriving at St Ives remarked on how remorseless and draining the wind was.
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I think Anco de Jong finished 2 hours faster than last time?
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I think Anco de Jong finished 2 hours faster than last time?
He had the advantage of lighter winds on the route south. They picked up about the time he'd passed the fens.
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Missed seeing the Things at Loughton both Saturday and Sunday
Got up on $MORNING only to be informed that the Things had been and gone :(
Got up on $MORNING only to be informed that the Things had been and gone again :(
Got to Loughton yesterday pm only to be informed that the Things had been and gone :(
Maybe in 2021...
We missed seeing you too! We loved seeing so many friendly faces at the controls, and I think you were the only one we were looking out for and didn't see.
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It certainly was tougher. The ride to the start was easier than expected, so I arrived just over two hours before my start looking forward to breakfast. I wish I'd stopped somewhere (a 'spoons?) for a cooked veggie one. I hadn't spotted (because I don't look at gps files or routesheets when I download them), that a part of the route out was different. I jotted down some arrival times from 2013, and saw I was 2 1/2 hours slower reaching Thirsk (longer time chatting and faffing at controls, showering at Pock this time and more hills contributing to it). Yad Moss was harder with the wind. Didn't sleep at Edin this time, but chatted in the time I'd allocated, waiting to see my brother who happened to be on a long weekend there. I was probably more tired (had less sleep at this stage than in 2013), but the wind on the climbs south were brutal. I still managed to get low and pedal hard on the descents. Returning over Yad Moss in the dark again was harder (wind and cold), and the wind and isolation on the Fens at night too. Over six hours slower. Taking the gps A option over the moors at night didn't help either. Was I the only up there? Nobody around. Only the odd light from the odd isolated house. Kamikaze rabbits ahead on the descents, aswell as badgers and foxes sticking their heads and bodies out of the verges and hedges before retreating. Oh, and I think it was a bat which flew into my helmet. Dunno how much time that route cost me.
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I have to disagree. Both editions were difficult for different reasons. I recall getting a similar push on the way out in 2013 and, some rather unwelcome drenchings. The addition of the wolds is obviously a talking point but I find the wolds much more preferable to the fenland slog.
I had a reasonable ride and, got back in 97 hours - happy with that, it could have been slightly quicker had I chose not to sleep at great easton but the weather and, the racy idiots on the gravel held no appeal for me. Different yes, harder, no.
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........ Different yes, harder, no.
Perhaps if you compare the absolute difference in terms of distance and each climb etc, then you will get a baseline comparison. However, once you factor weather in terms of heat/cold/rain/wind then you will get another answer. Then factor the individual experiences and another layer is piles atop the comparison. My first real soaking occurred going north between Brampton and Moffat; prior to that no real need to deploy waterproof but I was extremely lucky as others I met were drenched much earlier in the ride. So comparisons can only be for individual riders and while you may have found it no harder, other riders subject to different weather may have found it considerably harder!
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The bits that should have been hard e.g Yad Mossx2, the hills after Edinburgh and the Devils Beeftub were ,for me , relatively easy.
The bits that should have been easy e.g Barney to Thirsk ,Thirsk to Pock and then the Fens were much harder than expected. Addd to that ,who put an extension of the Alps in Essex?
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The ride was originally designed to start near Doncaster. In 2001 and 2005 We rode from Thorne to the base of the Howardian hills, building up a time cushion before Yad Moss, then the Eskdalemuir/Innerleithen Edinburgh rollercoaster.
The Southern section really started at Thurlby, as the section from the bottom of the Howardian Hills was as flat as a pancake. South of Thurlby, the ride was either intricate lanes or drove roads. From the Southern start, the Thurlby to Castle Howard sections would have dragged, but they were broken up from the Northern start.
There has always been a vocal group which wants the ride to be 'more interesting'. So first the Yorkshire, then the Lincolnshire Wolds have been included. There's a less vocal group which liked the flat section between South Lincolnshire and Castle Howard. They have a 'work around' which involves riding on 'A' roads where possible.
Another outspoken group, which characterises deviation from the published route as 'cheating', ensures that the flat alternatives are not widely advertised. The current dominance of GPS ensures that those without maps follow the route, unless they fall in with those in the know.
I've ridden the Devil's Beeftub route on a 600, and it's easier than the Langholm/Edinburgh rollercoaster, as it's one big climb, followed by a continuous descent.
So the hardest LELs were probably the 2001 and 2005 London starts in Essex and Hertfordshire, ignoring the weather.
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who put an extension of the Alps in Essex?
As I get blamed for the sting-in-the-tail at the end of all my events...
[LEL counts towards the Essex Super Randonneur Series by the way].
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I certainly found the Humber to Louth section the hardest of the whole ride. This could be due also to the weather (persistent soaking drizzle turning to heavy rain) as well as the timing (evening of day 4, zzzz), but I did not remember those hills from the way out! The long draggy climbs seemed to go on a lot longer even than Yad Moss, which I seemed to fly up the previous evening.
We rode the section from Louth to Spalding straight after, in low wind at night, and other than tiredness this was an easy section. Spalding to St Ives in the morning was tough but by then I was running on adrenaline and relishing the challenge again.
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I think the route was better than 2013 especially the last leg. The Lincolnshire Wolds will feal hard after a flat section.
The weather was different depending on start time. I was a 6:45 start with a cross tail wind start.This went to head cross, I was riding echelons with Dutch riders. Just before Louth I got very wet and very cold due to the sudden Thunderstorm. I was soaked before I could get my waterproof out of my bag. Later riders had a tail wind and no rain up to Pocklington. Yads Moss was cold and wet north bur warm and dry and warm South bound. Compared to 2013 the winds were more cross which I think made riders tired earlier. The Southerly wind on the way back made it very hard.