[LEL17] LEL Alston refreshment stop

[alwyn]

Tony and I have been discussing Alston, at the bottom of Yad Moss. Whenever I've ridden any part of the route, I've always ended up stopping in Alston. And looking at footage, it seems a lot of riders do too.

Brampton is easily the busiest control of the event, so we're looking at ways to increase capacity around there. This makes Alston a very attractive place to put in some extra facilities. So we've booked the private youth hostel in the town, as well as the local (tiny) secondary school. This should give us about 120 beds for riders to use, though how we allocate the nice beds in the youth hostels is yet to be worked out.

[Fidgetbuzz]

Nice or nasty beds .. You are spoiling them !!

[JayP]

though how we allocate the nice beds in the youth hostels is yet to be worked out.

Clearly 65+ only 

[alwyn]

What I don't want it to be is first-come-first served. We may save it for desperate cases, or just leave it to the Alston team to allocate them.

[postie]

How about nice beds for those that help last time,then say ladies and then i dont know.

[Delph Cyclist]

VC167 are having a weekend away in Alston next weekend.  Let's hope they behave themselves otherwise Audax cyclists might no longer be welcome.

I remember stopping somewhere just outside Alston in 2009.  You had to lock your bike up outside, just to stop it from blowing away.

[jsabine]

What I don't want it to be is first-come-first served. We may save it for desperate cases, or just leave it to the Alston team to allocate them.

Can't we just be really childish about it, and call dibs here?





You may take this post as my expression of interest in a nice bed ... I'm hoping not to be too desperate a case though.

[Revellinho]

What I don't want it to be is first-come-first served. We may save it for desperate cases, or just leave it to the Alston team to allocate them.

will Alston appear on the LEL website as a volunteer location?

[alfapete]

What I don't want it to be is first-come-first served. We may save it for desperate cases, or just leave it to the Alston team to allocate them.

will Alston appear on the LEL website as a volunteer location?

No, Paul, you'll have to come to BC

[alwyn]

will Alston appear on the LEL website as a volunteer location?

Funnily enough, I was going to put out a call among registered volunteers for people happy to be allocated there. If you register, you'll get the email.

It would be especially useful to have someone who could manage the dormitory at the school. Ultimately it'd be up to them and Tony to decide who got a nicer bed.

[Chris S]

Is this not an ideal point where the local community can be engaged?

Surely there are plenty of retailers who'd love to be involved, and I'm sure others in the community too? This is an aspect in which LEL is inevitably playing catchup to PBP; en-route community involvement. Those on the PBP route have a few things in their favour - the route hardly ever changes, there are a lot more riders, it's been going on a lot longer, and the money flow is probably different (ISTR money flows directly into the local community at PBP - a model that's probably never going to happen on LEL).

Wasn't there a plan early on to get more local community involvement? That's an enormous WIN that PBP has; it's the only time I've ever been applauded, and cheered when on a bike - even at 2am, and it made a HUGE difference to me.

[inappropriate_bike]

PBP is a lot bigger than LEL, which might make commercial (and community) catering more viable.

There are plenty of country folk up at 4am selling bacon rolls on the Dunwich Dynamo route - if the density of LEL riders ever approached thousands per hour I'm sure facilities would spring up.

[The French Tandem]

Is this not an ideal point where the local community can be engaged?

Yes, but... the main difference between PBP and LEL is that on PBP, local communities get paid for whatever a rider eats/ drinks. On LEL, you pay a lump sum of money at the beginning, and then you eat for free.  I think it would be great to have the local clubs involved in LEL, but we have to find out a way to make it financially interesting for them.

[yoav]

I was a volunteer at Brampton last time and live in Carlisle. If you need help in managing Alston then get in touch with me.

[alwyn]

Wasn't there a plan early on to get more local community involvement? That's an enormous WIN that PBP has; it's the only time I've ever been applauded, and cheered when on a bike - even at 2am, and it made a HUGE difference to me.

There was. The person who offered to do it stopped replying to emails. It's not a priority for me, as it's a huge job for scant reward.

As it happens, all our purchasing for the Alston stop will go through businesses in the town. At most of our controls the catering is now managed by the venue, which means we hire local people and purchase food through local supply chains. Then there is the hire money that we pay schools to hire them plus the money that riders spend.

Last time pretty much every controller put some work into generating some local interest. In every case they pretty much failed. Unsurprisingly, local people don't really care for standing by the roadside to watch you lot trundle past. In fact in at least one control, the last thing I want to do is draw attention to the event. The reaction to news of cyclists has been somewhat hostile.

[inappropriate_bike]

Regarding beds - are there some allocated at each control for short (30/60min) stops?

[alwyn]

That's a good question. I've been discussing just this with one of the controllers. We're meeting soon and talking about beds, so I'll add this to my notes.

[redfalo]

In fact in at least one control, the last thing I want to do is draw attention to the event. The reaction to news of cyclists has been somewhat hostile.

Blimey! That's Britain for you.