LWL (London/Wales/London) 2022

[iddu]

Anybody fancy a night on the the town tiles?

Could do with some additional helpers as Lambourn control.  PM me if you're interested,...

[markldn]

Glorious weather for such an event. Rapeseed fields were in full bloom. A staple of LWL.

Was riding very well and I was feeling great up until a slice of cake too many at the Pets Welcome Cafe on the River Wye about halfway . For the rest of the route, I struggled to not feel full, as too much blood was likely focusing on my digestive system rather than my body. With 125km to go my body stiffened up. A group of 5 of us set off from Lambourn in the dark. With 85km to go I started to feel nauseous and dizzy. Having had little salt but plenty of sugar and food, I believe this was a result of the former. I couldn't do hills and had to stop and lie flat on the grass a couple times, eating all sorts of snacks to try and combat a middle-of-nowhere sleep/rest. Extremely thankful to the group who were patient and waited, despite us being so close to the finish. An espresso and bag of salted peanuts at Henley 24hr Shell brought me back to life and thankful again to the group for letting me lead us back. I much prefer to sit on the front and set the pace when I am unwell - in doing so I am psychologically stronger.

Incredibly thankful to Paul Stewart for organising another successful LWL; to the volunteers at the controls: Pete Davis (who I met on my London Lockdown ride) and his crew at Chepstow and their delicious mushroom dahl (wish I was hungrier!), the guys at the Lambourne night control for making up for no full english at the first control + ice cream(!) (wish I could handle more than a sausage!); Liam & Paul's super chilli at the arriveé(always well spiced!). Was super thankful to Henley 24hr Shell for letting us in at such a late hour but disappointed they did not let us sit on the indoor seats this year.

Upon getting back to my hotel (the Ethorpe in Gerrard's Cross) at 3:30am I discovered to my discontent that my keycard had stopped working, and I had no way of getting into the hotel. The "emergency number" posted on the door went straight to voicemail. I circled the building, checking for any doors or windows that had been forgotten about. No luck. I had overheard a girl and guy talking through an open window in a detached building on the hotel property. I waved through and caught their attention, asking if they were staff and explained my situation. At first they said they weren't, possibly because I was a stranger at their window at 3:30am. But I think then the girl took pitty on me and did her best to call someone who might have the keys. She could not get through. Having a quiet word with the guy, she then offered me a spare room in the staff building. At first I said not to worry, I could go back to the community hall and try and sleep there. But she insisted. And so I graciously accepted.

A few hours later I was inside the hotel at the front desk. Rattled and distraught at the possibility of having had nowhere to sleep, I explained how thankful I was that the kind girl and guy allowed me to stay in the staff building. Possibly just bad luck, possibly bad management. The Ethorpe is a common hotel for audaxers departing on Paul's events from Chalfont St Peter. I hope you don't have to experience the same as I! A quick google shows that phones and other credit cards should not demagnetise a good hotel keycard. I stored mine next to a couple credit cards, away from my phone, but near a battery pack. "Hotel keycards use low coercivity (the level of how difficult it is to encode and erase info from the stripe)". A cheaper card will have a particularly low coercivity. The cards that Ethorpe use present themselves as being very cheap - with zero branding/text on them, completely blank on both sides. The receptionist showed me that there had been no missed calls or voicemails on the after hours phone. I showed her that I had attempted to call the number twice - leaving a voicemail. So I am fairly confident the reason is bad management. But incredibly thankful (again) for the generosity of strangers in saving me from a very uncomfortable night.  The hotel staff were extremely apologetic and offered me a full refund for both nights.

24 hour video stories of the journey on my instagram.  Username: kowalifornication

Thanks again Paul!

-Mark

[Manotea]

Sorry to hear of your post-ride tribulations, Mark.

I'm vaguely hopeful that by the time 2023 rolls around, we shall be able to stay over at the centre again. We shall see!

For the record, the event saw 111 starters and 88 finishers, first back around 22:30. How is that even possible?

The last time I rode, I finished (out of time) about 12 hours later, and my best finish time is around 4:30...

There were a remarkable number of 'first-time audaxers' taking part, possibly the result of Liam Fitzpatrick's success in widening interest in the event, and that contributed to the dropout rate, with folk succumbing to temptation when passing train stations and hotels, but equally a good number of newly minter Randonneeurs stayed the course, so who knows.

Special thanks to the West London Posse press-ganged by Dave Morrison to help at the start, Liam Fitzpatrick for helping keep me upright through the wee hours of Saturday night, and to Peter Davis and Pat Hurt and their teams at Chepstow and Lambourn for their catering and welcome, appreciated by all.  Excellent!

[Southy]

Thank you for organising the ride. Some great food at the controls and very kind volunteers who gave encouragement when I needed it.

It was my first 400 and for most of the ride and the 24 hours after, I had sworn to be my last. Amazing how quickly you forget the negatives of these sorts of rides. Although I might stick to 200's and 300's with less elevation this year!

The guy that finished first rides in the same club as me. Another club mate and I left the arrivee at half five and I think he started 20 minutes behind us and caught us well before the first control. It's crazy to think he actually rode down from Norfolk the day before and then rode back on the Sunday morning (about 140 miles each way).

Are there any other events from Chalfont other than LWL? I saw the London Orbital used to be on the calendar and looks like a good day out, although I see that it can be ridden as a perm as well.

[αdαmsκι]

It's crazy to think he actually rode down from Norfolk the day before and then rode back on the Sunday morning (about 140 miles each way).

I took a guess who this was and Strava has confirmed I was correct.

Are there any other events from Chalfont other than LWL?

Willy Warmer 200 in January.

[Von Broad]

Mark seems to be a lone rider-reporter here, but he certainly wasn't the only out there.

Forgive me, for I'm kind of disappointed - and that's a consequence of my own expectations.

I didn't do the ride, but was in attendance at the Lambourn control and would quite like to have read a few more ride reports.

Do people not submit ride reports like they used to? Or do the submit them elsewhere? Or is it a case that the majority of people who rode LWL are not members of this forum? Or maybe ride reports are just a thing of the past and folk are just not interested in doing such a thing? 

Just wondered

[alfapete]

Do people not submit ride reports like they used to? Or do the submit them elsewhere? Or is it a case that the majority of people who rode LWL are not members of this forum? Or maybe ride reports are just a thing of the past and folk are just not interested in doing such a thing? 

Just wondered

To make up for the lack of ride reports and to please Von Broad, running the Chepstow control was a blast!

It was the first time we'd used the Methodist Church Hall and the first time we'd cooked on site from scratch. The huge six burner cooker made it a pleasure and the four minute dishwasher was very useful as we only had 17 mugs. Credit to Mrs alfapete whose recipes we used to create not only vegan but even a carnivore's dish. Endless tea and coffee, the home made Bara brith disappeared very quickly and the GF and vegan cakes went down well too. For once I hadn't over ordered so only had to eat mushroom daal for three days instead of the usual seven afterwards.

The riders were universally appreciative and well mannered even when the power went off leading to a gap in hot drink provision, but the critical mass of several kilos/gallons of daal kept itself up to temperature pretty well for an hour or so.

The location was a little tricky to locate being just the wrong side of a No Entry sign depending on which of the three parallel roads your gps/routesheet had put you on but there were only a couple of short delays as a result. There was ample pretty secure bike parking for the centre of town, too.

Saw a few familiar faces but can rarely put a name to them. Honorable mentions to Mark, Bryn, Neil and one or two more, and a big shout out to Tim Balcombe, my loyal volunteer, who gave two abandoning riders a lift to Temple Meads Station in Bristol (not even the same COUNTRY) which was the opposite direction from his home, and all at his own instigation!

[P.P.]

Mark seems to be a lone rider-reporter here, but he certainly wasn't the only out there.

Forgive me, for I'm kind of disappointed - and that's a consequence of my own expectations.

I didn't do the ride, but was in attendance at the Lambourn control and would quite like to have read a few more ride reports.

Do people not submit ride reports like they used to? Or do the submit them elsewhere? Or is it a case that the majority of people who rode LWL are not members of this forum? Or maybe ride reports are just a thing of the past and folk are just not interested in doing such a thing? 

Just wondered

Just to reiterate those that have gone before, despite a chilly start it was great day out.

The routes superb, with a good mix of hills, scenery and faster flatter sections, the roads are remarkably smooth and pothole free and there's plenty of shop options between the well catered controls to keep the wolves at bay.

It's not the first time I've ridden LWL and it won't be the last. Many thanks to all involved for the organisation, catering and hospitality.

Whilst it's bad form, specially for @Von Broad, my random ramblings on my thoughts for the day are on my blog if your interested (https://pperratt.weebly.com/)

[Von Broad]

To make up for the lack of ride reports and to please Von Broad, running the Chepstow control was a blast!

Whilst it's bad form, specially for @Von Broad, my random ramblings on my thoughts for the day are on my blog if your interested (https://pperratt.weebly.com/)

Terrific!
You've made a miserable man very happy 

[Southy]

Here is my stab at a ride report with some free backstory. This is my first time writing one so sorry if it is a bit waffly.

Over the last couple of years, I have been doing Triathlon's, as a way to mix things up a bit. After getting a half distance out of the way last September I threw myself back into my true sporting love, cycling. Having joined a club in October, I announced to some of the guys on my first club ride who I have known a few years that I fancied trying LWL. A couple of the guys on the ride said they would be up for it and we all entered on the 1st November. Two other riders in our club, Mike and John said they would ride as well, due to both entering LEL and seeing it as good training.

At this point I had never ridden more than 200k, with my longest ride being the Dunwich Dynamo and then home to Norwich. I had dabbled in Audax about ten years ago, when I did a few 100k rides to help mentally prepare for LEJOG, which I rode in 2012, followed by a ride from Koblenz in Germany to Norwich in 2013.

Kids started appearing in 2014, which curtailed my ride and I then started getting into the habit of riding at least one long ride (for the time) of 100k Strava Gran Fondo's each month, it was hard to get too much time away from my young family. Now they are both in school, it is easier to justify the odd weekend away with the bike.

Having managed to ride club rides through most of the winter, myself and the two other guys who had entered LWL did a 200k in March. It was pretty horrendous weather, but bearable. Unfortunately, one of the guys decided to drop out of LWL. Fast forward to the beginning of April and a very frosty morning at 5am when myself and the remaining guy out of our original three headed off to ride a perm, the East Anglian Tour. This time we got the full range of weather, wind, rain, hail and snow, with little bits of sunshine thrown in. My ride mate made it to Ipswich and decided he'd had enough, so got the train home. I pressed on and managed to finish and rationalised that LWL was only about another 90k so would be manageable.

Now the journey to LWL is out of the way, I will focus on the ride itself.

Having travelled down with my club mate, Mike, who has ridden a decent amount of audax including PBP in 2019 and is entered for LEL this year, we headed off at 5.30am, surprisingly to us, our club mate John was not there when we left, although we knew we'd see him soon enough. He was probably recovering from the 140 mile from Norfolk the day before.

The first section of the ride was relatively quiet with traffic, but finger tips started to numb pretty quickly and having company made the miles tick off reasonably quickly. The warnings about pot holes was spot on, the whole ride was littered with them. Norfolk roads can be bad, but this was something else. We briefly hooked up with a couple of guys on the ride, Nick and an American chap who's name I didn't get. As seems natural when it's cold, there were plenty of wee stops, so we let Nick and his friend go well before the first control as they were aiming for a midnight finish (we were hoping for 3am-4am).

It didn't take John too long to catch us and after a brief chat we watched him gradually disappear on the horizon, not expecting to see him again as we knew he was aiming to be back by 11pm.

When we arrived at the first control, we quickly stocked up and got receipts, watched the odd bike for other riders while they went to Sainsburys and surprisingly had a quick chat with John. John is a computer whizz so had developed a page on his website where we could check in during the ride and people could follow the dots on the route (https://cycling.routes.fun/dotwatch/London-Wales-London+2022). The fun part of that gradually drew our ire during the ride.

Leaving the Sainsbury's it gradually started to warm up and fingers began to start bending again. With the heat picking up and the wind easing off, we upped the pace a bit and briefly rode with the occasional other rider. It was nice to enjoy the views of the rolling hills and taking the odd picture while riding. One highlight was seeing a picture perfect Cotswold village down a valley and then after what felt like a couple of minutes descent, we realised we were in the village we had seen from further up the hill. We pulled in to a cafe not long after for a quick hot drink and to strip off some layers, confusing the occasional rider who thought it was a control.

Pushing on to Tewkesbury, we stopped for a while at the Tesco for a bottle refill and to have some lunch before heading West. Knowing what was to come, we had another stop for a drink at the info control cafe before Yat Rock. Chatting to another rider on his very nice Orange Bowman bike and finding out that he had ridden in a couple of events Mike had done over the last few weeks.

As a slightly larger rider (pushing 94kg), Yat Rock was a bit of a grind, thankfully I didn't feel the temptation to hop off the bike and managed to inch my way up, passing the chap on the Bowman near the top and saying with some confidence we were near the top (thanks Garmin climb dynamics). The ride levelled out for a bit with a great view of the Severn bridge and then I really got to live up to my self titled nickname of Poundland Nibali, thoroughly enjoying the twisting descent into Chepstow and the pointing out to Mike that when were half way over the bridge before town that we were in Wales.

Chepstow and the Severn Bridge are the only bits that overlapped with my LEJOG ride, but I was happy to see the Tesco superstore I had visited and the pub we stayed at for that ride. Finding the Methodist church was easy once you saw the Audax sign and bikes. We saw Nick and his friend heading off as we arrived (not sure they were on course for a midnight finish then) and enjoyed the wonderfully warm welcome, warm food and tasty cakes. It appears we left Chepstow as the power cut occurred so were fortunate to miss that. Onwards to the Severn Bridge and discussions turned to the return leg and the Somerset Monument climb.

After passing close to where Mike's parents lived, we ploughed on and with some trepidation hit the climb (Mike warned me it was one of the harder ascents). With a few miles now in the legs it was a bit of a slog, but I was delighted to see the monument and the top of the climb. That's the hard stuff out of the way, or so I thought.

Mentally it was getting a bit tougher from here. We headed straight through Malmesbury at 8pm and eventually stopped at an Aldi for a rest and food/drink top-up, seeing a small peloton heading off ahead. We pushed on to the control at Lambourn for some more welcome food and encouraging chat when signing in (there is still more climbing, great) talk briefly turned to finding a hotel and finishing in the morning. After a bit of rest and food we decided to plough on. The section to Henley being a real slog, bad roads, lots of ascending with what felt like no descending and a quick sit down in an audax hotel just trying to mentally push ourselves to get to the psychological mark of the final info control, where we could grab a coffee to get us to the end.

Obviously, the coffee machine appeared to be out of cups and the guy there would not let us sit inside so it was a cold curb by the logs for us. At this point I popped out my super caffeine pill, which I think was equivalent to a couple of red bulls. This seemed to give me a buzz which carried me to the end, Mike said he had a couple of micro naps on the bike which had never occurred before, so I put my stamina here down to a week long caffeine detox.

Counting down the miles now and thinking it was easy street, we were still met with two seemingly monumental climbs, even the joy of descending was diminished now and there was a lot of braking and alertness required to stay upright. Turning off about a mile near the Arrivee, we noticed we were about a couple of hundred yards from Mike's camper van. Knowing it was more or less downhill, we ploughed on and got to the Arrivee just after 4.30am, a bit off target, but considering the amount of climbing, I was happy to have finished. We found out that John made it back at about 22.45 or just shy of six hours before us (he did a ride report here - https://swinny.net/Cycling/-5225-400k-audax-London-Wales-London). Where possible I am trying to stick to vegan options so declined the yoghurt with the chilli, bad idea. What I ate was tasty, but way too hot for my sensitive mouth.

Queue a quick spin back to Mike's van, an hour and a half kip and a Wetherspoons breakfast at Beaconsfield services and it was a nice drive back to Norwich. John got back some point that afternoon after riding the 140+ miles home, heading off probably at the same time we had woke up.

This ride had been something I had been aiming for even during the Triathlon days. It feels strange to have got my target out of the way so early in the year, so it will be nice to get on a club ride to discuss other challenges we can try now the weather is picking up.

After what felt like an eternity and insisting a 400 is my limit, the following days have made me reconsider as other than a slight tingle in one finger, which has now gone, I didn't really have any post ride issues. But I won't be doing any rides more than 300k this year!

Thank you to the organisers as well as the volunteers at the controls, apologies to those at Lambourn as although I think I was polite, I was somewhat miserable by then.

[Lightning Phil]

Nice report. As others will tell, with audax you always think you can’t go further than the distance of the event you’ve just done, but countless times this is proven not to be true. From your account you’ve already demonstrated some of the mental characteristics to complete.

[haywire]

Whilst it's bad form, specially for @Von Broad, my random ramblings on my thoughts for the day are on my blog if your interested (https://pperratt.weebly.com/)

Great stuff.  Interesting to see that we had roughly the same moving time, but I took another 5 hours off the bike.  Might be a lesson there.

Only my second completed 400, and the first since the last National 400.  Legs didn't really warm up until after Kidlington, but the section through the Cotswolds was lovely with the bluebells out, sun shining and a decent group.  Failed to get a decent lunch at Tewkesbury, was a bit stressed there.  Yat Rock was as expected, but didn't quite make it without walking.  Was kind of expecting to immediately plummet down the other side, but instead, the subsequent rolling terrain saw a loss of humour.  Should have bought my own 'Croeso y cymru' sign, because Chepstow seems to be missing one.

The food at Chepstow was just what I needed.  Was struggling to hold down bread or flapjacks, and the Dal was just the ticket, giving me hope that I might finish this ok.  Was mostly riding alone at this point, but caught up Neil C on the approach to Somerset monument at dusk.  Quite enjoyed this section as night fell, roads were quiet and a gentle tailwind kept things moving.  Somewhere along here my Garmin Edge packed up, so switched to my watch, which had a very rudimentary breadcrumb trail.  Had a long stop at Wootton Bassett, probably longer than necessary.  Somehow messed up navigation into Lambourn, but eventually arrived to a warm welcome and a big plate of beans on toast.  Some chat about taking the A4 persuaded me as I didn't fancy Streatley hill in the dark.  Took a few minutes nap here, but seemed alone in that.  Cracked on down to Newbury, across to Reading (main road was getting busy there - not a lot of fun) and stopped at Henley, meeting the riders who I thought were also main-road bashing, but turns out didn't in the end. So not really sure if it was the right decision, might have to go and redo that bit some other weekend.  Stuck with the main route for the final 30k, just one big hill left.  By this point was very much regretting not taking bum cream with me, even had to have a stop at Marlow, but pleased to finally roll into the Arrivee at about half seven.

Think in future, I can greatly reduce the amount of rubbish I have to haul up the hills, and perhaps be a bit more disciplined with where to stop and for how long.

Thanks to all the volunteers, knowing that a friendly face was going to be there at crucial points really makes this ride.

[alfapete]

After what felt like an eternity and insisting a 400 is my limit, the following days have made me reconsider as other than a slight tingle in one finger, which has now gone, I didn't really have any post ride issues. But I won't be doing any rides more than 300k this year!

But you only need a 600 before October to be a Super Randonneur!
I've only once done a 400 and said 'never again'. Only now, five years later, does it begin to feel worth considering again. Your sentiments at the end of LWL put you in a far more favourable position.

[Notfromrugby]

I have fond memories of this event, when it was still run by Liam.
We did bet we would be back before the local pub closed... and we did! Problem is the bugger landlord had already rang the last order bell and refused to serve us... even after we explained that we had just cycled to Chepstow and back...  :'(

[Von Broad]

Nice report. As others will tell, with audax you always think you can’t go further than the distance of the event you’ve just done, but countless times this is proven not to be true. From your account you’ve already demonstrated some of the mental characteristics to complete.

Indeed, I would agree with that.
Nice report.
It's been said many times, and I'm not sure I entirely agree but I can where people are coming from, that some riders find 400kkm the hardest distance, especially if you're a full value rider [like me]. Tiredness can obviously be an issue, and you will need some kind of kip, albeit only for an hour or so, but once you get through the night [often the most difficult bit] and into the morning light, the extra 200km to complete a 600km becomes very doable.

[Notfromrugby]

Nice report. As others will tell, with audax you always think you can’t go further than the distance of the event you’ve just done, but countless times this is proven not to be true. From your account you’ve already demonstrated some of the mental characteristics to complete.

Indeed, I would agree with that.
Nice report.
It's been said many times, and I'm not sure I entirely agree but I can where people are coming from, that some riders find 400kkm the hardest distance, especially if you're a full value rider [like me]. Tiredness can obviously be an issue, and you will need some kind of kip, albeit only for an hour or so, but once you get through the night [often the most difficult bit] and into the morning light, the extra 200km to complete a 600km becomes very doable.

Most 600 work out as 400 + 200 as you described… so it remains a mystery to me how that can be easier than doing only a 400. I think people might compare events of a very different nature, where maybe the 400 was hillier or had slower roads.. like for like, a 400 will always be easier than a 600. You can try for yourself, just do an extra 200km when you finish your calendar 400 and see if that makes it easier… 

[Von Broad]

You can try for yourself, just do an extra 200km when you finish your calendar 400 and see if that makes it easier… 

Ah...but that's a different kettle of fish. Ask me to do another 5km when I'm not expecting it, resigned to having finished, after a 400km and it would amount to some kind of torture. It all depends what you're psyched up to do before you leave home. Big difference. Of the few 600s I've done, I'm preparing mentally weeks advance, absorbing the reality that I'm going to be out there for the whole weekend.

In response to Southy's write up, I was just making the point that if you've ben able to get through the night, then that is often the worse part [at least psychologically] of a 600.

[Notfromrugby]

You can try for yourself, just do an extra 200km when you finish your calendar 400 and see if that makes it easier… 

Ah...but that's a different kettle of fish. Ask me to do another 5km when I'm not expecting it, resigned to having finished, after a 400km and it would amount to some kind of torture. It all depends what you're psyched up to do before you leave home. Big difference. Of the few 600s I've done, I'm preparing mentally weeks advance, absorbing the reality that I'm going to be out there for the whole weekend.

In response to Southy's write up, I was just making the point that if you've ben able to get through the night, then that is often the worse part [at least psychologically] of a 600.

My experience is the exact opposite… the only 600 I have done, I breezed through day one and the last 200 km were torture… the last couple of hours I couldn’t even sit on the saddle properly… awful… never had problems on the 400s

[LiamFitz]

You can try for yourself, just do an extra 200km when you finish your calendar 400 and see if that makes it easier… 

In response to Southy's write up, I was just making the point that if you've ben able to get through the night, then that is often the worse part [at least psychologically] of a 600.

...what about having to find a garage with a welding plant in the middle of Wales on a Saturday afternoon willing to allow you to reattach your chainstays? That must be pretty tricky...

[Manotea]

Or a taxi after midnight somewhere in Snowdonia because your frame has fractured and your back wheel no longer goes round...

[Lightning Phil]

The bus stop at Pen-y-Pass is heated.

[Southy]

[/quote]
In response to Southy's write up, I was just making the point that if you've ben able to get through the night, then that is often the worse part [at least psychologically] of a 600.
[/quote]

I was initially considering a 600 this year to get Super Randonneur but would probably need the safety of a place to kip, rather than wing it (in fact my wife is keen that I don't rough it too soon if at all). The Fenland Friends looked like a good option for me but the issue is more logistics (hotels, getting there and back) so would rather take my time. Ideally, a DIY from home would be good so I can control start/end times and once I am finished, I am home.

The 400 was a great experience. Getting to ride across the country and experience some different roads/villages and town's. I think for the rest of the summer it would be nice to fit in some rides I can comfortably do within a 18 hour period. But think 2023 may be the year I attempt a SR series.

Have been hoping to ride LEL in 2025 so feel like getting a Brevet 1,000 would be a decent first proper year of riding Audax. Would rather build up gradually than get too overconfident, scratch a 600 and feel disheartened. Am only 38 so still quite young to be in the hardcore Audax crowd.

Going to try and get a few more 200s over summer and then pepper in at least another 300.

[Southy]

Can I ask whether this years LWL (2022) counts as a pre-qualifier for PBP 2023?

[Lightning Phil]

Can I ask whether this years LWL (2022) counts as a pre-qualifier for PBP 2023?

Check if it’s BRM. If it’s BRM it counts.

[Southy]

Can I ask whether this years LWL (2022) counts as a pre-qualifier for PBP 2023?

Check if it’s BRM. If it’s BRM it counts.

Have just checked and it wasn't.

Would a 400km BRM ride this year stand much chance to pre-qualify for PBP next year, or would LEL make it less likely?