Consider Moffat

[London Edinburgh London]

I went with Nigel today to visit Moffat Academy, who are hosting our control in the town.

The school has spacious, modern facilities, and would be perfect for a control in both directions. So as we're only using it one-way, there's tons of space to use. The school will be doing the catering too now, and I'm sure they'll do an excellent service.

Anyway, this is really a bit of a plug to get more of you to consider staying at this control. The section between Brampton and Moffat is flat and featureless, so it's an easy leg to do at night. Brampton is likely to be our busiest control overall, so if you can get to Moffat, which ought to be achievable in two days' riding, at the moment it looks like you might have no trouble getting your head down.

[RobW]

Cool - sounds good to consider, thanks. Funnily enough I'd actually been looking at the controls and distance and pondering that exact same thought.

[dasmi]

Its my stop of choice for monday night

dave

[LeeW]

I am considering my second sleep stop either at Moffat or maybe Edinburgh depending on how I go on the day.  Getting to Edinburgh would be advantagious as then I would not need to sleep at Brampton.  The leg between Edinburgh and Brampton looks to be by far the hardest and slowest segment and the two controls between Edinburgh and Brampton have no beds thus can understand that Brampton will be very popular for the return.

[AndySinAK]

Would a 300k day from Moffat to Barnard Castle be too difficult? Or even on to Thirsk for a 375k day? Is it really that lumpy?

[U.N.Dulates]

No, it's not. Certainly the section of the route with the most climbing - the 200k from Edinburgh to the summit of Yad Moss has c. 2,700m of climbing. But it's not that hilly and it only just scrapes onto the Audax Altitude Award scale. It's just that the rest of the route is even flatter. They're all long steady climbs too. Of course if the weather's bad or there's a strong southerly then it can be quite tough.

If you're starting in the first two thirds of the starting slots (ie up to 9am) you really should be aiming for Pocklington on Sun (334k), Moffat on Mon (622k) and Barnard Castle on Tue (933k) at least. Then you've only got just under 500k to do in the last two days. If you sleep at Brampton on Monday then you'll be leaving very close to the time limits and committing yourself to a full value ride.

There's a saying on PBP "Race to Brest, tour back". In part that's driven by PBP's variable time limits but it's equally true for LEL.

[RobW]

If you're starting in the first two thirds of the starting slots (ie up to 9am) you really should be aiming for Pocklington on Sun (334k), Moffat on Mon (622k) and Barnard Castle on Tue (933k) at least.

I thought to myself that sounding a nice plan, so I fired up the spreadsheet .... and the last iteration, that's exactly the conclusion I had also come too Of course it's all just a sketch, in practice it may all pan out very different.

[Somnolent]

If you're starting in the first two thirds of the starting slots (ie up to 9am) you really should be aiming for Pocklington on Sun (334k), Moffat on Mon (622k) and Barnard Castle on Tue (933k) at least.

I thought to myself that sounding a nice plan, so I fired up the spreadsheet .... and the last iteration, that's exactly the conclusion I had also come too Of course it's all just a sketch, in practice it may all pan out very different.

I'd arrived at a similar conclusion... and then we read in other threads that early start times were likely to over-subscribed  and more importantly Pocklington was likely to be extremely popular as a first sleep stop - with a strong possibility of bed time being rationed.   

So in order not to go into sleep deprivation before or too early in the event my current thinking is Late Start-Market Rasen (as suggested by Danial elsewhere)... and then Moffat would likely be out of reach.

Whilst Brampton will no doubt be popular on Monday night I'm hoping a good proportion of the northbound field will have pushed on by then, and there won't be too many of the fast boys southbound yet. 

If you sleep at Brampton on Monday then you'll be leaving very close to the time limits and committing yourself to a full value ride.

I'm very much aware of that, but it's a case of choosing the lesser of two evils.

[LeeW]

Would a 300k day from Moffat to Barnard Castle be too difficult? Or even on to Thirsk for a 375k day? Is it really that lumpy?

The section between Edinburgh and Brampton appears to be the lumpiest part of the route.  375km would IMHO be too much for that section.  When I was playing with the spreadsheet a few days ago, with flat speed set to 34 km/h and 10 mins per 100m of ascent my calculated average speed for that section was about 16km/h.

[L CC]

The section between Edinburgh and Brampton appears to be the lumpiest part of the route.  375km would IMHO be too much for that section.  When I was playing with the spreadsheet a few days ago, with flat speed set to 34 km/h and 10 mins per 100m of ascent my calculated average speed for that section was about 16km/h.

I'd've though the difference between flat/ups/downs for you would be greater than most riders, though, no?

[Somnolent]

Bear in mind, if you are using my s/sheet for calculation purposes, that it does not factor in any increase in speed on the descents.
I figure, for DF, what you pick up on the descents is a useful counterbalance to the time spent stopped at (or slowing for/accelerating away from junctions)
Bents and velomobiles at warp factor 9 may not be best served by this approximation.

[nextSibling]

When I was playing with the spreadsheet a few days ago, with flat speed set to 34 km/h and 10 mins per 100m of ascent my calculated average speed for that section was about 16km/h.

So you really only average half as fast when it gets hilly? (Just curious - I'm not a recumbentist.)

[teethgrinder]

Moffat would be great. Daniel is right, that the road from Bampton to Moffat is a good night road but also, you'd start the next day getting warm very quickly by riding up the Devils Beeftub, which isn't a tough climb. Once you're up there it's a blast for the next 50 miles to Edinburgh.

[toontra]

Moffat would be great. Daniel is right, that the road from Bampton to Moffat is a good night road but also, you'd start the next day getting warm very quickly by riding up the Devils Beeftub, which isn't a tough climb. Once you're up there it's a blast for the next 50 miles to Edinburgh.

Agreed.  The Devil's Beeftub is a very nice way of starting a day's cycling - a long steady warming climb followed by the psychological boost of an easy ride all the way to Edinburgh.  This is one of the more inspired variations on the previous LEL routes IMO.