nickyboy
Norven Mankey
- Location
- You want hills? We got hills
@I like Skol , a couple of friends and I completed our LEJOG a couple of weeks ago. We wanted a challenging but not crazy schedule of 11 days. Staying in B&Bs and small hotels. For us all it was our first multiday tour. Here are the lessons I learned:
1. Planning and preparation made everything run smoothly. When we were tired we knew where we were going, what our accommodation was like, where we were having a cafe stop, where we were eating dinner. It made our route great. Virtually no busy roads and loads of spectacular bits
2. Eat and drink enough and your body can cope with quite a bit of punshment
3. We quickly learned that managing our departure from the B&B and our cafe stops needed to improve. We were wasting a lot of time not being ready by depart time, sitting around waiting to order food etc. We also found that we were tired in the evening so went to bed earlier than usual so woke up earlier so we tended to be on the road by 8am instead of the planned 9am
4. Devon and Cornwall are hilly but not particularly so and the views of the N Cornwall coast make the hills there worthwhile. Scotland is easy cycling
5. You can get by with surprisingly little kit if you're B&Bing. Mine was 3kg incl bags. You can do it on whatever bike you like providing it's been looked after.
6. Plan for the worst re mechanicals but expect the best. All we had between us was one puncture and that was that
7. Wet shoes don't dry overnight but washing and rolling kit in towels like a Swiss Roll and standing on the roll is very good at drying things
8. The generosity of people along the way was amazing. Free lunches, free ferry crossings, people just giving us cash when they heard the charity we were riding for.
9. Finally, the UK is amazing and cycling is the best way to absorb it.
Next year.....hmmmm, maybe Rhine from Rotterdam to source in Swiss Alps
Edit to add: Having a group of similar ability, similar outlook cyclists made it a real pleasure. Nobody struggled and nobody (perhaps Steve did) felt like we were holding back. All easy going, all enjoy good quality food and a couple of beers in the evening
Second Edit: We slipped in a half day midway. We stayed in Crewe (having done back to back centuries to get there from Wellington in Somerset) and then did a quick morning 40 mile ride home. This gave us all afternoon and evening to relax. I think it's fair to say we all felt much refreshed setting off the next morning. I would recommend slipping in a short day if the schedule allows
1. Planning and preparation made everything run smoothly. When we were tired we knew where we were going, what our accommodation was like, where we were having a cafe stop, where we were eating dinner. It made our route great. Virtually no busy roads and loads of spectacular bits
2. Eat and drink enough and your body can cope with quite a bit of punshment
3. We quickly learned that managing our departure from the B&B and our cafe stops needed to improve. We were wasting a lot of time not being ready by depart time, sitting around waiting to order food etc. We also found that we were tired in the evening so went to bed earlier than usual so woke up earlier so we tended to be on the road by 8am instead of the planned 9am
4. Devon and Cornwall are hilly but not particularly so and the views of the N Cornwall coast make the hills there worthwhile. Scotland is easy cycling
5. You can get by with surprisingly little kit if you're B&Bing. Mine was 3kg incl bags. You can do it on whatever bike you like providing it's been looked after.
6. Plan for the worst re mechanicals but expect the best. All we had between us was one puncture and that was that
7. Wet shoes don't dry overnight but washing and rolling kit in towels like a Swiss Roll and standing on the roll is very good at drying things
8. The generosity of people along the way was amazing. Free lunches, free ferry crossings, people just giving us cash when they heard the charity we were riding for.
9. Finally, the UK is amazing and cycling is the best way to absorb it.
Next year.....hmmmm, maybe Rhine from Rotterdam to source in Swiss Alps
Edit to add: Having a group of similar ability, similar outlook cyclists made it a real pleasure. Nobody struggled and nobody (perhaps Steve did) felt like we were holding back. All easy going, all enjoy good quality food and a couple of beers in the evening
Second Edit: We slipped in a half day midway. We stayed in Crewe (having done back to back centuries to get there from Wellington in Somerset) and then did a quick morning 40 mile ride home. This gave us all afternoon and evening to relax. I think it's fair to say we all felt much refreshed setting off the next morning. I would recommend slipping in a short day if the schedule allows
Last edited: