2021 LEJOG plans?

[jay clock]

Depart LE June 29, arrive JoG July 9. All the accommodation is booked, just sorting transport to/from. March/April ticking over, May/June up the weekly mileage and try to shift a few stubborn pounds. Route finalised. It's happening

That is a pretty decent pace. I was just talking with a colleague today about the hills in Devon and Cornwall – get ready there are monsters. Not sure if you are doing fully laden or not, but I was on a 40 kg bike and it was tough

 

[nickyboy]

That is a pretty decent pace. I was just talking with a colleague today about the hills in Devon and Cornwall – get ready there are monsters. Not sure if you are doing fully laden or not, but I was on a 40 kg bike and it was tough

Our shortest day is 78 miles and the longest is 103 miles. We aren't fully laden; B&Bs etc and bikepacking with a home stop half way. A trial pack has bike, 2 litres of water and packing at about 16kg all in (it helps that the bike is only about 8kg)

We all live in the Peak District so we are very used to hills. I think our only concern is how bodies react to multiple consecutive days. Having said that, our scheduled pace is only about 11mph on hilly days and 14mph on flat days so that is pretty gentle

 

[CanucksTraveller]

Hi @nickyboy
I see you and Skolly are all planned and accommodation was booked late last year... Can I just ask how your accommodation planning worked out? Tricky? Any snags cropped up since you booked? I started with CyclingUK's cycle friendly accommodation guide recently and found that many places listed have closed down. It's surmountable, but it's quite a big faff.

Also how is your transport planning coming along? I've been speaking to ScotRail and they have no idea when they'll be putting train reservations live, so the getting home bit is still very much in the air.
I have a couple of weeks to go until I can book London to Penzance and even that's looking iffy. A dummy booking 80-90 days from now shows no bike spaces available (no matter what day or time), it looks like their bike reservation system is not live either.
Contingency plan at the moment is a one way car hire to Penzance, that at least gets me to the start, and then the JOG-home bit I'll work out in the coming month.

 

[nickyboy]

Hi @nickyboy
I see you and Skolly are all planned and accommodation was booked late last year... Can I just ask how your accommodation planning worked out? Tricky? Any snags cropped up since you booked? I started with CyclingUK's cycle friendly accommodation guide recently and found that many places listed have closed down. It's surmountable, but it's quite a big faff.

Also how is your transport planning coming along? I've been speaking to ScotRail and they have no idea when they'll be putting train reservations live, so the getting home bit is still very much in the air.
I have a couple of weeks to go until I can book London to Penzance and even that's looking iffy. A dummy booking 80-90 days from now shows no bike spaces available (no matter what day or time), it looks like their bike reservation system is not live either.
Contingency plan at the moment is a one way car hire to Penzance, that at least gets me to the start, and then the JOG-home bit I'll work out in the coming month.

Hi @CanucksTraveller . I've DM'd you so as not to bore people unnecessarily with minutiae of our LEJOG. Suffice to say we're fully booked (yet again) and we're sorted to LE and from JoG

 

[Slowcyclist]

Hi, new to this forum but saw a thread titled "Lejog 2021 plans" so wanted to let you know there's another idiot hoping to embark on the adventure this year.

I'm travelling with a Brompton bike loaded up with all my camping gear and my small dog (who will ride in the front basket). I've booked my ticket for end of May and will be doing the ride over 5 weeks. I'm an over 60s female, over excited about the adventure, and not a little over weight! so the plan is for a gentle 30 mile per day average with plenty of time to walk the hills, get lost, do some watercolour painting and - most important of all - meet nice people and see my country. Despite my current shameful state of fitness, I've ridden a bike just about every day of my life since about 1966 when my father took the stabilisers off my little Triang bike, so whilst I don't look much like a proper cyclist, my body is actually very used to pottering along at a slowish pace all day, particularly if there are tea shops and chippies on the route!

I've never had 5 weeks off work so this is a very special holiday for me and Lil the dog. I've booked the first 10 nights' camping and one or two other stops along the way. Tonight, there is talk of the new "India Variant" being a bit of a problem but I'm hoping it won't interfere with the ride, which was planned for last summer - and we all know what happened to holiday plans last year!

I hope I see other riders along the way. I won't be the fastest, and I look far too fat to be riding all that way but please be kind! Rain or shine, I'll be having a ball

 

[albal]

Depart JOG Jun 7. Riding to Edinburgh as a shakedown ride. Booked no accommodation. Unsupported.

 

[robgul]

Depart JOG Jun 7. Riding to Edinburgh as a shakedown ride. Booked no accommodation. Unsupported.

You can add your ride to the calendar at www.cycle-endtoend.org.uk and see who else is riding

 

[albal]

Done . Thanks

 

[nickyboy]

Big LEJOG prep weekend completed as we have 3 weeks to go. Full packed kit to see how the various bikepacking bags perform etc. Saturday 100 miles x 4,000ft climbing, Sunday 80 miles x 5,000ft climbing

Well, we managed it on schedule without any major mishaps. Plenty of lessons learned to maybe eat and drink more on these warm days. Pull the scheduled lunch stop forward a bit as we begin to dream about food around 11am. And I need to come up with a better anti-chafing strategy than just clarting on the vaseline before setting off. I can see that being an issue

Couple more weeks of hard cycling, bike in for service this week. One week off the bike prior to LEJOG and we are off

 

[Ajax Bay]

Sudocrem. Make sure you get a proper ride on the bike after it's been serviced.

 

[nickyboy]

Sudocrem. Make sure you get a proper ride on the bike after it's been serviced.

Yup, service is this Saturday, got a full week of riding before LEJOG.

I'm going to go "belt and braces" on the ass chafing issue. I can see this being the most serious issue if the weather stays warm and sweaty. I wonder if two layers helps (be that two pairs of shorts or a pair of shorts and something else). It's the movement of the shorts material on the skin that's the problem so would two layers reduce this? After a hot 100 miles on Saturday I was OK, but then after a hot 80 miles on Sunday it was getting a bit tender so that will only get worse as the days go by

Naturally I'll clart as much sudocreme etc on as possible

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Hi, new to this forum but saw a thread titled "Lejog 2021 plans" so wanted to let you know there's another idiot hoping to embark on the adventure this year.

I'm travelling with a Brompton bike loaded up with all my camping gear and my small dog (who will ride in the front basket). I've booked my ticket for end of May and will be doing the ride over 5 weeks. I'm an over 60s female, over excited about the adventure, and not a little over weight! so the plan is for a gentle 30 mile per day average with plenty of time to walk the hills, get lost, do some watercolour painting and - most important of all - meet nice people and see my country. Despite my current shameful state of fitness, I've ridden a bike just about every day of my life since about 1966 when my father took the stabilisers off my little Triang bike, so whilst I don't look much like a proper cyclist, my body is actually very used to pottering along at a slowish pace all day, particularly if there are tea shops and chippies on the route!

I've never had 5 weeks off work so this is a very special holiday for me and Lil the dog. I've booked the first 10 nights' camping and one or two other stops along the way. Tonight, there is talk of the new "India Variant" being a bit of a problem but I'm hoping it won't interfere with the ride, which was planned for last summer - and we all know what happened to holiday plans last year!

I hope I see other riders along the way. I won't be the fastest, and I look far too fat to be riding all that way but please be kind! Rain or shine, I'll be having a ball

I think the more time you can allocate to LEJOG the better. Five weeks sounds perfect. Gives you plenty of time as you say to potter about as you meander to the north and east.

 

[Ajax Bay]

Don't think two pairs of shorts will help: if anything you will just have an overheated 'seat'.
If you think it's movement causing it, maybe you've lost too much weight during your training and preparations.
Bibs likely keep shorts in position better.
Bit late to change now, though.