LEJOG 12 april - 26 april 2025

[Stijn]

Hi everyone, I am Stijn, 52 years old, living in the Netherlands.
Together with a friend we will be cycling LEJOG from April 12th to April 26th.
At the moment we are preparing ourselves physically and mentally for the trip.
We are really looking forward to it
We are very curious, the weather will be exciting in this period.
If you have any tips, we would like to hear them.
Greetings

 

[Ajax Bay]

Do a two day ride with ~120km on the first day, before end March with the same bike/luggage arrangement/clothing-kit-equipment as you plan for April and the same style of evening meal/overnight/breakfast that you typically expect.
Start with close to new tyres, cassette and chain.
Book the train to Penzance now.
There will be weather. There will be scenery in Cornwall and Devon, north of Preston and in Scotland.

 

[13 rider]

Its Britain in April you could get any weather you can image . If you want to post a rough route people will comment on there locals bits , I would stay off the A30 in Cornwall it's not cycle friendly , If you can get some hill climbing in Cornwall and Devon are HILLY at least you get those early on in the ride. Good luck

 

[T4tomo]

Its Britain in April you could get any weather you can image . If you want to post a rough route people will comment on there locals bits , I would stay off the A30 in Cornwall it's not cycle friendly , If you can get some hill climbing in Cornwall and Devon are HILLY at least you get those early on in the ride. Good luck

it wont be far away from this.....

@Stijn UK weather in April - it could be anything and all things, lets hope you are lucky and it stays dry.

 

[Stijn]

Thank you for your reaction. We wil cycle the cicerone route (Richard Barret).
The bike is just back from the bike shop and is all set
The train from the Netherlands to Penzance is booked. Packing list is being made with different options. We want to try using warmshowers.org (I have experience with this)
We want to cycle an average of 65 miles per day, may fluctuate a bit.

 

[Ajax Bay]

If you can get some hill climbing in

Dutch hills: see next comment.

@Stijn UK weather in April - it could be anything and all things, lets hope you are lucky and it stays dry.

This is a paper on prevailing wind in UK which is generally SW, however:
"in Britain, north-easterly winds are at least as common in spring (April-May) as south-westerly winds . . . "
https://www.metlink.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/wea.301.pdf

 

[Ajax Bay]

We want to try using warmshowers.org (I have experience with this)

Warmshowers has worked for me (both as a host and as a cyclo-tourist) - but I am well off your route.

 

[blackrat]

Do a two day ride with ~120km on the first day, before end March with the same bike/luggage arrangement/clothing-kit-equipment as you plan for April and the same style of evening meal/overnight/breakfast that you typically expect.
Start with close to new tyres, cassette and chain.
Book the train to Penzance now.
There will be weather. There will be scenery in Cornwall and Devon, north of Preston and in Scotland.

Good advice. I had my bike completely overhauled, new everything ($600 worth) and then I packed away in its box waiting to travel with me by air to start the ride. I use one of my other bikes to train on.

 

[YMFB]

@Stijn how did your end to end ride go? Any tips on Accommodation or places to avoid ?

 

[Stijn]

Goed advies. Ik heb mijn fiets helemaal laten reviseren, alles nieuw ($600 waard) en daarna heb ik hem ingepakt in de doos om met mij mee te vliegen en de rit te beginnen. Ik gebruik een van mijn andere fietsen om te trainen.

@Stijn hoe is je rit van begin tot eind gegaan? Heb je tips voor accommodatie of plekken die je beter kunt vermijden?

It was a very nice trip, we cycled the ciccerone route (1000 miles). It took us 15 days to cycle the whole route, instead of 14 days. Some days were to long 130-140 km. The avarage day km was 115 km, average speed 16-17 km/h. We cycled with full equipement, we cycled 8 hours a day with three stops. The accommodation we had varied: warmshowers and airbnb en hotels, no problems. The route was very nice and different, most of the route was roads with minimal traffic, around city's it was more crowded. We came across a lot supermarket and pubs. We were very lucky about the weather. It's important you have good tyres, inner en outer tyres. (schwalbe marathon extreme (supreme)