London-Edinburgh-London 2013: The thread

[Greenbank]

Yes, sort of. Here is the maths, taking Tim as an example. (Those of faint disposition, look away now.)
Tim started at 9.15am so must finish by 05.55am on Friday morning.
He is at Thirsk now (6pm on Wednesday), exactly 1,000k. He says he'll press on to Pock (65k), I guess he might arrive about 10pm maybe. At this stage he will have just under three hours in hand. (Hence his decision to have 2.5 hours of sleep.) Pock is 1,065k and then he will have 354k to go. Leaving Pock at say 00.30 on Thursday morning means he has to stay above a total overall moving average of 12.2kph - including traffic lights, eating, etc.
So that is the bare maths.

Tim will know all this and I bet he's gone over and over all the permutations of timing, eating, sleeping, speed, time on the bike, in his head a thousand times. After Pock he'll be in the dark for a few hours on Thursday morning, then daylight (weather forecast is warm and hot which is no blessing) and then in the dark from 10pm onwards on Thursday night. There are four controls for him and all they will be concentrating on is shovelling food into exhausted, red-eyed, locust-like cyclists and getting them back on the road.
In his favour:

• after Market Rasen it is pan-flat Lincolnshire lanes
• the forecast is dry not torrential rain although a headwind is forecast
• he's Tim and he'll make it

My tracking site consolidates a load of riders into one place and does a lot of the maths for you. Tim is already on there (trickedem):-

http://www.greenbank.org/cgi-bin/lel2013.cgi

Tim: http://www.greenbank.org/cgi-bin/lel2013.cgi?action=riderreport&rn=R32&

Feel free to PM or email (alex@greenbank.org) me with any other names/rider numbers you want added.

 

[mmmmartin]

Tim says he is going for three hours sleep and then on. I guess he will go right to Loughton then.

 

[mmmmartin]

Thanks mr greenbank sir. V good site. Impressed.

 

[StuartG]

Tim got to Pock at 9pm earlier than expected so he looks to be still strong and is on to get under time. Pray he doesn't get any technicals ...

 

[ianrauk]

LongMartin checked in to Kirton half hour ago. 123 miles to go.

 

[MichaelO]

This is nerve wracking!! Good luck all - almost there.

 

[AnythingButVanilla]

LongMartin checked in to Kirton half hour ago. 123 miles to go.

He'll be back in London in time to get the first round in on Friday then

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

My commiserations to those who had to drop it, but to get to any real distance is a major undertaking in itself and shouldn't be sniffed at!

For those who have finished or have still to finish, Congratulations and keep up the great job, you are all stars!!

 

[Greenbank]

Tim now at Market Rasen with 15m to spare. Well judged sleep stop at Kirton! Hope that's given him the energy he needs to finish without troubles.

 

[frank9755]

Thursday breakfast update. Didn't look at it last night as I had to go out cycling!

Tim made Pocklington at 9. Looks like he stayed there rather than pushing further south as I had expected. It says somewhere that he was planning on three hours' sleep. He may be a bit close to the wire: the last stage is flatter but the temperatures, and the headwind strength, are forecast to rise through the day so may be hard going. Good luck, Tim! [Edit - Tim has just made Market Rasen - that's encouraging, apparently he has 30 mins in hand]
Pete was just quarter an hour ahead of him at Pocklington but (sensibly in my opinion) rode through the night, when the conditions were better, and made Market Rasen at 4:40am. They (riding with Mrs Pete) may have stopped for a couple of hours' rest there but should be fine, as long as they don't oversleep.
John also got to Market Rasen, slightly ahead at 4:20 am. He's got slightly less time as he had an early start, but on the home straight now too!
Long M made Kirton at 22:11. Expect he stopped there and is heading south again now. He's got plenty of time and will finish today, barring hot feet! Maybe there is a book to be written about them...

 

[yello]

T[Edit - Tim has just made Market Rasen - that's encouraging, apparently he has 30 mins in hand]

Ah, the veritable definition of 'full value'!

Tim knows what he's doing

 

[Aperitif]

Thursday breakfast update. Didn't look at it last night as I had to go out cycling!

Tim made Pocklington at 9. Looks like he stayed there rather than pushing further south as I had expected. It says somewhere that he was planning on three hours' sleep. He may be a bit close to the wire: the last stage is flatter but the temperatures, and the headwind strength, are forecast to rise through the day so may be hard going. Good luck, Tim! [Edit - Tim has just made Market Rasen - that's encouraging, apparently he has 30 mins in hand]
Pete was just quarter an hour ahead of him at Pocklington but (sensibly in my opinion) rode through the night, when the conditions were better, and made Market Rasen at 4:40am. They (riding with Mrs Pete) may have stopped for a couple of hours' rest there but should be fine, as long as they don't oversleep.
John also got to Market Rasen, slightly ahead at 4:20 am. He's got slightly less time as he had an early start, but on the home straight now too!
Long M made Kirton at 22:11. Expect he stopped there and is heading south again now. He's got plenty of time and will finish today, barring hot feet! Maybe there is a book to be written about them...

'Barring Me Canicules'?

 

[MisterStan]

Spotted lots of LELers yesterday evening and this morning in St Ives. Said hi to as many as I could - keep up the good work guys and girls!

 

[Greenbank]

He's got plenty of time and will finish today, barring hot feet! Maybe there is a book to be written about them...

'Barring Me Canicules'?

Barring Me Cankles.

 

[PoweredByVeg]

All Iceni Velo riders now out
Absolutely fantasic efforts all round though with Simon "Pinky" Browne P50 getting to Pocklington at 1063km.