# Doin' the Big G



## Arch (18 Jul 2010)

So, I did the Sportive! Hulver (of this parish) kindly gave me a lift over to Beverley, and we got ourselves signed in and chipped (well, we wore timing chips on bands round our ankles) and were underway just after 8.30, in a little Cyclechat group.

Almost immediately, I was dropped. I'd expected this. Recumbents can be very fast, but they have to have fast riders in them. Most of the people on this Sportive were way faster than me, and of course, all they were all on lighter bikes.

Sorry, did I mention the recumbent before? My latest toy is a very nice little Catrike Dash - small and beautifully formed, and for a trike, quite light, but still heavier than my lighter uprigt bikes - well, there's a whole extra wheel. But the pay off is comfort. After a long hard ride (quiet at the back there!), my knees might hurt. But nothing else will. Do the same ride on an upright, and I'll have a sore bum, stiff shoulders, aching wrists... I don't think I could contemplate something like LEL on an upright, but on a recumbent it seems possible. So I'm training as much as I can on the trike, while keeping the uprights (one summer hack, one winter hack, one tourer) for day to day use - much more convenient to park about town and at the flat.

Anyway, back to the Big G. It was relatively gentle to start with, out to Cherry Burton and South Dalton. I was overtaken, over and over, but it didn't matter. Getting round mattered. The wind was a bit in our faces - although it doesn't affect me recumbent as it would upright, it still makes a difference. The further north we went, the more we got into the Wolds and the more the hills started to bite. There was a rather nice point where we turned east and the wind virtually blew us uphill, and I thought, wow, I'm doing ok - and then of course we jinked back again after a couple of miles, and I realised how much I'd been wind assisted before. Still, as Hulver remarked, as he breezed past, having stopped to help someone with a puncture, the weather's good...

A long straight drag uphill after North Dalton and we reach the parting of the ways - 100km one way, 60km the other. I was now in new territory, with little ifea of what to expect, except of course, hills. As the route was well marked, I was avoiding looking at my printed out map - not really wanting to know how much more I still had to do. I had a vague mental picture of the route, but it didn't run as far as contours.

There was a bit of a slog up out of Wetwang (I won't tell you again, at the back!) and just as we reached the left turn at the most northerly point, a few drops of rain fell. I stopped and got my waterproof on, and then it poured down. Stingy stuff, blowing straight into my face. Lovely. It didn't actually last all that long, but long enough to soak me - the waterproof is showerproof, but some monsoons in France had revealed it's limitations.

After a slog up a busyish bit of road, and a chat with a chap who'd been to Holland and seen lots of recumbents there, we turned left towards Burdale. Burdale rang a bell in my mind. I pondered it, until I arrived at the splitting point for the 100km and 160km rides, and then recognised it as the place one of my colleagues did her PhD fieldwork, for her project on settlement in steep sided valleys... The road runs along the bottom, with Wolds glowering over head - quite claustrophobic at times. The wind was more or less head on along to and through Thixendale - but I knew from my vague memory that once past Thixendale I was sort of on the way back.

The descent to from Millington was fun - I almost overcooked the first hairpin, but managed to get round on three wheels. The valley road was nice - the wind behind, and only a gentle slope up - until the steep bit at the end. And I was seeing signs to Pocklington. I know that Pocklington is only 20 miles from my home - 20 gently rollingor flat miles. How easy to just turn the other way....

Come on. Huggate saw all the routes reconnected, and the feed station. Too cold to linger long, I had half a banana, some cake and refilled my bottle. The biggest hill, Nunburnholme, still loomed. I remembered another nasty one before that too, after Warter. That wasn't so bad, except for having trouble with traction on the wet road (it was pouring again) - Schwalbe Kojaks, as the name suggests, are fairly bald. Still i made it up and over, and down the other side, where I was astonished to see a Quest Velomobile - something even wierder than me!

And thence to Nunburnholme. I'd done it twice in quick succession as training a couple of weeks back, so I knew I could get up it - assuming I could get traction. The first steep bit saw me down to second to bottom gear, as expected. After that, I saw Hulver again - helping a chap who needed a chain splitter. The momentary rest did me good, and I continued refreshed, at a stunning 3mph. The beauty of a trike of course, is that you can't fall over. There was a rambler walking up the road, so I drafted him.

Nunburnholme has about 5 false crests, and they'd put the photographer about halfway up, so you had to remember to smile. But once at the top, the worst was over. It wasn't quite downhill all the way back, but nothing compared to what we'd done. I switched the computer to Average Speed, and concentrated to keeping it up. Helped by a little downhill on the last leg, I swooped back into the college grounds, to a cheer from the timing team.

This is something you get used to on a 'bent - along with the 'well done!' and 'you're doing very well' and 'aren't you brave!'. I think everyone assums you're disabled. In fact, I'm just slow, and relatively feeble.

Anyway. 100km (according to my computer, about 66 miles in fact), in 6 hrs 31 mins. I managed to average 10.6mph.

I've been looking at the figures. LEL last time was 872 miles, in just over 116 hours. If one was to ride it nonstop, that would be 7.45 mph average. Give yourself 10 hours off over the 5 days (actually, it's 4 hours under 5 days), and it's 8.2mph. At 10mph, you get a massive 29 hours to kill - that's eating, sleeping, everything, for 5 days. Ride for 18 hours a day, fit everything else into 6. And then you have to account for getting lost, mechanicals etc. So you really need a higher average speed - for 5 days straight. I need to work on that.

However, I did it. It's tiny, compared with LEL, but it was a challenge for me now. Next year, I need to do it with ease ...


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## summerdays (19 Jul 2010)

If you are on a recumbent ... I presume it's easier to take photos? If so where are they ... its sounds lovely countryside that you were passing through. Will you enter the same thing again next year to see if you can complete it in a faster time?


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## xpc316e (19 Jul 2010)

A huge 'Well Done' to you Arch. There's nothing like having an ambition, is there? I read Arallsop's book and instead of thinking as you obviously did, I thought 'No way'. It is a mammoth undertaking, so maximum respect to you for wanting to have a crack at it.


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## arallsopp (19 Jul 2010)

Well done Arch. That's a great result and an inspiring write up. I hear you re speed, so offer this question: "Were you slowing down?" 

LEL is never going to be an all out sprint (well, for some it is, but not for you and me), so rather than pushing a top speed it seems to become "how fast do you go when you're not thinking about it". If you were slowing down towards the end, your ambient speed is probably below the 10.6 average you gave and LEL would likely get a little tricky. 

If, on the other hand, your ambient speed actually is 10.6mph, you only really need to think about how long you stop for fuelling, and where/when are you going to sleep. 

Here's how I'm looking at it:

872 miles at 10.6mph means 82 hours travelling and 34 hours 'spare'.

You've got to fuel, and there are maybe 17 places to do it. Assume you lose a max of 45 minutes at each, add in a few mins for brevet stamping, and your spare hours drop to 21 hours. 

Now... can you fit enough sleep into what's left? I hoped to maximise daylight riding, so found myself trying to centre each sleep around the 2am mark. Early starts with/before the sunrise would haven been ideal, but accommodation and route don't always work out.

My plan going in looked a fair bit like the above. This is probably why the only parameter I could shift when mechanicals jumped in was sleep. IIRC, I got 9 hours. All in... 

LEL is kind of organic, and rather denies rigid plan making. It also plays with your paranoia. The spare time you build up throughout the ride becomes increasingly precious as the ride goes on, as your investment in earning it increases massively as you near the finish. I rolled over the line with a good 10 hour buffer, but had only really begun eating into the spare when the finish was less than a 10 hour walk away.

Add in a few bad decisions, a couple of storms, an unexpected mountain, and you're suddenly in 'brain dead' territory... and that's why the ambient speed matters. If you can roll on at 10.6 when you can't really tell your left leg from your right, you'll be fine


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## Arch (20 Jul 2010)

Thanks all!

I took one picture, of the 'Chapeau Grimpeurs' sign on Nunburnholme - I'll try and add it another day. Yes, it's easier to take pics, but I was wanting to get on instead of dawdle. I'll be out that way again, and I'll get some then... There are some lovely views from the top, looking out over the Vale of York and the powerstations...

Thanks for the figures Arallsopp. I'd got it into my head that the necessary average was actually much higher, so when I sat down and did the maths I was a little encouraged. As to the slowing down... I'm not sure. I think my slowest period was in the middle - into the wind and rain, unknown road, mostly alone. I often find I can pick up speed towards the end of a ride. When I went out that way a couple of weeks back, I did 60 miles (40 of which were gentle rolling or flat, the other 20 of which were hilly and included Nunburnholme hill twice), and averaged 11mph. 

When I first got this trike, I was managing 9ish, so I'm hoping it's going in the right direction.

Next year, I'll be there again. I may do the 100 and try to beat my time, or I may step up to the 160k....


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