# Broadwith's end-to-end attempt



## Ian H (15 Jun 2018)

Michael Broadwith started at 8 this morning. At 21.30 he's over 300 miles and north of Kidderminster. About 40 mins up on schedule.
Gethin Butler's record of 44hrs 4mins was set in 2001.


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## toffee (15 Jun 2018)

Ian H said:


> Michael Broadwith started at 8 this morning. At 21.30 he's over 300 miles and north of Kidderminster. About 40 mins up on schedule.
> Gethin Butler's record of 44hrs 4mins was set in 2001.



Different world to the rest of us. Our plan for later this year, this would be around day 5


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## snorri (15 Jun 2018)

There is an attempt in progress to beat the record for the fastest LEJOG.
The cyclist, Michael Broadwith, left LE at 08.00 and is now(21.45) in the Stafford area. He appears to be a little ahead of schedule but has not yet reached the halfway stage.
Anyone interested can follow his progress here.... 
https://frrt.org/endtoend2018/map?center=53.83956,-2.06543&zoom=6


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## MikeG (15 Jun 2018)

These people are amazing. Those miles, at that speed.........stunning.

I love the fact that, like the incredible Andy Wilkinson before him, he's an amateur, just cycling in his spare time. He's actually a maths teacher from Watford.


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## cosmicbike (15 Jun 2018)

This is is second effort in the past month or so. Sickness got him about halfway last time


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## Pat "5mph" (15 Jun 2018)

There is already a thread open on this topic, so I'm merging the two to the one opened first.
Sorry @snorri


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## Donger (15 Jun 2018)

My mate started his end-to-end on Saturday and has just reached Manchester. I am in awe of him. That guy will be swooshing past him some time tomorrow on day 2 of his ride. Stunning stuff.


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## snorri (15 Jun 2018)

Pat "5mph" said:


> Sorry @snorri


OK Pat. 
I don't look at the Sport section so missed this.


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## Milkfloat (16 Jun 2018)

Good winds, so think he has a real chance.


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## raleighnut (16 Jun 2018)

Good luck to him this time.


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## T4tomo (16 Jun 2018)

I once pipped him for a KOM place on a strava segment , apparently he set his time with his kid in a child seat on the back on his morning commute, whilst I was flat out eyes popping on the road bike! Good luck!


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## Ian H (16 Jun 2018)

raleighnut said:


> Good luck to him this time.



I believe this is his first attempt. Ian To failed earlier this year.
Broadwith has pedigree, with something over 530 miles in the National 24 last year.


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## MikeG (16 Jun 2018)

At 1.45 today he had covered 598 miles in 29 hrs 45 mins. That means an average of 20.1mph if I've got everything right. If he maintains this to the end he'll get there in a total of about 41.8 hours. Seems like he's well ahead of schedule. 240 miles is still a helluva long way, though, and the Highlands, and a couple of those monster coastal climbs, are bound to slow him down.

If anyone wants to go out and keep him company, he's approaching Perth.


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## srw (16 Jun 2018)

Ian H said:


> I believe this is his first attempt. Ian To failed earlier this year.


The incredible Jasmijn Muller also tried last year to beat the female record, but had to give up due to sickness. She's also about to launch a new bid.

Her websites (https://www.lejogrecord.co.uk/ and https://duracellbunnyonabike.com/about/) are well worth reading, and a very good example of how this sort of event can be publicised - even if confirming her name on them is a little tricky...


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## srw (16 Jun 2018)

MikeG said:


> If anyone wants to go out and keep him company,



...he will be disqualified. The rules are very clear - no riding with him.


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## MikeG (16 Jun 2018)

Oh OK, I'll withdraw that.

If anyone wants to go out and cheer him on, he on the outskirts of Perth.


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## swansonj (16 Jun 2018)

But, compared to his schedule (and I've no idea what psychological basis the schedule was compiled on and therefore what weight to give to this) he seems to have lost most of his accumulated buffer on the leg up to Perth?


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## Sea of vapours (16 Jun 2018)

He's lost time through changing skinsuit at least once due to being rained on since Shap at dawn. He's also now switched to his road bike and is suffering neck cramps due to being cold/wet for a prolonged period. He's also alleged to be in good spirits though :-) (All this from Twitter and 'the other place'.) Right now, he's 13 minutes ahead of his schedule at the Pitlochry checkpoint, whereas he was about an hour ahead. It does seem to be creeping back in the right direction again though, in the last hour.


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## Ian H (16 Jun 2018)

150 miles suffering with Shermer's neck is going to be tough.


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## Sea of vapours (16 Jun 2018)

Having been several minutes behind schedule after climbing the long drag up to Dalwhinnie, he's five minutes ahead again at the Aviemore checkpoint. Another 150 miles from there with the neck issue looks remarkably unappealing, but then the previous fifteen hours of rain didn't appeal much either. On the upside, it does look as if the rain will be minimal beyond Inverness, and the wind is favourable.


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## MikeG (16 Jun 2018)

Whereabouts are you guys seeing his schedule? And is his schedule the existing world record? Because as far as I can make out, he's still well ahead of that. He's through the Cairngorms, so there are just a couple of really nasty climbs ahead of him (Berriedale and Helmsdale), and the long drag of Warth Hill right at the end, otherwise the worst is well behind him.


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## srw (16 Jun 2018)

https://frrt.org/endtoend2018/controls

To beat the current record needs an arrival time (if I've done the maths right) before 4:04am overnight. The schedule's last control is 17 miles from the end at 2:30am, so presumably scheduled arrival is around 3:30am.


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## Sea of vapours (16 Jun 2018)

MikeG said:


> Whereabouts are you guys seeing his schedule?


If you look on the tracker map you can see checkpoints (CP ....) quite regularly and each of those has a time in the name. On his purple trace, you can see actual times and compare the two (in both cases hover over the dot). Alternatively, there's a list of the checkpoints in tabular form somewhere, but I've 'lost' that now since the live map is much better. The schedule is to complete in 42h42m, so he has 1h22m above that to break the record.


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## snorri (16 Jun 2018)

I'm new to this record breaking stuff, can someone help me please?
Is he travelling completely alone, being monitored from a nearby vehicle or visually checked at the Control Points? 
He has now reached the crest at Daviot and should make good speed on the downhill section to Kessock Bridge at Inverness.


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## Sea of vapours (16 Jun 2018)

There's at least one vehicle following him - something with a second bike and clothes. I don't know for certain about the checks, but various comments elsewhere strongly imply visual checks from the roadside. 

He's just crossing the bridge north of Inverness now; eleven minutes ahead of schedule at the checkpoint at Inverness.


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## Pale Rider (16 Jun 2018)

snorri said:


> I'm new to this record breaking stuff, can someone help me please?
> Is he travelling completely alone, being monitored from a nearby vehicle or visually checked at the Control Points?
> He has now reached the crest at Daviot and should make good speed on the downhill section to Kessock Bridge at Inverness.



Short video clips on twitter suggest he is being followed by a vehicle.

He's through Inverness, where he was due at 8.30pm, so I reckon he is a few minutes/mile or two ahead of control point schedule.

That schedule will see him break the record by an hour or so, so at the moment it's looking hopeful.

Edit: Beaten to it by @Sea of vapours.


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## Ian H (16 Jun 2018)

He will have at least one vehicle with team and observers. There will also be RRA observers along the route.
Currently they're sourcing a neck-brace for him as the rain, wind and cold has taken its toll. It's going to be a tough last 100 miles.


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## snorri (16 Jun 2018)

Thanks for the info guys
The weather here is better than it has been all day, dry with no wind.
I hope to see him soon!


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## swansonj (16 Jun 2018)

Significant gains made heading north from Inverness. I am finding this unexpectedly gripping.

Is there a reason why the professionals don't tackle this record? How would you expect a rider in Grand Tour form to fare at it?


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## Ian H (16 Jun 2018)

Same reason that Paris-Brest-Paris ceased to be a race.


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## swansonj (16 Jun 2018)

Dogtrousers said:


> I guess it's because they'd have to do a load of training that wouldn't be optimal for racing and they may have to miss shoelaces*. And racing is their bread and butter.
> 
> The genius of autocorrect. "Some races"


I guess I was thinking that they are willing enough to take time off from road racing to tackle the hour. OK, that's higher prestige, but still involves retraining as I understand it. I just wondered if someone like Wiggins might have fancied giving it a go at the end of a season or the end of his career or something.

Edit: as I am demonstrating, I know fairly little about professional racing....


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## Ian H (16 Jun 2018)

swansonj said:


> I guess I was thinking that they are willing enough to take time off from road racing to tackle the hour. OK, that's higher prestige, but still involves retraining as I understand it. I just wondered if someone like Wiggins might have fancied giving it a go at the end of a season or the end of his career or something.



The hour only takes an hour, and you don't even have to go outside.


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## snorri (16 Jun 2018)

Well, that was over in a flash!
He had one very bright front light and was leading three vehicles, some with amber flashing lights. 
I got friendly waves so assume they are in good spirits


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## DCLane (16 Jun 2018)

snorri said:


> Well, that was over in a flash!
> He had one very bright front light and was leading three vehicles, some with amber flashing lights.
> I got friendly waves so assume they are in good spirits



Given they've just posted this on Twitter - I think your encouragement is appreciated 

"He could not need you more. Anyone north of Inverness please please give him a massive shout. It makes a big difference."


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## snorri (16 Jun 2018)

DCLane said:


> Given they've just posted this on Twitter - I think your encouragement is appreciated
> 
> "He could not need you more. Anyone north of Inverness please please give him a massive shout. It makes a big difference."


That's great DCLane, I gave a wave and hearty shout.


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## Sea of vapours (17 Jun 2018)

He made it. Excellent stuff, and decidedly tense in the last few hours as whilst the weather improved the state of his neck didn't.

Based on the tracker map it looks like 43h26m so that's 38 minutes inside the previous record (approximately and subject to verification, etc.).


View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1008176416410783744


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## raleighnut (17 Jun 2018)




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## MikeG (17 Jun 2018)

Excellent! Fantastic achievement.

I wonder if Andy Wilkinson is thinking to himself "can I do it one more time?"


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## srw (17 Jun 2018)

swansonj said:


> Is there a reason why the professionals don't tackle this record? How would you expect a rider in Grand Tour form to fare at it?


Because it doesn't pay.

Grand Tours seem to be about relatively short bursts of effort (usually an hour at most), and about how quickly you can recover between bursts.

For a very long record you'd need to train for years, and then have at most one shot in a year. That's not sponsor friendly.


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## Aravis (17 Jun 2018)

Well, somehow I managed to miss this completely. Needless to say he passed the end of my road, as will anyone who's having a go at this. So I'm afraid there are no bad photos from me this time.

Had I finished my ride a little later I might've got a flyby...

Well done Michael!


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## Donger (17 Jun 2018)

Amazing! Did it so fast he must have left a vapour trail.


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## cyberknight (18 Jun 2018)

srw said:


> Because it doesn't pay.
> 
> Grand Tours seem to be about relatively short bursts of effort (usually an hour at most), and about how quickly you can recover between bursts.
> 
> For a very long record you'd need to train for years, and then have at most one shot in a year. That's not sponsor friendly.


Just re reading wiggos book and he says the same, some days you can sit in all day and average 190 watts , then go nuts for the last bit. Jens Voigt had a similar bit i have seen saying its not producing XX watts for 5 hours its the XX he needed to make .


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## Phaeton (18 Jun 2018)

I'm just astounded that a human is capable of such an achievement, I doubt I could do it in 44 days, let alone 44 hours


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## srw (22 Jun 2018)

One of the best bits of writing I've seen in a long time - on any subject.

https://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/articles/view/349


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## Phaeton (22 Jun 2018)

I was astounded 5 days ago & I still am


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## snorri (22 Jun 2018)

MikeG said:


> the Highlands, and a couple of those monster coastal climbs, are bound to slow him down.


There was a short video on Twitter of him climbing out of Berriedale at an amazing speed in the small hours of the morning.


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## MikeG (22 Jun 2018)

Phaeton said:


> I'm just astounded that a human is capable of such an achievement, I doubt I could do it in 44 days, let alone 44 hours



Twenty miles a day........I reckon you could.


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## Phaeton (22 Jun 2018)

MikeG said:


> Twenty miles a day........I reckon you could.


Only if it was 1 day on the bike, one day off the bike


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