JOGLE Route finalised

[rich87]

Hi All,

I've finally put together the route I will use for my non-stop JOGLE attempt in June next year - thanks to much assistance from Ben Rockett.

You can view my proposed route at http://www.richardwestover.com/page13.htm

If anyone has any tips/ advice from local knowledge they have of sections of the route, it would be great to hear from you to help us avoid any difficulties/ obstacles on the ride itself. The most difficult sections I'm anticipating will be the unavoidable bits through city centres and the stop- starting caused by traffic lights.

However, the main reason I wanted to let you all know about the route is to invite you to ride a section of the route near you with me! Having people to ride with would be great for morale and keeping me awake and riding at a decent pace. So if you live near a section of the proposed route and would to join me for a number of miles please get in touch and we can start planning and arranging where / approximate timings for when we'll meet you.

I know it's quite a while in advance, but I'm expecting January - May to be very busy with training so I'm trying to get as much of the logistics etc planned before xmas.

The more people to ride with the merrier and I'd be happy to ride with you for as many or as few miles as you like! You can contact me either at my hotmail email address - richwestover@hotmail.co.uk, or through the website at mail@richardwestover.com.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Rich

 

[moxey]

Let me be the first on here to wish you luck for your epic trip
I live in Lancaster and see you're coming through so I'll come ride some with you.

 

[Fiona N]

I used Lynne Taylor's TT route for my 5 day run. It goes quite a lot further east through the Midlands - from Bristol, it goes Gloucester, Worcester, Kidderminster, skirts Wolverhampton to Stafford etc. and doesn't rejoin your route until Preston. Then the Scottish section was quite different too, crossing the Southern Uplands to Edinburgh - my best day was Kendal-Edinburgh with a cracking tailwind - then across the Cairgorms throug Aviemore to Inverness and the A9 north.


Mainly on A roads, of course, so not the most scenic but route finding was never a problem and, from experience, I know this can be a big time waster. I suppose you'll be supported so this probably isn't so important but for unsupported fast rides it can make a big difference.

I wouldn't worry about hills on the edge of the Lake District, the climb on the A6 over Shap from the north is almost unnoticeable compared to the climb from the south.

 

[e-rider]

that is a very similar route to my LEJOG except in two areas:

1. you have opted to go around inverness (from Alness) and join loch ness (that route is very hilly)
2. the Cornwall and Devon stages you have chosen are all dual-carragway on the A30!!!

my advice is: to finish such an epic journey on the A30 will be really disappointing - 2 days of very dangerous and very busy dual carriageway is not the best way to end such a trip - the A30 is the worst cycling I've ever done!

generally, during my LEJOG I cycled on many roads that were far busier than I would normally chose to cycle on (it's necessary if you want to do it under 1000 miles) so be careful. And definitely do all the riding during daylight hours. Getting around Preston/St Helens can be a nightmare.

Good route though except for Devon and cornwall.

 

[robgul]

To add my 2p

- I think you are wise to take the route you mapped around Inverness, the roads you are avoiding have fast-moving traffic - on your route there's a long drag up from Beauly and then a massive hill down to Drumnadrochit - other than that it's flat to undulating.

- there's a new pan-flat road from Gretna to Carlisle alongside the motorway - shorter and more pleasant than the two sides of a triangle to Longtown (I rode this bit in June 2010 - I have the map somewhere, PM if you want it)

- I would also agree on the observations about the A30 quasi-motorway down through Cornwall - not pleasant to drive, let alone cycle


Finally - why not list the ride at www.cycle-endtoend.org.uk in the calendar section?

Rob

 

[rich87]

Cheers guys, a good few things to consider. I decided to follow the route past Loch Ness as I'd hoped that the road would be quite flat while following alongside the Loch. Thanks for the info on the new road from Gretna, will have a look at that, couldn't see it on the map?!

As for the A30, I was reluctant to follow it, having driven it and knowing what an unpleasant road it is, but by the time I get to Cornwall, I was thinking I'll just want the fastest most direct road to the finish, I wasn't aware that there are any other particularly direct roads through Cornwall? I think staying awake will be the biggest challenge by that point.

I've never been any good at map reading and have no sense of direction so yes I'll very much be relying on the support team to ensure I'm following the route.

I didn't know anything about that calendar on the cycle- endtoend website Rob - will get it on there!

Thanks again for your help,

Rich

 

[rogersavery]

we have just got back from an 8 day lejog

rather than going via fort william/glasgow, we went further east - edinburgh/cairngorms

and we also went through st helens (to stop for the night with my parents)

our route is very similar in miles (872) but I think it will be slightly less climbing (30,052 according to bikeroutetoaster)

we used the A30 in cornwall - not a nice road, but we thought it would be the quickest

 

[Garz]

Good luck Richard and hope you enjoy both the training and the experience!

If I was being pedantic however I would question the "UK" in1 statement of the route, only because you will get remarks highlighting you probably wont be going into wales (or doing the length of it) or covering Northern Ireland. Sorry to let a cat among the pigeons.

 

[Panoramix]

I would try to avoid mendip hills by carrying along the coast after avonmouth. (there is a cycle path on the M5 bridge) then clevedon and congressbury. mileage should be similar with much less climbing.

 

[e-rider]

an alternative to the A30 is

minehead-lynmouth-boscastle

that's what I did - it's very hilly, but not really many more miles. (I would say there are only 2 killer climbs that way but plenty of ups and downs)

are you carrying panniers? if not, it shouldn't be much of a problem.

 

[zigzag]

i can't say much about the route as i haven't cycled on it, but your target of 50-60 hours sounds very ambitious! are you going to draft the van or what? 60 hours however seem doable if everything goes perfectly well. good luck in preparation!

 

[Tynan]

non stop? what does that mean? no sleeps? is that safe?

 

[jarushby]

I would try to avoid mendip hills by carrying along the coast after avonmouth. (there is a cycle path on the M5 bridge) then clevedon and congressbury. mileage should be similar with much less climbing.

+1 A lot flatter than going through Bristol and less traffic

 

[Philip Whiteman]

This thread is timely and fantastic. I am planning upon a similar exercise for my audax LEJoG non stop.

Just a quick note in terms of the A30 in the Dartmoor area. If the road is hellishly busy, the old A30 may a good alternative. If you enter the route on Bikeroutetoaster through Devon and Cornwall, I note that it defaults to the old road as opposed to the new one. it will take you off some but not all of the horrendous dual carriageway.

The A49 between Leominster and Shrewsbury is busy and fast single carriageway trunk road. Unless you are riding along this section during the quiet hours, there are some roads that shadow this section. Eg,. Leominster - Ludlow B Road, Craven Arms (north of) back road through Wistanstow, Church Stretton, All Stretton and then back onto the A49.

Incidentally, you mentioned your training regime from January. How is this going to work out? I would love to know.

 

[Greenbank]

non stop? what does that mean? no sleeps? is that safe?

No, even the really fast people will be faster with at least some short sleep stop.

"Non-stop", to me anyway, just means attempting it without proper overnight stops planned for every night.

I'd be looking to do a 1400km LEJOG at Audax BR pace (116h40m) as 4 x 300km days and a final 200km+overdistance day. Start most days at 6am. Do 300km by midnight (hopefully). It takes longer than you think when you have to source all of your food for the day yourself. I certainly don't have the constitution to ride 1400km in 5 days on energy gels.

Or possibly start at 6am and ride through the first night stopping at about 10pm on the second night after at least 600km (like a typical 600km Audax). Then start again at 5am and finish the next 300km by midnight. 6am to 1am next day for 300km. Then have a lie in until 9am or so before facing the final ~200km with a hard deadline of 2.40am (but ideally finish by 9pm and into the bar).