Evening all,

Meant to be leaving for a 12 day LEJOG on Thursday, but starting to feel utterly unenthused by the whole thing. Maybe i’m turning into a big southern wimp, but the weather report is really looking shite (even the weather in Iceland looks preferable), and I have a horrible feeling that me and my friend won’t want to camp and end up spending loads on hotels/pub meals, ducking out of the mileages from the rain. We are both quite experienced cycle traipsers, and have ridden lots in the himalaya and Pamirs etc. Am I wrong, and should we MTFU? What are your thoughts?

Today I spent the day suddenly looking for an alternative, and have been looking at a ride though southern italy. Can anyone think of anything slightly more imaginative or interesting over a 10/11 day period, which can be planned at the last minute; we have plenty of air miles we could use. We are interested in Wild Camping, and getting away a little bit from cities…

Any ideas gratefully received.

MTFU.

I do transport for cyclists to/from JoG and we’ve already had a few through this season. 12 days gives you ample time for a couple of days off or short days due to the weather.

We had a couple of 60-odd year old women do it in six days last year…..

Northerly winds forecast.. Do jogle instead.
Weather will be much nicer next week..

Lejog/jogle are a bit like swimming the channel – both have notoriety so folk do them because it sounds good to their non bikey/swimming friends, but in reality both are a bit average in terms of experience in comparison to what you could do with the time. In hindsight I’d do neither again. There are better rides – southern Italy at this time of year sounds lovely. A lot of the places I’d like to ride around the med are currently a bit off limits.

Lejog/jogle both at the bottom of my fantasy rides list.

If Mrs Stoner and I had 10 days free of the kids we’d take the pompinos and camping kit back to SW France, and ride the section of our tour from Aude, through languedoc and the massif centrale again.

We did LEJOG in early May 2010, over 8 days. Camped, but we had a support crew who did the tents and cooked for us. -5C overnight in Penrith, a couple of days of near constant rain, hail and sleet in Cornwall, headwind for the first 6 days. We were in full winter kit (with leg warmers over biblongs) for 5/8 days and I think our arms came out for maybe 3 hours.

It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done (and I’ve done several multi-day events in European mountain ranges since) and it was really, really tough at the time but looking back it was an amazing experience that wouldn’t have been the same if we’d had 8 days of sun.

Having said that… I love riding in Italy!

There’s a WH Murray book about pre-WW2 mountaineering in Scotland when he talks about a day on Skye when he wakes to cloud and gloom in the valleys, but goes out onto the hills regardless where he finds a spectacular inversion on the ridge itself and has a phenomenal day.

What he takes from it is that if he’d stayed in his tent, he’d have missed out on that experience and you never know what the world has in store, but if you don’t try, you may miss something special. I prefer that as a motivator to the whole machismo, ‘man-up’ ethos.

But equally you can make informed judgements based on your own intelligence. I’ve just said no to a week of riding 100-mile days on the northern Scottish coast because the maths said that it could potentially be five days of shite weather misery and I’m still getting over a bastard virus. It might, of course, be awesome and bathed in sunshine, but the odds don’t seem good. If it had been southern Italy Id have said yes in an instant…

I’d go to Morocco given the time and choice and ride gravelly stuff btw, but that’s possibly just me. Or Nepal. Or Peru 🙂

get yourself to Italy Op, it’s a no brainer.

Unless e2e was a must I would to Italy too. Enjoy. The food for one!

I’ve done LEJOG three times (working on an organised event) and while it has its good points and the UK has some amazing scenery etc etc it does also mean that you have to pass through some really rather rubbish bits and have 8 days of UK drivers, UK weather and UK roads which you can’t do anything about. The north of Scotland bit is far and away the best unless it’s pouring with rain or midge central.

Or for a similar price you can get a cheap flight to Italy, Spain, Portugal or even somewhere slightly more leftfield like Croatia and have 10 days of more or less guaranteed good weather, nice roads and cheap food/drink.

& much better looking women.

Just transport yourself up to Inverness and do the North Coast 500 instead.*

Map

The weather won’t be any better, but the scenery is fantastic – especially in bad weather.

Just dress appropriately and wild camp wherever you like.

And that area is the best bit of the LEJoG anyway and it’s a worthwhile ride.

*Modify the route to suit.

Am I wrong, and should we MTFU?

Yes, and ignore the naysayers: it’s a great ride, provided you plan your route carefully.

If you fancy a break from camping, have a look at YHAs or independent bunk houses – a lot less hassle than camping and cheaper than hotels. You can also cook your own food if you want.

We did it in 12 days which meant 75-80 miles/ day. That’s a very nice touring distance – set off at 9, time for a proper lunch break, and you’ll be done by 5-6pm.

If you want an alternative, how about the Channel to the Med?

I am with ransos.If you do the standard route it is pants, but if you go off piste it is one of the greatest rides in the UK.

Of course I think I have put together the greatest route as well here but last year I did a CX variant which is even better.

OP
The bottom line is,how much do you (and your friend ) really want to do it?
As badlywired says, there are lots of times that you will never know till you go.
So you can look at the forecast all you like,but if you think you can predict the weather on our daft wee island then you must be teh awesome 😉 .
When I did it, the weather was perfect wherever I was, while all around ,in front and behind it was raining. I was getting txts saying “It must be grim in this weather, good luck”. Meanwhile I was whizzing along in the dry ,with a tailwind(every day) ,wondering if I had enough sun cream.
I did it in 6 and a half days, on my own using B&Bs and YHAs.
Only met one muppet driver and had 2 punctures the whole trip.
I had a great time and it was anything but average. Lucky? Hell yeah.