Has anyone done the Rat Race London to Edinburgh ride, and was it any good?

I am thinking of doing the 4 day option in May and would like a bit more info before I enter, so if you have done it what’s good, what’s bad and what do you need to know that they don’t tell you?

Bump – Anybody?

4 days? You can get there and back in that time…

http://www.londonedinburghlondon.com/

I did it last year. Signed up for the 2 day one but only made it to York 🙁

It was well organised and signed. I found the pit-stops to be poor though. They were just crisps, flapjacks, bananas etc. That’s OK for a short sportive but 220 miles in a day I really needed one that had jacket potatoes or something savoury and filling.

Drop-out rate for ‘experts’ was quite high (despite what they say on the website).

I didn’t set off on the second day because I had real knee pain. The last 50 miles to York was tough, shooting pains in the back of the knee. This was all sorts of mistakes that I made – possibly seat slightly too high, possibly ITB issues. Took me a fair bit of physio to sort but anyway.

If you’re thinking of doing the 2 day one, make sure you get some decent mileage in before hand. It’s tough and not a lot of fun, but a great achievement.

The guys doing the 4 day one looked like they were having much more fun – finishing early, a few beers, time for food etc.!

I found the pit-stops to be poor though

Shame. The control points on the LEL are every 50 miles or so and have a full 3-course meal, available 24 hours a day. Honestly 🙂
(Except Traquair which had cake and whisky)

Seriously though, the achievement is brilliant, you get to see a vast amount of the country that you miss from the car. But there’s only one way to prepare for it and its racking up the miles to get you and your bike ready.

If you’re interested, my write up on the LEL is here:
LEL 2013