I second that comment about the industrial NW...my BiL, route organiser, happened to be working in that area at the time and he has a photographic memory for routes, so he spent a weekend recceying a route that avoided A roads and towns where possible.
I did RAB 7 years ago in absolutely awful weather. It was a great experience and really stress free with everything organised (like bike transport to and from start). I’ve done loads of cycling trips over the years and it was one of the best
2017? Yes, that was pretty biblical wasn't it?! Cav rode a stage of it that - in the pissing rain out of Bath I seem to remember.
Hi
I did this 10 years ago. LEJOG direction, supposedly better for wind assistance!
Honestly, I couldn't wait to get it over with. I'm delighted that I've done it and I still feel that people think that it is an achievement as such, but it is only really other cyclists that will understand what it feels like to get up and do 10 hours on a bike on that 9th/10th day.
My advice would be to give some serious consideration as to what your reasons for doing it are. If it's a charity or a box-tick thing then your aims and methods are going to be very different to if you want any form of enjoyment from it.
Firstly for most people both Land's End and John O'Groats are a hell of a long way from home. Factor in a day getting to the start, and back to the finish on top of the cycling days and decide if the total number of days is a worthwhile use of your annual leave.
In either direction the first and the last day are going to be the worst in terms of hills. If you haven't been before both are an anti climax. Obviously at this point there is only one road out/in.
My advice would be to design a cycling touring type route which just happens to begin and end at Land's End/John O'Groats and makes the most of the best cycling and the things to see along the route. I grew up in Cheshire so the route we took went past the end of my road, but by the end of the first day I'd ticked off Cornwall and didn't go back for another 7 years. That seemed to set the tone for the rest of the trip, in that, you end up cycling past dozens of brown signs indicating fascinating things but don't see anything other than the hedge next to you for most of the trip.
If you decide to 'fix' your stopping points along the route, do it for places you want to spend a couple of hours or see something, this will give you more pleasure and something to look forward to during the ride than dividing the total miles by the days and finding the closest accommodation. We stayed in some shitholes. Establishments and towns.
Choose your companions with care. Train. Don't be the slowest. Have a practice run out a few months before. We did coast to coast in 3 days over the Easter and then the LEJOG at the end of May. Eat constantly, even when you don't feel like it. Eat every 20 mins even after you've gorged yourself on the breakfast buffet. Eat something of a decent quality for lunch. Something that isn't a carvery. Drink beer in the evening. 3/4 pints is the sweet spot between free calories and dehydration. Take ibuprofen with every meal and paracetamol every 4 hours whether you think you need it or not. Wear a mountain bike liner short under your padded bib shorts. Have a garmin, if only to count down the miles each day. Take photos even when you think you can't be bothered
I wouldn't pay too much attention to the actual route you take with regard to the traffic. It'll be a nightmare most of the way whichever way you go. In Cornwall and Devon you may as well stick to the dual carriageways, there is better visibility and the minor roads are steeper. Shap fell is a bitch. For me once you get over the Clyde it gets much better. Alongside Loch Lomond for a while it's almost enjoyable. The road through Glen Coe is at least pretty. Once you get to Wick John O'Groats never seems to arrive.
Practically you can save a bit of time by staying in Penzance and doing the first bit as an out and back on day-1, and the neareast station at the other end is Georgemas rather than Wick or Thurso. If you don't have a support crew sleeper trains are probably the way to cut out a lot of the travel hassle.
Otherwise it is surprisingly easy. It's mainly a trudge rather than an adventure and the riding is not especially spectacular. But you should end up with a few stories.
http://pinkpinarello.blogspot.com/2015/08/
Our trip in 2015 as recorded by my SiL. Some family references in there but a good sense of our experience.
@onetimeews - that's a great summary - especially the ibuprofen and paracetamol advice! - my buddy described me as "rattling" by the time we finished the RAB, but at least I didn't have any aches and pains!
Long time ago I was paid off and flew to Bilbao , this change my view of cycling in the UK. Cycled back to Swindon, thats why i will never do LeJog . Done quite a few Spain and France end to ends. In Europe it's a different culture and cyclists are treated as human beings.
Long time ago I was paid off and flew to Bilbao , this change my view of cycling in the UK. Cycled back to Swindon, thats why i will never do LeJog . Done quite a few Spain and France end to ends. In Europe it’s a different culture
I can see attraction of that, to be fair.
A friend has just retired and decided Lejog wasn't as attractive as she thought. Last year she did France from the Channel to the Med, and she's just finished Munich to Rome, which looks pretty amazing on her photos.
There seems to be a quite good route (that’s part of Eurovelo1) along the French Atlantic coast
onetimeews – that’s a great summary – especially the ibuprofen and paracetamol advice!
Where as for me,that is the polar opposite of my experience and sounds horrendous.
It reads like one those people that take up running ,find they hate it,but persist ,while at the same time banging on about how much they loathe it,then question why anybody would ever take up running.
Luckily we are all different.
My top tips would be.
Start early,finish early.
Eliminate as much faffing as possible.
Get comfortable with the distances.
Enjoy.
Don't spend too much time on cafe stops.
Have your accomodation and food on the stops sorted out.
Make sure the bike and all your kit is prepped each night.
Enjoy
Cycling Uk forum linky https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewforum.php?f=22&sid=4562de98c831d2f62733e1c360a3b30a
I wanted to do something a bit diifferent so did the opposite diagonal, Dover to Durness (OK the pedants will say Cape Wrath is the top left, but that involves a ferry that only operates in good weather) which was good fun. It didn't have the hilly start that you have with LeJoG. We booked up travel lodges, premier inns etc well in adavnce so the rates were fairly reasonable. Midges were a bit of an issue in Scotland, so take some repellant if you're going in the midge season.
Are you doing it as a challenge or as enjoyment? One of our group was a German colleague who abandoned (we had a support car) on the last day with only about 40 miles to go. I tried to persuade him to finish, but with teutonic logic he said that he was doing the ride for enjoyment and as it was raining he was no longer enjoying it................
Top tip - wash your shorts in the shower at the end of the day. Lay the wet shorts on a hotel towel, roll up the towel and shorts (a bit like a swiss roll) and wring it, this will get the shorts fairly dry, they'll finish drying overnight on the radiator, ready for the morning.
Where as for me,that is the polar opposite of my experience and sounds horrendous
Yeah, me too. And judging from chatting to a lot of LEJOGers when I collected them in JoG, most seemed to really enjoy the experience, whether they'd taken 4 days or 14, camped or hotelled, ridden solo or as a group.
For those advocating French or Spanish end to ends or EV1, I've done EV1, Route Via de la Plata and a French Manche to Med. I found, these are not mutually exclusive with doing a LeJog... Riding on the Continent is fantastic. My chums and I did the Route des Grande Alpes a few weeks ago and it was both tough and brilliant. So much so, I'd happily do it again and it's got me thinking of the 100 Cols... Different from the other routes mentioned but not betterer or worser.
LeJog is a particularly Brit cyclist thing to do and is bit of a milestone in any keen Brit cyclists career. Yes there's other stuff out there but they're not LeJog.
I wouldn’t pay too much attention to the actual route you take with regard to the traffic. It’ll be a nightmare most of the way whichever way you go.
This just isn't true. As many previous posters have pointed out, taking the fastest, most direct route won't be a very enjoyable cycling experience, but if you have the time to take a slightly more roundabout path, you can do some really nice cycling between Lands End and John o' Groats. Loch Lomond and Glencoe is one of the worst options for cycling north; great scenery, but the motor traffic on those roads will overshadow any enjoyment from the cycling. I'd even suggest that the coast road up through Wick is not the best way to get to the north coast. There are also some lovely roads up along the Welsh/English border.
The problem with LeJog will always be that you are constraining the start and end of your route with a couple of arbitrary geographical points, and for many people that will means some compromises for the cycling. I have never ridden LeJog as one event, but I have ridden all the way between the south coast and the north coast in various forms over the years, and there are a number of nice ways of doing that which avoid busy roads and major conurbations.
Drink beer in the evening. 3/4 pints is the sweet spot between free calories and dehydration. Take ibuprofen with every meal and paracetamol every 4 hours whether you think you need it or not.
No
My wife did the RAZ, she said the access to decent sleeping and food was great. Also the daily access to physios and masseuses was great as well. She worked for Deloitte at the time who were the title sponsor so only had to raise money rather than pay the full cost.
She said that doing it in a big organised way like this was much nicer than any so,owing missions she’d done in the past as everyone was friendly and like minded.
Said she’d not ride LEJOG again though!
Our (organised/sponsored) ride broke each day into 5 chunks of around 20km. We'd set off after breakfast (slower riders first), ride 20km to some layby or car park, snack, another 20km, snack, another 20km got us to lunch - usually a pub/cafe but one day it was a Buddhist monastery. After lunch, the slower riders would set off first again, another 20km for a snack stop and another 20km got us to.our overnight stop. None of it felt particularly pushed or pacy and it would often be different folk you'd be riding with as everyone went through their highs and lows.
The route was signposted for us, removing one potential delay reason.
^^^^ what about the other 38 miles though ? ...
We were a mixed-ability group and completed it in 10 days at around 100 miles per day.
I wouldn't do it as an organised event but then again, I wouldn't do a Sportive etc. The only organised stuff I've done in the past few years are the Dunwich Dynamo in 2022 when there were very few entrants (wonder why...?) and Chase the Sun. Other than that, not interested as I prefer to paddle my own canoe. I did do the Fred but by pinching the GPX and otherwise going DIY.
We did it over 21 days. Minor roads in England, the Scottish roads were quiet.
No pressure and lots of stops.
I was worried it may put my wife off cycling but we were lucky with the weather so it did not.
The main hassle is start and finish logistics.
We hired a one way van to Lands End to start.
As many previous posters have pointed out, taking the fastest, most direct route won’t be a very enjoyable cycling experience, but if you have the time to take a slightly more roundabout path, you can do some really nice cycling between Lands End and John o’ Groats. Loch Lomond and Glencoe is one of the worst options for cycling north; great scenery, but the motor traffic on those roads will overshadow any enjoyment from the cycling. I’d even suggest that the coast road up through Wick is not the best way to get to the north coast. There are also some lovely roads up along the Welsh/English border.
100% this.
If you actually take some time and effort to plot the route carefully, you can get a surprising amount on quiet lanes and terrain such as old railway paths and similar traffic-free trails which are normally do-able on most road bikes. A few sections where you really do have to weave around a lot or accept that you'll be on some busy roads. Notably crossing the Liverpool / Manchester / Leeds corridor, pretty much wherever you do it is going to involve some urban jungle or a LOT of wandering around on towpaths and highly variable Sustrans routes but otherwise it's possible to do large swathes of it on really quite scenic roads.
n Cornwall and Devon you may as well stick to the dual carriageways, there is better visibility and the minor roads are steeper.
I disagreed with much of this post but this bit stood out. The minor roads through Cornwall and Devon were a delight on my tour. I followed the CTC route using the King Harry ferry, stayed at Golant then over Dartmoor to Exeter. You couldn't pay me enough to ride on the A30.
You couldn’t pay me enough to ride on the A30.
The old A30 isn't too bad and is a decent enough way of covering some mileage. Hardly any proper traffic uses it cos it's all on the new A30 (the one that you really wouldn't go anywhere near on a bike!)
But yes, I agree with you - Cornwall and Devon are stuffed with super quiet tiny little lanes which are wonderful to ride, if a tad steep in places!
Latest thread on Lejog I could find.
Any recommendations for cyclists accommodation in Penrith?
I have booked The Lounge Hotel and Bar (its in the Cicerone guide), but myself and Booking.com are failing miserably to find out, phoned, emailed, etc, if they have a safe lock up for bikes. Only thing I found was a post from 2012 saying it had a garage or cellar room (apologies I can't remember which) for bikes
Cheers in advance.
Looks like my previous post was lost in the ether somewhere.
Latest thread on Lejog I could find. Any recommendations for cyclists accommodation in Penrith?
I have booked The Lounge Hotel and Bar (its in the Cicerone guide), but myself and Booking.com are failing to make any sort of contact by phone, email, etc, ... to confirm they had secure storage for bicycles. The only thing I had picked up was someone staying thete in 2012 which mentioned a garage/cellar store 🤷♂️
There's a prem inn in penrith, in the keswick one they have lockable cycle sheds in the car park, covered by camera. I took my front wheel off just in case
^ cheers. I've booked a couple of PI's eg Penzance and know you can put bikes in the room. Keswick having a lockable shed is useful to know. Though wise to remove a wheel!
^^ must have taken best part of an hour for my posts above to appear.
I have booked The Lounge Hotel and Bar (its in the Cicerone guide), but myself and Booking.com are failing to make any sort of contact by phone, email, etc, ... to confirm they had secure storage for bicycles.
Unbook it and go for the Premier Inn.
You can take your bike into the room in all of those (as long as it's not absolutely filthy!). There's a crossover point of "nice local accommodation, local beers on tap, support the independent businesses" and "get the job done, guaranteed secure bike storage".
If they can't be bothered to answer a question of "is there secure bike storage", they're not going to care when you turn up there after a long day in the saddle and just want to drop the bike off and get showered. Also, you'd be surprised at what some places count as "secure bike storage". They reply yes, you'll be expecting a lockable shed at the very least and they'll point you to a Sheffield stand just a couple of minutes walk down the road, yes, that corner where the scallies are standing, just pop it over there.
Ive never had a hotel fail to find me somewhere to put my bike
Must admit I'm about to throw in the towel with the hotel and switch to PI.
One place did say I could leave my bicycle (I'm careful to say bicycle to avoid confusion) on the patio round the back. Can't imagine the insurance company saying no worries here is your money and as for the internal grief after months of preparing and training for Lejog 🤐
I wonder if there's a list of hotels along the route(ish) that are bike-friendly?
There's a Lejog section/forum on the Cycling UK site iirc, if you haven't looked already
The Cicerone guidebook lists some places in the stops it recommends and, as noted above, there is a PI in Penrith. I also used Booking.com which was useful and Airbnb which was much less useful. I will also look at some hostel sites as well.
I was just surprised how difficult it has proven to clarify safe bike storage with The Lounge Hotel and Bar by any means!
I've had a quick look at the Cycling UK site and will look at in more detail.
Some good tips above but doubt I'll follow the Ibruprofen and paracetamol advice 😬
The last major decision we need to make is whether we do the
Moffat to South Queensferry to Pitlochry or the
Moffat to Balloch to Pitlochry option.
The latter apparantly more attractive but much longer days in the saddle and for our old legs could be too much. Cycling over the Forth Road Bridge could be epic !
The bridge is good to ride over for sure but epic might be overstating it.I wouldn't go via balloch Seems a long way round
When I did the Scottish section my route was from Penrith to Edinburgh via Longtown,Langholm,Eskdalemuir and Innerleithen. Having now done the (RTTS) a few times ,I would choose the Moffat to South Queensferry option .Past Queensferry there are some nice roads up through Fife and Perthshire to get to Dunkeld. From there I went on the Dalguise side of the A9 ( NCR 7) to Pitlochry ,then used the cyclepath and mix of the old roads to Moy and Culloden/ Inverness. Even on skinny tyres ,I found the path sections and old roads fine .
I also disagree with TJ, crossing the old Forth road bridge is always epic.Wedged between the new and the old, it's a perfect viewing platform 😉 😀 😀
Sorry - meant the hotel
You've sold me on the Forth Road Bridge! Did RttS last year and thoroughly enjoyed.
I'll compare your route up to Pitlochry with that in tbe Cicerone guide but at 1st look it seems pretty similar as minimal actual cycling on the A9 👍
Sorry - meant the hotel
Yup.
But it's the inability to make any sort of meaningful contact with them that's put me off staying there. I could not find anything on their website which even hinted at safe bicycle storage.
Fair point!
Actually, I think Cicerone have something you can look at online for updates to their books, assuming you have bought one. I'll take a look at when I get back home.
Ooops
The Lounge Hotel and Bar (its in the Cicerone guide)
No it isn't, my mistake and apologies to Cicerone.
It does say on their website they are on the C2C route, but nothing about not answering the phone, emails, etc, .. so we will book elsewhere.
Drawn from my personal experience. Don't:
Use a full suspension mtb
In October
With a rucksack
Using pages ripped from. Aa road map.
Apart that, it's 👌
