Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - Long Distance Cycling Event??

A group of us are thinking of doing this new event, saw it in the Telegraph on Saturday - Ride across Britain.

Has anybody done the route? I have never done anything that long before and it's a bit daunting so any tips would be good!

I rode from Inverness to the Isle of Skye, does that count? ;) I know, I know, Scotland really isn't part of England...;)

The ride sounds like a lot of fun. I'd say stop thinking about it and go do it!

It sounds like a great ride any way you slice it, but we need more info. Is it a one day ride or a tour, and how far, and how fast do you want to go? How long do you have to train up to it, and how far and fast can you ride right now?

If it's just a ride, and not a race, you can train up to it if you have enough time. In other words, go!

It's a charity tour for the Paralympics GB foundation. 9 days, ~110mi/stage.
One team is using the route as an attempt to break the current tandem End-to-End record, but the rest is a mass ride tour event with food and camping at the end of each day.

article I found about it (http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/james-cracknell-and-rebecca-romero-aiming-at-lejog-tandem-record-22548)


James - I'd suggest you ask about it over in the Touring forum for some more relevant answers.

It's a charity tour for the Paralympics GB foundation. 9 days, ~110mi/stage.
One team is using the route as an attempt to break the current tandem End-to-End record, but the rest is a mass ride tour event with food and camping at the end of each day.

article I found about it (http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/james-cracknell-and-rebecca-romero-aiming-at-lejog-tandem-record-22548)


James - I'd suggest you ask about it over in the Touring forum for some more relevant answers.

It looks like the ride is 10 months away; plenty of time to train up. A standard century training plan would get you ready to go. It sounds like great fun, like BRAG. And, yes, you would probably get more info on the touring forum.

Three of us did a similar thing last year calling it the Tour de Superior, going around Lake Superior. My wife drove end-to-end SAG, moving luggage from motel to motel but not providing support during the day. Since we were not carrying luggage, I didn't consider it touring. That ride was 10 days with 130 miles per day average. Since it was all daytime riding, we could travel without lights or other encumbrances that would be required for touring.

At 110 miles per day, as long as you are not carrying your own luggage, you should be able to complete each day's ride in good time.

One thing to keep in mind about something like this -- once you get beyond the first couple of days you'll find that your food consumption goes up a huge amount. The key thing about these multi-day rides is not so much training for speed, but training your body for the amount of food that you will need to eat each day -- at least that's what I found.

You will find that much of the time spend off the bike is spent eating -- I know, I've been through this a couple of times. You need to prepare by riding several weeks in a row prior to the ride with at least 300 miles per week, preferably longer. You cannot get into a food or liquid deficit because you don't have any recovery days.