It’s less than three weeks before LEL. I’ve done all my big rides, so it’s time to rest, fettle and take stock. Am I where I want to be?
Finishing the Exe-Buzzard was a big psychological boost, as was bagging my SR series. The main course of deep fried glory came with a side salad of niggling doubt, because I spent too long sleeping and took ages to get going again on Day 2. But I still made it. I was also riding it solo, which is harder than riding with company.
Fitness
On flat roads I can comfortably cruise at 32kmh. That’s respectably fast, if nowhere near the level of the average club racer. It certainly bodes will for next years 24hr TT, assuming I can hold my fitness until then. I can knock off a 400 in under 20hrs, a 300 in under 15hrs and a flat 200 in less than 8hrs. Again, these aren’t amazing times, but they’re definitely respectable and a sign that my fitness & endurance are where they ought to be. That said, it’s dangerous to use a fast one-day ride as an indicator of performance over 5 days. The really fast guys who win Roubaix and Flanders tend to climb like sacks of rocks and don’t feature at the sharp end of week long races. I suspect I’m more of a Classics chap than a Grand Tourer.
All that said, I reckon I’m in better shape than I was in 2022, when I started the year fast and gradually burnt out by the time I got to LEL.
Fatness
I’m still hovering around 82kg. That’s bloody annoying, but entirely self-inflicted. During the last few weeks of hot weather I’ve been eating my own weight in ice-lollies, which means I haven’t lost anything. 82kg is still lighter than I was at the start of LEL 2022. I’m in the ballpark where my weight isn’t a handicap, given my current fitness, but if I could just get under 80kg the difference would be significant.
Equipment
Fully loaded, Achilles weighs about the same as a small battleship. But he’s still fast and I can’t think of a way to meaningfully lighten the load. Shaving off a few grams here and there is pointless. Even losing a kilo or two wouldn’t make enough difference to be worth the effort. That’s slightly at odds to my desire to lose weight off my body, but a body with less flab just feels more efficient.
Anyway, I’d rather carry a 200g bivvy bag and some extra inner tubes than get hypothermia on a Scottish hillside at night in the pissing rain having run out of patches. I travel heavy, but I’d rather have potentially ride-saving kit with me, it’s useless at home. Racers at the sharp end of Trans-Continental might need to weigh their kit, for anyone else it’s a waste of time.
I know Achilles works, but he probably needs new cables and a general once-over. The Gyes saddle has become an old friend, as have the Time ATAC 6 pedals. Everything is tried, tested and reliable. Of course that doesn’t mean that it won’t break during LEL, but at least I’m not starting the ride with unfamiliar kit or stuff that’s on its last legs.
Keeping things charged is always a slight worry. The SP dynamo/Luxos U light combination that I’ve been using for nearly a decade has never let me down, but it does have an independent mind and I’m never 100% sure what it’s doing. I’ve got enough powerbanks (plus a hire & replace bank supplied by the event) to be comfortable though. Again, I could ditch a couple and save 250g, but at what cost if I need to recharge in the arse-end of nowhere? I’d rather have multiple redundancy and peace of mind than be a minute or two faster up Yad Moss.
Food and drink
The not-a-Camelbak has proved its value. I’ve replaced the bladder with one that opens from the top, simply to make refilling easier and less messy. I’ll take as much iced tea powder with me as I can, bagged up in 2 litre portions. It won’t last the whole of LEL, but I can alternate with water, Coke, fruit juice etc. It annoys the living piss out of me that virtually every soft drink these days contains artificial sweetener (which I hate) and that limits my choices at shops, garages etc. But whatever I have, the back pack makes drinking enough of it much easier.
Obviously I’ll be taking a load of guava blocks, in my Carradice and stashed in drop bags. Again, not enough to fuel an entire ride, but sufficient that I should have a couple to hand if other food runs out.
Tactics & psychology
Buggered if I know TBH. Go fast and long on Day 1, but risk burning out? Go short on Day 1 and reset to a day/night ride/sleep pattern? Go slow to start with & conserve energy or go fast and make up enough time to just trundle to the finish? It’s almost impossible to say what will work best and I think we’ll just have to decide on the road. The Schedule of Lies offers some guidance, but nothing more. It’s not a rigid plan and I hoped the 200 odd people who read that post bear this in mind. Riding with Andy means we both have to agree on any given course of action, but having someone else decide can be a big help and I’m sure we’ll take turns to make those decisions.
Head-wise I think I’m ok. I was a DNS on my last scheduled ride (the Sunseekers & Moonrakers 300) because I’ve spent a lot of time away recently, either riding or helping my Dad after he crashed his car, and I just wanted to be back home. I’m away helping on a 600 next weekend as well, so a bit of downtime with Baggy and the cats seemed necessary and important. LEL could still go utterly tit shaped, but I’ll have company and that should see me through. If I make it to Moffatt I reckon I’ll finish.
There are no reasons why I shouldn’t finish comfortably. I’m fit, my kit works and I know what I’m doing. But I might have to remind myself of that on a few occasions when it all feels a bit too much like hard work.
Well Chuffed Cycling 