JonFaircloughBlog

  “John I’ve got to stop!” I shouted as the pain in my neck stabbed me again. We rolled to a halt about 2 miles outside Cawdor near Inverness. It was just before 7 am and I had not slept for over 24 hours. I had completed 1182 km of the 1408 km of the LEJOG 1400 Audax event in 96 hours and there was 226km and 20 hours and forty minutes to go. I was exhausted and struggling to hold my head up riding the bike. John Watt and I had been cycling together since 10pm the previous evening when we left Braemar as darkness was descending. The organiser had encouraged us to ride together for safety’s sake and we both readily agreed to that. We had cycled and walked over the four long climbs including the infamous Lecht with its gradients of over 20%. John had been a great riding companion. The sun was now beginning to warm us. The intermittent pain in my neck had started to get worse when left the Braemar control. I had taken a tablet   of paracetamol to dull it, but I did not want t...

Anyone who has taken part in a time trial will know that the start sheet not only defines the event and when they start but will also have an impact on what their own performance and result. This blog looks at how a time trial start sheet is constructed, and how it also impacts rider safety. A time trial start sheet must define the name, bib number and start time of each rider, and can contain additional information such as club, team, gender, age, and age category. The order of riders in the start sheet is a key consideration. According to the CTT regulations , “ the Event Organiser shall have discretion to arrange the starting order as they wish bearing in mind the characteristics of their event and the need to avoid company riding as far as possible.“ The CTT regulations explains company riding by stating “Competitors must ride entirely alone and unassisted and not ride in company or take shelter (commonly known as drafting) from other riders or vehicles. A competitor overtaki...

The London Edinburgh London event, or LEL for short, is a world famous long distance cycling event organised by Audax UK. At 1540km and 14500m of climb, it is longer and more difficult than the famous 1200km long Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP), the oldest cycle race in the world. It is normally held every four years, but because of the pandemic, the 2021 edition was delayed to 2022. It attracts thousands of cyclists from around the world. I tried LEL in 2017 but had to retire through injury – my achilles swelled up – after 824km done. After successfully completing PBP in 2019 and feeling in good shape at the start of 2022, I decided to give LEL one more try. I am 68 and cannot expect to be capable of doing it in future years. I trained mainly by doing the audax super-randonneur series: 200km, 300km, 400km and 600km rides through April to July. I used a Cannondale Topstone Carbon 105 gravel bike with 38mm Panaracer Gravel King tyres. With the rear suspension on the bike and running the tyr...

I completed the 1200km Paris-Brest-Paris race in August, with a time of 79 hours 26 minutes, comfortably within the 90 hour time limit. There were 6374 starters and 1702 non-finishers/out of time (27% of starters). I got about four hours sleep during the ride. As usual I stopped for longer than most getting plenty to eat and drink at the controls every 100km or so. The roads were clear of traffic and of very good quality – no potholes to worry about when descending at speed at night. The support from the locals was fantastic, cheering the riders through the towns, offering free food and drink and then popping out from behind a tree in the countryside at 1 am.  I was surprised by how cold it got at night – several degrees below the weather forecast where there were temperature inversions in the valleys. Wind chill on downhills, especially the long one into Brest, made it worse. I had arm and leg warmers but missed winter gloves. On the last night I was struggling to keep my head u...

Land’s End to John O’Groats - another story Sustrans route with a racing bike??? I completed one of the major items on my cycling bucket list this year – the Land’s End to John O’Groats ride. Starting from Land’s End on July 10 th and arriving at John O’Groats on July 21 st , I used the Sustrans Guide, only departing from it to avoid the very rough stuff, and to get to my bed and breakfast for the night. The Sustrans guide is broken down into stages between 20 and 50 miles in length, and I planned to do two or three stages a day. The guide recommended not using a racing bike, but did suggest Gatorskin tyres were tough enough. I started with a pair of them on my racing bike as I don’t have a tourer. I wrote a blog recording my story of each day and emailed it to my friends and family. This article is compilation of the blog entries. Day 1 Land’s End to Bodmin 92 miles. My friends can see from my Strava data that I am slow. 11 mph average today. That's because I am ...