My first PBP was in 1999, on a low recumbent trike, though I’ll be on a more conventional machine this time. I recovered the following account of my ride, originally written for the Audax UK magazine Arrivée, from a file in a long-obsolete version of Word. Enjoy… And apologies for the lack of pictures
At the finish of the inaugural Wild Atlantic Way Audax (WAWA)—2,100km of hills, rain, and wind on the scenic west coast of Ireland, to be covered in 7 days and 7 hours—I struggled to sum up my experience to Eamon Nealon, the organiser. I’ll remember this ride as long as I live (I told him), which may not be very long if I do many events as hard as this…
So here’s my A-Z of the WAWA. I hope it’ll give you a flavour of the longest and most memorable ride of my randonneuring career.
Day 1. Looking towards the Sheep’s Head peninsula. The weather wasn’t always like this…
Time for an update on the competition among saddles for the questionable honour of supporting my Buttocks of Steel on the 1400km of London-Edinburgh-London. You can read about the early running here. Of the two Selle SMP saddles, the Avant proved to suit me better. But it became evident on Mike Wigley’s Holland 600 that it was likely to get a little medieval on my ass over the longest distances—it’s not quite clear to me what the problem is, but there’s chafing after 600km to a degree that suggests that 1400km on this saddle would make my eyes water.
So what to do? I’m going to try another leather saddle. This time a Rivet Independence. This has a similar slot to the Brooks Imperial, but is reportedly less inclined to splay and go sway-backed. We shall see.
I can always open a museum of saddles…
This is a report on the 2001 London-Edinburgh-London (more accurately, Thorne-Edinburgh-London-Thorne), which I rode on a prototype Trice Micro, a lightweight recumbent trike. The event was on a much smaller scale than LEL 2013, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t fun…
Winching my way up a Dorset hill on the Micro
By this point in my LEL preparations, I should in theory have done a couple of 400s and a 600. The first 400, Shawn Shaw’s Porkers, ended with a coughing fit in pitch-black Somerset lanes—a return of the lurgy that meant I didn’t even start the Hard-Boiled. The second 400, Mike Wigley’s Llanfair PG, was a joy from start to finish. Work-related travel meant I’d be unable to make the Brimstone or most of the other calendar 600s, so I showed up for Ian Hennessey’s Kernow and Southwest 600 the weekend after the Llanfair ride. Unfortunately my motivation failed to turn up with me, so I bailed when it became clear that at the current rate of progress I’d have minimal sleep time. OK, no 600s completed so far, and only one 400. What now? The answer: a summer Arrow to York—a team ride with the spirit of our late lamented friend, Dave Lewis. Here’s how it went.
Scenery (Mid-Wales)
My new Trek Domane has had its first proper test: the Heart of England 300. So maybe it’s time for a review.
The fourth 200 of the calendar year… A dry forecast, so I could take the proper audax bike rather than the tourer… This was going to be easy, right?
Ian leads the way at the start of the Mad March. Note frost on bridge
Another old ride report, in which I seem to be channelling P.G. Wodehouse. This ride, up to Scarborough, included a crossing of the Humber Bridge, which will also feature on this year’s Edinburgh-London. It’s an elegant structure, and also a popular suicide spot (a fact that becomes readily comprehensible when you ride through Barton-on-Humber)…
The Humber Bridge on a sunny day. Here’s hoping…
It was well worth braving the half-term hordes at the Hayward Gallery for this. Standouts were Carlos Cruz Diez’s Chromosaturation (a blue room, a red room, and a green room, sort of), Olafur Eliasson’s Timeless Garden (fountains frozen by strobe light in stop-time animation), and James Turrell’s Wedgework (a Rothko built from light).
I was strangely soothed…
A Turrell Wedgework
If you’re interested in modern Russian art (and you are, right?), I can recommend the current two-fer exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery. A sample:
Photo by Vikentiy Nilin (1993 onwards). Is that guy really sitting there? No idea…