See the section for Great
Britain of the Trento Bike Pages
Land's End to John O'Groats by bicycle with 3 others - May
1992 - Preparation
By Peter Seaman (pseaman@cix.compulink.co.uk),
contributed on Fri, 17 Mar 95 19:39 GMT
This is part 1 of a report consisting of 4 parts. See
Part 2 (First Week),
Part 3 (Second Week),
Part 4 (Odds and Ends),
the Index, or
the (very big!) one-file version.
"This very remarkable man,
Commends a most practical plan:
You can do what you want
If you don't think you can't,
So don't think you can't think you can." ..Proverb
After I attended an outdoor course at Brathay in 1987 I developed a
taste for outdoor adventures of one sort or another. I subsequently did
a 7-day 'Adult Challenge' course at the Ullswater Outward Bound centre,
involving climbing, caving, abseiling, canoeing and various other
challenging activities. Two years later I joined a 3-week "Highland
Rover" hiking and canoeing experience with 11 others organised by
Outward Bound Loch Eil in the wilderness aroud Fort William. The
biggest difficulties on this one were the almost continuous rain and
biting midgies. Last year I thought it might be interesting to try to
cycle from Land's End to John O'Groats with a party of other racing
cyclists in a time which for me would be quite challenging.
Although the main purpose of the journey was to attempt a challenge,
have a bit of fun and take a holiday, I found that many people expected
me to raise money for charity, and when my friend Sue Bickly offered to
organise fund-raising provided a portion went to the local school I
readily agreed. I found that almost everybody I knew (and many I
didn't) were most willing to commit a sum of money on a sponsorship
form. Over #500 was raised, of which 80% went to Greenpeace and
20% to the local school. Before leaving, the headmistress asked me to
give a talk to the school, so I turned up with my bike and cycling gear
and showed them on a globe of the earth the distance we would be
travelling. I was most impressed by the behaviour and attentiveness of
the children and their non-ending questions.
How much of a challenge?
Many People with little or no training have made the journey in about 14
days. Until recently the 847 mile record was held by John Woodburn in
an incredible 1 day 21 hours, who achieved this in 1985 when his age at
47 was little different to my age now. I started cycling in a
competitive way about 3 years ago, encouraged by a friend I would meet
early mornings to do a 10 mile circular tour. The more we did this
circuit the more our times improved, the best to date being at an
average speed of 21mph. At the end of last year I joined the Winchester
VC Venta Wessex Window Systems cycling club and I have since done a few
time trials, achieving 10 miles at 24 mph, and 25 miles at 23 mph.
I continued training through last winter with two friends Jim
Montgomerie and Dave Byrnes and gradually augmented my weekly distance
to about 250 miles per week. Most of these runs have been done at
average speeds between 16 and 20 mph. Before the end to end, the
greatest distance I have ever cycled in one day was 114 miles across
France to Le Havre in 1990. I did find this rather tough and certainly
did not feel like repeating it the following day. I decided therefore
that 120 miles per day over about 8-9 days would be a good challenge for
me, and expected to average when moving about 15 mph.
Selection of riders
Several people at my club have done the 'end to end' and all said it
was worthwhile. Many expressed an interest in repeating the exercise
but none were available for a trip at the time I wished to do it - May
1992. I decided the only way I could do the journey in a party would be
if I organised it myself, so I therefore placed the following
advertisement in the Personal column of Cycling Weekly, on October 19th,
1991:-
"LANDS END to John O'Groats, May 1992. Other cyclists wanted to join me
on this tour, at about 120 miles/day, accompanied by vehicle. Share
expenses. Please telephone 0962-712530"
I was encouraged by the results. Altogether I had 15 replies (all male)
to the advertisement, and I also wrote to three friends who I thought
might be interested in the challenge. (They all declined). I hate
organising things and avoid it whenever possible because I know that it
is never simple or straightforward, it takes time and effort and expense
and that one invariably receives critiscism when things go wrong and
little or no appreciation if things go right. But in this case I
decided that the advantages of being able to make certain decisions and
to pick and choose my colleages outweighed these disadvantages.
Moreover, I knew that if I did not organise the trip myself no-one else
would either and I would have to go alone or not at all.
First I set the date and thought about the ideal size of group. I
decided that the right size party would be 6 cyclists. Although I
object to motor cars and generally have little use for one I felt that
one car shared between 6 was justifiable. The car was essential because
I was determined to travel light on a racing bike with no mudguards or
panniers. More than 6 cyclists would create an extra danger on busy
roads and would slow down the party as a whole because of punctures,
breakdowns, and discussions. The more cyclists the more likely the
slowest cyclist would be out of line with the others. Fewer than 6
increases the expense, reduces the fun and wastes the car.
In order to select 5 of the 15 cyclists I wrote to them all with three
basic questions. The first question was to find out the kind of route
each preferred - (a) fast main road route minimum distance and time, (b)
primarily B roads with a few A roads, or (c) a scenic route consisting
primarily of B roads and unclassified roads. The second question asked
what distance they ideally wanted to ride each day and the third
question asked how much they wished to spend.
From the replies I took full advantage of my position as organiser and
selected the 5 cyclists whose replies indicated they were most
compatible with the way I wanted to do it myself. The route was to be
about 1000 miles along scenic country lanes; our distance was to be 120
miles per day and we would spend up to #500 per person. The chosen
cyclists were (1) Ian Noons a prison Officer from Cambridge (2) Ron
Gager a retired British Telecom Manager from Caterham (3) Lindsay
Venner an ex-English teacher and now a cycling courier from London (4)
Ian Dymock a Bosun who works on Admiralty tugs at Plymouth (5) Gary
Benjamin a night club owner from Hereford and (6) myself a computer
programmer from Winchester.
Surplus riders
Another question I asked each of the 15 applicants was whether they
would be willing to organise a second party if they were not selected
for my own group. Andy Maddox said he was willing to do this if noone
else was. I therefore appointed him leader of "group 2" and wrote to all
those not selected for my group suggesting they contact Andy for further
arrangements. That was the last contact I made with these 10 people
until I contacted Andy in April 1992. I was disappointed to learn that
Andy had now decided not to go himself, and was surprised that neither
had he contacted the others nor had any of them contacted him, in spite
of my efforts in writing to them all.
Correspondence
Between October 1991 and May 1992 several letters passed between myself
and the 5 cyclists, covering such matters as route, training,
accommodation, car, sponsorship, and clothing. I organised two drivers -
my nephew Phillip Beeson and a friend Sandy Booth from Canada. Sandy
had visited us in Sept 1991 and when I told her about my trip she was
keen to fly over again and drive for us. I contacted the CTC and
obtained details of three possible routes. My wife agreed to lend our
car which was hoped to be a diesel VW Golf, but being a one-car family I
had to arrange an alternative vehicle for her to use.
Selection of route
Based on both my own and everyone else's stated wishes I selected the
CTC scenic route of some 1000 miles which involved B roads and many
unclassified lanes over some of the loveliest countryside in England and
Scotland. I made various modifications, wrote it up in great detail and
distributed it to the party for comment in March 1992. No-one suggested
changing the route and I therefore prepared my maps with no intention of
altering it during the trip without very good reason. As I myself get
lost pretty easily I thought it sensible to share the problem of
navigation amongst the riders who claimed expertise in particular areas
- Ian Dymock for Cornwall and Devon, Lindsay Venner for Somerset Avon
and Gloucestershire, Gary Benjamin for Shropshire, Ian Noons for the
North West and Ron Gager for Scotland. As far as I was concerned I now
considered the way fixed, but I was to discover later that some of the
riders ignored this preparation of the route and wanted to change it the
night before a journey, causing unnecessary discussion and pressure when
time was usually short and sleep desperately needed.
Doubt about one of the riders
In March I started to decide the stops and arrange accommodation, this
involved much study of the maps, diversions and many phone calls. I
found that Youth Hostels require payment in advance, so I asked everyone
to pay me #58 for this purpose. Receiving this deposit would also give
me some assurance that they really were intending to come, and I asked
for the money by Easter (April 17th) at the latest. Ian Noons did not
reply by the necessary date so I chased him up by telephone. He said
yes he is almost certainly coming and promised a cheque. This did not
arrive when he said it would and I was uncertain whether to assume he
would be coming (and pay his deposit myself) or not. Eventually Ian
wrote with apology and a cheque, so I now had committment from all 5
riders and I went ahead with the bookings. I arranged through family
and friends free accommodation for all at Hawick and a meal for all
in Sedbergh in Cumbria. In addition Lindsay arranged a free meal for us
at his parents house at St Briavels near the Severn Bridge, so it seemed
unlikely we would exceed our budget.
Another rider decides at late stage not to come
A week before the proposed departure I received a letter from Gary
Benjamin saying he had been unable to do sufficient training and had
decided not to start the trip as he felt he would not be strong enough
to keep up with us. I tried to persuade him still to start (suggesting
he might consider starting one or two days earlier) but to no avail.
This was a big disappointment as it was clearly then far too late to
find a replacement. The six riders were now down to five.
Personal problem and delayed departure
Then on the Wednesday before the proposed Sunday departure date a
totally unexpected personal problem arose - a serious illness in my wife
requiring an operation on the following Monday, the very day we were
scheduled to leave for Land's End. After considering various options we
decided to postpone the trip by two days to enable me to see my wife
through the immediate aftermath of the surgery.
Loss of Ian Noons from party
To see if a two day delay would be acceptable I called each of the other
participants in turn. Ian Noons said he had allowed no contingency at
all and had to leave on the Monday as planned or he would not be able to
return to work 9 days later. The others said they could accept a 48
hour delayed start so I decided to go for it and with assistance from
Ron Gager and Sandy Booth we re-arranged the accommodation as best we
could. Three of us tried many times to re-contact Ian Noons but he was
neither at work nor at home and could not be contacted, not did he
contact me. Finally on the Monday night he phoned in from Taunton
having cycled there from Land's End solo after deciding to do the whole
trip in 6 days on his own. The accommodation had been booked for him but
I undertook to return as much of his deposit as possible.
Ian called me a week or so after we returned from John O'Groats to say
he had made Bristol the second day but had then given up. Travelling
with panniers on his own was no fun and he felt insufficient incentive
to go on. It was a pity he did not come with us. From what he told me
of his time trial times he is a very strong cyclist. I think he could
have cycled with us to somewhere in Scotland and then gone ahead to John
O'Groats on his own. He could have made up the lwo lost days by taking
say 3 days instead of our last 5 and thereby arriving on the original
date planned. Alternatively, he could have done Land's End to Dunoon
with us and returned from there, which though not John O'Groats would
have been better than Bristol!
Communications
As we would be travelling light we needed to be able to contact the car
for nourishment and in case of accidents, breakdowns, or bad weather. I
purchased a small CB radio and considered mounting it on a bicycle, but
rejected the idea because of the need for a 24 watt power supply. I was
fortunate in being lent a device that can be used as a PC, a portable
computer terminal and a cellular telephone. We considered mounting this
on a bicycle, and although compact and relatively lightweight it would
have been too cumbersome. At times during the journey we reached 50
mph, and though 30% of the weight of the bike on the handlebars may have
added to the excitement at these speeds it would not have improved the
safety aspects. I was also lent a very compact cellular phone for
carrying in my back pocket on the bike.
The Tandy CB radio was fitted in the car but the only thing we ever got
from it was noise.
Peter Seaman
STABLE SOFTWARE
This is part 1 of a report consisting of 4 parts. See
Part 2 (First Week),
Part 3 (Second Week),
Part 4 (Odds and Ends),
the Index, or
the (very big!) one-file version.