When are you starting the ride? Saturday 14th June 2008.
How many miles is the trip? Approximately 940.
How many days will it take? We hope around 12 days.
How many miles a day are you planning to ride? Start off at 45 a day, rising gradually to 95 by Day 7, then staying at 95 for the final five days.
Will you be raising money? Yes, Mike and Adam will be raising money for
CRY, Steve and Chris for Hertfordshire Scouts.
Have you done lots of training for this? We have all been building our mileage up in recent weeks, but it’s impossible for us to be prepared to cycle 95 miles a day, so to an extent we will be training during the ride.
Will you have a support vehicle accompanying you? No, we will have to carry all our clothes, maps and bike equipment with us all the way!
Why are you travelling from South to North, as it’s 'uphill'?! To take advantage of the south-west prevailing winds, which will mainly be following us unless we are very unlucky.
Why have you chosen to ride in late June? For three reasons: a) as the weather will hopefully be warm, but cooler than July and August, b) to maximise daylight hours, c) to avoid the main holiday traffic.
How are you all getting to Lands End? We are taking the train from Hertford North station to London Kings Cross, then cycling to London Paddington, then taking the direct train to Penzance, then cycling the 12 miles to Lands End.
- How are you returning from John O’Groats? We are cycling 17 miles to Wick, then taking the 4-hour train journey to Inverness. Then after a one or two ales that evening, we will rent a car to take ourselves and the four bikes home.
Is there a set LEJOG route? Yes, there is a 'classic' route, which we plan to follow, except for a small diversion into Wales, so that we can say we’ve conquered all three countries in mainland Britian.
Which route through Scotland will you take? There appear to be two very different routes, but we’ve gone for the West of Scotland (through Dumfries, Fort William, Loch Ness) rather than Central Scotland (through Edinburgh, Stirling, Aviemore) mainly because of the road quality, and it’s 20 miles shorter. Some years ago both routes seemed to be equally popular, but in 2007 around 80% of End to Enders rode West.
- Where will you stay en route? We are not camping, but have pre-booked B&B's and Youth Hostels (where available).
- How will you update your blog on a daily basis? Mike will ring his brother each day with a summary of events, who will post this onto the page, therefore being the trip's official ghost writer.
- What happens if you break down or get a puncture? We have some basic tools which repair punctures and other small mechanical problems. Anything major and we will have to look for a local bike shop for repairs,
- How will you cope with sore buttox? This may only be an issue in the first couple of days, after then it tends not to be too much of a problem, despite myths to the contrary. If it does then there's always ibuprofen and chaf-ease or vaseline.
- Will you be stopping and doing any sightseeing along the way? Although we would like to stop off at places of interest along the way, the schedule doesn't allow much flexibility. At an average of 80ish miles a day, we will be hard pushed to take too many breaks during the day.
- What happens if the weather is bad? We will just have to grin and bear it. We will have waterproof jackets with us but we will be praying that we don't need them.
