Land's End to John O'Groats 2009
The 2009 LEJOG was held over 11 days in late July/early August. There are various ways to do this, but we wanted a fully-supported tour, and with the minimum time off work. We also picked a route that went through Wales (obviously!).
The first day (a Thursday) was spent getting to Cornwall, with a minibus (for the riders) and a van (for the bikes), so the ride could start first thing Friday morning. The van and minibus both did the full trip, which meant they each did more than 2000 miles. They carried the bags, but more importantly were able to scout ahead for places to eat, and cope with mechanicals. The bikes spent each night safe in our hotel rooms, except at the Premier Inn in Fort William, where £30k of bikes had to spend the night in the van. Apparently this has something to do with mountain bikers and Ben Nevis, so we weren't happy about it.
One important lesson learned was NOT to spend the night in John O'Groats, but to travel back to Inverness. That gives everyone not just a fun night in a city with actual night-clubs, but also a 120 mile headstart in the morning, or to put it another way, 2.5 hours. A previous tour had driven straight from JoG to Port Talbot, and discovered that at 6pm in the evening they were still in Scotland.
It was organised as a fund-raiser for Tŷ Hafan children's hospice, and the amount raised was in excess of £4000.
