Lands End to John O'Groats
	A journey in more ways than one

Preparation

A good start is the Cyclist’s Touring Club, among other things of use to the cyclist, they produce an End to End pack with stuff like route suggestions, accommodation lists & merchandise order forms.

I planned on preparing more than I did. I was already a fairly strong cyclist before I started, but still felt the need to get extra miles in.

Training

Like I said, I had plenty of cycling miles in my legs before I started. And I'm sure that's the key, get the miles in. It'll help if there's some hills involved, but essentially it's about mileage.

I felt ready when I was comfortable on the bike for 100 mile rides and happy riding 3 hours non stop. I'm quite sure that cyclists with less mileage and fitness could complete the ride. But I worked on the theory that the more training I did, the more fun I'd have on the ride.

Pre Booking

I booked the train to Penzance and the B&B in Sennan in advance. I then booked each nights B&B the previous day, once I was sure I'd make it. As it turned out I didn't have any problems so could have booked them all from the start. I was trying to avoid having to make a whole load of phone calls to rearrange if something went wrong.

I tried to book the train home on the Sunday, but wasn't able to pick the ticket up before the train left on Monday morning. If I'd had a bike space booked on the train from Edinburgh I'd have been home considerably earlier (and had a lot less hassle).

Bike

To be honest the bike didn't take much in the way of preparation at all. I had a couple of practice rides with all the luggage on, put a new chain and brakes on just before I set off & made sure everything was tight, clean & lubricated as necessary.

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This page last updated on 14/08/2002