A letter to Will

A chap called 'Will' is looking to follow a selection of LEL riders over the course of the event which will include interviews before, after and during the ride itself. Some riders he will follow closely over the five days whereas others he will just catch up with as and when is convenient. His aim is to capture the epic experience of participating in this unique event, so will be there to document the highs, the lows and everything in between. He'll no doubt have the opportunity to film all the beautiful panoramas and vistas he needs, but it's the personal and psychological journey he hopes to capture from participants participation. 

I let Will know that I was interested in his official LEL documentary. At his request, I sent him a letter (email) with a few paragraphs about myself and my riding experience. Hopefully, he'll be arranging a day to meet with interested participants (like myself) before the event, and will be in touch once a date is set. For those unable to make it to London to meet with him, he'll try and arrange a meeting over skype. My letter is presented below:

Hi Will,

My name is Tim and I’m a 30 plus year old cyclist who isn’t a big fan of hills or head winds but is keen to take on many a cycling challenge. I have completed numerous challenges in my time including LEJOG and PBP. This year I am hoping to complete LEL.

I first cycled an audax in 2010 and became hooked. Without really realising what a huge challenge PBP was going to be, I decided that was my goal. Training was fun but hard. My qualifying events were great – I completed the necessary SR series (a series of rides consisting of a 200, 300, 400 and 600k rides). My SR was tough as I also ensured all these individual rides had AAA (Audax Altitude Award) points, essentially ‘hilly’ points to go with them. Further to that, I made sure all these rides were Black Sheep events too – just because the organiser (Mark Rigby) was a nice chap and his routes were awesome.

And then came PBP. My girlfriend, now wife (Sarah Jane), best buddy (Chris Hodge) and his son (Ben) all came to France with me. Sarah Jane was there to support me throughout PBP and Chris and Ben were there to see me off. 77 hours and 14 mins after starting the PBP and I had finished it! What an awesome event this was but how hard it was too.  I vowed I (probably) wouldn’t complete such a strenuous event again but ‘talked the talk’ about completing LEL in 2013.

After PBP, I took on challenges of a different sort. Firstly, I became a married man and not long after became a father (to my beautiful daughter Lunar). Ideas of LEL were quickly dismissed. Then, my best buddy Chris informed me that he had joined audax UK with a view of cycling the LEL with me. Chris so wanted to ride a (ultra) long distance event, especially as he waved me off for the start of PBP but did not participate in the event. My wife granted me permission to enter and as chance would have it, Chris and I both got a place!

Cheers,

Tim T (aka Doo)