The participation ride 2006 - post-ride analysis and comment

STOP PRESS: Complete change around

Following Dan's comments and some research in the weather section of the BBC's website, I have decided to do the trip the other way around ie from Land's End to John O'Groats. I have re-done the stage descriptions and the other entries in the blog to do with the route and itinerary so all the information should be correct. I have got over the problem that the route now looks like it's up hill by turning the map around.

Time for a re-think?

Dan's comments about the wind direction have been troubling me. Especially after a tough ride home last night against the wind which added 10mins to a 45min ride.
It is still not too late to change the JOGLE to a LEJOG. I have looked at the weather section of the BBC's website and put in some postcodes along the route. A typical 5-day forecast is shown in the image to the left (click on it to enlarge). This is for Beauly. Note the wind direction and speed. I think Dan is right . . .

Getting to John O'Groats

This is proving to be difficult! I was planning to take the sleeper train from Euston to Inverness overnight on Saturday. Putting the times into the National Rail Enquiries web site gives a 24hr trip with 7 changes! The sleeper doesn't run on Saturday night.

Made contact with Dan - Good & Bad News

Dan Farrell is famous for his fitness, his endurance cycling feats and his love for Moulton Bicycles. I first became aware of Dan when I read an account of his, virtually non-stop, ride from London to Edinburgh and back again!
Dan has also done the Paris-Brest-Paris audax ride and you can read about this here.
Dan was also involved in the Cardiff to London (in a day) ride which I was persuaded to participate in back in May 2003.
GOOD NEWS: Dan is also pretty good at getting bikes ready for long distance runs and has agreed to get my Moulton ready.
BAD NEWS: He has also asked "Why are you doing it the wrong way?". "More than 100 miles a day is no cake walk and if the wind is in your face . . . . ". I'm worried! I may have to do a re-think.

Linking with Farm Stay UK

I want to use this ride to raise awareness of rural things during the build up to the ride and during the ride itself. I want to stay in rural accommodation. So, on 10/4/06, I emailed Farm Stay UK to see if they would be interested in working together. The idea was that they would suggest places to stay on the route and book them up (I would pay) and we would both be able to use the partnership as a way to raise the profile of ruralnet|uk and Farm Stay UK.
Disappointingly, I have not had a reply . . . may be they didn't get the email. I will call into their office tomorrow to talk to them about it.

Wanted: Navigator with Excel Expertise

The challenge is: During the ride I want to be able to publish stage-by-stage data on the ride. I want this to include a chart showing the contours of the ride so people can see how hilly it actually was.

My GPS stores data as you travel along into a 'Track Log' file. Everytime you change direction the GPS writes a line of data to the Track Log file. This data is separated by commas which makes it easy to load into Excel. This is a typical Track Log file imported into Excel. To this file I have added the field names from the information provided by the GPS manufacturer in this document.

Can anyone help me by using the data in each line of the spreadsheet to: 1) calculate the distance between each set of data and then 2) produce a chart showing the contours. Thanks in anticipation.

*STOP PRESS* I have received a solution to this from a supporter - >more

[This is a back-dated post. Actual posting date was 11/5/06]

How to sponsor me

You can sponsor me in several ways:
- If you have a credit or debit card, the quickest and easiest way is to click the 'Make a Donation' button at the top left of the screen. This will take a secure payment using PayPal;
- You can send a cheque or postal order made out to 'Ruralnet UK' to: ruralnet|uk, Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, CV8 2RR. Please write 'Participation Ride' on the back of the cheque or postal order;
- You can email me to pledge support and I will contact you after the ride (assuming I survive it). My email address is: [email protected] (please remove the xxx from the address before you use it).
- You can also pledge support by sending me a text (07932 107109).

Thanks for considering supporting me.

Note on GiftAid: We were hoping to be able to receive GiftAid contributions but it takes longer to be approved by the Inland Revenue than we had expected.

>> More on sponsorship

How much goes to the good cause?

All donations go straight into ruralnet|uk's Participation Fund. All the costs associated with the ride (accommodation, travel, gadgets etc) are being paid by me personally.

We use Justgiving to collect online donations. They charge 5% of the gross donation, which is the donation plus any tax reclaimed under Gift Aid. This means that, when a donation is made by a UK taxpayer, the charity receives approximately £12 for every £10 donated. When a donation is not eligible for tax reclaim, the 5% fee applies to the donation alone.

All the time spent on this project (this website, other time spent preparing the ride and actually doing it)  is  my own time.

Sponsorship: the multiplier effect

Each £100 raised will enable us to support a community activist for a year. These communitry workers may be rebuilding their village hall or saving their village shop. They may be developing services for younger or older people. They might be campaigning for affordable housing in their community or developing a parish plan. Whatever voluntary work they are engaged in, they have a multiplier effect, their actions will effect the lives of many others.
For example, a successful campaign for affordable housing will enable younger people to stay in the village, this will make the primary school and village shop more viable and may even stop them closing down.

950+ miles, 96 towns, 16 stages, 9 days

The plan is to depart from John O'Groats on 29/5/06 (first thing) and glide into Land's End on 7/6/06. This plan may change in some of the detail but should be firm enough for you to commit the appropriate dates in your diary. Click here to download an Excel Spreadsheet with the details of the route. There is a PDF version here.

Stage by stage details are given here. Click on the graphics on these pages to enlarge them.

I plan to stay in or near the towns in bold but hope to be able to arrange farm-based B&B through Farm Stay UK. I will post these as soon as they have been booked.

[Page amended on 7/5/06] Links to XLS and PDF files point to the latest version of the itinerary (Version 4).