It’s official. I’m taking part in Britain’s greatest cycling challenge, the 1530km London Edinburgh London ride in August 2025.

I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and my successful completion of London Wales London in 2024 makes me think I’m not completely crazy contemplating cycling from London to Edinburgh and back in 128 hours. That wonderful 26 hour experience showed that I was capable of the mental attitude needed for endurance cycling. As I wrote in my LWL blogpost, the mental challenge is arguably greater than the physical one, at least while the body is still capable of turning the pedals. LEL will require far greater mental strength than the far shorter distance of LWL, which spans just one night – although the fastest LWL riders make it home before midnight.

I’ve really enjoyed the London Edinburgh London podcast series – I was impressed how it shows how you don’t have to be a super athlete to do LEL, while not hiding the fact this is a feat of endurance. I listened to this episode while driving to Wales with my son just hours after entering. I felt exciting and scared in equal measure!

Over the coming months, I’ll be getting match fit while learning from accounts by LEL veterans what I need to do to maximise my chances of success. This will vary from the physical – how to improve core strength for days on the bike, while avoiding saddle sores and Shermer’s neck – and choosing the right equipment for the ride. As my friends know, I love recording my cycling adventures in word and video, but LEL is so all-embracing that I’ll have virtually no time or energy to give a detailed account along the way as I’ll be living in the moment. (My clear lesson from LWL was to avoid faffing and minimise the elapsed time off the bike – it’s easier to reduce time at stops than make up time on the road.)

Last year, I was pleased with my training for LWL. I blended time on the road with hill climbing, which helped me on the big one. I need to take this to a new level for LEL, and also get into the habit of stretching – for days after LWL, I was incredibly stiff, which will be debilitating on LEL when setting off after my first sleep after a few hundred kilometres. In 2002, on my first Land’s End to John O’Groats ride, I was impressed by a couple of riders who stretched whenever they stopped. I must follow their example in 2025.

I’ll post updates on my preparations in the coming months. Do please share any advice! UPDATE: you can read the series on training and preparing for London Edinburgh London starting here. (There’s a link to the next episode at the end of each post.)

PS: I am lucky enough to have a guaranteed entry to London Edinburgh London as a member of Audax UK, Britain’s long distance cycling association. But I hit a glitch using the guaranteed entry to apply. It emerged that as I applied for the early entry ballot in 2023 the guaranteed entry link didn’t work. Happily, the LEL team sorted this for me, hence the entry confirmation at the start of this post. If you are in a similar position, just contact them for help.