This is the fifth in my series of posts about my preparation for the 1530km London Edinburgh London audax event in August 2025. Read part one here (my road to LEL), part 2 here (lessons from the 400k London Wales London audax), part 3 here (even harder lessons from the Bryan Chapman Memorial 600k audax), and part 4 here (volunteers put together the LEL rider starter packs).

It’s starting to feel very real. On Sunday morning, 3 August 2025, I will join over 2,000 cyclists in the quest to ride London Edinburgh London, one of the world’s greatest amateur cycling events. My training is complete, and my bike serviced. Now, I’m going through my final preparations and kit choices. There’s been some chatter on the LEL Facebook page about kit lists, so I thought I’d share some of my kit choices and packing tips. The chances are that you are taking much less than I am, but as a first time LEL rider I’m playing it safe.

I’ll start by confessing that I’m torn between carrying things like a down jacket that will help me cope if we get wild weather in Scotland (as in 2009 and 2017) and keeping my on-bike weight down. I may compromise by having it in a drop bag, ready to carry if it looks necessary.

My other aim is to try to organise my kit in a way that saves time at controls while minimising the chance of losing things. On my recent tour of France (which involved a different destination every night) I used packing cubes, which made it very easy to find things in a suitcase. I’ll obviously not be carrying suitcases on LEL, but will use small bags within my saddle bag. This is how it will work:

Sleepover kit

This is taking into a control where I plan to sleep for a couple of hours. It will sit at the bottom of my saddle bag. It includes a sleeping bag liner, inflatable pillow, eye mask, ear plugs (mine plus the ones included in each rider’s registration pack), plus loose shorts to sleep in to give my body a rest from cycling shorts.