LondonEdinburghLondon

Let me be clear right from the beginning, I was not a rider in this event. Riding over 1500km taking in some magnificent UK countryside sounds like a great idea but not when you’ve got to complete it in just 5 days.

So chapeau to the riders who took on this who took on this astonishing ride, including WVCC member Paul Molyneux, and turned up on the start line ready for more or less anything.

My role was as a volunteer, helping to make the event run smoothly, and I was based at Writtle (near Chelmsford) where most of the riders actually started from. There were almost two and a half thousand riders and they came from all over the globe, with big groups coming from Japan and India as well as Europe. It was a good job some of the volunteers were fluent in other languages.

Unlike most audaxes, riders had the follow the set route and there were 21 check-ins along the way at 14 different venues. Here riders could get hot food and a dormitory bed to catch a few hours of sleep – if necessary!

Riders could also have “drop off bags” at two of the venues and I imagine that a fresh pair of shorts would be something you’d rather look forward to after a couple of days on the road.

At the previous ride in 2022, it became clear that riders re-charging battery packs was unsustainable, there simply weren’t enough sockets. This year, riders could hire a light -weight battery pack and simply swap it for a freshly charged one at the check ins.

As you may have heard, the ride unfortunately coincided with the arrival of Storm Floris and riders were warned to expect bad weather before they set off. Organisers kept a watch on how the storm developed and eventually had to pause and ultimately stop the ride as it was just too dangerous. Riders were told to stop at the next check point they came to and then head back to Writtle the following day after the storm had subsided. LondonEdinburghLondon became LondonFlorisLondon!

But can you imagine all the organisation behind the scenes? Drop bags and powerpacks all had to get back to Writtle, the check point in Richmond unexpectedly had to feed and sleep around 1000 riders, and back at Writtle all the riders seemed to arrive at once as the faster riders who had got further caught up with the slower riders who hadn’t got so far.

But it was amazing. The riders said how much they enjoyed the ride back south, the pressure was off and they loved how sociable it was. Everyone got all the right kit back. Food and kit not needed after was donated to charity. And one person, Ian McBride, who’d got all the way to Edinburgh ahead of Floris, managed to complete the entire ride.

Has volunteering made me want to take up the place on the 2029 ride that I’m now entitled to? A resounding, “No”. Would I happily volunteer again? “Oh yes”

Judith Rout