The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Spalding Cycling Club member Neil Palmer rode 962 miles and climbed 47,500ft as he completed the gruelling London Edinburgh London (LEL) event in mammoth time of 121 hours.
The Audax UK event, held last month, started with 1,550 riders from 50 different countries meeting at Debden in Essex.
Just 900 riders finished the event, largely due to injuries, fatigue or heat exhaustion.
There were 13 control points up and down the country which all of the riders had to go through to get their Brevet Card stamped.
The first was in St Ives, followed by Boston, Louth, Hessle, into Yorkshire and the North Pennines, with the furthest away being Dunfermline.
With a quick trip through Edinburgh the riders headed for home with a 127-hour time cut off to complete the ride in.
Spalding members Andy Bowser and Sarah Palmer volunteered at Boston Control for three days during the event – which is run entirely by volunteers – by helping to direct, feed, and encourage the weary riders to complete the event.
Neil Palmer said: “The kindness and encouragement shown by all of the volunteers up and down the country made the event for me, as did meeting and riding with riders from Malaysia, India, Canada, the Netherlands and many more.”
The next LEL will be in 2025.
The following weekend – after an easy week off the bike – Neil Palmer competed in the ECCA 12-hour time trial championship in the South of Cambridge, an event where the rider who covers the most distance on a set course in 12 hours wins.
He finished in fifth place and was the first veteran with 255 miles covered.
To complete a very busy few weeks, Neil Palmer then completed the BDCA 100-mile time trial last Sunday.
He finished in an impressive sixth place with a great time of 3.50.17 hours.
