London Edinburgh London – Full Movie

London Edinburgh London follows a group of cyclists from around the world on a remarkable feat of endurance. Travelling over 1400km, our unlikely and eccentric heroes are not only tested physically, but face the mental challenge, “can I push myself further, can I go one more day?”. This is a documentary about what happens when you push the limits of cycling.

I’m here to ride the legendary London
Edinburgh London, the 1400 Kilometer. It’s my first time travelling to United
Kingdom, first time in London and first time to be here and doing this ride and
finish this ride, it will be out of this world for me. It’s and endurance contest, it’s how much
can you take, how much can you ride, how long can you last,
can you go one more day? It’s taking yourself to the next level.
It’s pushing yourself beyond what you think you can do. And now, as of the beginning of June I
did a double Iron Man, and I’m the current GB national ultra
distance triathalon champion. I’m a bit worried that I have aspirations
beyond my, sort of, capabilities. I’ve only been riding a bike as an adult
for 3 or 4 years. I’ve never done a ride where I’ve stopped
riding at the end of one day, and started again the following day. So
that will be a completely new experience and I don’t necessarily know how I’m going
to cope with that. I’m quite meticulous about my uploading to
various platforms on the internet, and religiously check to see
what segments I’ve won. I just lost one about ten minutes ago
whilst I was sat here. When my boss 6 years ago, he told me we
should build a factory in China, I raised my hand directly and said,
if you do, send me to china. So this is my personality. When it came back to, what’s the one thing
that I can imagine spending my life doing, studying mathematics has always been the
number one thing. My daughter describes me as pretty cool. My husband knows that I’m crazy. I’m here
on my own, by myself. I’m just ready for whatever the adventure
brings. My motivation is to see whether it’s
possible to do a mileage of about 250 miles a day. And I don’t know if it’s possible, but I
also don’t believe in the word ‘can’t’. LEL 2013 looks like a long way from where
I’m standing now, but it’s the biggest journey I’ll have ever taken, in a number
of different ways. It’s a certain sort of middle age thing,
although I’ve kind of been doing this for a while, so there is the sense of maybe a
mid-life crisis coming on but I’ve had this mid-life crisis for
quite a long time. I’m not interested in being one person
at work and one person at home, absolutely not. I am who I am. And there’s no down time for personal
brand. When I was 16 I had an horrendous
accident. I was on my cousins bike and I came off it really really badly. I
smashed my teeth up, completely wrecked his bike. Spent days in a hospital
with a scarred brain and bruised brain and they weren’t sure I was going to come
back to so called ‘normality’, some people say I haven’t, but 10 days later I was out
of hospital with severe memory loss and teeth all over the place. I took me a
good four years then to get back on a bike, anyway. I went to work on a, you’d just qualified
on a mental health ward, hadn’t you? And I went to work on there as a student
nurse. And what was the first engagement we had? This lady had become incontinent in a
chair, and I was round the corner and all I could hear was, from newly qualified
staff nurse here, go and get Paula, she’s a student, she’s
a general student, she’ll sort it out. Well in Texas we have a lot of people we
call ‘Rednecks’. So ever Redneck has a pickup, and they
might even have a shotgun. How’s the training going? The training’s
been going well. So on all these endurance things it’s a
chance to look at the world map and say right, where haven’t I ridden yet in the
Southern part of the UK, and begin to think, okay that’s great, I’ll go and fill
in those gaps. And then think, right okay I’ll go and
skirmish over into Northern France, do some stuff over there. Half of it is your mental strength,
because I know I will regret that I started London Edinburgh London,
many times during the 3 days I’m on my bike, but you have to continue We usually go to dinner after the ride. Then we talk about, you know, work, life,
cycling. Grumbling about wives. It’s difficult to say ‘Englishness’. But
for me it’s bad breakfasts. You have very nice motorbikes, you have
good cars, but you drive on the wrong side so for me this will be a crazy ride. In some ways, because I have done LEL
already, It seems like I am the one teaching him. But actually I am often the one being
taught by him. And I’m trying to keep up with him. he is
actually leading me. I’m feeling good, I just want to start. I’ve waited for this for half a year now,
so… It’s just hard for me at this stage,
because I’ve got my wife and baby in front of my, and I’m waving goodbye
to them, you know. Off you go. Could you take your shoes off please? Oh, gosh, the first part has been
absolutely frenetic. We covered the miles at a ferocious pace,
and then we continued to cover the miles at a ferocious place once we left the
first control point, and quite frankly we’re going too quick. I think I’m going
pay a really heavy price for it a little bit further down the line. I have to admit cycling saved my life. Because in 2008 I was on my bike. I felt
like a pain in my chest. But I went to the doctor, and I told the
doctor, that’s what happened to me. He says, to me you shouldn’t even be able
to walk. Come from the parking lot to inside the
hospital. He says I don’t know how you did it. But,
I said, it’s do or die. I would rather die on a by, than just do
nothing. So I had quadruple bypass heart surgery. I says ‘1400, London Edinburgh London’. And then there’s another one, which says,
‘Good luck Steve’. Our brother in law died of a brain tumour
in February. And then you decided it would be a good
idea, and it is a good idea, to raise money for the hospice that cared
for him. – You’ve got a touching £3000 haven’t you?
– Yeah. But it put a lot of pressure on. Don’t want to let them down. Don’t want to let them down There is still the ever present thing of,
you know, I’m not half way yet, even. And I’ve got another day to get
to half way. I was going to ride with Yoshi, but I lost
him in the early stage. I thought that he was riding with me, but
when I looked around, he was gone. So I just decided to carry on. – Hey Staffan, how’re you doing?
– Hi. Yes okay. I have to go. – Would you be upset if you don’t
see Yoshi again? Yeah, I’ll be rather shocked. But I think he will carry on. Success for me during this ride is to
finish within 3 days. I will go from London all the way to
Edinburgh, and then go back one checkpoint. I think it’s 750K or
something. And then I’m also enough tired to be
able to sleep 3 hours. – You don’t need to wait for us, keep
going. I’m on schedule, so it’s okay. Time-wise I seem to be on a winner at the
minute. But, like I says it’s been easy, it’s been
favourable, and I know anything can happen. I think after the next control Up and down menace. Okay, see you. I have this worry that, because I’m
constantly trying to find the next thing, and the longer thing, and the harder thing
that, I won’t actually ever be satisfied with the last thing that I do.
That there’ll always be something else. I’ve told my mate joy that I’ve got to
trap her off with somebody. ‘Cos she likes the idea of this, ‘cos the
men fold disappear for ages and you have a day out with your mates,
don’t you? And her sister’s just bought a hot tub,
so we’ve got weekends away planned. So she needs a man with her that does
audaxing so the can all begger off and we spend a weekend in a hot tub. This has been a bit of a grim leg from the
last leg to here. Unfortunately I got a bit sick on the way so I ended up having
to stop and be sick off the side of the bike. How the hell am I going to get my head
around the fact that my average speed has dropped hugely? Am I going
to make it? So this is clearly going to be my test on
this ride. I’m just generally thinking why am I
doing it? And am I gonna finish? That’s going through my head quite a lot. I actually tried to distract myself at
some points and I was singing Kylie Minogue songs. That’s how bad it got. I didn’t get to sleep for ages because of
the noise. A cacophony of snoring. And then just, people making strange
noises. Yeah, it’s horrible. I’m going into Scotland. Well, I have to. Once I leave, pretty much
there’s no turning back. But it is starting to get a bit dark, so
hopefully we’ll make reasonable headway. And yeah, across into Scotland and then
call it a night. I just want to get to Moffat. Get there
then hope I can get a bed for longer than 3 hours which would be nice. I suppose we’ll see what happens once it
starts getting darker, as well. So I’ll try not to fall asleep on the bike. I didn’t realise the implications of what
I was signing up for. I think that’s the number one thing. Because I signed up at christmas, and I’d
Been what, cycling for 6 months. 6 months. And I thought, ‘ooh, that sounds
like a good ride, I’ll do that’. It got a momentum. I’ve given a commitment
to other people. So it’s, rather than for myself, it’s like
a commitment I’ve given to others. Because if it was me on my own, and I’d
Just signed up. No. I’d probably be on the train home. – Are we in Scotland now?
– Yes. Okay. Yeah, It’s good. The first 200K was quite easy, quite
flat. And then it started to get a little hilly. Like, at 250 it was a
little bit of a steep climb. And then after 450, oh my god. Then it
started, the real race. Now I just want to finish. No, first I want to reach Edinburgh,
because that is the milestone. And then, head back as fast as possible. Phone me and tell me what time you think
you’re back there for. When it all sort of closes in on you, and
you’re on these unlit roads, and there’s just the bobbing headlights of the other
people you’re with, or whatever and the odd blinking red LED up in the
distance. Especially when you are, you know, really
sleepy. Running on 3 hours sleep I think I’m going to stick with light for
as long as possible. It’s got to me a little bit. It’s not for me. I’m going to bed. Half way! Now that I’m here, the food’s really nice,
I’m in Edinburgh, I’ve ridden half way. I dunno, feeling good and raring to go.
Raring to get back to where I’ve just come from. I’ve never been in Scotland before. These people speak weird. I can’t tell
much… and they can’t understand me either. – Where’s Yoshi?
– I just got the message from him, and he has retired, he has dropped out
from the LEL. He’s in Brampton now. My lifetime history, I’m getting old. My body doesnt’ follow my brain. I’ll wait for my friend. and maybe tomorrow I’ll go back to London. – Do you feel thankful that you did that
training with Yoshi? Yeah yeah, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.
I mean probably I would have dropped out earlier. So it’s quite a shame that he
has given up. It’s a bit of a sort of conflict really,
in that you want to enjoy it, and it’s something you’ve been looking
forward to. But at the same time there is a sense of actually kind of wanting to get
it done. I don’t really understand the size of the
challenge when I start doing it. I try not to think that it’s only half
way. It’s kind of hard work when you know that
every kind of, turn of the pedal is actually hurting a bit. All the excitement, the build up, the
fun’s at the beginning. You know, everyone’s excited. At Loughton it was
real sense of expectation. And then just here and it’s just sort of,
you know, they all sort of, one by one they drift off and you’re just kind of
left there on your own, ‘oh, it’s over’. Oh I’ve got to put all of this stuff away
now! We don’t eat bits of things, in Texas, we
eat a whole hell of a lot of it. But around here you do a ‘bit’ of this,
and a ‘bit’ of that. I sing songs, as ridiculous as it sounds,
when I’m getting nearer the controls. I go through the numbers game,
if you like. When there’s 9k left to go, so 9 that’s
pretty fine, and when when it gets to 8 that’s pretty great. You know, 7, oooh,
I’m near heaven. I’m very good at, I enjoy my own company,
as they say. Which I think definitely helps if you’re sat on a bicycle for
however many hours a day. ‘A rich interior world is a joy to own’,
as a rap artists once said. There’s a lot of people here who are here
to meet up with friends, doing something together. That’s not really why I’m here. Whether I’m doing it for the right reasons
in other peoples minds? Doesn’t really worry me. It’s just a piece of cake. Look, It’s a, ‘bit’ of cake! Finish this up, get some water, try and
find some bananas. And then… Where are you saying it’s flat? Are you sick? It ‘aint flat here! – It’s not flat at all!
– Lady, lady I could have… It’s just hills, and hills and hills, and
hills and hills, and hills! Lady, I could have stayed at home and
been spoken to like this. Oh, I’m so sorry! At least I’m kind of happy. I got a shot of single malt Scotch this
morning. Very early, like 4 o’clock in the morning. Hopefully I will stay alive, that’s how
I managed so far. Stay alive, this side of the road, not the other side
of the road. It’s a part of life. If you don’t take
risks and you don’t take chances, you’ll never be successful. And you don’t enjoy things that you
like. I thought he’s coming around 9 o’clock,
but now it’s after 11. So something may have happened. I worry
about that. We’re behind. We were meant to be in
Pokcklington if we were going to do 400K’s every 24 hours. That’s not looking likely,
and most people have been saying to us that that’s completely unrealistic. There’s a chance that we can bring back
some time on some of fast sections, the flatter sections. But it’s unlikely we’ll ever come anywhere
near the schedule. This is Yoshi, this is Tamioka san. I’ve just been riding with him, but he got
a puncture on the way. Oh, you got a puncture? It’s 3.00 am now so you should go to sleep
very soon. I lost my appetite, my stomach wasn’t well,
so I thought this would be difficult. – You have completed this twice before,
so this time is a tourism opportunity. – Well this time I’m here to cheer you on
so take your time and do your best. As long as you don’t push yourself over
the edge, you’ll be okay. Just make sure you eat and get some sleep. He sent me a picture of himself, and the
beautiful manor house. so he seemed to be happy to quit! – Are you proud of him?
– Yeah I’m proud of him. He’s perfect now. When you become like 40 or 50, no one
really complements you any more. You’re not a kid anymore. So it’s nice
to hear. It’s such a beautiful, beautiful day right
now. The sun’s just opened up, and the hills
to the left of me, they’re like patchwork quilts. All the different
colours, the different fields. It’s just great, got a nice descent ahead
of me, there’s beautiful hill climbing today. Nothing too steep thus far. It’s
just nice to be out, appreciating this beautiful scenery. Just playing with the thoughts in my head,
having random chats to people I’m passing. It’s all good. It’s on days like this that I feel like I
could cycle forever, almost. Last night my sleep was a bit off. I’ve
had an hour, in 24 hours, roughly. So that’s why I’ve
been struggling a bit. So Paula’s just sorted me out with some
things to keep me awake, basically! I got a bit confused at the roundabout
on the way here. I went round about three times. I just couldn’t work out how to get off
it. It’s just a sign that I’m a bit tired,
basically. Because I thought I saw you waving at me, as I came in. – So how was Scotland? Oh, rainy. Rainy, rainy and hilly. Oh my god. And cold. It was 7.7
degrees this morning. – Harder than you expected?
– Yes, yes. It took a much longer time than expected.
Much longer. – How many have registered so far?
– Oh, about 30 today so far. My sense of what time it is, it doesn’t
work. What day, or whatever. Everything floats together, like, I don’t
know. – Are you enjoying it? Not now. No. It’s difficult, very difficult. – Bye.
– See you later. Stupid boy. He’s phoning me, telling me he didn’t
know where he was. And I was almost in my car going looking
for him, and I thought I can’t do that. It’s not funny for me now, because it’s
hard. – Is there every a danger that maybe you
stop for too long? or that you relax too much, at somewhere like this? – No. Can’t happen. It’s always good with the short stages.
60, 67. but if it’s 84 or 85 it’s a never ending
story. Did you see what we think is the last one?
Japanese guy? Did you see him? He will never make it. Never. In this morning I was two hours behind
the closing time. In the first control of today. And in the
second control I was 1 hour 50 minutes late. But I’m not worried about it because,
considering the time left, and distance, I’m on the right track… whoops. It’s now quarter to ten, and I need to
head off into the cold, dark, horrible horrible night and see how far I can get
this evening. – How are you feeling? – Not so great. Last night I had massive, terrible pains
in my legs. And I was like, ‘oh, it’s gone now this morning, I feel
great’. Lasted for all of 15 or 20 minutes
and the pain came back. And I had to keep going until I got to
Olsten, I think it is, about 30 kilometers out, and bought some ibuprofen. I’m pilled
up on ibuprofen at the moment which works, it does work, but as far as
the old legs are concerned, they’re not in the best state of their lives. I saw fewer and fewer cyclists around. And when you look at their numbers,
they’re usually ‘X’, ‘Y’, ‘Z’, like the last bits of the alphabet. And I don’t see any ‘B’, ‘C’.
I’m ‘C’. I don’t see anyone who is the first half
of the alphabet, which is a bit sad. Of course I’m tired, but not exhausted.
I think my spirits are still very clear and high. Still optimistic. I’ve been thinking, ‘I can’t do this, I’m
not fit enough’. And, you know, there’s another colleague
of mine from Dulwhich, who’s probably in bed right now, having completed. But actually that’s not really important.
The fact is that he’s finished, and I think I can too. This has been an incredible adventure. And
I’ve met people and experienced things and found stuff inside that I didn’t know
was there. I’ve ridden a thousand Kilometres, that
I’ve never done before. I’ve ridden to Scotland inside 48 hours. I’ve ridden to Edinburgh. There are so many positives from that, I
would be disappointed, but it would not be life ending. Yes, it would be the icing on the cake
and that’s why I’m leaving in the middle of the night to go and ride through the
countryside to get to somewhere else in time. I suppose, the point is obviously, if
you’re doing a trial of endurance that something like this is, there are going to
be moments where you have to kind of, endure, and this is obviously, you know,
going out into the dark and trying to get to somewhere closer to London, maybe
this is the moment in the ride that is the sort of test, and the perseverance. But I absolutely detest cycling at night. It’s a very sort of, lonely experience. There’s not much fun about it, as far as
I’m concerned. Been speaking to a lot of people who love
riding in the dark, so don’t know what that’s about. But I’m sort of, chasing the
time limit at the moment. I need to be in Market Rasen by six
o’clock in the morning. So, it take five hours to get there, it’s
got to happen in the next seven hours. Five hours of riding, it’s got to be
during the night. So, er, it is what it is. So it’s quite interesting just to be
placed in a position where you can say, ‘Okay, we can go to bed if you like’, or,
‘have a look inside, and see if you can find something to ride out, and it’s cold
and wet, and finish somewhere else to give yourself some more time’. And that’s something I’ve enjoyed greatly. – What’s going to keep you going through
this next stage? That’s assuming I do still keep going
through this next stage. I dunno, the ability to put up with
misery. To endure misery, to keep riding and think
this is really horrible but I don’t have any other option. – Are you considering stopping? I did. I was sat over there, well I was
eating, but sort of sat and had a good long think and I was like, ‘I can’t,
really’. So it’s not really an option. And that’s that. Yeah I mean they are closing, and it
becomes less lively. But there is no waiting time, there are
plenty of beds that you can sleep at. And the places are empty, so I don’t have
to waste my time waiting for food, or toilets, or shower, or bed. At all. So yeah, still on a track I think. We’re now in Market Rasen and I’ve come
from Pocklington. And it’s 80 Kilometres. I had some hallucination going on. sheep
walking out into the road, turned out to be white lines, stuff like that. And
bushes moving and… Couldn’t keep my eyes open, but we managed
to get here. I had a stomach upset which is not great. I came off my bike in Scotland which is
not great. I’ve still got a sore shoulder. And then, you know, just being on a bike
for a long time, things start hurting. I don’t know why anybody’s doing this. And people who do this every for years,
it’s just like, what’s that all about? – Will you do it again? No. I just hope my stomach issues recover,
really. I’ve been in a lot of fields, put it like
that. There’s about, somewhere between eight
and twelve of us, stretched out in quite a long line, and any one could have gone
down if they was tired. You’re balance goes, very easy to lose it. And out in the wilderness, as it were,
at this time in the morning. No, not a good thing. But that’s probably
what this event’s all about. People pushing themselves to do stuff
that they wouldn’t normally do. I’m looking forward to about two hours
sleep and then start again. – Soup’s now ready!
– Hurray! When we were training for this, there’s
an old guy who does audaxes. And we were in a cafe, and he said to me, ‘Don’t go mad on the first day, because
you’ll regret it.’ So within about an hour, we’d gone mad,
on the first day and I’ve regretted it ever since. What did your mum say?
‘He’ll never go on a bike again’. ‘He’ll never go on a bike again when he’s
done this’. I said he better had do, he’s got four of
them sat there. He’d better be going on a bike again. It was funny before, wasn’t it? At the
previous control. We walked into a chemist, and the girl
just looked at us, and she must have said something to the guy at the counter. The
guy at the counter started explaining, ‘oh, it’s London Edinburgh London, they’re
all on a bike ride’. We’re all in there for shammy cream
basically, vaseline or anything. And she just went, ‘I wondered why you all
walked in like that’. I thought I was walking normally! But the funniest thing was, I said, ‘have
you got any moisturising cream?’. and she said, ‘For your face?’, and he
said, ‘Let’s just say yeah!’. That time, on a single speed bike, keeping
going. Yeah, it feels great. Cheese! – I mean, you went round really fast. Compared to the guys who came first, I’m
not sure. but it was reasonably quick, yeah. – There are still people who are
Kilometres and Kilometres away. Yeah, and yesterday lunch time I was
sitting here having a nice sandwich and food and stuff. Yeah I know, I don’t know
how they’re doing it to be honest. I’ll just leave you here, I’m too tired. If you want to go please go, I’m too
tired now. Brutal. Absolutely ruined. That was the
toughest, probably the toughest stage so far. That headwind must be twenty, twenty five
miles an hour, for eighty Kilometres straight across the fens, with nothing to
protect you except the odd tree. So, it’s just unrelenting. I mean, I feel. I mean, you can never tell
like, how you’ll feel two hours down the road. I feel like I’m quite sort of
topped up as far as energy levels and such are concerned. It’s really hot, but it’s going to cool
down. And I’m fairly confident about time limits and such. And I’ve just seen
my parents as well, and they’re going to meet me at the end, so er. I try and be up-beat, as you know. but
my feet ache. My undercarriage is ruined. My hands are numb. and I can’t remember
my own name. We should finish, but you know, it’s
going to be another night cycle, again, unfortunately. Which is something
I did not really want to do. All bets are off, but I’m going to get on
my bike and I’m going to point it towards the next control, and beyond that, you know, that’s as good
as it’s going to get. The feeling to cross the finish line after
this kind of endurance race. You can’t describe it. So good feeling. It’s not about that the ride is finished. It’s about a memory, and what you take
away from here, that will stay with you forever. The people touched my life. And that’ll
never change. The last 200K was the worst, I think. Brutal. Really hilly and hot. It was up down, up down, up down. And
the immediate worry for the people who are at the back of the pack, because if
they make the mistake that we’ve made. Then they might be in trouble. I’ve told all these people that I’m doing
this ride. And unless you’ve got a really good reason
to give up, like you’ve broken your arm or something, it’s a bit pathetic to say,
‘I got a bit tired so stopped’. Are you in a hurry to make the control
time? I do worry about it. Like, if there are
sort of, really difficult times where I’m kind of on the verge of giving up. I’m
not sure how resilient I am as a person. In your mind, if you’re sort of, kind of
mentally sort of saying, ‘Okay now I’m going to give up’, then
very quickly you can let that happen. Here you go. There’s a status symbol for you. I thought I’d be here at seven or eight
o’clock. And what is it? Eleven. So those people who are back there at the
back, close on time. They’re not going to make it. Oh god I’d just be so mad if I didn’t
make it. The closing time is going to be 2:55
today. So yeah, about another twenty five
minutes or so. Awesome! Yeah! He’s coming. Not yet. – How long’s left, Yoshi? Another ten minutes. Congratulations, you’ve earned this. Thanks very much. You can sleep in here. It might be better
to sleep outside because it’s cooler. He is coming. – How many minutes has he got? Five minutes. I thought you wouldn’t make it, you were
so late. But then you started to get faster and
faster. It’s as I planned. I did it. I’m so pleased.