London–Edinburgh–London is ridiculously tough at the best of times, but this year Storm Floris ensured that Ian McBride was the only entrant to complete the full route, and this is the Trek Madone he rode it on, complete with rim brakes and mechanical shifting.
For the uninitiated, London–Edinburgh–London is a randonnée from the English capital (this year, there was the option of starting in Writtle, near Chelmsford) to the Scottish capital and back again.
It is usually held every four years. The 2025 event, which started on 3rd August, was scheduled to be more than 1,500km in length with well over 13,000m of climbing, but then Storm Floris intervened.
First, organisers suspended the event, telling all riders to halt once they had reached their next control checkpoint, the plan being to continue when things improved.
Then, when conditions didn’t get any better, organisers said that they couldn’t declare the northbound route safe and told riders to turn around and head southwards from wherever they had reached.
However, New Zealander Ian McBride had already reached Edinburgh and begun his journey south when the event was halted, so he became the only rider to complete the full route this year.
Ian started at 4am on Sunday, 3rd August.
The previous evening, he had posted on Facebook, “Hopefully I’ll finish Wednesday morning. In the top 10 or so… I’ve been training solidly for this for over a year. Just for these three days and nights. I’ll be riding hard, and probably without sleep.
“There’s a big storm warning out for Scotland on Monday/Tuesday. Hopefully I can outrun it.”
Despite “some dangerous moments out there”, he made it back just before 7pm on Wednesday, 6th August. That’s some achievement.
Ian McBride’s Trek Madone
At the heart of things is a Trek Madone 7.9 from 2014. It’s a 52cm frame in an H1 fit (Trek used to do two fits, the H1 being the more aggressive setup with a lower front end). Ian bought it secondhand in 2021.
“The rims are Hunt, 36/50s, also bought secondhand, almost new, for £350 – an absolute bargain,” says Ian. “I’m quite small, and the lower rim [at the front] is better for me to control in the wind. That came in handy on this ride.”
As you can see, Ian’s bike is equipped with rim brakes rather than disc brakes, the rear one positioned below the chainstays, just behind the bottom bracket.
“I’ve not gone road disc brake as I hate the sound of them, especially in the wet,” he says. “I’m not sure I could fix them in the middle of the night if they went wrong, and I would need a new bike. They’d just be a hassle that I don’t need all round. They’re heavier and look bad, too.”
That’s told ’em. The tyres are Pirelli P Zero TLR.
“I’ve only been using tubeless for two months, but had a series of flats on a 600km event last year and made the jump across,” says Ian. “I love the feel of tubeless now, running them at 70 to 75psi.
“The gearing is Shimano Ultegra 6800 [that’s the 11-speed system that came along in 2013] with an 11-28T cassette, although I’m on a 105 crankset as my Ultegra is off on worldwide warranty return and is not back yet. The 105 is 50/34T. I quite like it and might not go back to a big boy crankset.”
> Which chainset is right for you? Should you choose a semi-compact, a compact or something else?
Ian keeps food, mostly gels, in two Deuter top tube bags, that cost him £10 each. The frame bag is from Trek. It’s hard to bag that fits his small frame well, so he was pleased to get this one six months ago. All his tools and spares are kept in a Castelli Undersaddle bag.
“I have a Craft Cadence electric mini pump in there. It’s great. The [Lezyne] Micro Drive Pump under the bag is for real emergencies.”
If you’re going to ride 1,500km in under four days, you’d better make sure you have a saddle that works for you. Ian uses a Specialized Power Pro Elaston with MIMIC.
“I got a lot of saddle sores before the last London-Edinburgh-London and ended up with emergency surgery,” he says. “This has solved it.”
The aerobars are cut-down Profile T4s with pads are from Otto.
Ian’s main light is battery-driven Magicshine MJ-858, and he has a Magicshine MJ-890 second light, which cost him a tenner, for emergencies.
“If I stepped up to riding more than four nights, I’d go to dynamo, but for my needs, this is masses of light with no drag,” says Ian.
The handlebar tape is from Lizard Skins, and Ian uses a Crud Roadracer mudguard – just at the back because there’s no space for one up front.
“The total bike weight was 12.4kg when I set off, including full bottles,” says Ian. “1.5kg of that was food.
“Basically, I’ve thought as much as possible about aero/speed and cost. I’m not sponsored, work full time and just like riding my bike.”
29 thoughts on “Rim brakes, mechanical shifting and £10 gear bags: check out the only bike to complete the full London–Edinburgh–London 2025 route”
34/28 lowest gear to get a 12
34/28 lowest gear to get a 12.5kg bike and kit over 3000+m climbing a day? Chapeau and then some.
Having briefly met him at
Having briefly met him at Northstowe (southbound return leg), where he got a round of applause on arrival, he was amazingly good humoured and friendly. Clearly sleep deprived, but with it enough to chat with other riders, and smile for a few selfies.
He was due to ride past my
He was due to ride past my house at about 1.30am Wednesday, I told myself I would get out there to cheer him on and get a few pics…got to about 1.10am then next thing I know I waking up on the couch at 2.00….was gutted. But previous to that it was great to see the local roads flooded with cyclists.
4000m, but over 3.5 days
4000m total over 3.5 days according to the article. Not sure riding rim brakes with a carbon wheelset in wet weather shouldn’t be delegalised though.
whosatthewheel wrote:
13442 (official figure)/3.6 = 3733. Still incredible.
No experience of them myself but according to reviews on here and Cycling Weekly the Hunt carbon rimbrake wheels brake as well as any other rim brake option provided the correct pads are used.
My bad indeed, it reads 13
My bad indeed, it reads 13,000m. I somehow misread it to be feet. They guy is fit like a fiddle.
Yes, my roadbike has similar
Yes, my roadbike has similar gearing (albeit 10 speed) and I’l be a little more wary of using that as an excuse now for struggling up hills.
a1white wrote:
Mine (road bike) has a 34 x 32 low gear and I’d still be scared of using it for those distances/climbs, even if unladen! I’d definitely be reaching for my Tricross with its triple chainset and the 30 x 36.
While Ian and his bike may
While Ian and his bike may have been the only starter on the main event to have completed the full route, he and it are not the only bike + human combination to complete the route, the other, was riding on the “organisers ride” the week before.
Or maybe I should be more accurate, Ian’s bike IS the only bike to complete the route, because the other combination to complete the route was riding on a trike.
While he did not have the wind to contend with that ultimately (in audax terms) meant that both riders have gained no Audax UK points or plaudits for it; there were a number of tribulations Mr Hedley and his trusty trike had to contend with, including metal fatigue resulting in the 2nd half of the ride being done with a failed weld on one of the seat stays.
I’ve had the pleasure of
I’ve had the pleasure of riding with Ian a few times- he first heard of LEL and PBP on night rides with the Fridays (thefridays.cc). He did the last LEL on 53/39…
The emergency surgery for
The bit about emergency surgery for saddle sores before the last LEL made me wince.
….which all goes to show
….which all goes to show that the three best upgrades you can have aren’t to your steed at all but to you. They’re inexpensive – simply ride your bike, ride your bike and ride your bike some more. If you can do that you will go further, faster and have more ‘fun’.
Wicked bike and proves, if it
Wicked bike and proves, if it were needed, that it’s the human not the fancy bike tech that matters. The industry won’t be pleased… I have a 2014 Madone 5.2, light enough for mountains (312 last year) and plenty fast enough for the flats too since I’m the limiting factor :-)). Plus it looks nice in the old Radioshack colours.
Absolutely correct for all
Absolutely correct for all but maybe 1000 professionals. For them any compromise or cost to save 30 seconds over 5 hours is a good one. Not for you, me or even Ian McBride. We don’t have a crew to wash, monitor and fix (renew) the bike every day, nor the money. There are few if any, European road where decent rim brakes used sensibly can’t do a great job. Disc are great till they start rubbing then they are just added cost, weight and complexity.
Quote:
Testify! 😎
chapeau! To this guy and what
chapeau! To this guy and what a shame for all the people taking part and supporting the event that the storm intervened. Given that a cycling event organiser has recently had to endure legal action (the claim failed) they had to stop the ride.
Et voila the Audax bike – self-sufficiency and reliability are prioritised over whizzy things like electronic shifting.
I’d still say have a dynahub wheel as all battery lights go out eventually. I think I recognise on the right a Guee front unit, being an example of one you can’t replace the battery where (if you can track down the right ones) something like Moon it can be replaced.
Firstly chapeau to Ian, a
Firstly chapeau to Ian, a fantastic ride. LEL is not a race but few could do what he did. Amazing. It didn’t look as if he took up the option of much of the excellent food provided by the volunteers at the checkpoints – and which he paid for.
Re Dynamo. Although many Audax rides are unsupported the LEL has a lot of help available at the 20 or so controls. This year, for a fee, you could rent a slim lightweight battery pack with cables built in and swap it for a recharged one at each control. Great idea. This avoided the issue of two thousand cyclists needing to recharge with cables and queues around sockets.
Dynamos are v useful of course on multi night rides but there is an expense in swapping over and a battery pack and a charger can cope with most unsupported rides if needed at all.
“I’ve not gone road disc
“I’ve not gone road disc brake as I hate the sound of them, especially in the wet,” he says. “I’m not sure I could fix them in the middle of the night if they went wrong, and I would need a new bike. They’d just be a hassle. They’re heavier and look bad, too.” – EXACTLY
As the only finisher of a
As the only finisher of a cancelled race, did he win? In any case, that was an amazing ride by a dedicated competitor who knows that money isn’t power. A good source of inspiration and motivation – get a bicycle, go through the door, enjoy the ride, live an adventure.
You may be baffled to learn
You may be baffled to learn that this isn’t a “race” and so while people certainly want to go fast there isn’t really a “winner” – or alternatively everyone is…
https://londonedinburghlondon.com/about
“Live an adventure” would be it – people getting into this to just get out and try something you don’t know you can do.
(With the caveat that this is life and the ethos is “unsupported” – so you may end up shivering at a bus shelter in the early hours or being sick in a bush…)
chrisonabike wrote:
Audaxers are an accommodating bunch – you don’t even have to choose between those options.
This achievement is
This achievement is absolutely admirable, congratulations. But I want to make one thing clear: an Audax brevet is emphatically NOT a race. It’s NOT about coming first or second. That’s the appeal of this very old cycling discipline, which is now held worldwide. Many brevets therefore also set minimum times to prevent riders from racing. I, for one, think it would be a shame if brevets became just another race driven by ambition and competition, of which there are already so many.
They may it be a race but
It may not be a race but there is always a cloth badge to chase 🙄 That however will not stop you being awarded another ‘like’ for the simple reason that you are right.
jaymack wrote:
You’re right, the goal is to get a badge 😉 But in a brevet, you’re not battling with other riders; you’re battling together against the distances, the mountains, the weather, the exhaustion, the dark night, the time-limit, the pain… that’s different from a race, where the other riders are always your competitors, the ones you have to beat. I rode the LEL, too; my friend and I had time to chat with riders from all over the world and with the fantastic volunteers. Or to take a photo of the scenery. Or to chat with the woman in whose little shop we bought some chocolate. Or to help a rider who was having problems with his Campagnolo gears. You don’t usually do that during a bike race, where every second counts.
I’ve heard it said that
I’ve heard it said that Sportives are for riders who are pretending they’re racing, and Audax are for riders who are pretending they aren’t.
kamoshika wrote:
I’ve always thought of sportives as a bit like fell running, where most people who are relatively keen on running could manage the course and so the main differentiator is time, and audaxes as more like mountaineering where the achievement of completion is more important than time.
As far as most folk are
As far as most folk are concerned, it’s timed, therefore it’s a race…
Surely these events should
Surely these events should really be done on steel framed Touring/ Randonneurs bikes – not what was a carbon framed WT race bike?
If that’s how you want to do
If that’s how you want to do it. If someone wants to do it on one of these, they should do that. The great thing about these kind of events is there’s no-one gatekeeping how you ‘ought’ to do it.