antimonysarah

I'm seriously considering trying the Lap of Lake Ontario 1000k this year, and it's unsupported, pick-your-own stopping points. I'm not exactly sure how to gauge this, since the longest I've done is 400k. (I'll be doing my first 600k two weeks before the LOL; if that does not go well I'll cancel LOL, so I'll have a little tiny bit more experience but should probably make my hotel reservations *before* that.)

Anyone done this one, or have general strategies? It's an evening start. (Note: I'm a slower rider, although that's partly due to being a weak climber and LOL is pretty tame in that regard; from 400ks on similar terrain I should finish the first 400k in 22-23 hours.)

Carbonfiberboy 

Usual thing is 2 X 400 and 1 X 200. That should work well with your pace and evening start. I think you'll be a little slower on the 1st 400 because you'll take it a little easy, and night riding should help with that intent. I'm slower in the dark.

rhm

I have been wondering the same thing. I heard from another rider, who did the LOL in the past, that it is highly desirable to negotiate Toronto between midnight and dawn; but (looking at the overview) I see the route will avoid Toronto pretty well this year; so maybe Toronto won't be such an issue.



So I am wondering how I'll feel 24 hours after an evening start. I mean, if that puts me at mile 275 (or so) just as it's getting dark, then that would be an excellent time to stop for the night. So the next question (after that) is: what's the best time to pass Niagara Falls? I don't know the answer to that question, but my current thinking is: spend a second night before that, and ride through the Niagara Falls area early in the morning of the last day.

That's my current thinking, as a 'general strategy.' I haven't decided whether I'm signing up for this ride either; but I will have done either a 1000 or a 1200 by then, so perhaps I'll know more about this in a month or so.

antimonysarah

That was roughly my thinking as well, but the longest I've ever done in one push was 270 (riding to a 400k and then riding it), and the only night start I ever did was a 200k (that I did have to stop driving on the way home from and take a nap). There's a motel at 270, and a hotel at mile 295, and probably neither would be a bad choice and I'm overthinking it. The only plus I see to getting past the Falls before stopping is I don't know how backed up the border can get (and it's a control). Though control closing is at like 5am so aiming for like 4:30 through there is probably not a bad choice.

I think the route through Toronto is unchanged, but the start was moved from Wednesday to Thursday so it's weekend rather than weekday traffic (i.e. less), and it's pretty unavoidable that it'll be in the middle of the day.

unterhausen

I have no experience riding a 1000 (past the first day), but I hate the idea of 400, 400, 200. Then again, truncating the classic 400, 300, 300, 200 of a 1200k doesn't seem right either.
PBP goes 450 the first day and that doesn't seem bad. In fact, the smart money seems to think that you should try to get to Carhaix, which is 523. The organizers tried to get people to stop at the Apocalypse Now control in between, which is at 493.
So it really depends on where you would be at that time. A hard course argues for shorter days because that means you are going to use more of the time

skiffrun

I know LOL is totally self-supported, but have y'all thought about contacting Pete to see if he has any advice?

clasher

That's an old map of Ontario... the Toronto exurbs start around control 7 and that road heading north from there might have some closures, there is a big highway being built through there and some of my favourite routes in that area were different this spring when I was riding there. I often work at a cement plant in that area. If I were starting in Rochester I would stop in Brighton for the first night and in Erin Mills for the second night, but all the motels are off the course there so I'm not sure... we start the LOL from that control when it's run from Canada. I've never done it but I might give it a crack next year. I think the last ferry leaves Adolphustown at 1:15am so you've got to get there before that time if you want to keep going.

atwl77

I don't have any experience in multi-day rides which require stops, so at the risk of coming off as a newbie who doesn't know what he's talking about, wouldn't the Controles be the best stopping points? I mean, they probably aren't going to put the Controle in the middle of nowhere, so it might make sense to assess where each Controle is and what's available in that area (food, convenience store, accomodations, etc). Then pick out the ones with the best features, but knowing that if something unforeseen happens and you know you wouldn't make it to that Controle in time, you still have a good idea about what the previous Controle offers and can make backup plans for it? Or if you're faster than expected you could also skip the targeted Controle if you know the next one also provides sufficient facilities?

rhm

The ride website provides a list of motels on the route. That's ten motels, so I doubt it's a complete list. One is at 337 km and four of them are at 374 km, so that gives us some idea what the planner has in mind for the first night of rest. Another four are at 665 km, followed by one at 715, obviously intended for the second night of rest.


LOL 1000km Brevet Motel List

unterhausen

this is a great ides, he will know what has worked in the past.

antimonysarah

I've totally talked to Pete via email, and will probably ask him some more questions between now and then, but I wanted to know what you guys here had as advice.

The list of motels and the spots people seem to tend to stop don't line up that well -- with a 7pm start, stopping at 375k seems weird to me as it wouldn't be dark yet. (If it were an early morning start, that would seem like a good spot, perhaps.)

As for the controls, this ride has basically all open controls, i.e. "stop somewhere in this little town and get a receipt" -- there's nothing provided by the ride, and since it hugs the shore it goes through lots of little towns with motels in between, that aren't controls because you're on the shortest route but services are available. Some of the hotels I'm looking at could be a choice for a control stop, and some are in between. (Brighton, at mile 269 is a control town, but the next one isn't until Bowmanville at mile 322, which is past where I think I'd want to stop.) The advantage obviously of stopping in a control town is that you know exactly when you should be out of there (i.e. control closing) and you maximize the time to make up from any issues before the next control.

If a bag drop does happen (or other minor support) I would obviously adjust to match it. (I need to figure out a different luggage solution if not, because I can't fit two pairs of shorts in my current setup and I can't ride three days straight without changing them.)

I'm vaguely leaning towards front-loading, stopping at mile 295 and 504ish (just after the border crossing), it just sounds daunting even if it is realistic?

unterhausen

Yeah, I tend to agree with you about riding farther. Night starts really throw things off. It really depends on how you are riding and if anything hurts or you are too sleepy. I certainly wouldn't want to stop with daylight left, probably not before 9 or so.

I was really sleepy on the 400k I just did, but it just goes away in an instant for me. It doesn't help when your riding companion lets out a yawn -- instant sleepiness. I'm good for the first 25 hours at least, but I have a lot of practice from very slow 400k's.

skiffrun

Without support, no ride food waiting for you, among other things. Stopping when still daylight would likely mean stopping while restaurants are still open at which you'd be able to get a decent meal before hitting the bed for a night's sleep.

[Not that I know anything, but seems to me you'll need to "forage" for your own food.]

unterhausen

Okay, thinking about this again, 375 is probably not too bad. For a 7 pm start, you'll be really tired by that point. Even though I wouldn't want to waste too many daylight hours. hotels might not be staffed too much later than that. And rural restaurants often close early.

antimonysarah

Food-wise, if I could be confident of making it to the town at 295mi early enough it has a lot more/more appealing options, but I might be stuck with the 24-hour McDonalds or adding an extra mile to get to the 24-hour Tim Hortons or 24-hour grocery. (As a vegetarian, Dunkin Donuts and Tim Horton's are the most appealing of the fast-food places because they always have egg sandwiches, which are one of the things I can reliably convince myself to eat on rides.) But the town at 269 has at least one decent-looking pizzeria, and if I haven't made it there before it closes something has gone very wrong and thus it's unlikely to matter because I'm going to have to give up anyway and should really sleep.

Mostly I'm a little worried about convincing my body clock to fall asleep quickly if it's still light -- even completely exhausted I can have trouble nodding off in daylight, and I want to maximize the amount of stopped time actually spent sleeping.

clasher

For veggie food in Canada you can also keep an eye out for Harvey's and AW burger chains, they both have veggie burgers if you can handle an egg sandwich it might be comparable? Also I don't think timmies has egg salad anymore, they have been changing the food menu a lot. They have oatmeal in the mornigs and potato wedges during the day, but PB&J bagels is usually what I get. A lot of smaller towns in Ontario tend to have Foodland grocery stores and some are 24h so it's worth checking if you see one on the map.

antimonysarah

Thanks, that's all really useful to know -- generally I find veggie burgers boring and bland but on a brevet boring and bland is great And looking up Foodland there's a bunch near or on the route; I'll make myself a cheatsheet for food options that are a few blocks away.

(I meant a breakfast egg sandwich at Tim's -- I assumed they did them all day like Dunkin does, but I guess not, but a grilled cheese or a PB&J would work too. Mostly in contrast to McDs, which generally won't even make a McMuffin without the meat, they'll just yell at you to pick it off if you don't want it, ew. Although apparently the Canadian McDonald's fries are vegetarian, wacky.)

To close the loop for anyone curious, Peter's recommendation was the town at 295 (Cobourg) and near the Falls (~495-505 depending on which hotel; I think I'll try to cross the border first).

clasher

The harvey's ones aren't bad and they make 'em however you like them, I usually pile on the pickle slices and they sometimes have guac, and corn salsa, depending on the promotions going on, plus the option for whole wheat buns. I've gone vegan so I don't eat at A&W since theirs have eggs in 'em but I remember them being decent burgers too. Timmies stops the breakfast options around noon I think since the oatmeal isn't available all day. I remember the timmies grilled cheese being extremely bland but it's been a long while. Timmies has potato wedges during the day which are okay but sometimes too greasy for my taste. The coffee at McDonalds is way better than Tim Hortons and when I was vegetarian they had no problem making meat-free breakfast sandwiches... I also thought the eggs were way better at mcdonalds than timmies. Usually the lines are shorter at McD's too so given the choice I'd go there.

Andrey

I rode the LOL twice.

If I had to do it again with the night start I would try to stick to my last riding plan that worked nicely. I did ride at least 300 miles on the first day/night and stayed in a hotel between control 6 and 7 on the above map( do not remember the town), on the second day I checked in the hotel in Niagara Falls on the US side. I may even try to ride past the control 7 on the 1st day if I had to do it again.

The first day was fun, everybody was fresh and it was easy to cover great distance on the first day.The pace was also fast.
The second day was the hardest, because of the Toronto traffic and people were tired and paced slowed.

Hopefully Pete will change the route this year. It is possible to ride thru Toronto on the lake side using MUTs but somehow Pete always routes the ride around the north of Toronto- and it is a nightmare all the way to Burlington. After Burlington it gets easier because there is no more traffic plus there is a very beautiful MUT in Burlington along the lake.

rhm

So... Is anyone on this forum still considering LOL? @antimonysarah? I have been trying to persuade some friends but at present it looks like no one I know will be doing it.

BTW Sarah, I believe we rode together once, in September, central nj 200; unless I'm confused we finished at the same time.

antimonysarah

I'm signed up -- I'm doing my first 600k this coming weekend, so that will tell me a lot more about whether I'm really ready, but I'm planning on it right now.

And yes, I'm the Sarah that rode the Central Jersey route last September -- I didn't know that was you!

rhm

I've made motel reservations for Cobourg and Niagara Falls, at the motels recommended by the RBA, so I guess that's where I'm stopping for the nights!

That means about 295 miles the first day, 210 the second day, 124 the third day.

I'm willing to share those rooms with another rider-- anyone interested, please contact me privately.