Monday, August 3, 2009

London Edinburgh London 2009 -- Weather Report

"London is drowning and I live by the river." -- The Clash

London wasn't exactly drowning while we were there, but everybody was complaining about the weather during the latest running of LEL, including the newspapers. Check out this great headline I saw on the last day, as I stopped to avoid an approaching thunderstorm.



The sunniest day was saved for the pre-registration, when we queued in line for two blistering hours. That's somebody else's bald head, not mine.



Sure we had lots of rain, but the bigger headache was the headwind, especially after the turnaround at Dalkeith. Have a look.



The worst weather was a howling wind and stiff rain as we headed back to the control at Yad Moss, the one mountain on the route. Spencer jokingly referred to the control as Yad Moss Base Camp. The storm around Yad Moss grew so nasty that organizers apparently forbade some riders from continuing on and granted a time extension of two hours.

We saw a rainbow on Day Four, while Day Five brought a mix of sun, clouds, vicious thunderstorms and a hailstorm. Several riders, including myself took shelter under a storefront in St Neots during the icy assault. Check out those pellets on the sidewalk.



Yes, a lot of wet and windy stuff, and a lot of stunning sunny moments as well.

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