Our club member, Amir Farboud, recently completed Ride Across Britain (RAB) for the third time, raising over £5000 for Macmillan cancer support (if you would like to donate, you can find his page here)! Here, he explains his story and motivations as he recounts his experiences. If you are interested in taking on a similar challenge yourself, Amir is more than happy to chat with you over a coffee after our Sunday morning club rides or you can connect with Amir on Instagram.
Hi Amir. Firstly, what is RAB?
Ride Across Britain (also known as LEJOG or End to End) is the challenge of cycling from the most South Westerly point in the U.K. (Land’s End) to the most North Easterly point (John O’Groats). The length varies depending on the route from 900-1000 miles. The Ride Across Britain event is organised by Threshold Events and is in its 14th edition. The route has changed a bit over the years, but it remains a challenging one that incorporates some amazing climbs and features such as Bodmin moor, the Quantock hills, the Exe and Wye valleys, the Severn crossing, Cumbria and the Lake District, Shap fell, Devil's Beef Tub climb, Edinburgh and the Forth crossing, the Cairngorms, the Lecht, and finally the road from Bonar bridge to Bettyhill and the road to Wick on the North Coast 500 route. Total distance is 970 miles and 56000 ft of climbing over 9 days. It departs on a Saturday and 9 days later finishes on a Sunday in JOG.
How did you hear about RAB?
My first encounter with this ride was word of mouth from a previous participant when I lived in Wales, then again word of mouth from a fellow club member when I moved to Cambridge. We helped her train for the ride, and she loved it. My first decision to participate was after watching the Threshold (the event organisers) videos on YouTube. In fact, I still watch them because they are so inspirational. Incidentally Paul Tippins in this film is now a chaperone having completed his 7th RAB and is a friend also who trains on Zwift with my group in prep- more on that later. This video from Mack the previous CEO of Threshold really sums up the experience and had me hooked with his Inspirational quotes and magnetic personality. He no longer runs the event but turns up on Cothelstone every year and joined my Zwift group also - more on that later.
What inspired you to take on a challenge like RAB?
The real motivation for the ride is the challenge. I’m sure many of you have met people who have done it, or saw Ian Botham walk it, or someone do it on a unicycle tandem or stilts. For us brits and international cyclists, it’s the ultimate challenge. Although I describe it as a bike ride - it is so much more. This will be the hardest thing you do, irrespective of whether you are the best cyclist ever, having 9 good days on the bike back-to-back, 970miles and over 56000 ft of climbing (2x Everest) is not easy. There are no easy days on RAB - I said this to myself a lot over the years and stand by it. Everyone has a hurt locker and sometimes you need to dig around to see what you have in it to become the better version of yourself. In this ride you need to dig deep, deeper than you know you can and then you must find “it”. Threshold do an amazing job to support the challenge. Really all you need to do is turn up eat sleep and ride your bike. They cover everything else, and I mean everything.
Lastly on motivation- a lot of people do this ride for charity, myself I ride for Macmillan, but there are a lot of charitable partners that offer places in return for fundraising. If you need motivation for this ride, this is a great starting point, you are supported in training, with others in the fundraising group, along the ride, and by family and friends for the good cause. If you ever doubt yourself then you can lean back and remember why you are doing this. The personal challenge yes 100% but when you are doing it for loved one no longer with us, or for a charity dear to you, the motivation and reason to ride is stronger. I read all the charitable messages on my just giving page every day on my ride and those little boosts in mood and emotional energy made all the difference.
Completing RAB once sounds like quite the challenge – why did you do it three times?
This is harder to explain. In short - the bubble. The RAB bubble is real, the people, the journey, the places we go, the things we see, the support, the humanity, the real compassion you see every day from complete strangers is what it’s all about. It’s real- believe me. Also for me it’s just the best journey you can undertake - 25 counties, 3 countries, the highest paved roads in the U.K., the route is special. Finally on why - is my group. I set up my own group when RAB 2020 was cancelled through covid. I set up a virtual group on Facebook and we rode together on Zwift. The RAB Zwifters exists to support the main ride, to allow a smaller community to exist within the larger group who can train and race together on Zwift then ride together in real life. We set up in real life meetups in Cambridge, Dartmoor, Lake District and met up at numerous sportives prior to the event. I have run the group now for 4 years and we now do international trips to the alps Tenerife and more to come. We run training in winter and participate in the Zwift racing League and our own RAB races. 2024 is my last RAB but the group will continue - so all are welcome to join us.
How can other’s sign up for RAB?
The link for their website is here: https://www.rideacrossbritain.com/. They run the event every 2 years now as they are finding it harder to get participants due to cost of living and rising cost of overheads, but it is their flagship event, and I hope they continue to run it. There are many on there who are on their 7th, 9th 11th RAB. They just love it. It is the largest supported LEJOG and then scale of things is quite colossal at times.
Now you’ve completed RAB three times, what advice do you have for someone thinking of taking on the challenge?
It’s all in the preparation. Mental and physical.
I could run an hour seminar on how to prepare for this event, really it goes back to riding your bike a lot. I don’t think I did as much this year as previous RAB in terms of distance, but I do try and train in cold wet weather and do some long-distance rides back to back. If you like riding your bike that really helps. Many people don’t look at their bikes for 6 months after RAB! A group from Trinidad quit halfway through this RAB and this was their second attempt. The weather got bad - cold, wet and windy. Every day it rained. They said they didn’t train in this weather, and they didn’t have the right clothes. Surviving 9 century rides is about good training, good clothing choices, and good decisions on the bike. The event organisers have a 3-strike system where you can have a bad day and get on the broom wagon if you can’t complete a day. After the 3rd strike they politely ask you to leave the ride. They expect a level of preparation before the ride and have chaperones and other support to get people through. A lot of people quit this year because of the weather. I didn’t and felt that the struggle was worth it, and made completing the challenge even more satisfying! If the prospect of riding 9 days in rain is unacceptable then don’t read any more, because in 2017 that’s what they had. Rain for 9 days. People still talk about the wet edition with fondness.
What’s the atmosphere like out on the road?
The first 2 days are really tough, but even then it’s not a race and so it’s great to stop occasionally, take pictures, have an extra coffee stop, talk to fellow participants and understand their motivation, sometimes people just need company. It can be lonely on the road. I try and bring some fun and atmosphere to the ride. After the RAB Zwifters awards evening in Ludlow, I get out the maracas and horn and get the group to ride together in their kit and just take a more relaxed approach to the ride. Day 4 is relatively flat through Cheshire and is a good chance to knock the pace off and just chat to those around you.
What is the accommodation and catering like?
Basecamps are something else. Most people camp, in camp there is an area to clean your bike, a bar, a coffee stand, drying tent, showers, toilets, stretching tent, prayer area, pamper area, towel tent, info area and mess hall with the famous catering provided by Lulu’s Beau Nosh! Many people put on weight on RAB because the food is so good! Lulu does an amazing job!
The bike mechanics are also magicians, the quality of bike people bring varies a lot. There are millions of pounds worth of bikes in the stands every night so there is 24-hour security. If your bike breaks 9 times out of 10, they can fix it. If not, they can loan you a bike or wheels to continue the ride while they get the spares needed to fix yours. There are also chill out areas, charging areas, areas to buy merch, and then there is the plus package.
What is the RAB Plus Package?
My experience of RAB is the plus package. A team dedicated to making the RAB experience suitable for any prince or princess. As an asthmatic, camping in cold weather doesn’t really work or appeal to me, I tried it once (everyone camps on the last night) and so I think I ticked the box and got the t shirt. If you opt for plus, you can stay in a modest 3* hotel, Travelodge or Premier Inn. You have the choice of staying in basecamp until after the 8pm briefing then going back to the hotel, or if you get in between 3 and 5 you can take an early shuttle back. Some days if the weather is nice, it’s great to stay in camp and have a drink with new friends and relax. If you had a bad day, sometimes it’s better to get a shower at the hotel, order a pizza and just rest and prepare for the next day. I even found a hotel on the last night the last 2 times I did it!
My personal opinion is that this challenge is hard enough, adding camping with 700 strangers isn’t necessary if there is a modest hotel option. You pay a premium and for me that is totally worth it! Some people love camping, they offer places in plus for people who need a night off camping, and those spots are always filled. This year the plus team got me a suite at the Feather hotel in Ludlow as reward for doing my third. This was a complete surprise and was just the nicest gesture. Having a big room to repack all your stuff, a bath and a bathrobe made all the difference, really picked up my mood and made day 4 amazing! The bad thing about plus is the early starts. I generally woke around 4am and was collected between 5:15 and 5:30. Breakfast was from 5:30 each day. Participants started between 6:30 and 7:30 each day. If you were near cut-off, you get a pass to get out early the next day, so you are encouraged to get to the front of the queue to get out early. The course directors know who is on a strike, who is taking too long at pit stops, who are at risk, and they do their best to support these people every day.
It sounds like you were well looked after by the organisers. Did you get support from friends and family as well?
Supporters can see you roadside, follow you in camper and use the facilities at basecamp (within reason) and offer huge encouragement for all participants. I had family, friends and previous participants meet me on all the days before Scotland. Some rode 40 miles with me, sometimes I had 4 domestique servicing me. It was absolutely brilliant to see familiar faces and have that encouragement on the ride. All these familiar anchor points give you such a boost! The Macmillan team turned up on day 5 in pitstop 1 with cupcakes and encouragement- it really helps!
Some want to ride with no assist, no draft from others, because they believe it’s a singular personal challenge. At the end of the day the chaperones gather all the people who are at risk of missing the cut off and get them to ride together as a group to share the work. There are many non-cyclists on the ride, and they really struggle, but they are a tenacious lot and we clap them in every day to show our support! The stories are amazing, and people’s grit and determination is hugely inspiring.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with us! Do you have any more cycling challenges planned?
I hope you enjoy these and if you are interested in doing this challenge then I’m happy to meet for a coffee after a Sunday ride and explain it further. But please don’t ask me if I’m doing this again, 3 is enough, I’m looking at other less and more demanding challenges now. This one for me is done.
If you’d like to see more, here are some of my YouTube videos of my personal experience: