Look right first!

At London Edinburgh London, we trust you to make the right choices for you about your safety equipment and how to cycle safely. You all know to use lights and you all generally wear something reflective at night. You all recognise the value in defensive, civil cycling. So we don't spend too much time telling you what to do. That doesn't mean that there aren't rules of course, but that's a topic for another article. Instead we have decided to focus our safety advice to you to one message. Look right at junctions.

You need to learn to look right

In August we expect over 2200 riders to start the 2025 edition of London Edinburgh London. Of these 2200 riders, around half live in countries where people drive on the left hand side of the roads. The other half live in countries where they drive on the right.

In the United Kingdom, in common with India, Japan and much of South East Asia and Oceania, we drive on the left. For those of you from right-hand countries, learning to cycle on the left is easier than you think it will be. It's obvious when on the road which shoulder you need to look over, and the flow of other traffic reinforces that. There is however one big risk for those of you unused to being on the left; road junctions.

A particular problems is what we know in the United Kingdom as T junctions. These are junctions where you come to the end of the road that you are on and need to turn either left or right onto a new lane. Here is an example of a junction on the 2022 and the 2025 route, where we cross a dual carriageway between Spalding and Boston. At this junction we are crossing the dual carriageway to turn right.

The danger at these junctions is your muscle memory. If you live on continental Europe, you probably instinctively look left first when you get to the junction. However if the road you are turning onto is a dual carriageway, you might only look left at first, thinking that this is all you need to do to get to the central reservation safely. If you are in the United Kingdom however, this could be a fatal error on your part.

On the first day of the 2022 event, at the junction above, a rider crossed the junction and looked the wrong way first. He crossed the lane thinking it was clear. Unfortunately he failed to see the 40-tonne heavy goods vehicle that was heading towards him at 50mph. Miraculously, the rider made a full recovery. This is why it is so important that at these junctions, you always looks right first.

We are therefore only offering one piece of safety advice to riders. Always look right first when you get to junctions. Try and remember to do this always at junctions.

There are are a handful of junctions like this along the route, where you have to cross busy dual carriageways. We will add extra signposts to these junctions to remind you that they are coming up (and to remind you to look right!) Look out for warnings on the GPX track and routesheet too. For those of you who like to plan ahead, they are:

• The junction of the B1397 and A17 near Sutterton northbound and southbound
• The A66 northbound from Low Lane to Lanehead Lane
• The B6274 southbound across the A66 
• The A505 at Duxford

But at every junction, it's a good habit to learn before you get here, if you don't have it already. At every junction, look right first!