Just for ootini, a bkepacking video with "First breath after coma" as a soundtrack. I think it goes well with the images
https://vimeo.com/25943565
Great little video of a big adventure.

I did sections of the Alpes-Provence route in August 2014, there was lots of excellent riding and spectacular scenery. Traversing that region there is also the Trans-Verdon route which you could use to make a big loop. I started from Manosque and made smaller loops using the Alpes-Provence and Trans...

He is also doing the Lakeland 200 on the Jenn Ride, the weekend before HT550!

How long are you going to be at altitude in Colorado before race day?

Just me then!

The Leadville Trail 100.

So out of interest, from the 617m spot height, what's the track over Pen Twyn Glas -> Pen Allt-Mawr -> Pen Cerrig-Calch like? Rideable? Frowned upon by red socks? DoctorRad, the route you describe is fantastic and mostly rideable apart from a few short steep sections. It’s the ridge you see in the ...

The Black Mountains (as Ian just said!)
https://www.strava.com/segments/675334
A bit tougher than the Brinmore Tramroad but all rideable. If you start at Crickhowell you get a nice warm up on tarmac. Carry on up the ridge to Waun Fach if you fancy 200m more climbing with some hike-a-bike.

I've entered this. Looking forward to riding completely new territory. Anyone else from here going?

News to me! They emailed me about this back in October and I politely declined as I want to keep HT550 free of any commercial sponsorship. I never heard from them again.

Do it! I did the TMB clockwise from Chamonix over four days in early July this year. The weather was perfect and scenery off the scale. It’s a stunning route. Quite busy with walkers at that time but not a problem. I did a variant via the Cormet du Roseland due to a lot of snow still on the Col du B...

Here's another Italian bikepacking event. 1100km around Sardinia in May.
http://www.naturaid.com/
It's quite hilly. Only two finishers this year. 480km version also available.

Maurizio, the Italian is handy. He was third in the AZTR 750 this year in 8 days, 8 hours. I met him on the Navad in 2015. He does a lot of this sort of thing!

Over the weekend I received about 70 requests for a place on the 2017 group start. Fortunately not the massive response that I had feared! So far there are 25 that will be offered a place as they have done a “qualifying” ride, of these, 17 are riders returning for a second, third or fourth time. I w...

Was it good?
Is there a list of finishers from this year's ride?

So many questions! I think most people have got the right idea. You should have been doing this stuff for a while and have done a few big multi day off road rides this year. Applications accepted from 26th November. You will not have more chance of a place if you apply at 00:01. Any time for a week ...

Just to be clear, a qualifying ride does not guarantee you a place, you just go into the pot with the others that have done suitable rides. If there are 80 riders after the 60 places the ones who've done the most, biggest, hardest qualifying rides will get the nod! You need to confident that you can...

The Cambrian Trail definitely counts, that is a hard route. Shall we say sub 4 days? No one has asked about E-bikes yet but they are getting good now and gaining in popularity so it is just a matter of time. I did the MB-Race in the Alps this summer, there was an E-bike category in the 100km (5000m ...

It’s NOW just over 5 weeks until I will start taking requests for places on the 2017 group start. Still not too late to get a qualifying ride in! These include Lakeland 200, Cairngorms Loop and Yorkshire Dales 300. All should have been completed inside the time limits. I’ll also accept the northern ...

"200 km is totally hard core hab" To be fair, there is quite a lot of quality riding on the route too! The record is under 17 hours so it cant be that bad. After a very lean 2015, this year we've had two completions, both of them very swift, one getting within half an hour of the record. h...

It looks like Brits are in 2nd and 5th position. Any news on the Pips tandem ITT?

"Boring part from Staveley to Coniston"? That's meant to be the easy, fun section.
You're not going to like the part from Boot to Honister!

Anyone following this? With less than 100 miles to go there is a rookie to bikepacking races out in the lead about ten miles ahead of race veteran Jefe Branham. However the real story is Neil Belchenko, who is just ten miles behind Jefe having started a day later! He set off with the group but had b...

I rode this last week over four days in beautiful hot, sunny weather and thought it was absolutely fantastic. Highlights were the Col de Grand Ferret which was incredibly spectacular with a very technical "don't fall off" sort of descent and Col de la Seigne which was much more fast and fl...

Chris Hope did an ITT of this last Saturday and got round in 19hrs 56mins knocking over 8 hours off the previous best.
Something to aim for this weekend.