BB200 reports in here

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ianfitz
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BB200 reports in here

Post by ianfitz »

Post BB200 brain dump

Thanks Reg for prompting me to think about this, hope it answers your question. This started as a kit list then morphed into a bit of a ride report too.

Bike and Kit

T’inbred 29er with rigid carbon forks and LB 35mm rims - SON hub, DT240 rear (wheels built by Big Matt – still true as anything after >20,000km of use and abuse!) Ikon 2.35 F+R, Jones carbon loops and a Canyon VCLS 2.0 seat post. Revo and Red Eye lights. Tried and tested setup

Alpkit tapered seat bag (attached with Velcro loops and strap) no harness. Containing:
Roubaix gloves, Terra Nova mits, r8pha insulated brevet gillet, inov 8 water proof pants (full length – added elastic braces), castelli nano tech knee warmers, on-one merino arm warmers, gore waterproof.
Also 2 pies, 1 dusk wrap. These wear deployed at roughly 50k, 100k, 150k

Frame bag (custom Wildcat)
Tools and spares – multi tool with chain breaker, tyre boot, tubeless repair kit – worms, thread, glue, patches; pump – wrapped in duct tape and electrical tape, zip ties, gas canister and head, Fibre Fix emergency spoke, one spare tube, one tyre lever (Pedros), mini bottle Stans fluid, a few magic links, spare spd cleat bolt, mech hanger (for the other bike but it lives in the backcoutry gear bag) spare pads – already bedded in), tiny leatherman pliers, mini knife. Exposure joystick.

Sounds like a lot but over the years I’ve used all of that stuff – apart from the spare spoke and mech hanger – and know that it will fix pretty much any fault that I have the skills to mend.

Looks like this
ImageTools and spares by Ian Fitz, on Flickr

Took but didn’t use a small water filter.

5L Alpkit bag, on bars with 2 velcro straps, no harness:
Haglofs summer bag (sub 350g), SOL breathable lite bivy, torso sized section of foil backed bubble wrap insulation – makes quite a difference to insulation (maybe not comfort!) and keeps the bag a better shape plus a bit more rigid. Montane synthetic hat.

Feed bags. One revelate, one large alpkit jobby.
4 snickers
10 mini flapjacks
250g fruit jellies
200g salty cashews
(lots of) Various bars – Nakd, brunch, other cereal bars. Not sure how many, enough to fill up the remaining capacity of the feedbags.
1 pack cheese and onion crisps (corner opened, crushed to dust- takes up very little space)

One very caffeinated gel – SIS espresso flavour (150mg)

Pro Plus 50mg caffiene tablets, Elite add-in electrolyte solution.

I ate most of what I carried but dropped a snickers, I think somewhere in the last 25km. fortunately I didn’t need it, hope someone was able to make use of it!

Strategy.

I’ve been non too chipper for a while and also having ‘put on my winter coat’ early this year I’m currently heavier than I’ve ever been and had not done much riding (and certainly no ‘training’ at all) since August am lacking top end, but wouldn’t deny I’ve a few years of solid base training to fall back on. Diesel style chugging I can always do so long as the mind is willing. The latter part was an unknown as I’ve not pushed myself at all since the HT550, I figure that was enough ‘trying hard’ for the year, or maybe even a life-time!

TL:DR – plan: start easy and progress to a measured effort later if poss.



The ride

A steady start and some good chats with folk along the way. Including Sean who I had met at Braunton (Although from a distance I had decided he was Dave Barter – hence my surprise at the lack of gears Sean!) we had a good natter while spinning along the Elan valley road about a variety of wide ranging topics from mud and not riding in it (we disapprove of that) to lightweight racing landrovers. I enjoyed this ‘more sociable than usual’ first section.

5 hours or so saw me near to, but not planning on calling at, Rhayader. Saving time by not calling here or at Elan saw me still chugging onwards, I don’t remember seeing anyone for about 40km from between the base of that great techy decent down to the reservoir until I caught Tom Bruce on ‘The Carnau’. I was onto that section about a minute behind him and we followed my ‘custom’ GPX over the paths between the bogs as day gloamed into night. Annoyingly the data for this section is missing after the Garmin crashed, especially as Tom now has the KOM!

I trundled on into the night and met up with some more folk along the way, including Dave F’ing Barter, who would pass me on every road section – especially the climbs, while I would get ahead on the off road sections. Between here and the end Dave and I leap-frogged each other while passing several other people. Handy at night as I think you can see people from further away due to lights.

One of the interesting things about the staggered start is – at what point is it considered polite to ask what time people started. It does make it harder to figure out positions, which doesn’t matter of course as it isn’t a race.

The rest of it was fairly uneventful, bar a garmin crash with about 30km to go. I stopped at the top of the mountain road to layer up for the long decent and had an evil chuckle to myself when passing the Star Inn thinking about how much quicker we would all get back from there compared to last year.

Summary:

Finished in 17:58

Enjoyable as always. Stuart and Dee put a lot of thought, time and effort into the BB200 – it shows. This years route was a top bit of devious route planning, had some really good technical riding in sections and was a proper BB200 challenge. People will have worked hard for their badges, whatever colour, and can be proud.

Base fitness – good, surprisingly
Climbing – poor to middling
Off road skillz – unchanged
Top end – AWOL
Effort – sensible given current fitness/sharpness. Average HR for the first 7 hours = 142. Compared to last year’s Craigie inspired smash-fest which saw an average HR of 153 for the same.

That set me up well for a good solo ride at Relentless 24 so I hope the same happens this year too, although I wouldn’t expect the same result!
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Dave Barter
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Re: BB200 reports in here

Post by Dave Barter »

Bike and Kit

Burls 29'er fully rigid with 1x11 32 up front and 13-42 at the back. Cont X-King 2.4 tyres both ends
Two stem cells full off jelly babies, home made flapjack (took 6 ate 2) and 2 gels (ate both)
One bottle and chlorine tablets. Used tablets twice and filled from hoses at several empty houses on the way ;-)
Rear bag with 150 sleeping bag and emergency bivy, tools, pump 2 tubes and 4 super high calorie baps containing - sausage, cheese, humous, mayonnaise, gerkins, tomatoes (ate 3 feck knows how I managed to even down one of them)
Paramo jacket, Gore bibs, MT500 jersey, Torm sportswool base layer, fingerless gloves, legwarmers
Exposure Strada bar light (not enough hence getting overtaken by Fitz too much), Joystick on helmet

The ride

Slept for exactly zero hours the night before. No idea why, probably overexcited and too much coffee on the way there. Also had the remains of a chest infection and the remains of a bike lock hanging off my bike so set of in a foul mood and drizzle. First climb seemed to go OK but I was roasting on entry to the Hafran Forest it was still raining so I kept jacket on for a while, still feeling pretty poor show. Caught up by Karl, Pete, Craig and some lads from Derbyshire here which gave me a good opportunity to moan my ass off to all of them. The technical bits later into the forest did not go well and I had the ignominy of being asked to let another rider by on a descent. Began to silently wish this was a road hill climb which is the only thing I used to be good at. But I loved the trails in Hafran regardless and am definitely heading to them next WRT. The rain slowly faded but headwind didn't and I struggled on towards Bryn Du. Bit of a low point here as I was thinking of baling out, just could not find any energy at all. So ate one of the baps from hell and seemed to perk up a bit.

From then on things got much better (for me) and I started to enjoy myself in the challenge. After about 35 miles I realised that my pace was fine for a sub-24 so I tootled on and enjoyed the spectacle of kites flying above me. The track from Penrhiw-wen was off the scale ace, well done Stu for putting that in, I've never ridden it before and even went a slight bit fast down it. Caught another rider on the nasty bridleway hoik up from the B4518 and then nearly caught Karl on the hike-a-bike over Y Glog Fawr but he clearly took a superior route as I found him, Craig and Pete in the visitor centre with half drunk coffees when I arrived. I necked a coke, chocolate milk and a sublime rhubarb and cherry slice.

Steve Large arrived shortly afterwards moaning about having set off too fast but looking fresh as a daisy. I had a ten minute break and was second to last off. Pete and I yoyo'd for a while but I had now decided to "diesel" it so let him go. The Large machine caught me on the long climb up from Llanwrthwl and we swore ourselves across the next section of hike a bike. We rode together for a while until I needed water, so I took mercy on Steve as I knew he was struggling to keep up and pulled over by a stream. Well that's what I told myself, the truth may be that he pissed off up a hill while I gasped down some water and forced another hell-bap down.

I think I caught a few others on the way to Carnau and at the gate could see five riders ahead all possibly catchable. I began my march up the hill and watched 2 of them crest at the cairn and mount their bikes. Good news. Well actually not if you're a hampton like me who missed the track. I walked every single fecking inch of that tussock strewn boggy place of turd. The swearometer was at 13. 11 had been completely bypassed and it got worse when I couldn't ride the descent singletrack for the simple reason that I am an ex-roadie (could also have been my lights). This was the utter low point for me as the others were a long way gone. It got worse when I tried to follow a bridleway at Ciloerwynt instead of the road, this was down to my GPS being too zoomed in. I saw lights below my after another bracken filled HVS ascent and trogged down to meet Lars and a few others. They were baling out and I was really tempted. But Lars told me I was going well. Thanks Lars, I was actually pretty low then and that spurred me on a lot.


Luckily Stu saved me with Claerwen. I rode this with Pete for a while but we yoyo'd due to food stops etc.. I think I left him somewhere along the next section of off-road which was bloody wet but I seemed to be making better progress.


Fitzy caught me before Pont-rhy-y-groes and was looking strong so I let him go and raided another house for water. Stupidly I missed the NCN track and rode up the B4574 for a bit. More swearing, upped the lights to medium power. A few miles later I caught Fitzy having a rest on the roadside and our yo-yo would continue all the way to the finish.

Strangely with 100+ miles in the bag I started to feel the best of the whole ride. How does that happen? It must be the hell-baps so I had another one. Fitz and I tag teamed it all the way to a forest that I don't know the name of but it had a big rocky push climb into it. I think I got the better of him up here somewhere but this all came crashing down in a later section of abject trail hell. Water had eroded a mini-Gran canyon down a hill and we were supposed to follow it. Drained of talent I really struggled along this and even managed to known my back wheel out by banging the QR on a rock. Fitzy nimbly overtook me like an annoying two wheeled mountain goat and chased off after some blinking red lights in the distance. I shouted some encouragement, did I feck.

After the trail of hell it all became rideable. I could see Fitzy had caught 2 guys so made that my mission and passed Craig and another fellow after a few miles. The other lad looked to be having a cramp-mare so I hope he sorted that out. Craig almost caught me as I was getting a final bottle from a stream but I found a few last reserves of energy and blasted the final climb. I have no idea where that came from but it was almost as if I was back at the start. I saw lights turn right ahead of me and realised the road was not far.

The final tarmac descent was totally irresponsible of me. All my frustrations of the lack of ability off rod were taken out on the pedals and I don't think I've ever descended as fast in the dark as that. I was utterly focused on 2 things, finishing and the beer in my van's fridge. Stu had said 15Km downhill to the end. Not quite true as there are a couple of heartbreakers in the final 2 miles. Not for me though as my hell-baps were having none of it and I overtook 3 riders before hitting the line.

Oh man that beer at the end.

I think I got in at 2:41am so leaving at 8:06 gives me 18 hours 35. My best Bearbones 200 by 4 hours!

Could I have gone faster.

No. It's easy to look back and think "if I'd done this or that I'd have been quicker". It's bollocks, you are who you are and the mistakes you make are yours and part of the ride. I always have made some and always will. I won't catch Steve Large or Ian Fitz because I'm Dave Barter and I finish exactly where I should. What I did realise is that my strength is in a constant pace which serves me well and does not fade if I look after myself properly. Which means hell-baps, lots of water and getting off the bike when told to by my talent and the trail.

The soppy bit

As mentioned elsewhere on these threads. We're all something a little bit more because of this event regardless where we placed in it. Stu bravely serves up an experience that's a damn site more life affirming than the Anti-Nowhere League I missed to attend it. It's also made by everyone who does it.

What a top bunch of people you lot are, the most accepting and friendly community I know. And a lot of that is down to the two people who've pulled us together and we all know who they are.
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slarge
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Re: BB200 reports in here

Post by slarge »

Ian, I've read that before somewhere, either that or someone else took the same stuff as you!

Dave, I feel all warm and fuzzy inside, yer soft poor show :-bd

I'll post mine tomorrow night.....
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In Reverse
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Re: BB200 reports in here

Post by In Reverse »

Two excellent posts there lads.

Anyway, something from the other end of the finishing times...

Got down to The Star at about half ten on Friday night, thinking a late arrival might restrict the amount of drinking I'd do. It sort of worked, but as Steve, Mike, Ione, Matt, Mick and Chew slipped away one by one into the night the glint in Jase's eye got a bit more evil. "Shall we have another pint?" he asked when there were only the two of us left. With my arm twisted right up my back I reluctantly agreed, then agreed another four or five times before we finally, guiltily left the bar at about half one. By that time I'd trodden dog sh!t all over the carpet and Jason had fallen dangerously, deliriously, drunkenly in love with the poor girl behind the bar. We were both quite addled. I won't talk about snoring. :grin:

Unbelievably the plan of "getting downstairs for breakfast at 7, getting down to the start for 8, and getting going before 9" didn't come to fruition. As 10.30 approached I sat on my bike at the start chatting to Stu and Dee while Il Grande Fapha did some final fiddling with his equipment. Eventually we were off, quite possibly the last to leave. With the whole field ahead of us we set about catching everyone up and somehow managed to bash out a decent pace - by the time we stopped in Rhayader we'd averaged a steady 13km/h. Coffee, cans of coke, Mars bars, apple pie, four litres of water, paracetamol and ibuprofen purchased; Tinder and football scores checked; toilet in the cafe absolutely destroyed; and away we went again. A brief, streamlined, efficient 57 minutes of faffing.

Spirits were high and we rode, pushed, rode, pushed, then bombed down that daft rocky descent to Garreg ddu (fair play to Mike for his time down that btw). Darkness had fallen by the time we got through Elan Village where, lurking in the gloom in some trees, a local lady accosted us to find out what exactly was going on. She didn't understand. At all. Where are you going? Why? But where are you going right now? I don't think you're pronouncing that right (no sh1t love). You can't mean that, that's over there *points somewhere into the darkness*. And you said you're going over there *points somewhere else into the darkness* My husband goes gathering there (I bet he does :wink: ) There's a lot of steep hills there. Have you got a map? And on and on. And on. Eventually we got away but we were broken. Somehow she'd done us and we would never be the same again. Our exuberance was wilting and the 4km climb out of Llanwrthwl followed by a 1km borderline unrideable bog out of Stu's depravity ate further into it. Moreover, I was starting to feel some discomfort - my left *ahem* hub bearing is a bit more prominent than my right and it was starting to rub quite badly. Out of the many things I'd neglected to pack the chamois cream was probably my biggest regret. Jase had given me an emergency sachet so as the trail turned left off the B4358 and headed up a hill between some trees I dropped trou and gave the affected area a good going over. After a couple of minutes of intense treatment another rider arrived at the gate beside me (hi Michael if you're reading :grin: ) and I muttered something about dropping something before scooting off up the hill away from him.

We were still overtaking other riders but they too seemed to be in trouble of one sort or another - all hollow eyes and strained expressions. The banter level was low. At the very furthest point from the start, just as we entered Trallwm we passed Wilkyboy, punctured and with brake pads completely spent (didn't ask about his hub bearings). Neither of us had 26" inner tubes or rim brake pads so there was nothing we could do and we left him, at about 11pm, in a thoroughly unenviable place (pleased to hear you got back OK mate).

Halfway through the forest we realised we were on the wrong path. Jason bonked and had to administer the emergency Mars bar. I offered sympathy ( :lol: ) and suggested a picnic at Trallwm cottages. We found our way back onto the right trail just as the trail became that ridiculous, 21% inclined, slippery, muddy, bastard of a push. Disgusting. The cottages were occupied so we were unable to avail ourselves of their lovely flat porches to set up stoves on. Apologies to the startled lady who looked out of the window just before midnight to find me and Jase stood outside, wearing sheep sh!t face masks.

Brews drunk, packet food eaten, off we went over Carnau. Not much to say about that really :lol: :lol: :lol: . Much like Dave I had completely lost the ability to ride a bike when it came to descending the single track bit after the summit. After six or seven falls, including one where I demonstrated Lauf forks can take a lateral impact from a 15st northerner's already tenderised sweetbreads, I gave up and pushed down until, at last, the gate was reached and the sweet sweet release of the farm track.

I'd lost Jase in the mist by this point and pressed on round Claerwen on my own. There was no sign of anyone, anywhere, for ages except for some weirdo who'd parked their Land Rover somewhere up near the dam. I stopped for a butty and then caught a bit of a second wind as I hammered round those brilliant trails. After a while I saw a light up ahead and figured I'd caught up. He was waiting sat on some rocks and looked to be dozing off a bit. I sat down for a few seconds and also started dozing off a bit. Oh dear. One of us said "We'd better get going." so we got going.

We didn't last much longer. He was riding a couple of minutes ahead of me and I was falling asleep on the bike, trying to stay awake long enough to catch up and tell him I was falling asleep. A really odd feeling. I caught him stopped at the top of a small hill on a stretch of tarmac.
"I just saw another rider" he said, pointing off into the mist. "I could see lights from the bothy." He didn't look quite right, in fact he looked like he was off his tits.
"Jason, I need to go to sleep," i said. "I'm going to bivvy right here."
"Oh, yeah, I could do with a couple of hours too. Where do you reckon the best place is?" and with that his eyes completely glazed over and he lay down on the tarmac in the middle of the road next to his bike and fell fast asleep.
"Not the best place to fall asleep that", I thought to myself, momentarily concerned. "Fcuk it, he'll be right." I rolled down to the bottom of the hill to some flat-ish tussocks, crawled into my bivvy bag, and was asleep in seconds. I vaguely remember Jason coming waking me up at some point some time later to tell me I'd left my light on, but that was it. Comatose.

When I woke up it was full daylight and I realised I hadn't set an alarm. Checked the phone. 8.47am. Quick bit of mental arithmetic said I had 5hrs 43m to ride 78km if I wanted a blue badge. Well, that wasn't going to happen so I decided the rest of the ride would be a leisurely amble through Welsh countryside in the sunshine that the BBC had forecast. Obviously none of that happened. Turns out that last third had some proper Bearbones bits in it - patches of wonderful, wonderful riding interspersed with awful, awful slogs and pushes, all mixed up with members of the public (including other mtb-ers) looking aghast at the absolute state you're in. :-bd I was knackered, and it was nails, but I just loved it. :-bd My knackers on the other hand... :???:

I got back to HQ at 4.58pm. Jase had waited for me bless him, and we sat with Stu and Dee eating beans on toast and talking about dying of cancer for a couple of hours. Lovely stuff. :grin:

It's my favourite event of the year by some distance. Something about it has a really profound effect on me and I find myself reminiscing more about this than anything else I do. It manages to swing from being proper exhilarating riding to genuinely unpleasant torture, often only minutes apart. The sense of togetherness, community and shared experience among the riders is somehow different from what I find elsewhere and everyone who takes part contributes something towards that, so you should all feel rightly proud no matter how your ride went.

I had an amazing time, my only regret is that I didn't manage to catch up with a few people I was really looking forward to seeing again, but no matter as there's always the next one. We all know we'll be back.

Cheers for everything yet again Stu and Dee. Absolute legends.

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PS - should probably thanks Jase for waiting for me so many times on Saturday. :-bd And not once in there have I mentioned the word "plasterboarding" (you know who you are).
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Dave Barter
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Re: BB200 reports in here

Post by Dave Barter »

What an ace write up Andy. I now massively regret not going to the Star.
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benp1
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Re: BB200 reports in here

Post by benp1 »

Enjoying this thread immensely.

I've not signed up for the BB200 before as I figured I wouldn't have the legs for it (I'm more of a steady plodder out for the craic), but I'm not really sure why I'm thinking that way cos I should probably give it a go. Had the odd pang of guilt in the last couple of months as I was around when the window opened and all the recent chat about it made me want to do it.

As it turns out I wouldn't have been able to make it anyway, but the write ups above made up for it, they're excellent.

The difference in approaches here is excellent, I'm more likely to be the latter...
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Re: BB200 reports in here

Post by ScotRoutes »

benp1 wrote:Enjoying this thread immensely.

I've not signed up for the BB200 before as I figured I wouldn't have the legs for it (I'm more of a steady plodder out for the craic), but I'm not really sure why I'm thinking that way cos I should probably give it a go. Had the odd pang of guilt in the last couple of months as I was around when the window opened and all the recent chat about it made me want to do it.

As it turns out I wouldn't have been able to make it anyway, but the write ups above made up for it, they're excellent.

The difference in approaches here is excellent, I'm more likely to be the latter...
Go for it. I'm no racer and really enjoyed it last year. I stopped overnight as I'd always intended as the prospect of driving all the way to Wales and then riding round it all in the dark seemed a bit wasteful. I managed a Green badge, which is what I was after.
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Re: BB200 reports in here

Post by Zippy »

Prequel
The previous weekend prior to BB200, I had been at a wedding – it had for some reason annihilated me energy wise and my “cold like symptons” has kicked up a few gears. I had the Monday off work which I was going to use for checking my bike was ok for the BearBones 200 – but of more concern was my cars wayward handling – fortunately my warranty replacement suspension bushings had arrived so I set about changing them on the Monday…that took all day as I was trying to recover – but I had a vehicle to get me to the start in Llanbrynmair!

Tuesday I was back at work, but had driven half way and wasn’t feeling great – at this rate I wasn’t going to make it to the start line – so Wednesday was a “death or glory” ride all the way to work and back – it hurt a lot, but my lungs emptied themselves of a huge amount of mucus. I decided I’d make it to the start line! The rest of the week I didn’t get as much sleep as I should have and was waking up with coughing fits, but was feeling like I was mending!

Saturday morning, I left a 5am and drove the 250 miles to Llanbrynmair, I’d grabbed a MaccyD’s breakfast en route and had signed on by 0900. I left the Llanbyrnmair at 0943.

Kit

Cotic Soda, rigid carbon forks, 26er wheels, 1 x 10 gears (32 front, 11-34 rear).

Cockpit: Garmin etrex 30 for Nav, Garmin Edge 500 for datalogging / backup (breadcrumb & OS grid refs for use with paper map), Exposure Toro. Had an exposure Diablo on my head.

Wildcat tiger which had my lightweight sleeping bag, borah bivvy and a spare tube in it. Exposure tracer rear light cable tied to this.

2 x bottles of water (750ml and 500 ml I think).

Wildcat frame bag, this held some batteries + cable for charging my garmin, a bunch of food, and some tools.
Deuter race exp rucksack – spare clothes (paramo enduro windproof jacket, buff, headband, arm warmers), and a load more food. Also in there was a water filter just in case.

Tools: 1 x tube strapped to the frame, 1 x tube in the wildcat tiger. Lezyne pump, some tubeless plugs, tyre boot, topeak multi-tool and a leatherman skeletool cx. Also spare mech hanger and some cable ties. Other assorted things like a couple of spare spoke nipples.

Food: 1 x packet of beef jerky, some packable cheese, a block of soreen, some cereal bars, a small pack of salami and 2 x pork pies. I actually ate pretty much all of this – and would have been all of it if I hadn’t managed to get to the Elan Valley visitor centre in time!

Clothes: I was wearing were Spesh Rime shoes, lycra shorts + merino knee warmers, paramo base layer + short sleeve jersey and some short finger gloves. I wore my arm warmers too for about the last 8 hours I reckon.

The Ride

Setting off at 0943, I pootled along on roads/tracks I recognised, trying very hard to not get carried away with pace as I knew my top end wouldn’t work with my hefty cold. I gradually picked off riders and took care to make sure I kept eating. First piss stop and I realised I wasn’t drinking enough, so necked a couple of electrolyte tablets and drunk more as I went.

It started getting close to Elan Valley, and I gradually was picking off more and more riders, each time I think I very slightly upped my pace as I reckoned I could get to the visitor centre before it closed. When I saw the first sign for Elan Valley and recognised the road – I thought “great” food soon and so stopped eating….well 2 hours later up and over some ace bits of hike-a-bike and steep descents (I was finding uphill and pushing far harder than normal with the cold) I realised I needed to eat! Anyway, I made it to the café where I spotted load of boners, got s jacket potatoe and cake, and was pleased I ticked off my first hopeful goal. I also knew I should back the pace back down if I wanted to make it to the end in one hit.

I bumped into Mike at the centre, and from there we rode together. As the miles up to Carnau dawned, we gradually picked up riders and we popped our lights on. I was starting to really feel the energy my cold was taking up and any uphill or pushing was really making it’s presence known – but I could still ride on the flat and descend ok for a given energy input – which actually equalled out mostly with the group of riders we were in (from memory, Mike, Ian, Ben and Mark). As we reached Carnau (after a couple of “cor that was a bit of a push” moments), it was made a lot easier mentally climbing up and over as a group of 5 or so, I disappeared knee deep only once, but oddly there was a blinking path you could follow! I even managed to get a reasonable flow on the descent down after a couple of false starts tripping over tussocks.

From here we pootled on, the group stretched and joined a few times, then Mike and I waved goodbye as Ian and co disappeared off to Claerddu bothy leaving Mike and I to carry on. The miles ticked over, food was eaten and my back started to get tired by the track.

From here it gets all a bit blurry really, I remember some pushes, realisation of how long we’d been going, pockets of fog, mike somehow getting a puncture where part of his tyre was no longer seated – we split briefly then and did the “sting in the tail” part of the route separately for that – although my pace for that sort of thing was pretty slow going so it probably worked out ok as Mike caught me back up just as we got out. A few river crossings, my gears gradually going out of index and despite cleaning in the river…I then worked out as the feeling got worse that the freehub was not loving life. I coughed my lungs out at the closed BP station on the A44 – a nice but of mucus came out and I could breathe easier again! We pressed on, chatting random crap, saying hello at 3am to a couple of walkers outside nant syddion bothy who told us a couple of riders were only 20 minutes ahead, a section of randome fog that came and went very quickly – I can’t remember the order of these events!

Eventually we made it up to the Mountain Road – freehub just about working, an tucked in and let gravity do the work. Somehow passed AlpKenny and RichardG as he pumped his tyre up, and rolled up in Llanbrynmair at 0608.

I was drained! I went to my car, gave myself a wet wipe wash, grabbed my comfy car bivvying stuff and bivvied up round behind the centre for a few hours.

Epilogue

I’m glad I made the effort to come – it was all touch and go right up until I left home at 0500 on Saturday morning. I’m impressed my body made it through despite being well under par – but realistically I don’t know how much time that actually lost me. The weather was very kind to us which made things easier, but it was soaking underfoot. I think the route really captured the essence of what the BearBones 200 is.

Thanks go out to Stu & Dee for putting this event together, Mike which I ended up riding with for many many hours, and everyone else I chatted to. Cheers! Image
HUX
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Re: BB200 reports in here

Post by HUX »

Great write ups guys. Sounds like you all had a fab weekend. Couldn't make it this year unfortunately. Hopefully next year I'll be there suffering with everyone else :grin:
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RIP
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Re: BB200 reports in here

Post by RIP »

The time you guys spent doing those reports is really appreciated - thank you for the lists etc Ian - it gives us mortals a good idea of what it's all about. Just need a couple of days to absorb them properly! Thanks again. Some major feats of personal achievement too obviously. Chapeau.
"My God, Ponsonby, I'm two-thirds of the way to the grave and what have I done?" - RIP

The sign outside the asylum is the wrong way round.....

"At least you got some stories" - James Acaster
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Mike
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Re: BB200 reports in here

Post by Mike »

Hux, u better believe it! I'll put even more training in for it :d
Great reads fellas. I'm being lazy at the moment and just reading. Whilst up at AW's today I thought it would be good to do an easy ride. I'm not sure there's such a thing in Sheffield ;)
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In Reverse
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Re: BB200 reports in here

Post by In Reverse »

Dave Barter wrote:What an ace write up Andy. I now massively regret not going to the Star.
Cheers Dave.

Where were you on Friday night out of interest?
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ctznsmith
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Re: BB200 reports in here

Post by ctznsmith »

Bike & kit:

Custom 725 frame + Surly ECR forks, SON 28 w/ Blunt 35 & On one Chunky Monkey 2.4 front, DT swiss 350 w/ Blunt SS & Vittoria/Geax AKA 2.2 rear (both set up tubeless), Jones bars, Brooks Cambium B17 (never even really thought about my arse on the ride), Revo and red eye lights plus a joystick on my helmet, Garmin Oregon for navigation.

Revelate Salty Roll in (prototype) Restrap harness -> Alpkit Hunka XL, Quecha Forclaz air mat, PHD down bag (the 0 degree one they do occasionally in the sale that you can normally only get as a custom job), thinsulate hat, 1 x Jamie Oliver packet meal, 2 x Eat natural bars (forgot the bars and meal were in here until I got home!).

Stem cell -> 1 litre water bottle
On bike -> 750ml water bottle

Alpkit Fuel pod large -> Phone, car keys, Petzl head torch, spare 4 x AA for GPS, 4 x AAA for head torch, 2 x power banks, short USB cable, Joystick until it was used,

Restrap half frame bag -> Sawyer mini filter, 16oz water bag, 29er tube, cheap go outdoors pliers/multi tool thing that weighs a tonne, spare disc pads, Park tyre boot, quick link, spare chain ring bolt, park CT5 chain tool, Cube race bike multi-tool, 2.5mm and 3mm allen keys, puncture repair kit, 2 x Park tyre levers, Castelli knee warmers, cheap trespass 'buff' (until I put it on), length of ultra thin dyneema cord, 2 x alpkit clip things, zip ties, topeak mini morph pump, gorilla tape around pump, 2 x cliff shot blocks tropical punch with caffeine (transferred to jersey pockets during ride - had 3 left at end), 2 x eat natural bars (as per shot blocks).

Ortlieb saddle bag 2.7L? -> First aid kit (some dressings and wipes essentially), OMM Aether smock, Sea to summit spork, modified trigger finger waterproof over gloves, 1 x Jamie Oliver packet meal (ate 3/4 of this), 2 x Eat natural bars (transferred to pockets at some point), North Ridge synthetic gilet.

In jersey pockets 2 x Clif Shot blocks mountain berry, 2 x houmous, yellow pepper and tomato sandwiches, 2 x Eat Natural bars.

Write up/brain dump/blow by blow account at the link below as it got quite long.
https://punkrockbikeclub.com/2017/10/the-bearbones-200/
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Dave Barter
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Re: BB200 reports in here

Post by Dave Barter »

In Reverse wrote:
Dave Barter wrote:What an ace write up Andy. I now massively regret not going to the Star.
Cheers Dave.

Where were you on Friday night out of interest?
I parked up at Llyn Clywedog in the camper van
Elite keyboard warrior, DNF'er, Swearer
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