If you entered the 'Cafe Racer' you should receive an email very shortly containing details and grid references. By now, you should know what to do if it doesn't arrive. Do you remember? It involves checking spam folders. Then looking deep inside your other email accounts before finally remembering that you used someone elses paypal account to enter ... see, told you you knew what to do

Happy Christmas

I think I might have to alter my plan to ride from C*s station on Friday afternoon, or I'll have covered all the gridrefs before I get to the start! I'm sure you've put that second one in specifically to wind me up as I ride past it after slogging my guts out up the hill from the east

Merry Christmas indeed, bah humbug

Don't you worry Reg, there's plenty of options out there. The route through Hafren forest from this years BB200 would pick up one GR and be an enjoyable / entertaining ride although probably impossible to replicate directly from a map.

Yes I'm joking of course - it looks ace with some beautiful situations and nooks and crannies. Big thanks for your hard work as usual, looking forward to it already. Actually I might ride to the Star from Mach station instead, up SteveMorg's-least-favourite-road-in-the-whole-universe. Hesitate to mention it but I hope the sh*ng**s aren't putting too much of a dampener on the Winterval spirit .....

Hesitate to mention it but I hope the sh*ng**s aren't putting too much of a dampener on the Winterval spirit .....

You know me Reg, if it ain't going to kill me then how bad can it really be. On the plus side, my agent's called with the offer of a leading roll in 'Goonies II'

I think I'll put together a simple route, but hopefully I can just tag along with someone else for the bants. :)

I forget if any of my usual lot are on the ride, but I'm sure I'll find out soon enough.

Not had a chance to look at them yet, have been running last minute errands to top up the usual excess, thankfully on the bike

The bit in Hafren is mint

So good ill be doing it again

I've been a swot and finished my route already.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in the NY.

Shock horror.
My Plan A loop taking in one Grid Ref.
But like normal the route will end up at Plan X.1 with many changes on the weekend.

Who's at the Star on Friday evening?

Star’s my plan depending on unknown life stuff.

Yep for Star

star for me, ill be there around 6ish in van.

Yes, willbe at the Star, normally late on Friday night.

I'll be there. Hope to tag along with someone / a group too. Will probably head up on Friday night after work. I'll see if there's any room at the inn - it seems that's the pace to be pre-ride.

GRs look good, quite a few places I haven't yet been.

I'm at the Star again. Pretty much got my reservation in on the day of the signup.

I know the start and finish times are given as 'somewhere between x and y' but is there a rough general consensus? Presumably most people will be starting closer to 9 than 2 on Saturday but what about the finish? I don't want to rock up back at the community center at 16:59 to discover everyone else got back at 09:01 and they have been waiting round for me all day. The chance of actually meeting a couple of you* would be good as well!

* I have met Mike before when he kindly flogged me some gear

Generally ....... most folk are underway around 11.00 on Sat.

On Sunday, someone will always be back bang on 9.00am and someone will roll in at 6.00pm. There will be a fairly steady stream returning between the hours of 10.00am and 2.00pm. Bit of a lull until 4, a sudden flurry, then a drawn out wait for whoever mistook their intentions for their abilities or simply got lost too many times.

That's good. Will be able to have a decent ride on the Sunday without feeling bad

So how’s route planning going, I’ve managed to plan to a diversion into hafren forest then picking up several more points to the cafe, a bit more tweaking needed when I get home to a computer, I’ll probably wing it on the Sunday, any pointers for any interesting routes/sights which I might have missed on the maps?

Routes sorted yet?

Starting to look at the long term weather forecast yet?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2639470

JohnClimber wrote:Routes sorted yet?

Starting to look at the long term weather forecast yet?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2639470

Classic bikepacking weather
Spent this evening re-proofing the wet gear, new sealskins ordered, looking forward to it

Bearbonesnorm wrote: then a drawn out wait for whoever mistook their intentions for their abilities or simply got lost too many times.

Think I was last back last year. Overambition sounds about right.

Over ambitious routes planned out and back

Slight complication is that I'm supposed to be starting a three week course in Austria 9 am, Monday 15th

Oh, and I want to take my bike with me and hopefully play in the snow