No prizes for guessing what this one’s about – it’s a 6-day event that will take riders from Land’s End at the start, to Bristol about 290 miles away. About half of it will be off-road, with much of the course taking in bridleways, byways, singletrack, woodland, moorland, trail centre’s, urban and more.
So far, so good.
If you love the idea of bikepacking, but you’d like to do it in a semi-supported fashion that involves camping along the way, then this is your ticket to multi-day saddle time bliss!
Now I'm getting confused.
The event itself, starting the following day from Land’s End, will be split into 6 riding days and will include 6 nights camping. Entrants luggage will be transferred daily to the next overnight stop/finish line. The 6 camping stopovers will include phone/gadget charging facilities, access to workstands/tools/cleaning equipment and a buffet breakfast.
And now I'm wondering why the term 'bikepacking' has been included in this press release at all ... other than the obvious reason but perhaps I'm just cynical.
Just a bike ride with all your sh1t driven around for you. Glad to see there's "gadget charging". It'd be bloody awful without a smartphone during every waking moment
I was wondering when a thread on this would appear here....
Glad I haven't disappointed
I will admit that mentioning it does actually make me feel like a grumpy b'stard but it does seem to be another mild examaple of the dumbing down and partial sanitising of bikepacking. I've always maintained that bikepacking will never become truly popular because it's hard, requires a degree of effort and maybe even discomfort* ... dressing something else up to look like it, won't alter that fact.
To be fair, it doesn't actually say it's a bikepacking event, it says "if you like the idea of a bikepacking event" and leaves you to fill in the implied "but don't want any of the actual hardship, but are prepared to pay someone a [probably, I haven't looked] obscene amount of money to do those bits for you" then you might like this event. Which is probably true.
In the same way that sportives aren't my thing, but if other people want to do them, I have no problem with that.
If they were selling it as "bikepacking" they'd be wrong, but it doesn't make them evil either.
This strikes me as lazy journalism rather than an event which is misrepresenting it's self.
Probably true Ian as I just copied the text from STW, however, it did look like a press release although it might not be.
My point, was simply surprise / bemusement that the term 'bikepacking' had found its way into those paragraphs. I think thenorthwind should write their copy from now on, as this seems to describe things perfectly
"but don't want any of the actual hardship, but are prepared to pay someone a [probably, I haven't looked] obscene amount of money to do those bits for you" then you might like this event.
I have done overseas trips before where the 'support crew'' moved all our kit, and catered for the group in camp, allowing unencumbered riding on some great trails. I would do so again in certain circumstances, particularly in remote areas where the logistics of going unsupported can be quite daunting, or where the trails are too technical for a loaded bike. However I am too tight to pay relatively large sums for this luxury on my doorstep, particularly when the distances between camps are relatively short. But I understand that a lot of time and effort will have gone into the route planning and recce, so they have to recoup those costs.
I would still love to get hold of the GPX and do this over a long weekend...
ZeroDarkBivi wrote:I have done overseas trips before where the 'support crew'' moved all our kit, and catered for the group in camp, allowing unencumbered riding on some great trails. I would do so again in certain circumstances, particularly in remote areas where the logistics of going unsupported can be quite daunting, or where the trails are too technical for a loaded bike. However I am too tight to pay relatively large sums for this luxury on my doorstep, particularly when the distances between camps are relatively short. But I understand that a lot of time and effort will have gone into the route planning and recce, so they have to recoup those costs.
I would still love to get hold of the GPX and do this over a long weekend...
It will be on Strava about 30 seconds after it finishes!
