BB200 2017 - No More Speculation

[ianfitz]

Carried everything.

Would be interesting to hear, after you've got your breath back, exactly what food you took Ian? Kit list? Ta, "Reg".

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. will pop it in a thread of it's own on the report forum 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
Tools 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. As can Stu and Dee for another cracker.

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!

[sean_iow]

Just got back this evening (Monday) as we stayed up for an extra night. Firstly a massive thanks to Stu and Dee for all the hard work. What a great event this is, it was my first and it lived up to all the hype. I loved every mile of it, the bogs, the rocky sections which I have no previous experience on (we don't have any here) and the tussocks.

I found the gpx easy enough to follow despite my pre-ride nerves that I'd be lost for hours. I overshot a couple of junctions but soon realised. On the odd occasion I wasn't sure I just picked the one with the tyre tracks and it was always right. Top tip, if you reach a junction and there's two paths to choose from, one say of smooth wide gravel and the other a narrow bog with puddles up to the axles... pick the second one I wouldn't of wanted it to be any other way, I even enjoyed wading through the fords with water above my knees. We don't have any fords or streams/rivers to cross locally so that was also new to me. Even when I spotted a bridge straight afterwards it didn't bother me, I can walk over bridges where I live so why travel all the way to Wales and miss out on the fun of deep water crossings The BB200 has a reputation to uphold and that reputation is not riding round the countryside on well groomed trails knowing where you are at all times long may it continue that way.

I rode with some great people during the day, I didn't meet one who wasn't happy to chat. Apologies if my talking was slowing anyone down. The wife says that people probably ride away from me not to get a better time but just to get some peace and quiet Special mentions to Ian for being polite enough not to drop me on the road climb whilst I talked rubbish, Richard G for his reassuring rear light in the distance up Carnau and chickenlegs for not riding over me when I crashed in front of him I also think my choice of ratio at 32/20 was about right. I don't think I pushed up any slopes I would of rode if I had gears as it was the surface rather than the gradient which was usually the issue and on these sections I find pushing is more efficient than riding anyway. I took way more food than I ate but I guess that's better than running out. I had enough food left for at least one more lap but decided to stop at the one

I got back at 04:59 so a total time of 20 hrs 53 minutes. I had hoped for a sub-24 so well chuffed to get back under 21 and earn a black badge at my first attempt. I even managed a 2 hour sleep with a cheeky bivi in the children's play area outside the centre. One of my first posts on here was what to do about muddy legs when you need to get into your sleeping bag. It turns out that if you've just ridden 136 miles and are covered in mud and water head to toe you just put on your dry socks and insulated jacket and get straight in not caring I'm glad to read that it will be back next year, as soon as the entry date is published I'll be programming a reminder in my phone ready to enter

[Richard G]

For that sleeping bag one... merino leggings. You keep all the crap in the leggings and then just wash them.

Warm too.

Also, thanks for the company. Did you stop at the cheerleading van? I found water a little while after and was surprised that I didn't see you going past.

[slarge]

First thanks Dee and Stu...but mainly Dee

Finished in 18hrs 19 mins I think.

Thanks to Burty for build up the meteoric battle between myself and Steve Large. It was epic but eventually I bowed to his greatness. The best bit of this battle was watching Steve come into Elan visitors centre and spotting me, pointing and laughing knowing he'd caught me, quickly followed by me pointing and laughing and the cue

Oh and we'll done Steve, you are annoyingly vaguely exciting!

Cheers Karl - Burty has a lot to answer for! I generally live up to 2 of those qualities. Annoying and vague. No one has ever called me exciting

Cracking ride though, and Ian - good write up - thanks for sharing. You took loads of stuff! Got to be worth 6 minutes with all that!!

[sean_iow]

Did you stop at the cheerleading van? I found water a little while after and was surprised that I didn't see you going past.

I stopped at the top of the road just after the cheerleader, there was a picnic table by the dam. I cooked up my noodles. The stop cost me about 20 minutes but was well worth it, the hot food helped me through to the finish and I think I would of been slower overall without it as it was a real boost.

Edit, picture of my dinner spot, luckily they fitted me in as I didn't have a reservation