Too Early for a YD300 thread?

[Asposium]

I rode home via a cheeky detour over one of the local moors just to check on conditions.

There's a lot of surface water around as you'd expect after the deluge of the past 36hrs but apart from one or two obvious places it's not actually very muddy and a lot of the time I wasn't even leaving tyre marks. Since tomorrow's meant to be fine and with a breeze I think conditions will be good for the weekend.

Well look at that, the man flu is clearing up.

[Zippy]

I'm out - I've er not got the fuel tank in my car at the moment...

[rich.mike]

All packed! I've packed very lightly, lets hope I don't need any sleep There doesn't seem to be a huge amount of places open in terms on food. Averaging 10kph looks like I'll miss a lot of pub openings and cafes.

[Richard G]

Yeah, you need relatively good pace to get to some of the food stops before they close.

I currently don't have a bike built, but I'm working on it.

[Richard G]

Goddamnit. Have woken up with a really sore throat and a cough.

Now I have no idea if I should even travel up. A 10 hour round trip is a hell of a distance to potentially not ride.

[whitestone]

Eek! Hope it's nothing serious Richard.

Yeah, you need relatively good pace to get to some of the food stops before they close.

Last year I took 9 1/2 hrs to Dales Bike Centre including about half an hour of stops (mixture of resupply, mechanicals and chatting to a farmer). Stu stayed open slightly late last year, not sure if he knows it's happening this year or what he intends to do. I was the last there before he closed the kitchen.

The cafe at Castle Bolton shuts at 1630 and there's a shop and cafes in Askrigg which is about 500m off-route. There's the pub just before DBC if you aren't quick enough for DBC plus there's stuff in Reeth. After DBC there's a pub in Langthwaite (never been in that one so no idea what it does) then it's the King's Head in Gunnerside (can be really slow service) and the pub in Muker. There's a pub in Bainbridge if you are quick.

After that there's nothing until the cafes at Feizor, Stainforth and Malham unless you get to Ribblehead after the butty van has turned up.

[Richard G]

For comparison... we just about missed the kitchen at the pub in Grinton after taking nearly 14 hours to get there.

The less said about that the better, as it still makes me fairly angry.

[Richard G]

Bollocks to it. I'm not feeling any better but I'm going to travel up anyway.

If I didn't at least give feeling better tomorrow a chance I'd never live it down with the grizzled northerners.

[Asposium]

Bollocks to it. I'm not feeling any better but I'm going to travel up anyway.

If I didn't at least give feeling better tomorrow a chance I'd never live it down with the grizzled northerners.

see you later

[Richard G]

Am at the wooly sheep inn grabbing some food.

[Rob A]

I'm just polishing off some fish and chips, l'll have a look for you in the woolly sheep (not that I know what you look like) without this getting too blind date, I am wearing a black hoody and shorts!

[Richard G]

Walk past the bar, I'm at the first table on my own. Blue t-shirt.

[rich.mike]

Had to bail, powerbank failed so couldn't charge the Garmin, absolutely gutted. 120km of the route done, 60km detour on the road back to the start.

Thank you so much for the BB member who charged my Garmin enough so I could navigate back to the start.

[whitestone]

Well that was hard! The forecast light breeze was anything but

Got back in 28hrs55 which I'm well pleased with. Think I need some sleep though.

[Wotsits]

Well done Bob, that's a great time!

[Asposium]

Wonder if I win the award for slowest finisher.
22:45 Sunday night
School boy error, should have asked for some food to be put in my car.
Be breakfast time soon.
Home time.
Missed the chippy by about 3mins.
Sat outside pizza central with chips.

[ianfitz]

Wonder if I win the award for slowest finisher.
22:45 Sunday night
School boy error, should have asked for some food to be put in my car.
Be breakfast time soon.
Home time.
Missed the chippy by about 3mins.
Sat outside pizza central with chips.

A finish is always a finish

[Asposium]

my GPS is usually super reliable and very accurate.

riding a track on YD300 it kept dropping the GPS on a particular section
once I had cleared that section it was fine.

anyone else have issues around here.....
https://binged.it/2si2PPL

[Richard G]

Don't ever try something like that when you're sick kids.



Went from 95%, to 80% to 60% to (and I'm not exaggerating) barely being able to push up some of the hills. What a mess.

Justin and Danny were top notch support for me on a VERY hard second day. I've never felt that bad on a bike.

[whitestone]

Don't ever try something like that when you're sick kids.



Went from 95%, to 80% to 60% to (and I'm not exaggerating) barely being able to push up some of the hills. What a mess.

Justin and Danny were top notch support for me on a VERY hard second day. I've never felt that bad on a bike.

Having checked out who you were riding with, I'm not surprised when you commented about dropping off the pace. There's quite a few of the later hills that are pushes for us mortals with that amount of effort in the legs. Some I've managed once or twice when reasonably fresh but it can be pure luck to clean them and there's usually a couple of short pushes.

Did you catch the cafe at Feizor or were you too early? It's been a life saver for me on previous editions

[Richard G]

I reckon 26 hours would have been realistic fully fit and without that crazy wind. But I wont be back to try it until 2019. I'll be doing some new events next year for variety.

...and yeah, we spent ages in that cafe. By that point we realised I was in a bad way and that we'd likely be backing it off for the rest of the ride. You could tell, because I wasn't the first up the previous hills.

Edit - Oops, 2019, not 2018.

[Richard G]

Oh, and I lost another rear light. I believe that makes 11.

This one was on my camelbak, absolutely no idea how it came off. I give up.

[whitestone]

Oh, and I lost another rear light. I believe that makes 11.

This one was on my camelbak, absolutely no idea how it came off. I give up.

To lose one light may regarded as ...

Looking at your times on Strava, you weren't exactly slow

Was there room at the inn? I'm assuming you stopped there on Saturday night. From your comment about Justin and Danny on day 2, Lars must have carried on - I was sure I saw two sets of lights following me up the Roman Road, I thought it was all four of you. A bit of Strava stalking and it seems that Lars, Brendan (the Kiwi) and myself all bivvied around Ribblehead. I bivvied off-route and Brendan passed me before I got going, he finished fifteen minutes ahead of me. After leaving you in Gunnerside apart from lights in the distance I didn't see anyone else on the event until the finish. Yesterday morning I didn't actually see anyone until a dog walker near Settle.

Got on to the road at Halton East and spotted a cyclist ahead then gave the guy a shock as I shot past him in full TT mode Having got to the gate at the top of the last climb with 58mins to go I was on a mission to get under 29hrs at that point which nearly came unstuck due to Sheep Day on Skipton High Street.

The pace notes I had were pretty accurate, I'd only check them at the end of each section and, apart from a couple, the times were very close to what I actually did. Estimated riding time was 25hrs10 and did 24hrs35. Not a bad guess IMO.

[Asposium]

Having got to the gate at the top of the last climb....

so many gates

Estimated riding time was 25hrs10 and did 24hrs35. Not a bad guess IMO.

[Richard G]

Yeah, we ended up sneaking all four of us into the room. It smelt somewhat ripe in the morning.



As for pace, I'm amazed anyone managed their scheduled times given the wind. It's no wonder the record wasn't at risk of being beaten.