Mind entries open at 1 minute past midnight tonight!

I wouldnt be in a rush.
I'm sure Alan's not awarding places based on 'first come, first served'. More a case of you can apply and then you may get an invite to join the group start.

Don't forget previous finishers are guaranteed a place

Ian wrote:Don't forget previous finishers are guaranteed a place

I think Alan will live to regret that. I've got the lowest possible completion rate of any finisher...

However, I'm not going to mass start it this year. I'm riding it a week early with an HT430 finisher so we'll hopefully arrive in Tyndrum for tea and medals before everyone else starts...

Ian wrote:Don't forget previous finishers are guaranteed a place

I still think we should ask politely however.

im going to do it as an ITT at a later date - largely because i didnt finish my qual ride after taking a swim in the feshie :D and largely because itll be so much better with all the midges as reason to keep moving (im deluding my self)

My mrs is applying to go to rwanda next summer to do some teaching so ill have plenty time for bicycle riding when shes away - going away in the lead up to her 4 weeks away wont fly.

htrider wrote:

Ian wrote:Don't forget previous finishers are guaranteed a place

I still think we should ask politely however.

Good point :)
Just emailed Alan...

Ian wrote:

htrider wrote:

Ian wrote:Don't forget previous finishers are guaranteed a place

I still think we should ask politely however.

Good point :)
Just emailed Alan...

Same here. Will be fun. What ever type of fun

Let's hope the weather is better than last year.

Same here. Will be fun. What ever type of fun

Yay, will be good to see you again

Ian wrote:

Same here. Will be fun. What ever type of fun

Yay, will be good to see you again

Ditto!

I'll be spouting crap on the Twitter feed again. Not sure it'll be the same witouth my sidekick Ian though.

I hope Illan comes back for an appearance.

GregMay wrote:I hope Illan comes back for an appearance.

But is there anywhere he didn't get to last year?

GregMay wrote:I'll be spouting crap on the Twitter feed again. Not sure it'll be the same witouth my sidekick Ian though.

Yeah, was good fun wasn't it

Maybe Stuart or Matt could step up to the mark - both are men of leisure, I thought?

--

Apparently 60 entires received so far

GregMay wrote:I hope Illan comes back for an appearance.

Did he ever leave?!

Not me this year, I've bought some Idaho maps instead ;-)

atk wrote:

GregMay wrote:I hope Illan comes back for an appearance.

Did he ever leave?!

I hope so...

So far I've received over sixty requests for places on next year's group start.
I've sent out emails to the first 20 lucky riders that have been successful.
I'm still accepting entries but you'll need to include some details of your bikepacking experience.

Any news on the names of the first 20 lucky people?

Here are the first 35 names for the 2016 group start. Year denotes previous participation.

Women
1. Jenny Graham (2015)
2. Amy Souter
3. Fiona Massey
4. Jill Libby, Canada
5. Marketa Marvanova, Czech Republic

Men.
1. Phil Clarke (2014,2015)
2. Ian Barrington (2013,2014)
3. Paul Horabin
4. Eric DeJong, Canada
5. Dan Lockery, Canada
6. Martijn Boonman, Netherlands
7. Kenny Decker, U.S.A.
8. Rob Waller (2015)
9. John Fettis (2015)
10. Hal Loewen, Canada
11. Zbynek Simcik
12. Fraser MacBeath (2015)
13. Gian Liesch, Switzerland (2013)
14. Carl Hutchings (2015)
15. Javier Simon (2015)
16. James Stephens (2015)
17. Marshall Bird, U.S.A.
18. Huw Oliver
19. Keith Bremner (2014)
20. Karl Booth (2015)
21. Nik Kinloch (2013,2014)
22. Phil Fraser-Thomson (2014,2015)
23. Thomas Borst, Germany
24. Ian Fitz
25. Gabriel Mak
26. Alan Sheldon (2013)
27. Adam Zaviska, Czech Republic
28. Liam Glen
29. Scott Lindsay
30. Philip Addyman

Marketa is doing it! She's a machine, she finished about a day ahead of me on TD, she was relentless!

Nice to see Gian back!

When will the names of the next group of people appear I.e. Those not listed in first 30?

Presumably when Alan has gone through the entrants and worked out who has enough experience to enter.

I've just added five more names to the start list above.