PBP - anyone planning on entering?

[Johnallan]

I was really unsure about the start times. It seems daft throwing 6 hours away before turning a pedal, but setting off with thousands of others and having long delays at controls doesn't really appeal either... In all honesty though, I've not really thought it through much so open to any suggestions/advice

Well done for getting the early qualifier boxed off! I've got a 200 booked in for the end of the month, hopefully it'll be slightly less grim than yours

[Retiredtester]

How is the qualifying going?

I managed to get a pre-registration spot on the very last wave of riders in the last (84hr) timeslot. I'm not great at riding through the night tbh, so I prefer the idea of starting early in the morning. Mildly concerned about the 84hr limit, but that's how long I took to do the longer LEL in 2007 and I'm definitely a lot more savvy and (hopefully) fitter than I was then.

Anyway, I ticked off a 200k in Kent in Feb and a 300k in Bristol in pretty appalling conditions yesterday. Got a spot on the BCM in may and a 400k in June, so .

[GregMay]

Great to see you both gearing up for this. Weather should be turning better (ish) for your next few rides at least.

[Dyffers]

200 from Bristol done in January when Noah's Ark would have been better than a bike.
300 in March DNS due to COVID positive and snow.
300 reprise this Saturday fingers crossed for the weather.
400 Brevet Cymru at the end of April.
600 Mark Rigby's event from Tewkesbury mid-May which is a lot of the old Bryan Chapman route without the Dolgellau youth hostel lack of beds problem

Got my PBP 90hour start at 1830, with a plan to stop at 500+km at Carhaix as I started at 1630 in 2019 and fell apart on the second evening trying to make Brest before sleeping.

[Johnallan]

I've just pulled the plug on TCR, so PBP is a goer.

Only rode 1x 200 so far. Knock Ventoux 300 next weekend, BCM 600 and Pendle 600 also coming up.

Just need to re-assemble the road bike after a recent 'incident'.

Unsure how best to get to Paris and back from Yorkshire without flying, and also booking Yorkshireman-friendly accommodation

[GregMay]

Unsure how best to get to Paris and back from Yorkshire without flying, and also booking Yorkshireman-friendly accommodation

Ride to Dover - ferry - ride. Simple enough :)

[Retiredtester]

I'll be taking the ferry from Newhaven-dieppe. It gets you to within 180k of the start. Trains on the French side look like a bit of a shitshow, so I imagine I'll end up riding from Dieppe to rambouillet and buvvying the night before.

[Dyffers]

Unsure how best to get to Paris and back from Yorkshire without flying, and also booking Yorkshireman-friendly accommodation

My group have always driven over on the Dover ferry and camped or Campanile'd before and after. This year three of us are doing Newhaven-Dieppe in the car and have a campsite pitch at Rambouillet itself but we had to book before Christmas to get that, I expect they are well sold out now.

Riding before and after is all well and good but I usually CBA!

[Johnallan]

I'll be taking the ferry from Newhaven-dieppe. It gets you to within 180k of the start. Trains on the French side look like a bit of a shitshow, so I imagine I'll end up riding from Dieppe to rambouillet and buvvying the night before.

This is looking like the easiest option. Probably an early train from Leeds to London, 100km ride to Newhaven for an evening crossing, then cheap hotel in Dieppe before the ride to Rambouillet.

I'd imagine the return leg won't seem quiet as appealing

[Johnallan]

Unsure how best to get to Paris and back from Yorkshire without flying, and also booking Yorkshireman-friendly accommodation

Ride to Dover - ferry - ride. Simple enough :)

Even simpler if they allowed bikes on the Eurotunnel

[Retiredtester]

I've been keeping an eye on yacf and it sounds as though there's normally quite a few who use the Newhaven-dieppe route and ride down. Depending on timings, there could be a sizeable group, on the way down at least.

[Johnallan]

I twiddled round Knock Ventoux 300 last weekend and Great North Roads 400 yesterday. Just the 600 left

[Dyffers]

Ditto, albeit the Not Skeggy 300 and the Brevet Cymru yesterday. Whether was amazing in Wales this weekend...suncream required WTF?! Must be WRT weekend.

Tewkesbury 600 in two weeks.

[JackT]

I’m planning on it. 19h45 start in 90h group. Still have the 600 qualifier to do (A Pair of Kirtons).

Not really my type of cycling (ultra distance and organised fun have never much appealed to me) so probably a large helping of mid-life crisis, now or never and all that. Last year a couple of old schools friends and I trash-talked ourselves into it on a WhatsApp group. Genuinely keen to take part in such a long running tradition & crazy spectacle. I can’t think of anything open to ordinary amateur cyclists that compares.

[Dyffers]

600 completed in unbelievable-for-Wales scorchio weather this weekend. 400 is on the results list as 'provisional' so that's the qualifiers done.

Will now spend the next three months riding other bikes for fun instead of audaxing, lose half my fitness and I'm ready for Paris.

Edit to add:

Still, it doesn't matter how many you've done before, they're still hard.

This. Some solid type 2 fun in the 50 km between Newtown and the sleep stop at 410 km after dark. The climbing wasn't the problem, it's the sleep debt that gets me.

[redefined_cycles]

Thanks for asking Gairy, I didn't know either.

Ah, I see.

I like the first interpretation more.

Mix it, PBP by PBP

Then Greg's last word makes a different sense.

Enjoy, it's supposed to be fun but fast

You have an (almost) road bike now. You're supposed to know

[redefined_cycles]

NB. I think it's the pinnacle of audax events - hopefully one of those in the know will correct me if I'm wrong. Above LEL (London Edinburgh London) I believe...

[Alpinum]

You have an (almost) road bike now. You're supposed to know

I ride (almost) only offroad with the (almost) road bike. I know what MSA and PMB mean in an offroad riding context. You have a mountain bike. You're supposed to know too. Do you?

[redefined_cycles]

You have an (almost) road bike now. You're supposed to know

I ride (almost) only offroad with the (almost) road bike. I know what MSA and PMB mean in an offroad riding context. You have a mountain bike. You're supposed to know too. Do you?

Good points Gian. I'm gonna dwell on them (pmb and msa... then google if I still don't figure it out

[Retiredtester]

Just finished the Bryan Chapman Memorial, which was every bit as glorious as I'd hoped it would be, so just the 400k to go

[Johnallan]

Just finished the Bryan Chapman Memorial, which was every bit as glorious as I'd hoped it would be, so just the 400k to go

Nice work! I also completed that and it was glorious indeed! The overnight temperatures were lower than I expected and it was close to zero when passing through Llanbrynmair at 3am. Probably my favourite Audax event to date.

200, 300, 400 & 600 all completed

[Retiredtester]

That's almost exactly the same time I passed through there (2.20am)! I had a 4hr stop at aberdyfi and left there just before 1am. Was v pleasantly warm by the sea, under a starry sky, but got bloody freezing the further inland I went. There weren't many about - you're not the chap I bumped into by the war memorial info control in weobley are you?

[Retiredtester]

And congrats on completing the qualifiers! Hopefully I'll join you in a couple of weeks

[Johnallan]

There were a couple of other riders at Weobley at the same time as me but we weren't really talking.

I was wearing an orange windproof and riding a titanium Planet X with a Caradice hanging from the saddle. If it was you, apologies for the poor company

[Retiredtester]

No, must have been another lost soul. There were a few of us about!