Audax rides

That guy on YACF just posted his Crackpot GPX files...

Or I could ride a 200k and spend the rest of the weekend in the pub.

I got one off Martin ages ago when I was looking for stupid long training rides. Never got around to it though.

Bloody hell. Tough.

@mustardbeak unavailable for The Shark ride tomorrow, anybody else fancy stepping in for a leisurely ride to the coast and back?! starting 8am at The Gypsy Moth,

Sacked off the Mille Pennines after spending fucking ages last night faffing round trying to pack, study the route sheet, cut up the route sheet etc. all while still being a little unsure of the bike set up/position (different brakes, shifters, flat bars to ease shoulder etc.) and how my shoulder would hold up and just generally not feeling too good about the whole thing...

Anyway... figured I'd make the most of the day off and start working my way through this stack of perm cards. Rode the Staffs Peak perm, definitely one of my favourite in this series, pretty much entirely quiet roads/lanes, interesting scenery and some good views over Staffordshire and across the Cheshire Plain (did mean I could see it fucking it down back in Manchester...)

Rained on and off all day, cafes were ok, missed the final control and had to double back to get it, not too far thankfully! Shoulder held up ok, after 4 weeks mostly off the bike and a week in Berlin legs weren't feeling too sprightly, think I made the right decision about the MP. Made it round in 7h and clocked up 2.75 AAA points :)

1 Attachment

Good to see @marcusjb on is way to the east coast today... http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0SC8djKkZxEJTxzxfbFq7GrlYtoh0TI9x

Various comments on YACF/Twitter suggest it's been tough so far, both route and conditions. 90 riders started, down to 58 still going this morning.

Someone posted a photoset from the first day: https://www.flickr.com/photos/billplumtree/sets/72157669871992362/

Oof, that ride looks tough. Less elev than that in the 400 I just did!

Kingdom of the East Saxons was great - as Tom's rides always are. Was on my own for basically the entire thing and found myself at the front of the field. The ride was a series of two loops, both starting/ending in Gt Dunmow. It started at 11AM and I finished the first 268k at 22:20. The route was brilliant, almost entirely lanes and there were even some off road bike paths in there - they were like hard packed dirt, which was a nice change of scenery. From Harwich to Clacton there was a miserable, miserable head wind on the sea front and a full on thunder and lightning storm happening directly over my head, so that was a bit shit. By the time I finished I thought it was too early to get any sleep so I decided to head back out. By the time I'd left for the second loop, nobody else had shown up so I was at least an hour in front of the next guy - very lonely stuff indeed. As always, I suffered from the dozie's quite bad at around 1.30-2, so had to neck an iced coffee from the Billericay service station, which was a control and a bloody good one at that. Woke me right up! Was pretty much plain sailing after that. Finished at 5.25 in the end which I was pleased with. My Super Randonneur is now complete too, which I am really happy about.

Only picture that I took - sunrise at 4.52:

Well done Jake!

The Buzzard 600 this weekend.

I've entered the Buzzard. Will be my first 600. Looking at the route sheet and map. I have friends who live near Cirencester but that's pretty much at 500km so not sure. Have no idea how to manage this at all so I guess it'll be a case of jumping in and seeing what happens.

It was the one I tried to do just after xmas - from memory it was reasonably pleasant. My GPS went mental about 400k in so I bailed. I'm out on Friday night and then it's maybe 3hrs to the 7am start from my place so I will probably not get much/any sleep, ride as far as I can and test some different combination of bivvy kit out then hopefully finish this time.

Looking at the elevation profiles, it seems like Pengwern Pedal has more climbs, and it's hillier overall. Probably an easier finish than the Elenydd though - the last 50km are all downhill.

I rode the Charnwood 120 from Lichfield yesterday - a nice route, going over Beacon Hill near Loughborough a couple of times with a good cafe stop on either side. Got stuck in with a fast group on the way out but my unfit legs were complaining after 15 miles at evens on fixed so I dropped off the back and mooched around at a more sedate pace. Bit of a nagging headwind on the way back and had to stop to fix a puncture but was a nice enough day out. Rode to and from the start too which made it up to an imperial century - my first for a few years.

I've not looked at the numbers yet, there was a reasonable downhill run to the Elenydd but the temperature was hovering around -2, took the fun out of it a little...

I hope it'll be warmer than that next month.

You will be fine! Is there a sleep stop?

It's x-rated so it's DIY sleep arrangemnts.

Mille Pennine done.

38 finishers from 90 starters.

It would be a tough ride in perfect conditions. The organiser puts together some very challenging sections with some very tough climbing. But, with some really rough weather, well, the numbers speak for themselves.

There was a fair bit of rain over day 1 and 2 (in particular) - sometimes very heavy. It was generally fairly cool on those first 2 days and then there was the wind. My word, that was some wind. It was a massive help on day 1 as we were more with it on our backs than not, but day 2 and 3, it was not our friend.

Properly amazing. Lots of beautiful scenery. So many 25, 30 and 33% signs.

Pretty sore after that beating.

Well done Marcus. Any news on the fixie skidders?

I saw Justin at the end. I did not get a chance to talk to him.

When I spoke to him at 100km to go, James was still in the game.

My mind boggles doing that on fixed.

Well done, Marcus.
I was a DNS as this ended up being the only holiday dates that would work for us. It sounds tough so I'm a bit relieved!

Tried the Hunka yet @arup ? Thoughts?

Hats off Marcus. Ridiculous ride.

Well done @marcusjb and well done @JB on the SR! Saw there's a special 40th year badge, just need to get myself round a 400...