Ultracycling

Yes, that is good stuff. The thought has crossed my mind. We have plenty lying around the house.
The only problem is the way that it keeps oozing out of the tube ages after you stop squeezing. I can see all my stuff being bright yellow after a few days...

I mix sunscreen and gravel and coat my arse with it. Same principle as carbon assembly paste.

There may be a quick fix to your gooch problems: sharp sand would be much kinder than gravel.

Metanium? We used to use that when our daughter was young. Worked a treat but I can't vouch for it in an ultra cycling context!

Don't know if anyone is following 'GBDuro' but Lachlan Morton showed up, to what's a pretty low key UK event, doing pretty well too.

https://www.theracingcollective.com/gbduro.html

Looks like a challenge.
The only person I know of who is riding is Francis Cade, who did the filming on TCR 2016

Looks like a good route. Well thought out.

Francis is filming along the way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC6VqebSL6c

Rob Quirk forgot his shoes.

Hotels or bivvy
Hotels or bivvy
Hotels or bivvy

How cold is it in the Pyrenees this week?

https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&q=%22col+du+telegraphe%22+weather&oq=%22col+du+telegraphe%22+weather

That actually kinda looks good. Hmm

Why decide now?
I usually decide to bivvy when I haven't found a hotel during my time window of looking for one. I suppose you might decide to hotel every night and not take sleeping kit. But it's great sleeping out in the mountains when it's not too cold

Because 24,000m of climbing with my sleep kit vs. without my sleep kit. The less shit I can take the more fun the actual riding is. But then I'm not planning to race this so I was thinking: wake up for sunrise in the mountains, ride until dark, sleep. Hotel bed and showers are nice if it's hot and I'm caked in salt, etc. but it's also only 950k so less than a week's riding. Bivvy does give more options though.

Your sleep kit wont be more then 1kg.

Take it even if you plan to bivi, who knows you might need it, safety net

950km? Thats one push.

You dont need anything ;)

Slight problem of the mountaaaaaains in the middle 900k for me :P

Also, like I said, this is a sight-seeing trip. It's too close to TCR to dig myself into a hole so I want to maximise sleep and maximise daylight riding to enjoy it as much as possible. Actually that's another reason to maybe use hotels - better rest. But you're right, sleep kit is < 1kg. I was just looking forward to someone saying "oh, all the hotels in the Pyrenees are £20 per night and they're all open 24hr reception and there's hundreds of them so taking sleep kit is pointless"..

:S

Just take both.

Im learning its better to be full prepared. Or you will regret it.

Don't confuse poor @hippy 'take both' is like Shrodinger's bivi bag.

GB DURO is an interesting one as time at checkpoints isn’t timed as such. Therefore it massively benefits riders who can do each stage without sleep. They could then conceivably spend 12hrs sleeping at each checkpoint before carrying on.

Sorry if that’s stating the obvious!

Does that still make it an ultrarace?

Good question!

I'd say it's a variant. But for sure its ultra endurance.

It's easy to see why EF came to it, it reduces fatigue a lot.

I think I would deal better with 5hrs sleep every 24hrs than 10hrs every 48hrs but I don’t plan on finding out any time soon!

I had no idea about the rules. Just kinda glancing at twitter doesn't make this obvious.
How long are each of the stages then? Presumably they can't be too long as they're in Britain still.

Maybe, but if that 5hrs was in your timed 'stage' you'd be throwing time away.

Is there a limit at the checkpoints? I mean could a rider smash the first stage and then spend two, three days resting and then go again?

I think it’s a 10 day overall time limit so yes, you could presumably cut it fine to minimise rest.

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Yeah, I get that, but purely on recovery, I think/guess that 8x 250km rides would leave me less fucked than 4x 500km non stop rides.

Seems a bit odd - the first person to finish is not necessarily the official winner...?

Did not realise that. I wonder if it's anything to do with attempts to be seen to prioritise 'rider welfare' after recent years.

Met one of the organisers on TNR who stressed his efforts not to be recognised as an 'organiser' for similar reasons above but wonder if this will have to change as profile increases.

He obviously cared a lot about route and the spirit/unwritten rules of ultra racing.