Audax rides

How do people handle the sleep thing on an 400km Arrow ride?

5 of you agree to kip under a shared space blanket in a bus stop somewhere for 20 minutes?

.

I've only ever ridden them solo and grabbed 20 minutes here and there, but I'm just imagining you need to pick your 5 people quite carefully to avoid being coeerced into a quick 40 winks stop.

Yeah more or less. I like to "sleep" 10 or 15 minutes on the side of the road if there’s a puncture or just an extended comfort break. Phone booths also a favourite of mine if the weather is colder/rainier. On the arrow we had a kip in Goole’s 24h Mac Donald’s (I’m sure @jaeyukdapbap will be along to post some pics of that). On other audaxes there might be a night control in a village hall somewhere where you can lie down on the floor if you want.

Edit - yes in the context of the arrow preparation is key!

I didn’t sleep until I was back home about 40 hrs later. Horses for courses and that.

At least I know now that @cgg expects photos to be taken so I should bring a permanent marker along to draw willies on everyone’s faces whilst they sleep.

Noted salute emoji

Oh yeah, just trying to imagine how it varies between the approach I take on 400s / 600s solo vs a group dynamic.

I've never ridden anything 300+ with other people tbh, I imagine it's tricky to match your needs.
I semi-tried riding a 600 'with' someone last year and we'd lost each other within 30km :|

Depends on your aims. If you want to stay together it's not that difficult, you stick the stronger rider out front and with a bit of communication you can make sure the slower riders can keep up. Stop when necessary but not too long. ie. when I ride with the missus, we try and throw in a stretching break and/or coffee stop every couple of hours so she can relax and stretch out some kinks. I don't need this but I'm not trying to smash around as fast as possible so it's actually quite pleasant for me too. She doesn't like stopping long because she gets cold so it kind of works. In bunch rides I'd normally tow or if I got frisky I'd take off for a bit and then wait up for the group depending on terrain, other riders to chase, etc.

I can't make it for the Easter Arrow, but I'm certainly going to organise a Summer arrow!

While I'd highly recommend our Easter Arrow route to others, I think we should do something different for the Summer Arrow.

Like last year, I'll do a series of reccies to narrow down on an interesting route mostly on B roads with some good places to stop. One idea is the train to Norwich then exploring the broads to Great Yarmouth, turning along the North Norfolk coast, before heading to York.

@cgg @Ruserius @Ecobeard @jaeyukdapbap are you in for 19th June?

Just ride straight through.

Possibly, would need some srs Allan Lamb/Logistics on my part though.

Unless we want to ride from Edinburgh :)

Unless we want to ride from Edinburgh :)

I'd actually be 100% up for this. Night train seat is only fiddy bones and personally I've never been to any of the bits between Manchester and Edinburgh...

Just passing through and thought I'd offer a "go well".

Go well.

Cheers!

Nice!

Guess no one else is going to do “up and down like a yo-yo” from Exeter? I plan on ECe’ing it to make it a 400k

looks climbey. Fixed?

I was too slow to enter, might email her to see if any cards at start.

Yeah

That's the spirit.
3AAA is an honest days riding.

Bit more, the 200k ECE should take it up to 5 , maybe more. I need to finalise the route.

Arrow from Edinburgh sounds ace! I think I’m around on the 19th.

If an Edinburgh Start, I could be interested. It is pretty close to me heading to Ireland for the Wild Atlantic Way Audax though...

Registration for The Length of Sweden, starting 2nd July, opened tonight. (2100km)

I had a cheap train ticket booked to do the. Up and down like a yo-yo just outside Exeter next weekend.

I quite spectacularly did my back in last month, and am only just back on the bike, so going to skip this one.

If anybody would like a FREE return train ticket?
it'd be going to waste otherwise.
The only catch is I booked with a 26-30 railcard...

22nd Paddington > Exeter 17.30
23rd Exeter > Paddington 20:49