Ultracycling

Ibuprofen is fucking bad news for ultra racing and bad news in general. Avoid.

This. I've seen some (foot) races where taking it is an instant DQ. Hard to police but it's there in the rules with a health warning. If you can't get through the event on pan y agua then maybe it's time to scratch and start looking after yourself.

Best thing to read about cheating is Mikko's recent post on it.

https://www.randonneurs.fi/values-of-the-transcontinental-race-are-good-values-and-how-we-cheat/?fbclid=IwAR33Qgu8nPBrbyZFsAyAg9mbrVAlTE0d9sqUL7WcSZ5vMvISh3kTk7NWQRM

I don't think drugs would be a massive help. Sure EPO would help you to push it in traning, but AFAIK most only have a short term impact and you can't string it out for days on end before crashing.

But, if I wanted to cheat, I wouldn't mess around with popping pills. The best way would be to have a friend or a PA organising stuff. Looking up the weather in the area I was going into, looking up traffic conditions and roadworks, and sending me a new route to miss any problems. Checking my route against what others were doing to make sure I wasn't heading for any bad options. Re-route me if needed - so much easier with a computer than on the fly. Book hotels for me, and call them to check everything was ok, find food / water for me, etc. They would look up any medical issues I had and tell me what to do, find bike shops and order any spare parts, etc, etc.

Basically they would make it so I didn't have to think about stuff, and didn't make any bad decisions when tired. That is a big part of the challenge.

Then, when it came to a big climb one evening, I would forget to turn my tracker back on, and they would arrange a taxi to give me a lift for an hour or two up the climb, and I'd check into a hotel and have a good night's sleep. Then I'd get up in the morning and turn my tracker back on, and tweet about how I'd ridden all night. I could probably get away with doing that once or twice in a long event - although I'd change it the second time - different time of day.

A lot of this goes on (the first bit anyway, AFAIK no-one has been caught donig the second, although they have on PBP) but does it make that much difference? Not really - if I did it, it could get me a few places in the middle of the pack but it's not going to get me on the podium.

I don't take it now (it clashes with other stuff that I have to take (aspirin), but I have done in the past, and have been advised by doctors to do so. It never seemed to do a lot for cycling pains but I do recall it helped to bring down some nasty saddle sore swelling a couple of times...

I know more about it now, but it is still regarded as being as legit as anything, say as caffeine. My doctor did say that I could take it if I wanted to as long as I took something else, to protect stomach, but I don't want to go there.

Tramadol is upping the stakes in pain relief. It's prescription-only, much stronger and has some nasty side effects. A pack was found on the route of an event last year.

Yeah, basically like how Beaumont did the supported world record. Look at what his team did and copy that :D

How about a motor hidden inside a full frame bag?

It seems that you shifted the discussion from "how to identify cheating" to "is cheating actually a problem"? While that's also a question you can ask, I think it's easy to settle (has been settled). If nothing else, cheating devalues the event.

And thanks for the link, @frank9755.

A friend riding PBP gave himself mild acute kidney failure with an accidental overdose of ibuprofen. It was excarbated due to him already being dehydrated, and caused his legs to swell up. Luckily he spoke to a doctor before it got too bad.

Interesting read!

How about a motor hidden inside a full frame bag?

Even better, most riders already have a device fitted in their front hub that converts between motion and electricity. Normally they use it one way, but dynamos and motors are pretty similar tech!

How to identify cheating depends on what the cheating is. You could ask all riders to provide transcripts of all phone calls made during the race...

Thanks for sharing Mikko's post - really good, honest read.

"Fuck this shit"
"What's wrong?"
"Fucking fuck this"
"Are you ok"
"Fuh fucksake asdkajkkjdsakhasiuhiuiubewiubfrwiubfw"
"You're still moving on the tracker so I guess you've not been hit by a car"
"Fuckscaras csumacunt cunt cunt"
etc

Hello hive mind. I want to get into ultra cycling as a way of fundraising for some charitable causes that mean a lot to me. The only bikes I have are either race bikes ie aggressive, or too shiny, so I reckon I can get the old n+1 going. I’ve done a bit of research and popular options seems to be either steel custom, or stock from fairlight, mason definition, or kinesis RTD/GTD. Any other ideas? Not interested in getting too spendy, and I have components I can move across so should be able to go down the frame / frameset route. Thanks!

Bikingman Oman starts today with @DarrenFranks
https://bikingmanoman2020.maprogress.com/

Make sure it has plenty of clearance. There is a definite trend towards gravel etc and you might as well be covered.

On or off road?
For, eg, tcr lots of UK riders use the frames you list. They would be good options. Some people do custom Ti nowadays. You also see a lot of specialized roubaix, canyons, etc. Basically, whatever you fancy.
definitely clearance for big tyres and the world has gone to disc brakes, through axles, etc.
People do ride the tcr on cheap bikes though, anything that fits and is well maintained will do, but like you say, not too aggressive a position.

Great, thanks guys. Mainly road but as you say good to be covered for some gravel with big clearance. Seem to be plenty of nice options for that too.

They seem not to have the option of the short cut to the big climb this year. And the guy that usually wins doesn't seem to be riding this time either. I don't recognise any of the names at the front.
Darren seems to be doing OK, around 10th, coming up to the start of the climb.

I don't think I could fault my Fairlight secan, it's taken everything I've thrown at its and not complained once.

On or off-road? Kinesis Tripster AT are ~£700 framset (https://www.kinesisbikes.co.uk/Catalogue/Models/Adventure/Tripster-AT) and there's a full-bike option (£2200). It'll do both, given it's 50mm tyre clearances (I'm running 47mm tyre right now).

Secan Frameset – Starting from £1,199

I have a Mason Resolution (steel one) too but the framesets are £1600 and clearance is only 33mm.

https://www.dotwatcher.cc/profile/Rodney%20Soncco

Lost all interest in BikingMan events after this nonsense:
https://www.lfgss.com/comments/14643172/
https://www.lfgss.com/comments/14642944/

and now they're billing themselves as the "unassisted world champs"? LOLz

Sure, I don't regard it as having credibility. And that was before I heard of any world championship claims!
But always interesting to see new, fast people, wherever they come from.

I'll dot watch, just to see how Darren goes but I'm more into race reports than dot watching anyway.

Bikingman is a joke.
Their events are so far from what we are doing.