Ultracycling

He's not. He's just being pragmatic.

My issue with it is not that they are taking Adrian's or Audax Ireland's route, it's that starting and finishing with a long ferry is not a great idea for a race.

I don't know how frequent the ferries are nowadays but how is it going to work?

At the start virtually everyone will be going for the same one. There must be a limit on how many bikes the ferries take. So do you wait for the start gun then immediately book your ferry before you start riding ... and find it is already booked by people who have reserved it before the start? Or try and get there as fast as to get in the queue?

Then on the way back, let's say you are in the lead and have raced your legs off and have 14 hours on the second placed guy. But there's only two ferries a day and the next three guys all come in together and just make your ferry. So instead of an ultra you are now racing a crit round Snowdonia.

From a racing point of view it just seems shit. In every other event ferries are a necessary evil when there is water to be crossed, not something that the event revolves around. If they want to have a race in Ireland, why not have the start and finish in Ireland too?

But what do I know - it's now sold out.

Yes. He can't exactly shout at them in public. My reading of his post is that he is politely pointing out that they haven't done their homework very well.

The TAW also started in 2016.
The TransAm route was created in the 70s but there's only one TABR.

It seems a bit lazy / cheeky to me. But more people wanting in on this kind of thing presumably means more events will pop up and wallets will decide.

Its a different market also. TAW attracts the older rider ( 83 was the average age of last year's participants) where the Pan is attracting younger jump on the band wagon social media types.

Looking forward to see how the ferries pan out. Currently showing 2 per day for July.

83? Wow.

Must be typo - maybe 53? @scultura

Don’t the ferries just feed in to your strategy?
I take your point about the start though doesn’t seem particularly well thought through.

23km from the campsite to Fishguard. Then a 4hr ferry.

It does beg the question why they didn't just put the start in Rosslare ...

Interest in Ultra-ish things has grown far beyond Mike's 12 mates, so there'll inevitably be more events some of which overlap.

I do think the route is a bit odd. It makes a bit more sense if you know the organisers are from Llandudno and the previous events have finished there. The start is weird - the blurb says there's a choice of Pembroke or Fishguard, which are in different directions from the start point on the map, and currently ferries leave two hours apart from each, so you might be able to gamble on an earlier ferry?

The quasi-nationalist Celtic bollox can get in the sea though.

Or link the start/finish in Wales to make a full loop.

Exaggerated for comic effect.

Same start and finish always makes rider logistics easier. Finding a friendly hotel/BB and stashing all your pre and post race stuff is nice.

choice of Pembroke or Fishguard, which are in different directions from the start point on the map, and currently ferries leave two hours apart from each, so you might be able to gamble on an earlier ferry?

The Pembroke ferry takes ages to get out of Milford Haven. Fishguard ferry will be a quicker crossing.
Depends which leaves first, and what the start time is, of course.

They could set the start time to make it a big gamble which one you go for, but not sure that would make for a great race.

Yep, definitely. It also tallies with the "pan celtic" thing a bit more and removes that silly 20k ride to a 4hr ferry or whatever. Anyway, I've ridden around Ireland before and I've got other fish to fry so with that in mind, I'm out. :)

I'm not trying to come across as negative about these things but I do find myself curious about the semantics of what are and are not 'ultras', given this has a mandatory route.

Unless you're planning on being at the pointy end of something like the Pan Celtic, why not just enter Bristol Glasgow Bristol (£16.35) or LEL or something and wear your Albion kit? What am I missing?

Bristol Glasgow Bristol (£16.35)

not very instagram.

LOL

What am I missing?

A marketing budget.

I know where my people are

writes cheque for £16.35

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writes cheque

Now you've lost me.

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who are you?

Pan Celtic sold out for 2022. Doing something right.

So many races now, it's hard to follow sometimes.