Ultracycling

You've not seen things like RAI and RAAM and such? These relatively more expensive (in some cases much more expensive) supported events have been around many years before the whole unsupported scene kicked off.

If anyone wants to pay for me to race in a RAAM team, PM me :)

I'm aware such things exist, just not seen the rules for one up close.

The website is broken, but I'm going to guess "unsupported" actually involves quite a lot of support by the standards of any other Ultra.

Seems weird.

I just looked at Race Across Italy and they charge a bit less for unsupported.

I thought about doing it a few years ago, but was glad that I didn't as the weather was awful that year. There were reports about one or two of the support teams needing help from unsupported riders after their cars broke down, so I can't see any logic!

EDIT - just looked at Race Around Poland: unsupported €200, supported €600
https://racearoundpoland.pl/registration

Race Across Italy

I was looking at that recently, like the idea of it.

Quite keen to do something in April. Race across the Netherlands is the other one around the same time but suspect the weather could be very shit. @hippy Did you do a write-up for this? I'm sure I remember reading something by you on it?

I did post a lot on it but you're probably thinking of @tomasito

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/14787437/

Ah yes, right you are.

I did a write-up also https://cyclingadventurestom.wordpress.com/2019/05/11/the-race-around-the-netherlands-2019/

Sweet, will read this tonight.

would you ride it again?

I really liked it but I won't do it again as there are too many other races/rides to be done. :)

I was looking at that recently, like the idea of it.

It sounded good on paper but the weather in the mountains in Italy in April, or whenever it is, is often really bad!

I hope the secret of audax doesn't reach any more 'ultra riders' / Sportive crushers*

*joke, isn't this a great thing though. People are realising you can ride your bike for a very reasonable 5 quid

The only drawback to more people riding them is it being a bit harder for me to do my usual last minute entry stuff. But even then I'll just DIY the route later if I want to ride it still. I still like racing though, it adds another element.

Yeah esp post-pandemic, any calendar events I rode this year were over-subscribed.

I realise how much I'd missed them, got very used to grinding out DIYs solo esp with things like RRtY etc.

I might try a few races next year to see what's different, I've got very used to having no idea where I am in the pack on audaxes.

Yeah 23rd of April by the looks of things. All in the south so I guess better chance of good weather but certainly not a given.

Maybe it is a different route each year. I think it was further north the year I looked at it.

South is better, but the mountains are still unpredictable in April!

The Mike lookalike on the front page gave me a bit of a start.

The Mike lookalike on the front page gave me a bit of a start

Ha, I thought exactly the same.

https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-021-00470-0

And if you wanna help:

https://ww3.unipark.de/uc/cycling-psychology/

So what is everybody entering for next year?

I've had a good look through the calendar and there are a few good options but I can't decide what to do.

If I could get a place in TCR I would do that, but I won't know until Jan and that might be too late for other stuff.

My backup was going to be NorthCape - Tarifa, but most likely only as far as Nice as I couldn't justify the time it would take to ride 7,400km. But it is so early in the year - 20 June.

There are a few other options in July / August, but all a bit shorter:
Three Peaks Bike Race - 2150km, loads of Alps + Ventoux
Trans Alpes - basically all-you-can-eat of the Alps, 2850km with 64km of climbing
Transiberica - 3,330km, Spain and Portugal.
Carpathian Arch - 2,500km - Romania, Ukraine, Slovenia
GB Duro - 2,000km (mostly off road) best thing to do in the UK if travel is going to be a problem again this year.

Anybody doing any of these, or have strong views on any of them?

I have a place on TCR and I've entered All Points North again, hear back on Friday I think if successful or not.

I'd definitely like to do Transiberica at some point and I think Carpathian sounds really interesting, would love to see Romania. Think I looked into last year as a backup but think it got cancelled from memory?

I might do the Three Peaks as my main event and maybe some smaller/shorter events close to home, both road and gravel.
With a week of snowboarding and my girlfriend who wants to travel a few times a year the vacation days are limited.

APN if I get a place and considering Transpyrenees, if I can get on it.

Having read the latest Arrivee the Bristol-Glasgow-Bristol route sounds suitably daft, and I might ride KWCC's London>Anglesey>London

Doug loved transiberica.
Here is about the only place I'd ride on the road now. Also likely to run and be able to get here without hassle.

No idea how tcr will work!? It should have become a schengen zone event.

KWCC's London>Anglesey>London

Well done on keeping your TCR place last year! I gave mine up to persue the fools errand of the NC4000 and am now regretting it.

Yes, Carpathian got cancelled last year. It would be cool to do those big Romanian passes and also Ukraine which is a bit more exotic. My big reservation is Romanian roads.

Three Peaks looks really good, and it should be achievable with 1.5 weeks of holiday.

I think they undersell it on their website: "This race is designed for riders who wanna start into self supported bike racing or for experienced racers who wanna test themselfs in race conditions before their main event in the season kicks off."