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Good work ladies. Now try another one, there are plenty around (and many that are longer and hillier).

My minimal SR for qualification:-

200: Dunno, one of the Henham/Ugley ones. Will probably cycle up from SW15 too.
300: Invicta 300 - Meopham, Kent(9th April, 3am start means I can get a train there and back easily and only be away from home one day.
400: Severn Across 400 from Chalfont St Peter (30th April. Enjoyed it last time...)
600: Kernow & South West 600 - Exeter (28th/29th May. Will take gears for this one as it's a tad hilly).

BA Flights to/from Paris also booked (I have to be at a party on the Isle of Wight on the Friday night with no hint of a bike with me), just hope the bike will get to Paris without problems. Extra baggage booked. Bike in clear plastic bag (and pray). Stuff (including tent, sleeping bag, stuff for PBP) in large rucksack checked in too. Arrive at CdG at 10am Saturday, metro/cycle down to StQeY (55km). Pitch tent. Sort out bike. Register + bike check. Relax. Eat. Cheeky beer or two. Attempt to sleep. Eat. Sort out stuff again. Eat. Leave bits and bobs in tent. Do PBP (start for 90 hour riders is between 6pm and 9pm Sunday). Finish by deadline of 5pm Thursday. Pack up stuff. Bike/Metro back to CDG airport. Slump in airport if I haven't booked nearby hotel. Check-in for 8am flight home. Arrive back at home by 10am with no care about whether the bike has made it. Train/tube home (or cycle if I'm feeling up to it). Dump stuff at home. Shit/shower/shave. Pick up pre-packed bag for weekend on Isle Of Wight. Train to Portsmouth (stay awake for changes at CJ and Guildford). Passenger ferry about 3.30pm to Ryde. Collected by Mrs G. Tart self up again. Party like someone who's just cycled 1200km in 4 days and then slept in an airport and traveled for 8 hours to get to a party. Woo!

Considering the FNRTTC/Home/DUN-RUN/Home combo as training. Timing not great but the idea is:-

Friday Night Ride To The Coast starting midnight doing the 'Genteel' ride to Brighton. Turn around and cycle back to London Fields. Rest for a bit at the start of the Dun Run. Do Dun Run, eat food at Dunwich cafe, turn around, cycle home. 577km or so by my calculations, so I could push it out by cycling 23km to the start of the FNRTTC. (P.S. 4 or 5 people did the FNRTTC/Dun-Run combo in 2008. Makes my DIY 400 of the Dun Run and home in 2009 look positively wimpy.)

You are on the start sheet, with handicap (reasonably generous too).

My arithmetic isn't quite up to calculating a gear so accurately, especially since I don't really know how fast you will go. However something in the mid eighties shouldn't be too far wrong - the human body being wonderfully adaptable. There are no steep climbs.

Using this calculator: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/

A 67.2" gear gets you 20mph at 100rpm
71.1" gear is 21.2mph at 100rpm
75.6" is 22.5mph at 100rpm
80.6" is 24.0mph at 100rpm
86.3" is 25.7mph at 100rpm
93.0" is 27.7mph at 100rpm
100.7" is 30.0mph at 100rpm

Wanted: One of these.

http://www.weerideuk.co.uk/Weeride_Kangaroo.asp

SW15 (home), SE1 (work).

Ideally in the next week or so.

[EDIT] No longer requried, sourced elsewhere.

That will depend upon which races you enter. Doing 130 mile training runs in October certainly looks enthusiastic enough to inscribe your name somewhere next year.

Good luck today!

Most people doing PBP next year will be doing at least one 200km (120mile) ride a month throughout winter. The nutters are out doing a 600km ride in December.

I'm fat and lazy so I won't be doing another 200km ride until February at the earliest.

not required for pbp, but required out of courtesy for our training rides, unless you wish to be at the back of the group all the time

The same is sort of true for PBP. Not required but there are plenty of groups that will drop you (or, if they're not British) just ask you not to ride anywhere but at the back if you don't have mudguards with a proper mudflap.

Raceblades may keep the spray off you but they do nothing to stop the spray up into the face of someone following behind.

Mudguards are generally required on some UK Audaxes where the cafe owners of the intermediate controls have got annoyed at the filth left behind by wet/muddy cyclists. The organiser has an option of losing that as a control (which probably makes running such a ride impossible) or asking for everyone to have mudguards.

Not ready, not this year at least...!

It's every 4 years though. But there's also:-

http://www.rusa.org/1200kms.html

London-Edinburgh-London 1400km, next run in 2013
Madrid-Gijon-Madrid (1200km in Spanish Spain)
Mille Miglia (1600km in Itlay) 2012?
Cascade 1200 (US)
Endless Mountains (1200)
Perth-Albany-Perth (a few weeks ago)
Sofia-Varna-Sofia (Bulgaria)
plus others...

ride this saturday: london worthing london
http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=44253

steady pace. route not suitable for fixed unless you are hardfuckingCore.

204km, 1445m climbing according to bikeroutetoaster.

So, on average flatter than PBP. (Do that route 6 times and you'll have done the same distance as PBP but you'll be 1330m climbing short.) ;)

Who needs a rack?

http://www.greenbank.org/misc/IMG_0909.JPG

That was taken on a 400km Audax (Snowdon & Coast 400).

(Inappropriate gear as I was checking stop points of derailleur.)

I'll probably be taking 67.4" (46x18 on 25mm tyres) on PBP, just because that's my long distance gear and I can happily spin that along at 35kph and climb up most hills (it's the same gear I used for the whole of last year including LEL, the Bryan Chapman and Elenith, and there's nothing particularly long and steep on PBP).

I might be tempted to go 46x17 (71.4") but only if I put in enough work between now and August (which I doubt, since I'm lazy).

how is going through a red light putting anyone's life in danger?

http://www.tandem-club.org.uk/cgi-bin/db_config.pl?read=8033

LEL went like this for me:-

Reasonable sleep in the week leading up to LEL, to try and minimise sleep debt.

Saturday: Spent most of the day sorting out my geared Audax bike to lend it to someone doing LEL who'd found a crack in their frame the day before. Minor adjustments required, then we spotted the broken spoke, etc, etc. Also had to go and queue for registration for LEL which took 4 hours plus 2 hours getting to Cheshunt and back (from SW15).

Got everything else sorted and went to bed at around midnight.

Sunday: Up at 5am. Pick up car (Streetcar from end of our road), pack everything in. Drive to Cheshunt. Wave teary goodbye to Mrs G. Mill around ready for 8.15am start. Do 320km up to Thorne by 12.30am or so. Faff around for a few hours (not really ready for sleep) grabbing food. Also had a shower. Finally felt sleepy so had 3 hours sleep on an airbed that was in my drop-bag.

Monday: Up at about 6am, coffee and breakfast and out on the bike by 6.30am. Get to Eskdalemuir (630km) at about 2am. No showers available, found a space on the floor to get a couple of hours kip.

Tuesday: Up at 6am, left loads of stuff at the control and about 7.30am headed off up to Dalkeith and back. Got to Dalkeith Rugby Club at about midday. Had a shower, swapped stuff with stuff in drop bag (clothes, fitted new rear tyre) and headed off at 1.45pm. Got back to Eskdalemuir at 7.30pm in an absolute deluge. Sat around for hours chatting to people (should have had a sleep instead). Got bored of waiting at 10pm and headed out as it wasn't going to get any better for a while. Very heavy rain until Langholm, then it cleared up, more rain at Longtown but that stopped after an hour or so. Got the dozies cycling along the A7, the arrows telling you to merge lanes were turning into cats looking over their shoulders. Fell asleep a couple of times whilst on the bike. Pro-plus wasn't really helping (see bit about should have used the 3 hours at Eskdalemuir for sleep not chatting). Had an hour long kip in a porch at Brampton wrapped up in my space blanket. Felt better and made for the next control at Alston, half way up Yad Moss. Got there at about 6am. Had some food and grabbed a bunk for 3 hours sleep.

Wednesday: Up at 10am. Over Yad Moss, and onwards to Thorne. Got there at 2am or so. Had a shower and a couple more hours sleep on my airbed.

Thursday: Up at 6am, breakfast and out the door by 6.30am. Nice flat trundle home. 24 hours to do about 290km. Now in a group of 5 or so, stopped for lunch on a nice bit of grass in the sun near Wansford. Took our time getting to Gamlingay (10pm or so) and still with hours to spare the last section was slow. Stopped to buy some beers in St Neots (4 cans of 1664 in the rack pack were good training for the last 60km). Group swelled as we picked up a Belgian and a few others. Slow progress as someone needed to stop because of the dozies. Once they were ok someone else would get them. Then I got the dozies again with 15km or so to go. All rolled in to the finish at 3.30am.

Friday: Stayed awake chatting to people at the finish (with beers) until Mrs G arrived at 6am to pick me up. Stayed away for the rest of the day too, didn't feel that knackered at all (mentally or physically). Slept like a log that night though.

So, during the ride:

3+2+1+3+2 = 11 hours sleep during the ride.

I was riding for almost exactly 70 hours, so averaging near bang on 20kph moving average. That leaves 45 hours off the bike (or stopped at junctions or faffing). If 11 hours of that were sleeping I reckon a good 25 hours were spent eating.

I would have had more, and/or finished earlier if I'd used my time at Eskdalemuir better. I should have either gone straight back out and got to Alston for midnight-ish. Or slept for 2 hours rather than sat there talking. That would have saved me 2 hours at least on the section to Alston. I could then have started the next day at 6am and got to Washingborough on Wednesday night leaving just 180km to do on the final day and a daylight finish.

Either way, I wasn't a wreck at the finish, but then I deal with sleep dep quite well (especially as baby GB has cured me of my inability to wake up before 7am).

You'll be a lot better acquainted with yourself after you've done the 300, 400 and 600 qualifiers. I've seen many people able to do 200s and 300s much faster than me, but then fall apart on a 400 since they just can't cope with being awake that long.

As I said before, doing the Dun Run and back in one go will be great training for the first night of PBP. What you've got to remember is that you'll finish the Dun Run and back and have 3 or 4 hours sleep before needing to set off and do it twice more again with only a few hours kip along the way.

PBP is harder as the minimum average speed is higher. If it was the same distance as LEL you'd have 13 hours less to do the ride in, roughly the total time I managed to sleep on LEL, so either I've got to get faster or smarter. This is all part of my plan for PBP.

By the time you get to DD it should be pretty easy going. Just some extra overnight training. I'll only do it the conventional way if there's a LFGSS support wagon though, otherwise I'm doing it backwards.

There and back (as about 350km) will be very good training for day 1 of PBP.

Most people on PBP will have a 7pm-10pm start and you'll be unlikely to have built up enough of a time buffer for sleep until the second night, even then you'll only be grabbing a couple of hours.

Even if you knock off the first 450km of PBP in 27 hours (by 10pm hopefully) you've only got about 3 hours in hand. The timings are slightly skewed in that you've only got 40 hours to do the 600km to Brest and then 50 hours to do the 600km back.

the full calendar hasn't been published yet.

All of the PBP qualifiers should be listed in the online calendar now as they had to be finalised by the end of September.

Look for any that say "BRM [PBP]"

How long would one expect this to take?

Yes, the fast lot aim for sub 60h. Some aim for under 80 hours. Most just aim to finish. Ideally with more than a couple of hours to spare just in case.

If I finish I doubt I'll be under 85h. If I've got 15 hours left to do the final 150km then I'll have a 3hour kip and then do them.

Some example times on here for long rides:-

http://www.lesrandonneursmondiaux.org/homologations2011.html

There are a few very fast times on there. Like Joerg Kurzke who did London-Edinburgh-London (it was 1420km) in 65h25. That's averaging almost 22kph. The lead bunch did the first 720km up to Edinburgh in just 24 hours (that's a healthy 30kph average).

My advice. Bin your razors.. the temptation to maintain cleanshavenness in normal males these days is horribly high.

Exactly. The standard PBP method is to shave on Thursday morning, and then do a couple of 100km days, via the ferry, to pootle down to Paris staying Thursday night in any random town in Normandy. Saturday is registration and bike check. Sunday you're off. Thursday you're back. Friday and Saturday and the 100km days pootling back to Blighty via Normandy and a ferry. You then get to shave on Sunday before you're back on the bike commuting on the Monday.

^ The 1951 PBP was a race though (the last one I think) and not an audax. Is that year still the course record time?

http://www.paris-brest-paris.org/pbp2011/index2.php?lang=en&cat=presentation&page=competition_ou_rando

Every PBP has a bunch of vedettes that race to be first. There's no official 'winner' of the ride, but someone has to be first and they do give out trophies.

As for equivalent distance for runners? I'd agree that it's more akin to long distance walking. So id'd be roughly the same as doing long distance walking events where you are walking for up to 18 hours a day for 4 days.

Are you allowed to tape the tri bars to your arms and then just hook them over your bars when appropriate?

Only when hidden inside a baguette or two.

I've seen photos of some handlebar bags on PBP with some very stiff supports built in.

My initial training for this will be to keep up the 12 miles each way commuting on a daily basis. Not much but very valuable.

The bulk of my 'training' will be my 8 miles each way pan-flat commute.

Not much time for anything more than a minimal SR.

Will be doing all (including PBP) but the 600 (Kernow & South West, bloody hilly down there in Devon/Cornwall) on fixed.

Have to ditch the tri-bars though, which is a bit of an arse, I've grown to love them for long distance riding. Will shave off 500g though.

My minimal SR-plan for 2011:-

200: Dunno, probably one of the Henham/Ugley rides since they're easy to get to from London
300: The Dean 300 or Invicta 300 if I have to be home for Sunday morning...
400: Severn Across 400
600: Kernow & South West 600

Tractors doing 20mph will often set off 30mph cameras because the tops of the tyres (with treads that stick out 6" or more) are big enough to reflect back enough of the radar and will be doing 40mph.

Unlucky TSK but a good DNF often serves as extra motivation for not DNFing again, or at least not giving up quite so soon.

From memory I've DNFed:-

• My third ever 200 at only 80km. I was woefully unfit but I still reckon I could have got round if I'd applied the HTFU.
  
• A 600 in horrendous weather (plenty of other people packed on that ride). There were 60mph gusts through the Dales. I gave up at 230km or so.
  
• A DIY 200 halfway. I did the first 100 (a calendar ride) with an enormous hangover thinking that it would sort me out but I just felt worse by the end and got the train home instead of riding the 100km home.
  

it's only against the law if you have a means to determine your speed, so if you dont have a speedo on your bike your fine, i asked a coppa once.

The copper was talking shit then.

The speed limits on public roads in the UK apply to motor vehicles only; that's what the appropriate law(s) state.

The only speed limits that do apply to bicycles are due to specific legislation such as the Royal Parks Act that is worded in such a way that it applies the speed limit in the Royal Parks to all vehicles (not just motor vehicles and therefore includes bicycles). This is why the Police are sometimes out enforcing the 20mph speed limit in Richmond Park (and it's 10mph on the path around the outer edges of the park). Also, not knowing your speed isn't a valid defence (although you may get away with it if the copper is feeling nice).

The 'furious cycling' offence is a bit of a misnomer too. There's no record of it existing, although there are some tenuous reports back to the mid 1800s. More on it here: http://www.bikeforall.net/content/cycling_and_the_law.php

Bikes can set off speed cameras, I used to set off the one at the bottom of Orwell Hill (coming in towards Cambridge) whenever I went that route (except into a headwind!).

They did know, that's why Darsham (usually an unmanned station) was manned that day.

http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=36077.msg679914#msg679914

Got any spare rolling a stock to take 1000 bikes ?

I think someone over on yacf with some connections in railways made some enquiries about running some a special train (or trains) with plenty of space for bikes using the Leiston/Sizewell branch all the way into London.

The biggest problem is that it's just too expensive. It's a one off with too high a cost of getting the train made up, from the depot to the east coast, staffing it with a guard and driver, getting it back to the depot after it's been used, etc, etc.

Unless, of course, you can find enough people happy to pay £30+ to get such a train, and that's for a single train; if you want to run it back/forth between Dunwich and London to give people a few options for leaving times then it's only going to get more expensive as it'll be needed for longer.