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Not just the Vedettes. Masses of riders have support, especially the French riders (easy to spot, carbon bike with saddle bag the size of an apple) often have their partners driving from control to control, meeting them with a cooked meal etc.

As you approach a control, the streets are lined with camper vans waiting for their riders.

It is a different way of tackling things.

Congratulations on your SR.

Depends on the organiser. Most will allow them to last forever, or at least until an organiser decides to retire or drop the ride etc.

DIY perm cards (paper or virtual) will last until there is a change of DIY organiser.

@Greenbank I will have a word with mr h and a couple of others when I see them next and try and arrange something

http://marcusjb.com

Yes!

If only for the cafe near the Greenwich tunnel.

I will be doing it on my shopping bike (a 20-odd kg single speed step through framed city bike). I expect I will have to walk a hill of two.

If you haven't done it before, it is a great event. It is the slowest 100km you will ever ride, with the hardest navigation. But it is brilliant fun and can take you into parts of the city you never knew existed etc.

^ looking forward to it!

About 40km of tracks to contend with, so it's not going to be fast. But as it takes you to places you can't get to very often, it will be interesting.

We're on the tandem for it - should be a giggle.

Cool setup. We had a rear V on the old tandem - we used it occasionally in the big mountains.

Went up to Yorkshire to pick this little baby up this weekend....

Roll on the Surrey 100!

As I said in the London 100 thread, it looks great!

I have yet to see the Orbit Bob Jackson frameset in the flesh, but it looks lovely.

I am having trouble counting the brakes - disc and V up front (operated by the captain?) and what's at the rear? (the stoker looks to have a lever?).

Great colour as well.

It arrived! Look out for us on this ...

Looks a beauty!

We're about dialled in on our new tandem - real life has stopped us getting any long rides on it, but I think we're comfy enough to haul ourselves around 100 miles.

Concessions to speed for this event are 28mm tyres and removed the front pannier rack. Can't be arsed with removing mudguards and rear rack etc.

Chapeau Marucs, it sounded like a tough ride with that heat. Plans to take the Tempo out on a few Audaxes when it arrives?

Indeed yes - looking forward to it - but it may well be next year before it gets taken on Audax rides, what with the Italians taking summer off work and all that, it could be some time before I get it.

Going to read the blog, look like an epic ride.

Hopefully it'll happen again in 2015.

Certainly not 2015 - the french ride gets in the way of pretty much everything else.

I'm not sure that it'll ever happen again in that format. But maybe in a few years. The organiser indicated some other ideas were in the pipeline.

The ride is available as a permanent to either be ridden in the 108 hours http://aukweb.net/perms/detail/MR09/ or as a more relaxed pace http://aukweb.net/perms/detail/MR10/ (it would make a great 10-14 day tour).

Lovely report, Marcus, just a little difficult to follow in places owing to the lack of chronological order. :)

Let me try again ;):

Hill, boat, loads of hills, really hot, curry, big boat, really hot, hills, boat, boat, midges, loadsa midges, hills, where's my dinner gonna come from?, really hot, midges, hills, hello fast boys glad you've had a solid night's sleep, goodbye fast boys, really big hill, hot, hot, hot, hills are easing now, hot, boat, traffic, pub, done.

Interject ice cream (must have had 4 or so ice creams on some days) and scotch pies (averaged about 2.5 per day I think) on a regular basis and you're about there!

Truly astonishing ride.

A nice write up of The Highlands and Islands here: http://marcusjb.wordpress.com

I think the author may post on here occasionally. Some nice pics to remind me how great riding in Scotland is. Also a Audax Club Hackney jersey in one of the pics.

Thanks for the link. That was a special ride for sure. 1300km of the finest terrain the British Isles has to offer with some very wild remote cycling.

We got lucky with the weather, though riding for 5 days with temperatures reaching 29-30 degrees each day brought a whole series of additional challenges that I don't think any of us were really prepared for.

Audax Hackney were represented by Adam, who had a difficult ride with a wobbly left crank and a lost GPS - but he got round with smile intact.

Certainly the hardest 1000km+ ride I have yet done and a totally different experience to other long rides with manned controls etc. - we were very much left to our own devices and just had to get on with it. Very raw, challenging riding.

Our new one - part-funded by wedding gifts from families etc.

Unlike the old one, this one fits us, which is a major improvement (despite this we've done a couple of good longish tours on the old one).

We also wanted something that can go on planes easily.

It's only had a couple of short trips so far - but we've plenty planned in the future now.

@marcusjb - Hi Marcus, I just thought I'd chip in to say how much I enjoyed your article in Arivee last year.

Thanks - 2.5 days of busting my balls went into that! All good fun though.

Entry for 2015 is likely to start from April 2015 - if it is done as per last time (which may or may not be the case).

They open it up for pre-registrations for those riders with long rides in the 2014 season - so those who have ridden a 1000km+ BRM can pre-register first, 600km next etc.

All the way to those who haven't ridden a long event in the previous season (I was in this situation in 2011 as I had only just started).

So you can't enter until early June if you don't do any rides this year - so motivation to get out there and ride some longer rides this year. It's all good preparation anyway.

As well as registering - you need to qualify. That is, you need to ride an SR series (200,300,400 and 600) in the 2015 season - so, starting in Jan/Feb, you need to ride a 200, March/April a 300, April/May a 400 and May/June a 600.

I've written a quick few thoughts on pre-registration, starting times etc. here

http://marcusjb.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/so-youre-thinking-about-paris-brest-paris-2015-then/

As LWaB says - just tick the box when you do your entry.

If you enter as a Vedette, then yes, 80 hours is the limit. If you exceed that time, then you fail even if you get back in under the 90 hours.

You'd be fine as a Vedette. I rode it in 76 hours in 2011 (starting in the Touristes as it was my first one). I'd planned enter as a Vedette next time, but I hope to be on a special (needs) bike this time.

Was considering it but will probably give it a miss, really nice ride but cba for the early start >.<

Have fun!

Upper Thames was a brute this year - the wind was very strong through the afternoon. Half killed me.