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First time riding SOH on the day after ten years of helping out so was good to see familiar faces and have some company on the road, though I mostly stuck to my Billy Nomates solo fixed pace.

Dipped into the first open, shaded pub I saw just before the info for a bitter shandy and crisps which sorted me out on the hydration front, and so skipped the Bell in Balsham which is the usual stopoff and even comes recommended on the routesheet.

Stumbled across Espresso Lane in Cambridge which made an incredible iced latte - at that point I couldn't figure out if my onset headache was lack of caffeine, overtight helmet or dehydration so attempted to cover all bases.

Dropped the pace slightly for the return section partly to avoid any loss of appetite for the awaiting Arrivée feast, another bitter shandy + crisp combo at Puckeridge helped soften the shitty ride back into London and attempts to comprehend how running a bike lane through the middle of bus stops ever made it into existence, but the finishing reception at Justin's house makes it all seem worthwhile in the end.

Returned home via the Overground from Canonbury to New Cross, don't think I've ever been so happy to sit on an air-conditioned train before, absolute bliss.

Going by train for the Hardboiled worked out pretty well for me - Friday night dinner at home, more eating on the last train to Poole, then hang around the station carpark for an hour (full down jacket came in useful there). Ride (and walk) around Wessex, quick pint and then back in London by midnight so could be reasonably presentable for Sunday lunch with the in-laws.

Also worth checking out TransAlp Rando (https://www.transalprando.com/) - Pete Kelsey rode it last year and recommended it highly...

Venetian Nights not showing up in the calendar yet for next year (not even the unpublished organisers one), but going to pencil it in mine for the penultimate weekend in September based on this & last year.

Last I heard the cancer has completely gone and should hopefully be back on his bike next year which is fantastic news, even if he'll probably be on gears

Yes, several times on rides, he's a top bloke. Keep meaning to go and ride his events especially as he's made the effort to come down to London to ride mine & Justin's - will put these in the calendar for next year now I think of it. Oh, and cross out Bristol-Glasgow-Bristol whilst the memories of Pendle are fresh!

Yes, Justin on his custom Rourke for something like his 4th Pendle on fixed. I managed one (on the FXE).

I rode Pendle in 2015 on fixed as well, it was brutal, leaving every single control out of time and finishing minutes before the cutoff with zero sleep. Managed to take just one photo early on, before Justin & I walked down Rosedale (as someone had crashed the year before?). These days I would say it's on the unacceptable side of stupid but that probably encompasses most rides I've ever done.

Any other fixies involved?

Late to the party as usual, but there's Sergey as well: https://www.strava.com/athletes/9157748 - has done TPR

Anna approached me about running FRRT for TCRno8 and I had a preliminary discussion with FMC but TBH I just ran out of time to do this at the moment- running a control on LEL in two weeks so got 50 volunteers to organise plus 1500 or so riders to feed and look after.

I would be quite happy to ditch it completely and just ride my bike more if someone else would come up with a similar way of estimating DTFs for a free-routed event, so probably will be back for the next one...

It only has 1.75AAA but there is no distinction made between partial and full AAA for the awards so would count towards an SR.

Dauntsey Dawdle has partial AAA for the section from Bexley Hill to Combe Gibbet

Just followed some other riders doing it, does look at lot of fun. With my AAA hat on, as it's not a BRM ride, I reckon you should be able to enter it as a 1000km Brevet Populaire (BP) DIY giving you the full 100hrs to complete it if you opt for the Randonneur option - so no distance points then but can still claim AAA for it.

Thanks everyone. FWIW the ride is here: https://www.strava.com/activities/7400620194

With external hydro cables just tied onto the frame should be fairly straightforward to remove the brakes and bars in one go I would have thought.

1. remove rim brakes with cables, handlebar and stem all in one, stick in a bag
   
2. remove front fork, scrabble around and pick up headset parts off the grass
   
3. remove both wheels
   
4. remove seatpost and saddle
   
5. strap everything together, stick in £20 folding bike bag that matches the 85cm Eurostar/TGV max dimension
   

So as noted I made it round the 23,500m of climbing on Alpi 4000 fixed, with minimal walking - uphill gravel at altitude in the heat is not my thing (or many others from looking around).

Reprised my double-fixed setup from the TCR with 44/46T chainrings on a Sugino RD2 and slightly wider BB (106mm I think) for the inner to clear chainstays and my third bottle mount, however having two cogs on one side as before is bending the Fixed Wheel Challenge rules somewhat I believe, so stuck with the Halo FIX-G hub for the 16T fatfoot cog spaced for the outer ring but had a 18T threaded onto the reverse side with a velosolo spacer to get the chainline dialled in. Worked a treat, flipping the wheel at the bottom/top of climbs and with the 44/18 (66") and 46/16 (77") combinations meaning the wheel position didn't move and could continue to use the rear brake without adjustment.

For shortish descents (<500m or so), eg Finestre to Sestriere stayed in the low gear and dragged the rear brake to give my knees a bit of break - they were working hard enough! The descents were much more fun than I expected, the more technical the better, eg off Passo Gavia, found I could leg-brake into the hairpins, modulate the power though the apex and then full power on, overtaking freewheelers in the process.

No mechanicals at all, didn't even pump up my tyres once, though did have to remove the half-link as I'd managed to stretch the chain to the point it was no longer needed, and also had to redo the tape on the bars as I'd managed to pull that off on some of the harder climbs.

Settled into a routine of aiming to stop near the base of climbs and then getting on the road pre-dawn for a few hours of respite from the heat and traffic. The early start made it more convenient to start searching for hotels in the early evening as only spent half the nights in the dormitories for comfort as well as route positioning reasons.

Oh and as mentioned, I did it by train as a #nofly #RinkoBike trip: Thursday Eurostar London-Paris and TGV Paris-Milan, reassembled the bike and overnighted there, then Friday Milan-Tirano and cycled the 40km from there which was all pretty smooth. The return was slight messier as there were engineering work on the Trenord line so chucked the bike into its bag outside a Bormio pub in about 20mins flat with hippy watching on then bus -> rail-replacement bus -> commuter train (no bike spaces!) to Milan. Back to Paris on Saturday to meet the missus, hang out in brasseries, and see Jarvis perform Chansons d’Ennui Tip-Top plus some JARV IS songs which was brilliant and a total counterpoint to the previous week, before a Eurostar home on Sunday night.

Loved pretty much of all of it apart from maybe that single squat toilet at one control shared with hundreds of other riders...

Now assessed with 11220m and 11AAA - basically the whole ride counts except the last 50km. Climbing is more spread out than LLEL and generally easier gradients in Wales so headline figure only conveys part of the story...

I decided against running it this year as the Covid situation was looking pretty bad when I had to schedule it late last year, and I've brought Greenwich Mean Climb forward to June for the 100th anniversary of the BRM300, only have so much time for organising events. It should be back next year as a PBP qualifier though.

Yes, send through the entire (ECE+Calendar) track, that way you can use any over-distance in the calendar event to reduce the extension required to hit 300km or whatever- submit both the planned route and completed track (when done) to Martin.

DIYs under 200km are classified as BP, Brevet Populaire, so a lower min speed of 10kph giving you 5hrs for 50km.

Yes, RwGPS should be fine for non-GB rides.

Yes, both have about the same amount of climbing, but the first packs the majority into the first half so gets partial AAA for having over 1500m of climbing in 100km. Unfortunately the new AUK website doesn't show the eligible climbing vs total climbing figures but as Grams notes it's all entered manually so is prone to errors anyway.

Note that (apropos of nothing) I didn't come up with any of the AAA rules or awards, I just volunteered for the vacant role to administrate them for all the riders that take part as I'd already written the software to help out the previous incumbent, and it actually quite an enjoyable task.

I also see it as an example of separation of powers between the executive (board), legislature (members) & judiciary (me) - if you want to change anything, submit a motion to the AGM (or get the board to fire me!), and it is pretty idiosyncratic in places, but hey, this is audax, what do you expect?

Now available here: https://github.com/aukgis/aaanalyser/blob/master/doc/AAAnalyser_AUK_Reunion_2018_Presentation.pdf

My code for locating partial AAA sections within longer rides is the bit I'm most grateful for, before it was a laborious manual process of cutting the track up and so many of these would not have been identified. Now probably half of DIYs that get AAA are these because people naturally ride out from home into the hills so there are flatter start/end sections that pull the overall climbing rate down.