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I rode this route a couple of years ago during GBDuro, happy to answer any questions if you have them. It's a fantastic route!

I think it makes sense to do it south to north if you can, as the southern bit is definitely the hardest, and then you get to really enjoy Scotland. It feels like the route gets progressively more beautiful that way. I also really loved the Wales part.

More specifically, I think some of the climbs are better to approach from the south too. For example the Corrieyairack pass near Loch Ness, the southern part contains loose gravel hairpin turns, which are better to climb than to descent.

Struts please

If you mean the Ultegra RX derailleur. I use the mechanical version with a 11-42 SLX cassette all the time

This is now a bike that also finished Paris Brest Paris!

Should really finish my GBDuro write up. If that makes any sense after a year

Made it round! Was very impressed by the organisation all around. Always some friendly faces around to stamp and provide food. The people cheering along the course really are something.

I especially enjoyed showing up to the register with a pile of food on a tray and a soup bowl of coffee, to have the volunteer apparently do some mental maths and name a random number you need to pay. Keeps you on your toes.

Completely knackered and on the way back home now, good luck with the last bits if you're out on the course!

C114 just picked my stuff up :). Hope to see some of you on the road

Happy Friday. Got a new strap.

I read the organisation recommends against bivvys and sleeping bags, because the controls have dormitories. They do say that if the dormitories are full, you can still sleep in the building, so bringing a mat sounds like a good idea.

Could you measure your bars against the sizes of the ControlTech stem before you start drilling? I'm sure it will work infinitely better if it's close, even with shimming.

I fully understand the aerobars being there for comfort, but I'd be very wary of compromising the carbon layup in probably the flexiest part of the bar.

Not sure if you're set on full size aerobars (do we know if they're allowed yet?), but Controltech makes some stem mounted ones, with square stem shapes.

https://www.controltechbikes.com/products/item/417.html
https://www.controltechbikes.com/products/item/383.html

I wrote down some of my GBDURO experience, so grab yourself a drink and promise yourself to read all of this later at some point, to never actually do it. I’ll do it stage by stage to a release schedule that is as much a mystery to you as it is to me.

Day 0

Starting GBDURO was incredibly stressful. I’m not very used to travelling alone, but all in all, it wasn’t too bad to get there with the ferry and trains. Even though they cancelled my first ferry, I was able to rebook and still get the trains I wanted to. Travel from door to door took about 24 hours. Got lucky with a great Airbnb here, they even had a workshop where I could bodge a light mount I broke on the way. I donated my fuel and stove to them after getting a bit psyched out by another competitor I met in the train, who had maybe half of the kit I was carrying.

Stage 1

As mentioned, I was super nervous about all of this. And seeing the (lack of) gear other competitors brought, amplified it. But at this point, I’ve made my bed. And finally getting started after all these months of worrying will be a giant relief anyway.

I tried to go full race mode from the start, even riding top 10 in the first couple of hours, but this wasn’t sustainable at all. I got used to trying to stop at little as possible trough the randonneuring I did in preparation for this. Besides this, randonneuring was really good prep. Part of my training for GBDURO was doing a Super Randonneur series, you can refer to me as Super Barry from now on.

The route started off well by immediately turning to some really deeply rutted singletrack. I got ejected from the bike here for one of my two crashes along the way, but I rode away with only my ego bruised. The rest of the day the route was relatively well paved, but incredibly steep, totalling in almost 4000 meters of elevation for the day.

The first two days of the ride were during some immense heatwave that Britain is well known for, it got around 36 C during the day. I dealt ok with the temperature and being in the sun all day, but it did have me stopping a lot for supplies. I drank around 10 liters of water on each of the first two days. My food strategy was to stuff some type of food down every hour. My main strength is that my digestive system doesn't seem to care what I throw at it at all. So i treated myself to a well balanced meal of vanilla slices, yoghurt, snickers, huel, soda, muffins, sandwiches, and clif bars for dinner the first night.

Wildcamping is not something I’m used to at all, and especially this night would prove to be challenging. I just couldn’t find a suitable place that wasn’t a farmer’s field, who were very active during the late evening, because of the high temperatures during the day. I even got “can I help you with something”ed by a farmer on an ATV when having a look at a field. Eventually I settled on some field, but I basically spent 4 hours lying down, trying to convince myself every rustling leaf wasn’t the cops here to arrest me. After no sleep at all, but a lot of wasted time, I ran into a perfect camping spot 300 meters further along the route the next day.

Stage one is the hardest stage of GBDURO. On the second day, running through the Quantock hills and Mendips was so incredibly brutal. Climbing along them wasn’t too bad, I really like climbing. But the descents were incredibly rough. None of them were paved and they were so much more rocky than I could have ever imagined. I still can’t feel two of my fingertips

After a truly massive chippy in Bristol and crossing into Wales over the Severn bridges, I found a fantastic camping spot. While pitching my tent I was only stopped once by two men speeding through the forest in a pick up truck in the dark, looking for someone on a bike(?). I was tired enough at this point to not pay much attention to it.

Cycling trough Wales was an absolute dream, the south of Wales and especially the Brecon Beacons really stuck with me. I think I barely saw a soul there, which was just as well as I couldn’t pronounce any of the village names here anyway. At first I thought I was almost at the first checkpoint, as I saw “Ysbyty Yswyth” on the roadsigns.

The feeling of “almost being there” that ensued while cycling on to my actual destination “Ysbyty Cynfyn” was a bit of a slog, but I got there just before dark. Saving me just enough time to grab a load of food and get a shower at the checkpoint, which was an unexpected luxury that was a nice boost.

Trying to wash my clothes in the shower just before sunset was a rookie error, but I brought a second pair of bibs, so no big worries. I rode the rest of GBDURO in this second pair of bibs, never had a single moment of saddle sore, love them. They did turn out to be two centimeters shorter than the first bibs though, so from now on I will have a massive tanline showing, almost scratched then and there. I'm lucky it's a solo event.

I arrived at the checkpoint much later than ideal, but I did get there. I survived stage 1 of GBDURO in 60 hrs 42 mins. I bet it’s all smooth sailing from here (foreshadowing intensifies)

Day 1: https://www.strava.com/activities/7633550121
Day 2: https://www.strava.com/activities/7644137351
Day 3: https://www.strava.com/activities/7644138546

Thanks :). I'm writing out some of my experience, will share when it's in a readable state!

Thanks! It's a Wit Slingers saddlebag. Bit of a Carradice style, but better in every way. Second to none, really

The support is a carradice bagman with a strut I cobbled together from spares. Worked really well

This is now a bike that finished GBDURO22! Couldn't have wished for a better companion to drag me through all of the UK.

What an adventure.

I took the ferry from Dover to Calais with a bike last thursday. No cue at all. In the Dover port you can skip all cues by following the red bike line.

In Calais you need to line up with the cars, but no big cue there either when I took that a couple of weeks ago.

Yeah they do make it sound like you need the physical card, but they won't be harsh about it. You can also buy "het groene boekje" at most bookstores and outdoor stores, which contains the card too, and some useful maps.

Sounds like a sweet trip! Make sure you spend some time in de Veluwe and de Utrechtse Heuvelrug. And bring binoculars for het Biesbosch. I stayed at the "Zanderdennen" natuurcamping last week in de Veluwe, highly recommended, it's the tiniest camping I've ever seen and as remote as it gets in the Netherlands.

Just showing up will generally work. You can check beforehand is the camping has a "trekkersveld" which is just an area to put tents up on without reserved spaces.

Natuurcampings are the nicest ones imo https://www.natuurkampeerterreinen.nl/?lang=en you need to become yearly member, which you can do online ahead, or just at the camping, they wont turn you away. Its really nice.

Where are you headed?

They do a static puncture test with a blunt and a sharp needle. I was mistaken though, the Cinturato M and H and Getaway have identical sidewall protection within a margin of error.

I'm going to be racing GBduro, so not loads of time, but not too pressed either. I appreciate your anecdotes as much as anything else though, saves me from having to find out everything myself and spending a fortune on tires.

The cinturato H somehow scores much higher than the M on sidewall protection. Tire manufacturers really do work in mysterious ways.

BRR could be a great resource to pick from your pile of tires it seems. Some Gravelkings score pretty high.

Good points. I'm not particularly interested in the Cannonball, so don't worry about that.

I'm totally in agreement on the puncture protection, I'd rather get something with good protection, I tend to flat often. Which is what drove me to the getaways initially, since their puncture protection is the best of any knobbly tire in BRR. Their sidewall indeed seems to be their weak point, but bizarrely still more resistant than Cinturato M, Cannonball Light or Riddler Light.

If they offered Getaways in 45 I'd be on it I think. My bike won't comfortably clear anything larger. Just driving myself insane with comparing everything on the market so i don't have to ride these damn Riddlers.

Tyre choice is all over the place for starters, but finishers generally all have 42 or 45mm with medium knobbles.

Teravail Cannonball seems popular, that's a 42mm tire that comes up bizarrely narrow (38 in BRR test), but gets a terrible review from bicyclerollingresistance, despite Jaimi Wilson winning on them, and Angus Young coming in first before being disqualified last year.

Getaways have identical volume and "should be" better in every way (according to numbers)

There's also a bunch of G One variants and Riddlers are relatively prevalent.

Thanks! Sadly Bicyclerollingresistance doesn't have data for the SG2 version of the Riddler, so the feel is all I have.

According to them Challenge Getaways should be extremely puncture resistance and have ridiculous low rolling resistance, but surely they should be too fragile? Also feel I'd be pushing it at 40mm, instead of 45.

Considering running a Pirelli Cinturato H in the back, and a Cinturato M in the front, both in 45mm, for GBduro. Anyone on here with experience with the GB divide route who can weigh in on this?

I initially settled on WTB Riddlers but after riding them for a while I feel they are extremely sluggish and I hate them for long road stretches.

I got one at the end of last year, was really impressed by the communication. But the site I contacted them on has been down for months now.