Honestly guys, I'd concenrate on the route, the alternatives are either next to impossible (considering you maybe in the dark) - in which case they're down-right dangerous; alternatives that were on the Scenic (and thse riders invariably took the long cut), the road maybe no more than alane and this probably means poor condition - grit, grass-up-the-middle & wash-off. Or were on a 604 route - that was offered in 2005, only 6 riders took that event - and I saw all of them on the Classic route where the going got tough.
Should the need arise, I'm not sure how I'd fill out an accident report sheet for riders knowingly off-piste.There are lots of other places to save a few metres, but all are invariably slower, the "Classic" route is the fastest of all the BCMs. And as I seem to recall - it was only a couple of days ago folk were commenting on the possiblity of DNFing due to the lack of time
.
A couple of years ago (following his Scenic completion) I was talking to Chrisn at arrivee, and was toying with a 'Chris Narborough' version,
but it was rather a difficult route - in terms of terrain and navigation. And some of the surfaces less than satisfactory, even the CR that drops you down to the back of Dolgellau is not really FFP.
On Saturday, keep an eye out for those riders joining and leaving the A470 between Machynlleth and Corris. There's a lane that must save a whole 1km
. Thats 1.5km saved in distance
, but and extra 500m in altitude
What I do find rather amusing is, the most batant short-cut hasn't been mentioned - perhaps because it puts a good hour onto the ride, and if the weather changes for the worse - game over. What's that telling?