@QG
You can eat cr@p for 2-3 days on an audax- but how does your body cope with that for 15 days? Can maybe manage sores, injuries and so on if the end is after ~36 hrs. A pre audax bike service will get you through to the end, how do you service your bike when sleep deprived. Gravel parcours abuse, etc.
You can not eat on a 200. Sure it won't be fun, but you can do it. I've done 150km of a 300 on an empty stomach (I puked and couldn't eat), it painful, and slow, but I did manage it. It's just not sustainable.
Now the dust has settled a little, first question, do you want to try again? Then, if yes, what would you do differently to prepare? Would a hilly 1000-2000 be better than RATN as prep? Do you need to train further south to replicate the heat? Do you need to carry less?
RatN and TCR in the same year is a stupid idea for me. People like Hippy may be able to do that, and maybe one day I would be able to, but right now, RatN did too much damage, meaning that I couldn't do as much training in the last couple of months as I'd like.
Training for the heat is tough, with a 9-5 job, getting down south to train for 2-3 weeks in the heat isn't plausible. What is more, if the route is going East to West (the traditional direction), then it probably won't be as much an issue. I'm hoping that next year is Geraadsbergen to Burgas. It gives a first 600km of rolling Belgium and France before things get gnarly.
I'm thinking I may spend a weekend a month down in Limburg, just banging out climbs.
Did I take too much? Yes. I had more battery capacity than I needed. It's the only thing I have in the bag that I didn't use (aside from the first aid kit). But that's only saving me maybe half a kg. I'm still umming and ahing about whether to carry bivvi kit next year. I may replace it for an emergency bivvi and a down jacket. In eastern europe, finding hotels with late checkin was a lot easier than in western Europe. A lot of people were caught out around CP3 because all the hotels in the valley were booked for a sportiv.
What you pack on your bag is basically your fears. Fear the cold? You carry cold weather clothing. Fear not getting a hotel? You carry bivvi kit. Fear saddle sores? you carry extra creams and extra shorts.
Not taking bivvi kit would save me about 1kg. Not much as an overall proportion. When I unpack my bike, I'm tempted to do a kit grid of everything I took that is in Fiona's bags, and then another with all the kit not in Fiona's, for comparison...
For now I need to get my bike working again (see thread about rear mech), and get my head ready to cycle again. I may try a 300k audax next weekend. Maybe.
J