Borders of Belgium 1000 2016

[mmmmartin]

And now we have emails.

[Bikeabilityman]

Oh you lucky souls. Happy cycling!

[mmmmartin]

Not too late, you can enter on the line. For an account of Belgium Audax, see my article in latest Arrivée on the Ostend 600.

[Bikeabilityman]

I am tempted, and I have no work for a couple of weeks, but I've had two cycle holidays already this year. Another time!

[mattc]

More tedious GPS newbie questions

(click to show/hide)

The BoB website has the "final" version of the track, and if you follow the link the the gpsies version it says it was created 18 minutes ago by Rohnny:
"Created 18 minutes ago 8/28/16 11:02 AM"

It seems he's busy working on it now. Website also has four tracks, each with fewer than 10,000 points so it can be handled by GPS devices. This bloke thinks of everything.

See you at the start. I'll be easy to recognise: I'll be displaying a haunted, terrified demeanour.

<trying to supress my terrified demeanour>

Top job, well done Rohnny.

I know its traditional for GPS users to be difficult, and for everyone to do things their own way,so ...
Knowing my eTrex20 can cope with several thousand trackpoints - but bikehike is more limited - and hoping to avoid mid-ride track-swapping:
I went to http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=dmxgrpbkttqlnprv   and did a track-only download, picking
SIMPLIFICATION = MEDIUM

This produces about 7,000 trackpoints for the entire ride. bikehike.co.uk can load this, and my eTrex doesnt truncate it.
Verification:
- In bikehike, the track is 999.44km, and
- I can see the track following most obvious twists and turns through Antwerp, and
-  on the eTrex I can see a complete track.

_{(when I did a download of just 1000 points, bikehike showed a track length of more like 900km, so clearly lots of detail missing)}

Can anyone see a flaw in this?? /GPSnewbie

[mmmmartin]

The flaw I see is that you have removed some points from the track. It may, or may not, be the case that some of those points take you somewhere you need to go, and if you follow your track you might not go to a control.

[D.A.L.E.]

Just download the big file and whack it into the tool I posted above. Voila.

[L CC]

my 4 tracks for the whole 1002km have a grand total of less than 2000 track points. I'm not worried. There is, after all, a pretty blimmin thorough route sheet.

You are very unlikely to miss a control. It's much more likely that downsampling the number of points means you miss crossing to the other side of a road or canal and then find yourself on the left bank with a right turn immediately opposite. With 30m of water or a dual carriageway between you and it.

[Chris S]

my 4 tracks for the whole 1002km have a grand total of less than 2000 track points. I'm not worried. There is, after all, a pretty blimmin thorough route sheet.

*fewer 

[Liamo]

Really looking forward to this. Rohnny has done an amazing job with everything.

I'm in Ghent Wednesday night and riding out to the start @11-12 Thursday if anybody else cares to join me.

[Bikeabilityman]

my 4 tracks for the whole 1002km have a grand total of less than 2000 track points. I'm not worried. There is, after all, a pretty blimmin thorough route sheet.

*fewer 

Now now you two!

[Graeme]

Have a fantastic time... Looking forward to the write up in Arrivee.

[Chris S]

They're off!
https://flic.kr/s/aHskHxVLwq

Not without a few dramas - I had to whisk fboab off to a local gp this morning, as she was feeling crook (recurring issue). Recovered enough to start, so fingers crossed the drugs do their thing. Sounds like she had a puncture in the first 15km - bah!

[marcusjb]

Good luck to all the riders, especially the AUKs! Eat frites and drink beer.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Bon route folks

[Ivo]

I've been following the Facebook posts of participants a bit.
One of the riders report 70 starters, that's a lot more as 4 years ago. The calender change from late may to early september worked good. A lot of riders had dinner in De Panne and most will be heading inland now.

[Phil W]

Best of luck all, may the bier be with you.

[Rohnny]

71 riders started - just had a message from one (Belgian) rider saying he had to stop. A bad night and couldn't find the motivation to carry on.
The rest should have a good day, with lots of sunshine and temperature below 24°C and a calmly wind from the SW. Most of them are at the beginning of the hilly part of the route.

[tonyh]

Thanks Rohnny, update appreciated!

Good luck the riders.

[Deano]

We (Dale, ramcityrocker and me) are at the Lake of the Waters of Time About 389 km so we're making steady progress and looking forward to a proper sleep at Habay. Boab won't be far behind.

[marcusjb]

There was a picture of a puncture repair going on on Boab's facebook this morning - so she might be a little further behind!

Hope everyone else is having a magical time - this looks such a great ride to end the season on.

[Rohnny]

18:20,  just 9 riders passed the control in Habay, km 560. Thdersall looked pretty tired, but all left. No UK riders yet. The beer in the fridge is cold though 

[Graeme]

Cold beer?!? No wonder they are late. :p

[D.A.L.E.]

Today was genuinely one of the best days I've had on a bike. The Ardennes are amazing. Chimay at the Habay control too   

[Graeme]