I’m looking to recruit some team members for an Easter Arrow starting from Stevenage, Hertfordshire. Good Friday is 29th March 2024. I’m looking at a minimal distance route, likely 370-380km actual ridden. If anyone wants 4 or 5 points they can ECE.
The plan is an old town start around 9am. There’s a Wetherspoons which opens at 8am for a pre ride team breakfast to get us fuelled up for the first leg. On the East coast mainline, 20 / 30 mins from Kings Cross / St Pancras, for anyone interested who is in London.
The first 160km is likely a variation on the route of my perm Rutland Explorer 300. Then we’ll enter flatter terrain as we head into the night. It won’t be a day time bash up through the fens.
In terms of pacing, this won’t be a racing snake outing. Thus if you are more at the full value end (average moving 20-22 km/h) this may be Arrow for you. My view as an Arrow captain is to try and get the full team to finish. Everyone will have a low at some point, and we stick together as a team, helping those struggling, to get through it. We don’t abandon you at the side of the road, with the words “survival of the fittest, loser”. If you really do need to abandon and tell us to f*ck off, we will at least try and leave you near a hotel or railway station.
I love the team aspect of Arrows and meeting all the other teams either on the road, or at the finish. Team sizes are 3 to 5 machines. You have 24hrs to reach York, and given the distances I’m planning it’ll mean overall average of 15.4 to 15.8 km/h.
All team members will get GPS routes / courses / tracks prepared to the usual standards for my events. I won’t keep it secret squirrel 🐿️ just for me.
If interested in joining Team Hertfordshire then let me know. All the organisation, Route planning, control setting and entry is done by the team Captain (me). I usually share updates and draft routes in the build up. You just need to pay your share of the entry fee and turn up and ride together as a team.
If, optimistically we get more than 5 then happy to share routing and controls with a second person willing to lead (captain) a team. Then do staggered team starts in terms of time.
