"Start at Any Control" Events?

[Manotea]

darts and arrows are special categories of events with their own rules. Effectively they are calendar DIYs. What's being discussed are regular calendar events with fixed routes.

[frankly frankie]

There may not be a simple dilution. On most current 'normal' rides the field gets increasingly diluted later on - on an X-event, you can finish on your own at a deserted car-park. With muulitple start-points the dilution would bve at different points.

When WCW (600) ran with 3 starts, 1 each end and one in the middle - with the middle one also offering the best sleep facilities - it was common for the faster 'chester' starters to ride their last 150km in company with the slower 'middle' starters.

[mikewigley]

3 different approaches:-

I recall some years ago that there were a pair of events, the York-Cambridge-York 600 and Cambridge-York-Cambridge 600, sharing start and middle controls.

Don Black has offered the Manchester Loop 200 with multiple starts although I'm not sure if there was much uptake from the "other" starts.

I received an entry from someone living in Newport for the Newport 200 starting in Stockport.  He was happy to ride another day as a Perm starting in Newport for the price of manning the Newport control.

[L CC]

Unless they ride it as an ECE, in which case it's a 400km event, passing through Thaxted four times...

Is this the moment fboab will jump in and post negativity about Thaxted?  

*shudders at the thought of 4 x Thaxted*


(happy to oblige  )

[mikewigley]

I like Thaxted.  I went through it 3 times this year, twice on the Start of Summertime (love the cake stop) and once in the middle of the night on LEL, when I didn't see as much of it.

[Charlie Boy]

I always thought Thaxted sounded rather nice. That may be based on my only knowledge of the place being the hymn tune named after it, now commonly known as 'I vow to thee my country'. Slight digression, sorry.

[Revellinho]

Yes, I've often thought of visiting Blaenwern for a similar reason.  I must have a look on Google maps streetview sometime.

[drossall]

To be honest, Thaxted's very nice, except that most ways in involve a big (for Essex) hill and so do quite a few ways out, and when you've done them several times in one ride, and then at least once in the next ride...

[Charlie Boy]

Of course the ultimate tune is 'Brest' the first line of which is 'Day of judgement'.

[L CC]

Thaxted is fine, if you like that kind of thing.

My problem with Thaxted isn't Thaxted, it's the fact that every fecking audax in Essex goes there.
I'd probably like it if I lived 700 miles away. I bet if I lived in Australia I'd view it with a kind of misty nostalgia.

Chris took quite a good picture of me going up the hill a couple of years ago.

[Chris S]

Chris took quite a good picture of me going up the hill a couple of years ago.

Repeat as fast as you can:

Fboab finds foggy fixed thaxted fun!


P1010245 by Pelotonhound, on Flickr

Arthur Chris Negus 200, two years ago.