In 2013
I slept early (9pm) on the Sunday night at Market Rasen (equiv Louth) and the dormitory was pretty empty.
Pocklington was rammed with sleeping riders on the Sunday night.
Brampton was rammed on the Tue night. I ended up sleeping in a sport equipment cupboard with my silk liner.
Market Rasen (equiv Louth) was rammed on the Wed night. Many of us deciding to use that control as our staging post for the last day’s riding.
Other than that no problems getting a bed for my other sleeps. I was on one of the last starts that year.
In 2017
Louth was rammed on the Sunday night, with a lesser bulge at Spalding. If you were Pocklington or north that first night, no probs with beds.
On Tue night, lot of riders were spread across the Innerleithen, Eskdalemuir, Brampton controls. As much as anything that was down to the rain and wind at the time. We were tracking Alston and that had a steady trickle but quite low numbers stopping there.
By Wed night we had seen so many DNF, plus riders so spread out on the route, that the bulge was largely neutralised.
I did do some live tracking graphs of occupancy across all controls, in the admin area of the website in 2017. After the event, I also produced graphs for every control showing occupancy over the full time period of the event. Not sure if I’ve kept those, I’d have to look on my PC. Danial will likely still have the copies I shared with him (maybe).
In 2022
There’s a new intermediate control at Hessle (north side of Humber bridge) between Louth and the new Malton control this year. Thus the first night bulge will hopefully be spread over more controls this year.
If you can reach Moffat by Mon night I think you’ll be ahead of the bulge and in a position to reach Brampton, Alston, or Barnard Castle by Tue night.
Tue night I think the bulge spread will be Dunfermline to Brampton. With the extra distance this year, it may be just enough for the late morning or afternoon starters to stop at the northern turn point. But I think the majority of the bulge will be Innerleithen and Eskdalemuir. If Danial reveals where riders have selected bag drops that may give an indication of where the bulge will sleep. Many riders unnecessarily tie their bag drops to where they plan to sleep (IMO).
Depends on your start but the general approach to miss the bulge is one of the last starts and stay behind it. Otherwise ride straight through the first night and sleep once most riders have woken up. I’ve successfully deployed the sleep early (around 8-9pm) or sleep late (from 6-7am) manoeuvres to avoid having to wait for a bed.
The Weather
So much of this is weather dependent and the experience of the riders this time round.
