Which start group will you be in ?

[hippy]

Hippy - if you want to race it and test yourself, I am sure that ACP might be open to someone with your palmarès being in the first wave with other serious contenders.  Your call, but drop them an email and see what can be done.

Cheers, that was mentioned to me in another thread. I'll see how I'm going in late July and might do that.
Going eyeballs out for two days might be a little bit less fun than I'm looking for at that stage of the year...

[Ivo]

A tad OT - but Q for the experienced guys on where you fill water bottles over the 1st night? It's quite a long way to the first 2 stops, certainly if it's warm I'm going to be looking for refills along the way

Panic not - there will be people outside their houses with jugs of water and cakes.

Bars will be open.

140km to the first official food stop (not a control outbound).

The Café des Sports in Chateauneuf-en-Thymerais has already announced that they'll open all night during the first night.

[billyam998]

well I provisionally in the 84 hour o05:00 start group, but unless there is some kind of miracle I won't be going.

[Frank9755]

Thanks for the info Oranj.

I kinda wanted to test myself over the two days with this but I reckon with the disadvantaged start I'm going to enjoy myself, ie. take naps when I feel tired rather than pushing on, eat everything I can get my hands on at controls, etc. I've got plenty of capacity as I booked a 48hr finish hotel night and a 72hr finish hotel night

Yeah, right!
Drop them a line and tell them that you like riding at 22mph for entire days and that you are looking for the chance to put some big turns on the front.  They'll want to have you in that first group; I'd be surprised if they didn't find you a place. 

[Frank9755]

GB-519      Sunday 17:30     90 hour group

Plan is to ride through the night & next day - get to Brest around midnight Monday / early Tuesday morning... 32 hours ish maybe......

I tested my sleep deprivation capacity with 2 sleepless 33/38 hour 600s in the last 2 weeks (SOLO, very hard rides 7.5 AAA BCM & 8.25 AAA KSW)

Then take a leisurely 5 hour sleep until dawn plus 1 or 2 on Tuesday... then ride 300 km and take another 5 hour sleep Tuesday night....

Then finish with a final 300 on Wednesday......  ETA god knows, but aiming for before midnight.....  sub 80 hours.....


Of course I am a NEWBIE / VIRGIN at this, and the above plan may be complete tosh.......

xxxxxxxxxx Obviously I can always grab a couple of hours snooze during the first 600 if things get hairy/lairy/scary....

xxxxxxxxxx Could also go further on the Tuesday and take less sleep that night and blast home earlier Wednesday....


Please would anybody who knows my riding speed and style, and who has PBP experience, care to advise me if I'm on the right lines ?? 

Or if not, what should I consider ?

Sounds realistic - but be prepared to flex it depending on how things pan out.  I had a similar basic idea last time (my first).  I set off at a similar time but I changed my plan and slept at Carhaix as I had saddle sores which needed a rest, and a big storm was coming.  After a good sleep, I was refreshed and just kept riding from there.

[Veloman]

........ and a big storm was coming.

I remember that storm!

Old saying that "No plan survives first contact with the enemy" and while having a plan is fine, the ability to be flexible and change objectives is extremely useful on rides such as PBP.  After all, only real plan is finish in the time allotted to you and if you do that then you were successful.

[Deano]

I hate ride schedules - I (personally) find them demoralising and demotivating.

Having said that, I plugged some random numbers into a spreadsheet for the Border Raid last weekend, and I was greatly amused to note afterwards that my spreadsheet matched my finishing time to the minute. I didn't look at it during the ride.

Anyway - my point is that schedules and expected times are fine, but as VM says, you need to be flexible and go with the flow of the ride.

On one of Dave Atkinson's rides from Richmond (Yorkshire), I met a guy named Gerald, who was briliant, an experienced duathlete, and he explained to me the notion of Three Targets, i.e. you'd go into an event with a Dream target (e.g. 600 km in 30 hours), a realistic target (600 km in 37 hours), and an acceptable target (600 km within the time limit). Very useful for audaxing

[Aunt Maud]

"I have a dream"..............schedule, it's 8hrs tucked up in my nylon hotel every night.

Realistic............ 6 1/2 hrs per night.

Totally unacceptable........... 5hrs or less each night.

As for a ride schedule..........I'll pedal till I finish on Thursday and hopefully get there before it all closes down.

[Ivo]

"I have a dream"..............schedule, it's 8hrs tucked up in my nylon hotel every night.

Realistic............ 6 1/2 hrs per night.

Totally unacceptable........... 5hrs or less each night.

As for a ride schedule..........I'll pedal till I finish on Thursday and hopefully get there before it all closes down.

Hm, 5 hours sleep per night would be my dream target. Getting 5 hours of sleep for the entire event would already be good. Usually I have to get round on half of it.

[marcusjb]

A tad OT - but Q for the experienced guys on where you fill water bottles over the 1st night? It's quite a long way to the first 2 stops, certainly if it's warm I'm going to be looking for refills along the way

Panic not - there will be people outside their houses with jugs of water and cakes.

Bars will be open.

140km to the first official food stop (not a control outbound).

The Café des Sports in Chateauneuf-en-Thymerais has already announced that they'll open all night during the first night.

Toot toot - all aboard the espresso train, destination Brest!

[Drone]

..  ETA god knows, but aiming for before midnight.....  sub 80 hours.....

Mike, if you're not desperate for posting a "good time" I wouldn't recommend finishing in the night as the atmosphere at the arrivee is a bit flat in the dark.

In my view you have to chose between pushing hard throughout the ride with minimal sleep for a fast daylight finish or, to quote you, "relax and smell the roses" get more sleep and enjoy the experience.

Tony

[bikey-mikey]

..  ETA god knows, but aiming for before midnight.....  sub 80 hours.....

Mike, if you're not desperate for posting a "good time" I wouldn't recommend finishing in the night as the atmosphere at the arrivee is a bit flat in the dark.

In my view you have to chose between pushing hard throughout the ride with minimal sleep for a fast daylight finish or, to quote you, "relax and smell the roses" get more sleep and enjoy the experience.

Tony

Touché 

[Wobbly]

A tad OT - but Q for the experienced guys on where you fill water bottles over the 1st night?

From people along the route.

My first bottle refill last time was a little old lady watering her garden. She had a queue of riders wanting a refill from her garden hose so I took advantage and asked her if she wouldn't mind filling bottles too.

All very wonderful until I actually drank the stuff which tasted entirely of rubber hose-pipe...

[RobW]

All very wonderful until I actually drank the stuff which tasted entirely of rubber hose-pipe...

Yuck! Makes me thinking of camping water after a week or more away from civilization

[hippy]

That's what energy powder and Nuun tabs are for. Why taste rubber hose when you can taste other wonderful man-made flavours. Mmm tri-berry...

[Jon+1bike]

 
First time @ 17:30 on 16th. 90 hrs.
So all new to me and reading as much as possible on site.
Thanks to all for information so far..