Essex and Suffolk Borders / Estuaries 200 / 100 from Manningtree: 1 April 2023

[αdαmsκι]

I'm offering up three rides on Saturday 1st April. There's a 200 km and 100 km ride from Manningtree station, Essex. Hopefully the trains will be running on that day because it provides easy access from London and Norwich. I'm also offering an X rated version of the 200 km ride, but starting in Buntingford and tracing the route of the 200 in the opposite direction so you get to wave at the riders. Both 200s are BRM, so good for PBP qualifications.

The 200 km ride goes from Manningtree through Suffolk and Essex to a control at the beautiful Great Chishill windmill in Cambridgeshire and then the easternmost point of the ride is Buntingford, Herts. The return is via different roads and goes up to the historic village of Lavenham, Suffolk.


The 100 km ride is made up of two 50 km loops. The first loop is out to Harwich in Essex and the second loop is around the Shotley Peninsula in Suffolk


The thread from the 2022 edition of the rides is here: https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=119903.msg2645082#msg2645082

Links to the AUK entry are:

Manningtree 200  https://www.audax.uk/event-details/10100-essex_and_suffolk_borders
Manningtree 100 https://www.audax.uk/event-details/10101-essex_and_suffolk_estuaries
Buntingford start for the 200 https://www.audax.uk/event-details/10108-the_alternative_esb

[Tomsk]

  I'm in for the Buntingford Alternative this time. Let me know if you need a brevet hander-outer.

[αdαmsκι]

Let me know if you need a brevet hander-outer.

  I'll definitely need someone to hand out cards at the start, be that you or jellylegs or psyclist. I'll be in touch.

[trundle]

Booked (Manningtree 200) - I wasn't able to do this last year because of Covid.

[psyclist]

I'll definitely need someone to hand out cards at the start, be that you or jellylegs or psyclist. I'll be in touch.

Unfortunately it coincides with a family holiday, so I'll not be around for this year's ride.

[αdαmsκι]

No worries. I knew it was possible you would be away.

[αdαmsκι]

The rail companies have thrown a spanner in the works for anyone trying to get to Manningtree by public transport as the line is closed between Ingatestone and Colchester (a gap of around 50 km).

Riders on the Essex & Suffolk Borders 200 have been emailed with options.

[αdαmsκι]

Rode the Essex and Suffolk Borders 200 today from Manningtree. Loads and loads of water and grit on the roads, resulting in a lunar surface in parts. However the weather was very pleasant and it must have been the first day without any precipitation for a while. I'm ignoring the 100 km of headwind out to Buntingford!

I need to do a few tweaks to the routesheet & gpx and then info will be emailed out, which realistically won't be until the end of the week.

Still spaces if anyone wants to ride.

[Lightning Phil]

The rail companies have thrown a spanner in the works for anyone trying to get to Manningtree by public transport as the line is closed between Ingatestone and Colchester (a gap of around 50 km).

Riders on the Essex & Suffolk Borders 200 have been emailed with options.

Buntingford is less than an hour from Stevenage on East Coast mainline.  If you want me to send a suitable route from the railway station to Buntingford let me know.

[αdαmsκι]

This is Google's suggestion from SVG to Buntingford. How's that? click.

[Lightning Phil]

Emailed a track over.

[αdαmsκι]

Cheers Phil 

GPX track from SVG to Bowling Green Lane, Buntingford, where Tomsk will be handing out cards is here https://gpxplanner.app/u/SVG-to-Bunt

[L CC]

LNER tell me 1st April is a strike day?

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/industrialaction.aspx

[sparklyfish]

Greater Anglia seem to think strikes won't be too bad: https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/strikes scroll down and click on Saturday 1 April.

I was visiting relatives on Saturday right next to the Ely-Norwich line (just down the road from the Snetterton Horsepower control). It was supposed to be a strike day, but there seemed to be a train through roughly every hour. Didn't notice any EMR trains, only Greater Anglia - but that may be because EMR sound like normal trains and we just didn't notice them, while the whizzo new Greater Anglia trains still sound weird. There were the odd couple of trains where the driver was going very slowly though - might have been part of the strike...? It wasn't due to works or similar as far as we could tell.

I'm ECEing the 100: plan A is to cycle 100km to Manningtree, do lovely Essex and Suffolk Estuaries, cross fingers and get Greater Anglia trains home.

[sparklyfish]

doh, just seen what adamski meant about the bus replacements:

https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/travel-information/service-alterations/buses-replace-trains-between-colchester-braintree-and

Plan A should now read: 80km to Manningtree; 100k of lovely Essex and Suffolk Estuaries; 20km of cycling to Ipswich and hoping for the best...

[αdαmsκι]

LNER tell me 1st April is a strike day?

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/industrialaction.aspx

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64896128 

[αdαmsκι]

Emails have been sent to anyone doing the 200 from Manningtree or Buntingford.

I'll send out information about the 100 at some point in the next few days.

[bhoot]

Ooh, no strike... Well maybe the garden will have to wait another week as I fancy a trip up there.

[αdαmsκι]

@bhoot.

Yup, no strikes. But Greater Anglia are still digging up the line somewhere between LST & MNG so the only sensible option for anyone in London is to start the 200 in buntingford.

[αdαmsκι]

Still a few spaces left.

The known DNS rate feels optimistically low at the moment. If you can't start please let me know.

And remember if are on the 200 make sure you turn up to the correct start. (I need to know in advance if you want to switch from Manningtree or buntingford or visa versa. Thank you )

[αdαmsκι]

No entries on the line as it's too much faff

If you want to ride there's loads of space on the Buntingford 200 and a few one the Manningtree 200.

Enter in the next 24 hours or it'll be too late!!

[drossall]

If you want to ride there's loads of space on the Buntingford 200 and a few one the Manningtree 200.

Should this be seen as evidence that a lot more people want to leave Essex than do Hertfordshire?

[αdαmsκι]

If only.

It's more a miscommunication resulting in a double delivery of buntingford 200 brevet cards! 🤣

[Lightning Phil]

If you want to ride there's loads of space on the Buntingford 200 and a few one the Manningtree 200.

Should this be seen as evidence that a lot more people want to leave Essex than do Hertfordshire?

Are you riding tomorrow? Weather forecast looks warmer / drier than last Sunday.

[αdαmsκι]

No, running checkpoint at great Chishill windmill