Man of Kent 200k, 2020 edition DEFERRED!!

[man of kent]

Entries are coming in for this classic sociable early season 200, now in it's 9th year. Lots of food included in the entry fee and a great opportunity to register one of your PBP pre-qualifiers, what's not to like!!!

The route is almost exclusively on beautiful quiet Kentish lanes, with no gratuitous climbing, and once again includes the popular Faversham Vicarage control where bacon rolls and other goodies will be served.

Enter early to avoid disappointment as this event usually reaches capacity in early March.

[Redlight]

Oh, go on.  It would be rude not to 

CLICK - Entered 

[citoyen]

now in it's 9th year

I guess that means the 2010 edition was the first one? I don't think I realised that at the time.

Haven't signed up yet but will do soon. It'll be my sixth go.

[Martin]

I thought the first was 2009 and I rode the 2nd one as my first

I'll be there as always, a highlight of the year for me to herald in the spring.

[Redlight]

I think you're right. I'm reply sure that when I rode it in 2009 it was the first one because I wrote it up for Arrivee a couple of months later. If I recall, it dropped neatly into the calendar slot vacated by another Kent 200 that had started in nearby  Otford.

[Martin]

The Invicta 200 was my first; it was in September but the others I rode were in March (including a life changing edition in IIRC 2004 when TomJ led a train of survivors back into a filthy wet headwind from Whitstable). I recall having a conversation about this; maybe with rob OTP. IIRC the Invicta was dropped as by then the Hop Garden had become popular (although a Gravesend not WK CTC ride). There was an Invicta medal not sure what you had to do for it, I never qualified but it included the 400 (also my first)

Then there was Kent Corners another classic 200 also sadly gone

[rob]

Hop Garden came first and was definitely in the calendar when I moved to the area in 1996.

There was an Invicta 400 then and we added a 200 in 1999 as a PBP qualifier.   I added a 300 later on to fill the gap and fixedwheelnut ran a 600.

The Invicta series has fallen by the wayside over the years.

[citoyen]

I don't think I ever did the Invicta 200, though I did the 300 and 400 a couple of times each. There was a 600 as well, wasn't there? I think I entered it once but DNS due to injury/illness. [ETA: cross-posted with rob]

I did the Kent Corners a few times - the only audax I have ever won (thanks to the chap who left Westgate ahead of me getting lost on the final leg). Plugging the gaps in the calendar in Kent was one of the reasons I started my event last year, but now we've got a glut, with a couple of other new 200s from the Fairies, thanks to Bob and Tim. I'm in the early stages of planning another 200 and possibly a 300 as PBP qualifiers next year too.

As for this being MoK's 9th year, I was forgetting it didn't run in 2016.

[Jethro]

Entered.

This will be my first 200k in almost 18-months and my longest ride for about 6-months so I am expecting it to hurt!

[Grandad]

now we've got a glut,

There has certainly been an encouraging increase in the number of events, the calendar lists 13 dates between now and December.

 Several offer a choice of distances but 13 is the most that any one rider can do.  I don't think that this constitutes a glut and provided there are no date clashes there is room for more.

[citoyen]

I don't think that this constitutes a glut and provided there are no date clashes there is room for more.

OK, maybe a glut is overstating it! And yes, I agree we have room for more rides in Kent - and definitely the interest to support them.

[telstarbox]

Given that Kent has several railway lines with generally frequent services even on Sundays, is there any appetite for "A to B" rather than circular events, e.g. suburban London to the Kent/East Sussex coast? With suitable start and finish times, Kent-based riders could get a train into London and ride "home" and London-based riders could do the opposite. Or do people prefer to end where they started?

Potentially such a ride could be run by a single controller if they could travel from the start to the arrivée before a 30km/h rider arrived and if all intermediate controls were commercial.

[rob]

I don't think that this constitutes a glut and provided there are no date clashes there is room for more.

OK, maybe a glut is overstating it! And yes, I agree we have room for more rides in Kent - and definitely the interest to support them.

I'd say more long rides.   The longest is a 300.

I have done all my long rides using the Essex series for the last few years and it looks like it will stay that way for next year's qualifiers.

And no I'm not volunteering.....I did my time.

[Redlight]

I'd say more long rides.   The longest is a 300.

Indeed, although anything over 400 is going to have spend quite a bit of time in Sussex or Surrey if it's not going to be endlessly doubling back on itself.

I'm not volunteering either - just yet...

[psyclist]

Indeed, although anything over 400 is going to have spend quite a bit of time in Sussex or Surrey if it's not going to be endlessly doubling back on itself.

or use the Tilbury-Gravesend ferry to take in parts of Essex

[hillbilly]

Dave/ManOfKent offers longer rides as permanents.  They wander into Sussex and Surrey (understandable really, given Sussex encroaches quite far east) but stick to Kent quite a bit.

Separately I played around with various South East routes and, to be honest, it is difficult to keep a route interesting, unrepetitive and relatively traffic light for a route over 200km in a single county (Kent, Surrey or Sussex). 

That's not to say it's impossible, just that I couldn't see how to do it in an appealing or original way and in the end began to even flirt with bits of Hampshire and Berkshire.  But then my Surrey based focussed needs to look to further horizons given a lot of Surrey is built up towards the North of the county.

My mucking around with routes was originally in the hope that I might be able to organise a National 400 in our region.  But lack of time and effort on my part meant that fizzled out.  I'm hoping someone better than me can figure out how to achieve this (something I'd volunteer to help with if it were to venture into East Surrey).

[Ivan]

Not sure I'm better than you, but I have started thinking about a National 400 bid for 2019 from SE London into Kent and back - this was something ACH was considering for 2017 but didn't feel we had the experience or time back then. Probably will need all the offers of help I can get!

[telstarbox]

Happy to assist with that if it goes ahead.

[Redlight]

Happy to assist with that if it goes ahead.

Me too!

[citoyen]

Me three!

[Ivan]

Thanks for the offers of help, I'll be in touch once I've developed my plans a bit more. Back to the subject in hand, might ride the MoK if I can work out how to reschedule the Shark routecheck without infuriating Mrs I.

[Grandad]

Couple of years ago our club audax members toyed with the possibility of organising a 400. Nothing came of it but we are very willing to support anyone who does.   

[mmmmartin]

Now El Supremo has retired as an org there should be a pent up demand for events in this neck of the woods. And the Essex mob seem to have done well by organising a 100 series that encourages riders living in That London to ECE those events. Tonbridge looks to me to be a good starting point, because it has trains from Hastings, London, Redhill and Ashford.

(Not to mention the legendarily flat Medway flood plain that has hardly a bump in it until past Ashford....)

And am also very happy to help if needed and available.

[Martin]

Now El Supremo has retired as an org there should be a pent up demand for events in this neck of the woods. And the Essex mob seem to have done well by organising a 100 series that encourages riders living in That London to ECE those events. Tonbridge looks to me to be a good starting point, because it has trains from Hastings, London, Redhill and Ashford.

has he? I thought he still did the catering and had the admin done by other peeps. FWIW I don't think his Hailsham / Petworth events were ever that well supported other than locally, the events from That London have really tapped the rider base (such as ACH, KW, Willesden, Westerly) all helped by being accessible other than by post and also by the organisers going out there and doing the graft to get non AUK regulars involved.

actually most of the ECEs I get for the Essex rides are from East Anglia with a few from That London but like the Man of Kent many riders have found out the hard way that the only way to get the start of many events at weekends without driving  is to ride to the start due to late starts of the train service or engineering works.

being local-ish to Sussex I find Anton's 200s hit the spot in terms of route and accessibility (plus a few local ECEs) but I appreciate there are a lot of calendar only riders out there.

[grapefruits]

Weather is looking rather... cold for this.

Wind chill making it feel -6 degrees according to the Met Office, and really windy. I was planning on ECEing it up to a 300, but not sure if I can hack 15+ hours in the saddle with it being that cold :/