Flatlands 600km 2016 edition

[Redlight]

Surprised nobody has asked about the bike yet - I mean, how else could one crack a pelvis in Bangkok?

Hope you get sorted and home quickly, Dave.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Pretty sure I'm out, given that instead of packing my bike to fly back to Auld Blighty this afternoon, I'm in a Bangkok hospital bed with a cracked pelvis. Still, I'll get more time off work, so not all bad.

GWS.  Mend soon.  Geraint Thomas managed the TdF on a cracked pelvis, but I guess he had access to better painkillers and physio than the rest of us.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

It depends a lot on exactly where the crack is. I know two folk who finished PBP with broken pelvises (pelvi?). I can't even sit in a wheelchair.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Ouch.  You have my sympathy as I had a near miss this year, falling on a step before the start of the Tan Hill 600.  Managed not to crack anything but bruised my left sacrum, which was bad enough.  GWS.

[simonp]

Nick Jackson - flatlander OTP - only discovered his was broken after finishing PBP '11 and returning to the uk. He could barely walk (think he had crutches) but was still able to ride. YMMV.

Heal well.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

That makes at least 3 PBPers finishing with broken pelvi. I didn't even roll round the last flat 60km to finish the Cha-Am 300. What a wimp!

[HK]

I've done the stupid stuff and ridden 300km of a 600 on a very damaged Achilles.  Your body refusing to play ball is a bit of an up side as it is long term damage limitation unlike my stupid anticks that could have had major long term implications.

Bone breaks are very variable. Both Liz Creese and Nev Channin both fell like you did and broke pelvi and couldn't ride any further.

[Aunt Maud]

I rode half The Brian Chapman with a broken collarbone and ended up with a blood clot swishing about. They shoved me in the tube scanner, as thought I was having a stroke a couple of days later.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

I've done the stupid stuff and ridden 300km of a 600 on a very damaged Achilles.  Your body refusing to play ball is a bit of an up side as it is long term damage limitation unlike my stupid anticks that could have had major long term implications.

Bone breaks are very variable. Both Liz Creese and Nev Channin both fell like you did and broke pelvi and couldn't ride any further.

You make feel better that I gave up the Tan Hill 600 at 445km when an annoying pain in the knee turned into an agonising pain in the knee.  Stopping there and three weeks light duties had me climbing  mountains again a month later whereas if I'd carried on I might still be hobbling from physiotherapist to knee surgeon.  But there is always the what if....

On the positive side it does mean I will be riding the Flatlands which wouldn't have been on my agenda if I'd finished the Tan Hill 

[tippers_kiwi]

Get Well Soon LWaB...hope they look after you well.

Maybe you can get some work done while there, I hear they can to amazing things in those Bangkok hospitals! 

Hope they aren't going to be adding to the already rather impressive list of titanium parts in your body!

[LittleWheelsandBig]

No titanium in me. I'm full of your good, honest (if a little heavy) stainless steel.

While others might prefer some work done to soft tissues in Thai hospitals, I'll stick with what I've got, thanks. The radiologist obviously decided that I wasn't going to have more kids and didn't use lead underpants for my pelvic X-rays. I hadn't appreciated that soft tissue shows up in X-rays to that extent. The hospital air conditioning was obviously colder than it seemed at the time...

[HK]

No titanium in me. I'm full of your good, honest (if a little heavy) stainless steel.

While others might prefer some work done to soft tissues in Thai hospitals, I'll stick with what I've got, thanks. The radiologist obviously decided that I wasn't going to have more kids and didn't use lead underpants for my pelvic X-rays. I hadn't appreciated that soft tissue shows up in X-rays to that extent. The hospital air conditioning was obviously colder than it seemed at the time...

Sorry to disappoint but unless you are pink and pregnant modern x-rays do not affect fertility.

I am though still being amused by the thought of Superman in lead Y-Fronts over tights.

[Smeth]

Any advice on train transport to start/finish (from London)??  I'm coming from Hampshire. Stanstead Express obviously no go. Braintree policy ambiguous to me. Aiming to miss peak times of course.

[Redlight]

Any advice on train transport to start/finish (from London)??  I'm coming from Hampshire. Stanstead Express obviously no go. Braintree policy ambiguous to me. Aiming to miss peak times of course.

I've used the Stansted Express to get to Tomsk's Gt Dunmow rides. I don't think it's supposed to take bikes but no one has ever challenged me. It's about a 10 minute ride from the airport.  If there is a problem, it's only a half hour flat ride from Bishop's Stortford, which is the previous station, in any case.

I presume you are going up the night before and staying locally as there is nothing that will get there for 6am so far as I know.

[Smeth]

Any advice on train transport to start/finish (from London)??  I'm coming from Hampshire. Stanstead Express obviously no go. Braintree policy ambiguous to me. Aiming to miss peak times of course.

I've used the Stansted Express to get to Tomsk's Gt Dunmow rides. I don't think it's supposed to take bikes but no one has ever challenged me. It's about a 10 minute ride from the airport.  If there is a problem, it's only a half hour flat ride from Bishop's Stortford, which is the previous station, in any case.

I presume you are going up the night before and staying locally as there is nothing that will get there for 6am so far as I know.

Thanks for that, Yeah - night before. I've worked out if I cant get on the Stanstead Express at Liverpool Street I can get to Chelmsford only 14 miles to the start/digs whatever. Also from Liverpool Street. Any more tips appreciated. Just the fun of riding Waterloo to Liverpool Street

[bobb]

....Braintree policy ambiguous to me...

You'll be fine with your bike on trains out of Liverpool St on the Norwich line. I know their blurb says stuff about max number of bikes etc but I've never had any problems* (I live in Chelmsford)

*Apart from leaving London at rush hour which I'm guesing you won't be doing anyway.

[Smeth]

....Braintree policy ambiguous to me...

You'll be fine with your bike on trains out of Liverpool St on the Norwich line. I know their blurb says stuff about max number of bikes etc but I've never had any problems* (I live in Chelmsford)

*Apart from leaving London at rush hour which I'm guesing you won't be doing anyway.

Thanks, I'll definitely be leaving it later. Cheers

[ChillyPanda]

Thanks for that, Yeah - night before. I've worked out if I cant get on the Stanstead Express at Liverpool Street I can get to Chelmsford only 14 miles to the start/digs whatever. Also from Liverpool Street. Any more tips appreciated. Just the fun of riding Waterloo to Liverpool Street

Alterntive to the Stansted Express is to get the Cambridge train from Liverpool Street. Doesn't have any bike restrictions outside peak times (Mon-Fri). Get off either at Bishop's Stortford or Stansted Mountfitchet. Then cycle to Great Dunmow along the B-road - about 40mins at a leisurely pace.

I've recently noticed new signage at Liverpool Street saying that bikes (except folders) are not allowed on Stansted Express services at any time. So much for an integrated transport system 

[Smeth]

Thanks for that, Yeah - night before. I've worked out if I cant get on the Stanstead Express at Liverpool Street I can get to Chelmsford only 14 miles to the start/digs whatever. Also from Liverpool Street. Any more tips appreciated. Just the fun of riding Waterloo to Liverpool Street

Alterntive to the Stansted Express is to get the Cambridge train from Liverpool Street. Doesn't have any bike restrictions outside peak times (Mon-Fri). Get off either at Bishop's Stortford or Stansted Mountfitchet. Then cycle to Great Dunmow along the B-road - about 40mins at a leisurely pace.

I've recently noticed new signage at Liverpool Street saying that bikes (except folders) are not allowed on Stansted Express services at any time. So much for an integrated transport system 

Great. I reckon if I get to Liverpool street there are three viable possibilities you've all suggested. Try the Express, if not either Bishop's Stortford or Chelmsford on different lines. Thanks all

[wilkyboy]

Apparently there's an airshow on at Duxford on the Sunday, so you'll all be treated to classic aircraft buzzing around from Girton (N Cambridge) onwards     The alternative laney back route from Cambridge to arrivée via Whittlesford, Newport, Henham, takes you thru Duxford village, and with a diversion of 500m or so you can stand on a low hillside above the runway and look down* on the action   


* in as much as anywhere in oh-so-flat Cambridgeshire looks down on anywhere much 

[wilkyboy]

Furthermore, I've just heard from Tom that the route was ridden over the bank holiday weekend and there are no changes to the route and only one possible sign-missing note on the routesheet, so the GPS files from last year are checked and verified, and can be used again — http://www.camaudax.uk/rides/flatlands-600/.

The GPX and mini-routesheet for the quiet-roads final leg via Duxford are also available from the bottom of that page.

[Tomsk]

Cheers Wilkyboy! 

The official missive with lots of extra information, revised route sheet and gps links will be going out very soon. I've got an option on the larger church hall for the sleepover, so riders will be in there, with my helpers over in St Mary's Centre [they'll be up earlier to get breakfast organised...and riding too, setting off late after clearing up - ACME HEROES  ]

[merlinator]

still waiting to see if ill be able to ride as arm is still in a cast it didnt look pretty yesterday when they changed the cast ive got to return to the fracture clinic next monday and the will do tests etc and hopefully not have to replace cast then its going to be decision time by doing some test rides during the week and make my mind up before thursday cause a niggle on short ride will be unbearable after 600km

[Bikeabilityman]

I'm in.

[alotronic]

Cheers Wilkyboy! 

The official missive with lots of extra information, revised route sheet and gps links will be going out very soon. I've got an option on the larger church hall for the sleepover, so riders will be in there, with my helpers over in St Mary's Centre [they'll be up earlier to get breakfast organised...and riding too, setting off late after clearing up - ACME HEROES  ]

Oh good, nice to know there will be some good company bringing up the rear.