It was an excellent planning meeting, thank you to all the contributors. I am still not sure whether I am happier with a plan or without. Having a plan makes it all seem a bit more difficult than just turning up and riding your bike until the end. Then again, if it avoids discovering that you are 80k from the next control and not 50k as you thought
in the middle of the night in the middle of France then that might be a good thing.
It looks like the ACME peloton might have a natural split between a 2pm group and a 4pm group. This will probably make it easier to bag the right time slots as well. The Arrow offers an ideal opportunity to ride in similar groups - most of us know which people we are comfortable riding with, but it is always difficult to stay together over long distances.
I would guess that Psyclist falls into the faster ACME Dynamite group which is aiming for a 4pm start and a long burst up to Thirsk (or probably Edinburgh if Tomsk is at the front
). The ACME Anvil group will most likely go with a similar strategy but from the earlier start time. The Anvil group so far comprises; me, Carlos, the Straggler and Bobb and the Dynamite group; Tomsk, Jiber, Tippers and Psyclist. There is plenty of time to finesse arrangements and we will all end up seeing each other on the road anyway.