It seemed odd to me to go for a an August restart, knowing that there was the logistical issue of PBP in that month. You cant predict the weather or illness but for me it would have made sense to restart on 1st Sep or even better 1st Oct after having a rest from PBP.... he would have had his last month in August/Sep 2016 which should provide best chance of high mileage days if he was chasing the record.
Complete hindsight in many ways but it did occur to me that a SEP/OCT restart made more sense as he would not have been under immediate pressure to hit 210+ days right away.
Is there any cost involved in a restart? ...If so, why not just put the last month down to experience and start again on 1st Oct. I know you cant keep restarting forever but for me, this PBP and cold filled August has made his new attempt very low percentage to succeed even at this early stage.
Obviously its only as month in - but it don't look great in the context of how hard we know this thing is now.