Coming soon - the all new Windsor-Chester-Windsor

[alwyn]

Danial is a bluenose, LC, but not the type of fan who gets, you know, tribal. So have fun at the final.

If you're stuck for a 600, you're welcome to ride as a helper before the event and bag your qualification. I can't offer a ride after due to tight deadlines for validation. If you do this as a route check, I'll refund your entry.

[alwyn]

I got to test ride a good old chunk of the route yesterday, from Newport down to Todenham and back. The gpx files are pretty much bob on but the route sheet has quite a few updates. This means of course that the tcx files will also need to be updated as I'd built the route sheet into them.

These sections are a mixed bag. The route is very pretty around Lilleshall, and heading south to Kinver it's all quiet country lanes with good-quality surfaces and benign undulations. Kinver is very pretty and a good place to stop to stock up on supplies, as is Shifnal further north.

Then you get to Kidderminster. Hmmm. This route is already right on the edge of being too long, so I've had to make some compromises here. I've managed to keep off the A449 mostly, though this means winding through suburbs and a tricky routesheet. I had to use 3km of A449 just north of Hartlebury. It's not a nice road, but it's narrow enough to slow down the traffic and so that you can hold the lane if you need to. If you don't like traffic, there is a footpath you could use. I expect this will be the worst section of road on the route.

After this is Droitwich, which involves some more main road. However these sections are dual carriageway and have very light traffic. They were far, far better than I dared hope. After this is a bit of a fiddly section to dodge urban traffic, though you could bash the main roads right round if you felt like it.

It picks up again considerably after this, back to country lanes and quiet A and B roads, getting progressively hillier as you head south to Weston. A chunky little climb after the Weston control to Chipping Campden is a surprise but worth it for a speedy zoom into town. We found this section and the lanes to Todenham really hard going, probably because we'd not eaten enough.

So yeah, the English Midlands. Nice enough. Not the prettiest part of the world but probably the easiest cycling you'll find in the UK. Light traffic and just the right amount of undulation to get you into and out of the saddle regularly. Lots of stonkingly fast downhill bits. If you were on the ball with your navigation, you could do a really fast time.

[Lady Cavendish]

Arrrgghhh it sounds such a great ride. God damn this clash!!! Going to have to wait a whole year.

Alwyn thanks that's really kind about the helpers ride. I don't think mentally I can do a 600 on my own, I have so much respect for those who can but I suspect that I would be 99% likely to throw my toys out the pram and get on a train.

[Genosse Brymbo]

I'm not sure the earlier "versions" were incorrect, as I never routed as you described. And since I published all I've done is made small amends to cue instruction.

I suspect the issue is with you.

No need for versions anyway, as these are only drafts. There will be only one version, and I'll let everyone know when it's ready - probably after May Bank Holiday when I've checked the southern sections of the route.

I downloaded the "WCW2015 route files.zip" linked to in an email I received from the WCW team recently, and I've now started to look at the GPX tracks.

The WCWstage1 track doesn't appear to go anywhere near Chalgrove (control) and Bletchingdon (info), skirting Oxford to the east.  Instead it, and the start of the WCWstage2 track skirt Oxford to the west, going through Wallingford and Abingdon, then ending up at Eynsham.

Is this a mistake?  Or have I managed to out-do myself by getting lost even before starting the ride this time?

WCW from 2014 went through Wallingford & Abingdon, with the first control at Eynsham.
It would appear that you were looking at the GPX files from last year, rather than an earlier 'version' from this year.

Yes, I've just checked and the .gpx files I have do not match the contents of the original zip.  They have names like "WCWstage 1" and the <trk> elements have similar names.  I pulled this year's zip to my dowloads folder and left it there a few days before working on the files.  When I came to work on the files I must have found the folder with last year's files and believed I'd already extracted the zip contents to there.  Sorry for claiming the files were incorrect.

I've just pulled the latest zip and notice you've suffixed the date (WCW 2015 route files 180415.zip);  thanks for that.

[alwyn]

No worries, glad you sorted it. I've added the date so you can see when they were last updated.

BUT

They are only a draft and only for your amusement. Nothing is confirmed and I may yet even move a control a few km up the road. I won't publish final files until 4/5 May.

[Priddy]

Is anyone staying up in Windsor on the Friday (29th) night before the event?

I'm riding the event, I'm just looking to see if anyone else would be, who I could share a room with, splitting costs?

Thanks!

[postie]

priddy keep up. the rest of us pompey lads sorted digs out a while back

[alwyn]

I managed to ride the southernmost two sections of the route yesterday, from Old Windsor up to Todenham just before the second control point. Apart from a dinner dart a few years from Slough this was all new territory to me.

For the first hour or so leaving Windsor I had an airplane pass over every minute. You could always either hear or see a plane. Quite impressive, but I suspect the residents soon tire of it. It's easy cycling though, as the route takes flat and quiet lanes as it heads north. Apart from a surprising dip into Henley and a long shallow rise up to Watlington and down to Chalgrove there's little to do but gawp at the mansions.

After Chalgrove the route gets rather hilly - certainly a lot hillier than I expected. It seemed worse on the way back too, though there's plenty of pretty scenery. So if you're playing fast and loose with time limits, you may want to watch for this leg.

I was worried about using a 10km stetch of the A44. It's not ideal and having ridden it I've concluded it's still not ideal. But it does shave about 12km off the route so I've decided to leave it in. The traffic seemed quite light but it was rather fast at times. You can dodge it by riding the lanes if you wish, which I'd recommend if you know what you're doing and have time in hand.

I'll update the route sheet in the next day or two and email all the riders when everything's finalised.

[hellymedic]

Do you mean York or Windsor?

[Arry-R]

Hellymedic I think you are right.  Must be Windsor not York. he is a long way from Todmorden ya know! !

 

[mmmmartin]

Er, I've just been doing some colouring-in, and some sticking of Blue Peter sticky-back plastic on the route-sheets to make them easy to see in the dark and make them waterproof.
Um, there seem to be a lot of instructions and a lot of route-sheets.
Rather more than usual.
Then I realised.

(click to show/hide)

it's a bloody long way.

[Phil W]

There is a summary route sheet.

0km head north
312km - turn round
312k. - head back south

[jefmcg]

I'll update the route sheet in the next day or two and email all the riders when everything's finalised.

Did I miss this email, or has mmmmartin been doing his craft project with a non-finalised version of the route sheets?

[Phil W]

I'll update the route sheet in the next day or two and email all the riders when everything's finalised.

Did I miss this email, or has mmmmartin been doing his craft project with a non-finalised version of the route sheets?

Nothing yet. Daniel was riding the Llan-PG 400 over weekend, so suspect something towards end of this week more likely.

[mmmmartin]

oh bugger.
I thought that when the details page said: "DOWNLOAD THE ROUTESHEET AND GPX TRACKS AT http://tinyurl.com/n3bgqcj" and i followed the link to see the files were updated eight days ago, ie on May 4, that meant these were the final thingies.
so has all my printing, cutting and sticking and colouring in and sticky-back plastic been in vain?

PS the route details are split on different sheets of paper when i print them out, probably my printer.

[Cycling Daddy]

Yes those are the final version though I hope to do the rider the week before as a final check, it will only be to note any sudden roadworks/resurfacing etc.
Les (weston COntrol)
PS No doubt Alwyn that sagacious canine will be along shortly

[mmmmartin]

Yes those are the final version

phew!

[haffers]

Stupid question here - so do riders normally load all of those files and follow as sections?

I usually grab the gpx and re-plot it on ridewithgps so I get a feel of the route but do not normally have so many sections. Obviously this is a crazily long distance and one would not plot as a single route but is it really as simple as follow section 1 to control and then load section 2? Does this interfere with the ride data captured or not?

cheers and really looking forward to my longest audax yet 

[citoyen]

Depends on your device - older Edge models have known issues but I've successfully used the 510 to record 400km and 600km audaxes as a single track, using both single and multiple course files.

Even when my 510 died on me during last weekend's 400 (my fault) it picked up the recording from where it left off once the battery was recharged.

[JohnOnABike]

Obviously this is a crazily long distance and one would not plot as a single route but is it really as simple as follow section 1 to control and then load section 2? Does this interfere with the ride data captured or not?

The ride data captured is unrelated to the gpx track you are following, so you should be able to load each section as you need it, while recording data for one long single ride.....

*However*, I would strongly advise you stop recording ride data at the end of each section, & start a new recording for the next section. It is very easy to join the '.fit' files together once you are back home (free online tool.... https://www.fitfiletools.com), to give you one single file for the whole ride. (Note that the route sheet gives you accumulated km for the section you are on, not for the overall distance, so this would also help in matching your device data distance to the routsheeet distance while you are riding).

I did WCW last year, used a Garmin Edge 800, & tried to record a single track/data file for the entire ride. Unfortunately it crashed after 450 (ish) km, & I had to reboot it, at the same time losing some of the ride data I thought I had recorded. It turns out this is a known issue with the Garmin Edge 800 - it can't record a single ride data file big enough for a 600 k, but I didn't know that at the time.

I have a Mio Cyclo 315 now, & tried to do the Severn Across last weekend by following a single GPX track on it. This was a disaster - the huge size of the file meant the device kept hanging, especially when I diverted off route for a few metres & it tried to re-route me back on the track - it clearly can't cope very well with big GPX files. I ended up having to reboot the device many times during the ride, & lost a lot of my ride data as a result.

So my advice is - use small GPX files, & record small ride data files, 1 for each section.

Hope this is of some use 

[Somnolent]

On an older Etrex I'd make it in to one outward track and one homeward.
500 point limit is OK for 300km

[mmmmartin]

on my vista hcx i import the gpx track and put it up on mapsource then plot a "route" along those roads, checking the routesheet as i go. it takes ages - doing the northward section of wcw yesterday was over an hour. for a 200k with no track to help i'd plan to spend three hours (it usually takes less than that). i will have in the etrex hcx a route for each section of the ride. each route in a vista hcx must have fewer than 50 points, by the way.

i prefer routes to a track, i like the "beep" that wakes me up and lights the screen.

[marcusjb]

May I ask which controls will have sleeping facilities?

Just trying to get my head around how I might ride this one.

[citoyen]

*However*, I would strongly advise you stop recording ride data at the end of each section, & start a new recording for the next section. It is very easy to join the '.fit' files together once you are back home....
I did WCW last year, used a Garmin Edge 800, & tried to record a single track/data file for the entire ride. Unfortunately it crashed after 450 (ish) km... It turns out this is a known issue with the Garmin Edge 800

It really does depend on which device haffers is using. Recording multiple tracks and joining them together later seems more faff than is necessary if you're using an Edge 510 or 1000.

Both those devices can comfortably hold enough data to record a 600 in a single track (I always clear out old data before the start of a big ride just to be on the safe side).

[JohnOnABike]

It really does depend on which device haffers is using. Recording multiple tracks and joining them together later seems more faff than is necessary if you're using an Edge 510 or 1000.

Both those devices can comfortably hold enough data to record a 600 in a single track (I always clear out old data before the start of a big ride just to be on the safe side).

True, it does depend on which device is being used, but it's not simply a case of having enough space on the device to record the data (my Garmin Edge 800 had plenty of room to record data for a 600). It's simply a garmin bug/feature whereby .fit files over a certain size will cause the device to crash - this doesn't mean it has run out of space to record.