arrivee_112_2011

Arrivée
the Long Distance Cyclists’ Association
www.audax.uk.net
Number 112 Spring 2011

The UpperTea 100 and 200. Photos: Tim Wainwright
Alison Newman and Chris Turner
Paul Alderson
Graham Ward
Alan Parkinson

HEADING editorial IN HERE
Spring 2011
In the centre of the magazine you will find a four-page
questionnaire, designed by AUK’s Publicity Officer Danial
Webb with the aim of getting your thoughts on audaxing
and improving AUK. I know plenty of you like to keep your
magazines intact, but you should be able to detach the four
pages without destroying your magazine. You can photocopy
the pages if you prefer. I hope you will support Danial with his
project and all returns will be confidential.
■ With PBP in the thoughts of many Auks this year, I have
recruited a collection of seasoned PBP veterans to help you
with advice and tips. Ideas are wide and varied so you can
pick and choose whatever best suits you. I appreciate that
the majority of Auks are not going to Paris this year, but the
information in the articles should help all long distance riders,
so I’m sure you will find something useful for you to fulfill your
riding ambitions.
■ I am sad to report the death of photographer Cliff
Shakespeare at his home in Tenbury Wells after a long battle
with cancer and Parkinson’s Disease. Cliff and his wife Louise
were the first photographers to supply Arrivée with a regular
supply of quality photos from events including LEL, South
Coast 1000, Kidderminster Killer and The Elenith amongst
others. His photography helped to lift the standard of Arrivée
to its present day status and after I saw his work, he was
instrumental in guiding me from a point-and-shoot compact
camera user to taking my photography rather more seriously.
Keep your wheels
turning.
Tim
Contents
Correspondence.......................................................... 2
Organisers’ news......................................................... 3
Official news.................................................................... 4
Pat Kenny – A tribute............................................... 5
Featherbeds and bus shelters......................... 6
Dunkery Dash................................................................ 9
Wesley May Super Grimpeur............................ 10
A ride too far?.................................................................12
A grand day out – riding 400k..........................15
Perth-Albany-Perth 1200...................................... 16
Mille Cymru preparation...................................... 22
Riding the Buffalo......................................................24
Our friends from the north................................26
AUK questionnaire.....................................................31
On the anatomy of audacity.............................36
Satmap Active 10 review......................................40
Paris-Brest-Paris – tips and advice..............42
A wee jaunt around Scotland...........................56
Calendar.............................................................................59
The next edition of Arrivée will contain articles held over due
to lack of space in this edition, including Cotswold Corker by
Steve Poulton, My PBP by Richard Thomas, The Dunkery Dash,
and reviews of ‘Any Given Sunday’ DVD, Kojak tyres, clothing
from Endura and multi-tools from Carradice. A review of Spa
Cycles Audax Ti is also in preparation.
Front cover:
Colin Weaver and Andrew Register ride the Man of Kent
200 in March. Photo by Lise Taylor-Vebel
Next edition of Arrivée is in August. Please send your copy
to Tim (address on right) by 20th June
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Arrivée Spring 2011 1

correspondence
24-hour Fellowship
If you can manage a ‘12’ then you
should be able to manage a ‘24’. Perhaps
with more flexibility than when I was
working there is less of a problem. But
time restrictions for workers mean a
‘12’ starts at an ungodly time Saturday
morning, with not much time to prepare.
In contrast, a ‘24’ starts mid-morning,
with lots of time for getting ready.
At the end, a ‘12’ rider needs to get
home ready for a day’s work Monday
morning. The ‘24’ rider, on the other
hand, has the rest of the day in which to
get home and have an early night.
My first of nine ‘24s’ was in 1950 (405
miles) and my last was in 1985 (354
miles). My best was 410 miles. I was quite
content with my record, until I realised a
self-styled ‘Little Old Lady’ did 420 miles. I
believe that to be her only ‘race’.
Harold Bridge
Long distance riding
We have been down this road before.
Define ‘Long Distance’?
The history of Paris-Brest-Paris claims
that the first long distance cycle race
was 1891’s 600km Bordeaux-Paris. I
believe the first bike race was from Paris
to Rouen (or vice-versa) in 1869. The fact
there seems to be no evidence of more
races before 1891 was, I think, the direct
result of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870.
In the meantime, there was a lot of
activity across ‘La Manche’ in Britain. GP
Mills and Monty Holbein in particular
setting a number of records, Holbein
setting a 24-hour record of 300 miles,
and five days for LeJog. As a result,
when the inaugural Bordeaux-Paris was
organised, it was something new to the
French, whereas the English riders had
been long-distance racing for five years,
giving them the edge over their French
competition.
September 4, 1886 was the date of
the first North Road 24. It was a one-day
thing in that they started and finished
at midnight. They went north up the
North Road to Peterborough, Wisbech
and Norwich, but the dreadful weather
and unpaved roads gave the riders a
quagmire to ride in. As a result they ran
out time well short of Hatfield with 227
miles.
So, was 1891’s Bordeaux-Paris the first
long distance race?
Harold Bridge
Paperless brevets
I was interested to read Francis Cooke’s
article in Arrivée 111 regarding paperless
brevets in the UK.
Judith Swallow and I took part in
an Israeli 200 calendar brevet around
the Sea of Galilee in January and
it was completely paperless other
than, if required, a paper route sheet
available on the start line. Entry and
acknowledgement was emailed, the
route sheet and gpx track were emailed
to entrants beforehand and there was no
brevet card at all. Some of the controls
could involve receipts but others required
photos of specific locations. Photos
could be used for all controls, if desired,
and were checked at the finish to see if
individuals had completed the course. It
was very easy to just pull out the digital
camera or phone to take shots of specific
landmarks or signs around the route.
It seems that the Israelis don’t rate info
controls at all, not too surprising given
the limited info control options at some
locations. ACP’s validation numbers are
emailed to successful riders afterwards.
Any planning or information for and
photos, queries or discussion of Israeli
brevets takes place on a dedicated
forum, in Hebrew of course. Luckily
for us, the locals are very happy to use
English when we were around. Google
Translate does a fairly good job too. Just
for interest’s sake: Judith was the first
woman to complete an Israeli brevet
and it was the first time either of us has
ridden a bicycle 200 metres below sea
level. The couple of dozen local riders
came from all over Israel to do this brevet
and all were extremely welcoming and
helpful to us. Of the many new friends
we made, Lev took us out to dinner in
Haifa, Yan hosted us in Jerusalem for a
couple of days and Tal (who we knew
prior to riding the brevet, of Brommie
around PBP, LEL and Mille Miglia fame)
gave us a guided tour through Tel Aviv
and Jaffa ‘en velo’.
Thanks to all the Israeli Audaxers for
an unforgettable experience.
Dave Minter
(A Small Bit of)
THE GREAT
TOUR
A new Audax starting from
Seaton in Devon on 31 July,
details on-line at
bit.ly/TheGreatTourAudax.
The events feature 50k and
100k rides. The 100k event
attracts two AAA points
(1,950m of climbing) and
explores the Devon hills and
river valleys on the way to the
sea at Exmouth.
As a finale, both routes take
in the very hilly coastal route
back to Seaton.
Obituary – Pat Kenny
Pat Kenny was struck and killed by a car whilst out cycling. Pat
was well known throughout the cycling world and was an avid
rider of randonnées. He was born in Poona, India, in 1939 but
soon returned to England and spent most of his early years
in north Birmingham. He became interested in club cycling
after seeing a notice on his church notice board in 1957 and so
joined the Birmingham St. Christopher’s Catholic Cycling Club,
remaining a member throughout his cycling time.
Long distance racing and touring soon became his main
interests and during his racing days he rode many 24-hour
races and took many road place-to-place records. This was
finalised in taking the Land’s End to John o’Groats tricycle
record in a time of 2 days 10 hours and 36 minutes. [Previously
held by AUK’s Patron David Duffield –Ed.] He also broke nine
other national records and 30 Midland records. He still holds
13 of the latter. He was many times a Super Randonneur and
was also an Ancien du PBP. Pat also believed in taking his
share of other duties in the cycling world. He was an organiser,
timekeeper, committee member and observer, along with lots
of other more mundane jobs attached to the sport. As well as
being a member of Birmingham St Chrisopher’s CCC, he was a
member of the CTC, the 24 Hour Fellowship, the 300,000 mile
club, the Road Records Association and the Midlands MRRA to
name but a few. He was also a keen philatelist.
Pat had recorded over 910,00 miles by the end of January
and that was the second greatest mileage recorded. He was
hoping to reach 1,000,000 within the next few years. He was
a big encourager of people to test themselves and when I
decided to go for the Pembroke to Great Yarmouth tricycle
record he fully backed me and timed the ride. When slowed by
heavy traffic during the night at the junction of the A14/A11,
Pat jumped out of the following vehicle and ran along the road
to give me a drink. He said, ‘Didn’t you see the sign back there
saying 40 miles per hour?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Well you were only doing 24!’ I
cannot remember my reply.
All our best wishes go to his wife Hazel and his daughters
and their families. Cycling will be poorer for the loss of the
gentle and unassuming man.
Jim Hopper
Two 200km events passing through
the Yorkshire Dales this year
Tan Hill 200km – Sunday 26 June
Start: 08:00 Padiham. Fee: £3. Website: www.tanhill200.co.uk
This is a clockwise hilly route beginning with two steep
climbs over Padiham Heights and the Nick o’ Pendle,
followed by a few gradual ascents through the Forest of
Bowland before climbing over the Yorkshire Dales to Tan Hill.
The return leg passes through Arkengarthdale, Bishopdale
and Wharfedale climbing over such climbs like Kidstones on
its return to Lancashire.
Last Chance Dales Dance 200km – Sunday 30 Oct
Start: 07:00 Pendleton. Fee: £5
This is a clockwise circuit of the Yorkshire Dales, using mainly
B-roads and country lanes. Route crosses over: Newby
Head, Buttertubs Pass and Grinton Moor, before returning to
Lancashire. Controls at Thwaite: 75km and How Stean Gorge:
133km. Clocks go back one hour at 2am previous night. The
delights of Greenhow Hill also await you.
Entries on standard AUK entry form to:
Andy Corless, 31 Castlerigg Drive, Ightenhill, Burnley,
Lancashire BB12 8AT. E-mail: burnleycyclingclub@yahoo.com
Finally, does anybody fancy taking over some of my perms?
If so, please get in touch.
2 Arrivée Spring 2011

organisers’ HEADING IN news HERE
Organisers’ Newsletter
Online Entry for Non-Members
Non-members are now able to enter
online using the Audax UK online
entry system. The subject of the Paypal
message sent to the organiser clearly
indicates it is from a non member eg:
Item no.11-80/nonmem Temp AUK _
Notification of Payment Received from...
The rider will need to provide all
their contact details when entering and
these details will be included in the body
of the notification email along with an
indication of insurance requirements, eg:
if temporary AUK insurance is
required
rider: nonmem Temp AUK
or if they are a member of CTC so are
already insured
rider: nonmem CTC
If you haven’t previously used the
AUK online entry system before because
your event has a large number of nonmember
entries then you may want to
consider it. Evidence from organisers
who do use it is that accepting online
entries both makes the organiser’s
life easier and increases the number
of entries to your event; as riders are
increasingly using it in preference to
postal entry.
Start/Finish List Integration
If you’re not already using the Start/
Finish List to send the results of your
event to the Validation Team then we
strongly recommend that you do. It
makes life much easier for the Validation
and Recording teams and you’ll get your
results published and cards turned round
more quickly by using it, and it’s now
very easy to use. Even if you maintain
your own spreadsheets you can pour the
results into the online Finish List with a
Chris Beynon at Beachy Head, Redhill Beach Trip 200 Photo by Billy Weir
few mouse clicks.
For those of you already using it,
there’s been a couple of significant
updates made:
The list has now been linked to your
online entries. Anyone entering online
will be automatically added to the list.
The option to download the contents
of your start/finish list using the
Download Excel Start List option has been
updated and now includes rider e-mail
addresses (handy for e-mailing your
online entrants), and address details for
non-members who have entered online.
See the Organisers Guidelines for more
details on using the Start/Finish Lists and
how to submit your results this way.
Event Closing Dates
The Event Planner has featured the
ability to set a closing date for some time
now, although this didn’t previously put
a visible closing date in the Calendar.
However, the new website now allows
you to display your closing date to
potential entrants.
You can set your Closing Date using
the Main Edit Page of the Event Planner
to set the number of days before the
event that entries close.
So for example – if your event starts
on Saturday, and you want to discourage
late entries after the Wednesday – set
this number to three and the Calendar
will display the appropriate date.
Once the closing date has passed
then the Calendar page will display
‘Entries now closed’ and remove the
‘Enter this Event’ option.
If you leave this option at zero then
no closing date will be set and the
calendar will simply display ‘Entries
should arrive at least two weeks before
the event’ and the ‘Enter this Event’
option will remain Live until midnight
after your event.
Organisers’ News
2012 – Event Registration
As you will probably have read in the Winter Arrivée, there is an
important new requirement you need to know about if you’re
planning to run an event after 1st November 2011.
For all events after this date, you will need to pay a
registration fee to include each of your events in the Audax
UK calendar. The fee is £7 (not the £10 previously advertised).
The fee is payable to the Events Team before your event will be
published in the calendar.
The fee includes the first 20 (black and white) brevet cards
for your event. This is now the minimum order quantity.
You may order additional cards at the normal cost, but you
will not be able to order less than 20.
To pay the fee for your events, you need to complete
an Event Registration form and send it with your payment
(cheques should be made payable to ‘Audax United Kingdom’)
to your regional Events Team Delegate. You can find this form
in the Event Planner on the Download Orgs’ Docs page, or from
the Event Forms link when editing an event. Online payment
through PayPal will be available shortly and we will let you
know when this is ready.
The Audax UK calendar has expanded considerably in recent
years, and many of our events are quite small. This means
a lot of work for both the Events Team and our Brevet Card
Secretary, particularly when organisers with small events and
tight margins refine their order repeatedly. The registration fee
will reduce the amount of admin the brevet card secretary has
to carry out, ensuring a smoother service for everyone.
Audax UK feels that this modest registration fee should
ensure that organisers are certain that their event is viable,
without placing any undue cost on them. If your event regularly
attracts less than 20 entries then you may need to increase your
entry fees slightly to cover the cost of the minimum order of
20 cards. If you feel that your event might be unable to stand
this cost, then you may want to consider organising your event
as a group DIY or permanent event. This would give you less
administration and more flexibility in deciding on a date and
route that suits you and your riders better.
John Hamilton, Events Secretary
AAA News
AAA website
All AAA News, information about the Audax Altitude Award,
and Rolls of Honour for the various AAA awards, can now be
found on the AAA website at www.AudaxAltitudeAward.org.uk.
AAA event changes
Dic Penderyn 200km 26 Mar 2011: 3,500m of climbing 3.5 AAA
points (new event).
Manchester Looplet 170km 10 July 2011: 2,900m of climbing 3
AAA points (new event).
Up and Down t’ West Ridin’ 120km 10 July 2011: 2,500m of
climbing 2.5 AAA points (new calendar event).
(A Small Bit of) The Great Tour 100km 31 July 2011: 1,950m of
climbing, 2 AAA points (new event).
Todmorden Loops 100km 13 Mar 2011: 2,850m of climbing,
2.75 AAA points (climbing reassessed).
Crwydiad Y Cestyll 111km 18 Sep 2011: 2,200m of climbing,
2.25 AAA points (climbing re-assessed).
Long Dark & White Peak (aka Dark Peak/White Peak) 200 perm:
4,380m of climbing 4.5 AAA points (climbing reassessed).
Gospel Pass 200 perm: 2,710m total climb, 2,700m AAA climb,
2.75 AAA points (climbing reassessed).
YatMon 150 perm: 2,230m of climbing, 2.25 AAA points (new
event).
OnwAAArds and UpwAAArds
The AAA Man
Arrivée Spring 2011 3

official
Just a Minute
The committee returned to the usual haunts in Birmingham for
a packed meeting to keep the Club more or less on track.
Danial has been busy in his new Publicity role having given
Cycle Active (a newish magazine for leisure and fitness riders)
a list of our Populaire events in the hope they will do a feature
on Audax shortly. He has arranged for Rapha, the high-end
clothing company to sponsor a team for PBP with some good
coverage resulting on the firm’s blog and the riders’ tweets
and has also agreed a deal with Evans to sponsor a rider to
complete and write up a SR series on their website. He has
opened accounts for AUK on Facebook and Twitter, the latter
currently proving more popular and adding some 15 new
contacts each week. Linda has also been busy with her side of
the annual renewals and is welcoming the benefits of internet
banking. The website has been behaving itself, according to
Pete Coates, coping well with a major update which has been
very well received. On-line entry to events is now available
to non-members, duly marked as such on start sheets. A
couple more enhancements are due to be introduced to the
automated brevet card ordering system shortly.
Mike has found the renewal season challenging,
exacerbated by postal problems still evident after the early
winter. Some members have not changed their Standing
Orders to reflect the increased subscription (how long ago was
that!) and some Life Members have resigned or foregone their
copies of Arrivée in view of the price increase. More positively,
some members have rejoined after a lapse, though one has
caused problems by quoting a previous number (subsequently
reissued to another member.) John H is quietly getting used to
the system and processes with approximately 600 events in the
planner. Lucy McTaggart will be leaving the team at the end of
the year to focus on other activities and appeals for a successor
have seen little success. He (JH) has concerns about some new
organisers’ capabilities; the grades have now been revised and
the system due to be reviewed shortly.
John W notes that Perms are at a similar level to this stage
of last season. Mesh events are waning in popularity as DIYs
are waxing, despite occasional forum outbursts and are due for
re-assessment to ensure minimum distances are maintained.
Although Info Controls can continue to be used on Perm BPs,
they will not be allowed on any future BR Perms (existing
events using them are unaffected.)
Peter M is dealing with his usual glut of pre-PBP queries and
after an ACP meeting in Paris now has a stack of PBP brochures.
Several ways of distributing them to interested parties were
discussed! Arrivée is due to be uploaded to the website
imminently though current issues should not be available to
non-members. Actual members wishing to read it on-line will
still, for the moment, receive physical copies regardless.
For LEL 2013 virtually all controls have been agreed, with
controllers in place for ten of the 13 locations – only Moffatt
currently unstaffed. A controllers’ meeting will have taken place
in April in York with a subsequent one due in October 2011.
The route is unchanged but detail changes may be needed to
accommodate slightly different control locations. A Humber
Bridge crossing is a definite feature – hopefully it will have
reopened by then – and other possibilities, such as a central
London start are under consideration. Progress on the website
is progressing spasmodically and will hopefully be available for
volunteers to register their interest about the time this issue is
delivered.
A detailed budget was distributed at the meeting. Many of
the supplied figures were necessarily estimates, though with a
conservative bias, and on that basis with 800 entrants paying
£200 each, a surplus of £25 per entrant is currently predicted
to be put aside securely for 2017. On the insurance aspect, a
moderately sized quotation has been obtained as specialist
cover is regarded as desirable. Equally, since the club’s activities
are outside our current insurers’ standard remit, specialist
alternative quotes are to be obtained for comparison purposes.
As the short interval between the season’s end (31st October) and the AGM/
Prize giving weekend is causing problems in correctly identifying award recipients,
it has been suggested that the end of the season from 2011/12 onwards be brought
forward to 30th September. This will obviously result in a single 11-month season,
reverting to the full period subsequently. No other changes to the timetable are
envisaged. The subject was discussed informally after the last AGM when, as now,
there was little opposition, so a proposal is to be made to the next AGM.
Event distances were again discussed with little evidence of new arguments,
though it was accepted that Google Maps should be the future accepted standard.
Event registration fees, another topic continued from the previous meeting, excited
vigorous discussion. The reason for such a fee is not to discourage small events
(which cause disproportionately large workloads to Board members,) but rather to
encourage organisers of these events to increase the size of their fields. Despite
events overall in 2010 posting a loss, this is not an attempt to cover costs, and the
meeting agreed the charge should stand, but in the reduced amount of £7.00 which
would cover a minimum order of 20 Brevet cards. Organisers of larger events will see
no overall difference in the charges levied.
A sample PBP jersey is due shortly and the validators’ stock of medals is now low.
This is good news, as a new design is due to be introduced after PBP. Sue and Keith
also suggested a revival of the National 400 event which they offered to organise.
Plans are for it to be fully supported, with controls at village halls staffed by local
cycling groups. The terrain in that area is ideal for cycling – fixed-friendly, even – and
the prospective entry fee is about £20.00. The date for the diary is 16/17th June 2012
and more details for this enticing event will be published once they are available.
In the meantime, best wishes for many enjoyable and safe kilometres, now we
can pack away the thermals (if not the waterproofs!) and I look forward to meeting as
many as possible up the road.
As ever, full Minutes will be available from me on receipt of a sae or on the website
in due course.
Richard
Competition
New AUK logo
The Audax UK committee has have agreed to look for a new Audax UK logo.
As Audax UK’s press secretary, I’d like to give you the opportunity to have a
go at designing one, as I know that more than a few of you are rather talented
at graphic design.
To give everyone a chance, I’ve launched a competition to find a new
Audax UK logo. There is no prize, I’m afraid, other than the kudos and the
satisfaction of a job well done.
Judging will be by the Audax UK committee at its June meeting, who will
look to pick a winner from all submissions. However the committee reserve
the right to pick no winner, if they decide that there is no worthy successor to
the current logo.
To help you make a start, here are a few guidelines:
• The committee prefer evolution to revolution. Don’t let that stop you
though if you’ve got a brilliant idea.
• A logo that emphasises Audax UK’s Britishness is likely to win favour.
• Your entry doesn’t have to explicitly feature a cyclist or cycling, but if you
can incorporate such a feature in a clever way, you’re likely to score bonus
points.
• A new logo should be able to be used on the Audax UK website, on brevet
cards, on letterheads and as an internet forum avatar, as well as on
medals, badges or other pieces of merchandise.
• It should work well in both colour and monochrome.
• The logo should feature the words ‘AUDAX UK’, and might work both on its
own and with the strapline ‘THE LONG DISTANCE CYCLING ASSOCIATION.’
Speaking personally, I’m impressed at how some brands are able to
emphasise their heritage whilst being resolutely modern. A logo that
manages that would get my vote.
Deadline for submissions is June 2. If you’ve got an entry, then drop me a
line on here for my email address, or email me direct if you already know it.
Happy to offer guidance and feedback on any submissions. Good luck!
Danial Webb
4 Arrivée Spring 2011

Pat Kenny 1939–2011
An extraordinary man
Pat was born in Poona, India in 1939, where his father was
serving in the British Army. On returning to England Pat spent
the formative part of his life at the family home in Kingstanding,
North Birmingham. In 1957 he spotted an invitation to join St
Christopher’s Catholic Cycling Club on his church notice-board,
and he jumped at the chance to pursue his love of cycling along
with fellow Catholics from the area.
I first met Pat in 1958 and he was already showing promise at
time-trialling and road racing, whilst still playing an active role
in club activities such as Sunday club runs and touring holidays,
sometimes as far away as Switzerland.
In his younger years he had a crop of sandy red hair and
occasionally a stubborn streak to go with it that drove him on.
Pat was probably the first in the club to have a ‘go-faster’ crewcut
and it certainly seemed to work for soon he was beating the
hour for 25 miles on local Midland courses. Pete Swinden and
John Withers, in the early 1960s, took to riding 24-hour races
and soon got Pat and myself involved. They also discovered road
record breaking at regional and national level, and Pat threw
himself into any form of long distance racing from then onwards.
He also gained his civil engineering qualifications at technical
college around that time and worked with those skills in the
construction industry until taking retirement in his late 60s.
Pat was a strong Catholic all of his life but never forced his
views on others. In his cycling life he was a member of many
organisations such as the National Road Records Association,
Midland Road Records Association, the Tricycle Association,
the 24-Hour Fellowship, Audax UK and the 300,000 Mile Club,
being just some of them, but Birmingham St Christopher’s
CCC remained his lifelong club. Pat’s membership of these
organisations greatly enhanced the quality of them for the
advice and support he gave, either as an event organiser,
timekeeper, observer, committee member, rider or helper.
By the mid-1960s Pat had already organised and driven the
support vehicle on Pete Swinden and John Withers’ tandem
1,000 mile record, and a year later Pat set off from Edinburgh on
his trike to break his first major National Road Record by reaching
London some 20 hours 48 minutes later. Pat carried on towards
the South Coast and at the 24 hour point he’d covered 431.5
miles, enough to beat the great John Arnold’s record by three
miles. This was the start of Pat’s prolific record breaking career
that spanned over 20 years.
In that same 20-year period Pat met and married Hazel in
1969 and set up home in Whittington, near Lichfield, and helped
bring three daughters into the world, Alison, Helen and Jane.
Pat’s job as a civil engineer took him to various locations all
over the Midlands and whenever possible he rode to his job, no
matter how far it was, sometimes a round trip of 100 miles a day.
In the mid 1970s Pat purchased a racing tandem-trike and
that was the start of another episode of his record-breaking days.
I was lucky enough to be invited along to ride as his ‘stoker’ and
share the punishment whilst staring at his back pockets for up to
two days, and with Pat’s inspiration, advice, encouragement and
indoctrination of self-belief instilled in me, we went on to break
more road records at both levels. By the late 1970s Pat’s main aim
in cycling was to break the Land’s End to John o’Groats record,
possibly on the tandem trike with me, and then maybe follow
it up with an attempt on Dave Duffield’s solo trike record, not
forgetting that the legendary Albert Crimes had previously held
the record before Duffield.
Pat was 40 by this time and knew that his ‘End to End’ years
were limited. We tried three times in 1979 to break the classic
Crimes and Arnold tandem trike ‘End to End’ record, but didn’t
quite have the luck with the wind and weather required, to break
such an iconic record, which still stands to this day over 55 years
later.
By 1980 I could see the look of determination and sometimes
Pat receiving an award
at the AUK Reunion.
The police
were alerted
to a tricyclist
riding up a
coned-off
part of the
motorway
hard shoulder.
They rushed
to the site,
and stopped
Pat. ‘What do
you think you
are doing?’
asked the
police. ‘Well,
it’s coned
off,’ said Pat.
‘It’s coned off
for the road
works under
the control
of the Site
Engineer,’ said
the police.
‘And I’m the
Site Engineer,’
Pat told them,
pointing
to the
theodolyte he
had strapped
to his trike.
Pat and Pete Gifford on
the tandem-trike
pat kenny HEADING – a tribute IN HERE
desperation on Pat’s face to tackle that long journey north again
and as most of you are probably aware, Pat achieved his dreams
and broke the trike ‘End to End’ record by 21 minutes with a new
time of two days 10 hours 36 minutes for the 870-mile journey.
I am so glad I helped Pat on that journey as it brought ‘closure’
to use a modern word, not only for Pat and Hazel, but also for
me. Pat’s victory was also the result of a culmination of support
over those last few attempts from Alan Richards, Tony Shardlow,
Graham Dayman and Pete Swinden.
In the space of 28 years, Pat broke no less that nine national
RRA records from 25 miles to the Land’s End to John o’Groat’s
record and he still holds the Birmingham to London tandem
record with Les Lowe. Out of a total of 30 Midland Road Records
ranging from 25 miles to 24 hours that Pat broke, he still holds
13 of them and his tandem partners at both levels included Kath
Akoslovski, John Gills, John Read, Harold Harvey and myself.
He was a regular RTTC timekeeper and also kept very
busy for the RRA, and amongst his many successes were Mick
Coupe’s and John Woodburn’s End to Ends in 1982, Jim Hopper’s
Pembroke to Great Yarmouth in 1996, my daughter Lynne
Taylor’s tandem End to End with Andy Wilkinson in 2000, plus her
solo record in 2001, to name but a few.
By the mid-90s Pat had accrued a vast mileage, somewhere
in the region of 600,000 miles, and was vying on a weekly basis
with Les Lowe as to who had got the highest total, but when
Les’s health deteriorated Pat was left to ‘plough the lonely furrow’
with only Chris Davies down in the south to catch and overhaul.
This eventually became Pat’s lifelong goal (although he wouldn’t
admit to it) to be the first cyclist to reach a million miles.
Over the last few years he had been a great help to me by
allowing me to plunder his record archives for research whilst
writing my cycling history books, and his source of knowledge
and inspiration has been invaluable. I last saw Pat just after New
Year 2011, he had got a bike packed in a bag ready for a flight
and holiday in Tunisia with Hazel. I asked Pat whether he had
managed to reach his goal of 910,000 miles by the New Year and
he said ‘Yes, but by just a whisker’, and he was looking forward to
riding in warm sunshine in North Africa. I bade him farewell and
wished him a good holiday but wasn’t surprised to find a few
days later that the trip had been cancelled due to the political
unrest in the country. I’d worked it out that if he kept on riding
at roughly the same rate of 20,000 miles a year as he had done
almost every year I had known him, then he would probably be
the first cyclist to reach the million by the time he was 78. It still
sounded an impossible task for a normal fit 72-year-old man
to keep turning out over 60 miles a day, 365 days a year, but of
course Pat wasn’t just an ordinary man.
Sadly just before 2pm on Friday 21st January the hand of fate
intervened, and Pat was involved in a fatal collision with a motor
vehicle in broad daylight. Words cannot describe how we all felt
when we received the tragic news of Pat’s death within hours of
it happening.
Our thoughts go to his wife Hazel, daughters, Alison, Helen
and Jane, their husbands Lee, Drew and John, and grandsons,
Jack, Scott and James, and also Pat’s brother John in their very
sad loss.
God Bless you Pat, and thanks for all you have done for
trike riders, road record breakers, time triallists and cyclists
everywhere.
John Taylor
Photo by Francis Cooke
Arrivée Spring 2011 5

permanent
Featherbeds and
bus shelters
The Lowestoft–Ardnamurchan 1000
Don Hutchison
All photos by the author
I’d wanted to ride the Lowestoft–
Ardnamurchan Diagonal since
reading James Reynolds’ brief
but interesting account in Arrivée
62. As I’d never visited, let alone
ridden in the fen country of Norfolk
and Lincolnshire, the attraction of fresh
pastures (together with the novelty of
flat roads) kept it on my ‘to do’ list, but
the years passed and that’s where it
stayed. Don Black and Robert Watson’s
more recent accounts piqued my interest
briefly, but other things got in the way,
as they do if you let them.
If I’m honest, actually getting to
Lowestoft was what had put me off
having a go before now. I didn’t fancy
driving there, and thought that the
train journey would be a nightmare
of missed connections and trains with
poor provision for bikes. And so, after a
mere 12 years of procrastination, I finally
resolved to give it a try, even if I ended
up getting there under my own steam.
Once he’d received my entry, organiser
John Thomson provided reassurance and
useful advice to aid me on my journey
from England’s most westerly point
(near where I live), to the depart at its
most easterly point. He even gave me
some helpful directions for shortcutting
my way between the railway termini
of Paddington and Liverpool Street. All
of which came to naught on the day
I travelled up to Lowestoft, as I hadn’t
realised that Europe’s biggest Gay Pride
march was taking place in London the
same day! After a great deal of faffing
around I managed to find a way through
the crush and road closures, just in time
to miss my connection to Norwich by
five minutes! Luckily, there was another
train to Norwich 30 minutes later and
the guard didn’t spot, or chose to ignore,
the small print ‘this ticket only valid on
this train/at this time’ on my ticket. After
one final hassle-free change, I reached
my B&B on the seafront at 18:30. I soon
settled in, and located din-dins at a
nearby chippy before getting my head
down for a decent night’s shut-eye.
The next morning, I set off for the
Ness at about 08:30, and soon found an
obliging member of the public to sign
my brevet card and take a picture or two.
As I paused by a streetlamp to send a
quick text to the missus, an overhead gull
took aim and fired. Its payload of guano
missed me by a whisker, and instead
christened my front wheel. I took the
hint, and got moving. The first 50 miles
to Thetford were a mixed bag – flat roads,
Lowestoft – most
easterly town.
Don –
ready for the start at
Lowestoft.
but hot with a headwind. An Atlantic
storm the previous day had tracked up
the west coast missing East Anglia, but
the westerly winds were blowing across
the fens, with little protection on offer.
It was only after Market Deeping that I
enjoyed some respite, as the road turned
sharply northwards in the direction of
Lincoln. I hadn’t planned to use the A15,
but the Sunday evening traffic was quiet,
so I stayed on this road all the way to
Lincoln, reaching there around 23:00.
Lincoln looks like a nice place for a
visit, but at this time of night it was full
of tanked-up adolescents, so I grabbed
a control and headed on up the Roman
road of Ermine Street into the growing
darkness. I reached Goole around
daybreak, and there was little sign of life
outside of the docks so I took advantage
The objective –
Ardnamurchan Point.
6 Arrivée Spring 2011

HEADING permanent IN HERE
of the peace and quiet to rest my eyes
for about 30 minutes in a shop doorway,
wrapped up in my space blanket.
Mindful that ‘time is miles’, I was soon
on my way again towards Stamford
Bridge, East of York. I took my life in my
hands, crossing the horrendously busy
A1079 en route to the lumpy lanes near
Castle Howard. As I winched my way up
one of the many nasty little grinds that
constitute the Howardian Hills, I realised
too late that a route through York itself
would probably have been a better
bet. Soon afterwards I encountered my
only puncture of the trip, wrecking my
rear tyre on a badly potholed descent.
Fortunately the rim was undamaged, so
my spare folding tyre was pressed into
use as far as Thirsk where I managed to
buy and fit a replacement.
After lunch at Thirsk, I pedalled on
through Northallerton and Richmond
to Barnard Castle. I stopped here for
another feed before heading up through
Teesdale to Langdon Beck Youth Hostel
for a control stamp and a shower, as
by this time I was smelling like a dead
badger! To this end, I’d called into
Superdrug at Thirsk, and bought some
travel-sized shower gel and shampoo. On
reaching Langdon Beck, however, I found
that the hostel was full of schoolkids,
and that child protection regs prohibit
dead badgers from taking showers in
the presence of children even if they’re
nowhere near the shower block at the
time … Luckily, the hostel warden was
a helpful guy, and rang the farmhouse
next door to ask if I could use their
shower instead. Of course I could …
come right on over – result!
Twenty minutes later I emerged in
fresh kit, still smelling like a badger,
albeit a live one with acceptable personal
hygiene. As I strolled down the farm track
an angry lapwing rose from its nest to
my left, flapping, peeping (and pooping)
furiously until I’d left the vicinity. With
the light starting to fade on my second
night on the road, my thoughts turned to
sleeping arrangements as I winched my
way out of Teesdale. The long and pantwetting
descent over Alston Moor chilled
my bones, so I grabbed a sandwich and
a drink in the Alston Co-op just before
they shut up shop, and donned my night
gear. I resolved to bivvy down at around
midnight in the first suitable place I could
find, and this turned out to be a five-star
brick-built bus shelter at a little place
called Hallbankgate, near Brampton. It
had a tiled roof, thickly glazed windows,
timber beams, a stout wooden bench
and best of all the open entrance was
facing away from the wind. I unrolled the
bivi bag, fitted my lightweight sleeping
bag inside with my foil survival blanket
sandwiched between the two, settled
into the cocoon and set the alarm on
my mobile for 4:00am. Those four hours
passed in a twinkling, and the dawn
Boothferry Bridge, east
Yorkshire.
(R) Near Castle Howard,
in the Howardian Hills.
Teesdale – on the way
to Langdon Beck Youth
Hostel.
Welcome to
Ardnamurchan.
chorus beat my mobile to the punch by
a few minutes. The bivi bag had done it’s
job – I’d slept like a log and awoke to a
cool, sunny dawn.
I packed up and headed for
Brampton, and on to the border via
Longtown and the A7. I know how
busy this road can be, but at five in the
morning the traffic was light, verging on
non-existent. I reached my next control
stop at Langholm just before 07:00. At
this hour there was little prospect of a
proper feed, so I ate some jelly babies
and grabbed a can of Irn-Bru from a
newsagent before continuing up the
B709 to Innerleithen, dreaming of a
decent fry-up all the way. I spotted some
red squirrels in Castle O’er Forest, one
of them lying dead in the road, sadly.
Passing on the opportunity of a roadkill
breakfast, I continued on my way down
the thrilling descent to Mountbenger,
where I noticed that the Gordon Arms
Hotel was boarded up – another victim
of the recession and cheap supermarket
alcohol perhaps?
At Innerleithen, I found a control and
a café that served an all-day breakfast.
‘Small or large?’, enquired the waitress.
‘Gargantuan’, I replied and proceeded
to eat the biggest breakfast they could
supply with extra toast. This gave me
the oomph to press on over the scenic
and beautifully graded Moorfoot Hills
south of Edinburgh. The road between
Innerleithen and the outskirts of
Edinburgh is very quiet (I saw only five
cars and a couple of motorbikes in 20
miles) and a feast for the eyes. The views
on the way down to ‘Auld Reekie’ were
magnificent with Arthur’s Seat and Bass
Rock visible in the distance. Getting
through Edinburgh was a chore though,
and I took more than an hour to battle
Arrivée Spring 2011 7

permanent
my way through the heavy city traffic
and numerous road closures before
finding my way down to the Forth Road
Bridge.
Once over the bridge, I stopped in
Dunfermline just long enough to grab a
quick roll ’n sausage from a café and buy
some back pocket supplies for the road
ahead. The next section to Crieff passes
through the big country of Tayside, and
the scenery was epic. Fittingly, I spotted
a pair of eagles circling high overhead
in the late evening sun, as I descended
into the Glen named for these majestic
birds. I didn’t linger long in Crieff either
– just a quick cashpoint slip control
before donning my waterproofs as I
encountered the first rain worthy of
the name so far. By the time I reached
Lochearnhead, it was 9:30pm and the
Clachan Cottage Hotel was a welcome
sight. I had planned to stop here for a
stamp and a quick pint of coke before
getting my head down at Crianlarich 16
miles further up the road, but common
sense took charge and I decide to stop
here for the night instead. I’d built up
a decent time buffer, and it would give
me the opportunity to dry some kit and
dispel the aroma of dead badger for
another few hours. An enquiry at the
bar confirmed that they had a room
available, so I was soon settled in and
relaxing in the bath with my soggy kit
steaming on the radiators.
I set the alarm for 05:30, and
breakfasted on complimentary biscuits
and coffee before heading out the door
at 06:00. My legs soon woke up after a
few long drags up Glen Ogle and Glen
Dochart, but there are descents to
compensate and by 08:00, I’d reached
Tyndrum where I stopped to power up
with some Red Bull and yogurt-coated
raisins. The next stretch takes in my
favourite roads – the descent to the
Bridge of Orchy, followed by the grind
up the hairpin over the Black Mount
to Rannoch Moor. Ba Bridge was being
rebuilt with traffic lights controlling the
passage across a temporary single track
replacement, so I took the opportunity
to grab a few pictures of the bleak and
windswept moor.
A strong headwind was being
funnelled up Glencoe, and as I pedalled
into it. I glanced sideways into the
sightless eyes of a deer submerged
in a pool of peaty water the colour of
Glenmorangie. Buachaille Etive Mor, the
Great Shepherd of Glen Etive, guards the
entrance to Glen Coe and I zig zagged
downhill past his neighbours the Three
Sisters on my way to the penultimate
control at Ballachulish. Shortly
afterwards, I reached the Corran Ferry,
which crosses a narrow strait separating
Loch Linnhe from Loch Eil, and after a
crossing lasting only a few minutes, I
finally set foot on the Ardnamurchan
Peninsula. Only 61km to go, but these
were the toughest roads of the whole
trip. They start innocuously enough –
rolling along nicely, some little drags
and a few nice descents to follow. This
soon gives way to the sort of climbs
you encounter on Dartmoor – steep
and energy sapping. Add in some near
gale force headwinds as I approached
Ardnamurchan Point itself and it’s no
surprise that the last 40 miles took me
nearly five hours.
When I got to the most westerly
traffic lights in mainland UK (it’s a twisty
single track road to the lighthouse, with
no passing places), I was almost done in.
The monstrous rollers coming in off the
Atlantic reminded me of the final scenes
of Point Break’ when Patrick Swayze opts
for certain death instead of a prison cell
in the giant waves off Bells Beach. The
Lighthouse visitor centre provided me
with my final control and a quick sugar
boost before I pedalled the few miles
back down the road to the Sonachan
Hotel (most Westerly Hotel in mainland
UK), where I’d booked in for the night.
Some garlic bread, a steak with all the
trimmings, and apple pie and custard
soon vanished along with a pint or
three of McEwans Ember. By 9pm, the
sleep debt and the miles in my legs
were calling me to account, so I left the
football fans in the lounge to Germany vs
Spain and tottered off to bed.
The next morning, I punished the
breakfast buffet and followed up with a
full Scottish breakfast, black pudding and
all. I opted for the scenic route down to
my auld white haired mammy’s house,
south of Glasgow, and took the ferry
from Kilchoan a few miles down the road,
to Tobermory on the Isle of Mull. From
there, it’s just a 20 mile pedal down to
Craignure at the other end of the island,
and another ferry ride across to Oban. I
had to kick my heels here until the next
train to Glasgow at 18:10, but I can think
of a lot worse places to be, and I spent
most of my time sitting in the sunshine
and topping up my cyclist’s tan. N
Arrivée – Don at
Ardnamurchan Point.
Top: Most westerly traffic lights on the mainland at the Point.
Middle: The Esplanade at Oban.
Bottom: Lochernhead – a good place to stop for the night.
All photos by the author
8 Arrivée Spring 2011

devon HEADING grimpeur IN HERE
Dunkery Dash
Geoff Sharpe
The organisers describe the
event as a refined form of
torture and with a route that
goes up to Dunkery Beacon,
the highest point on Exmoor
and with 1,600 metres of climbing, 1,000
of those metres in the first 50k, this is
no ‘DASH’ but more as they described
all the way up to the Beacon with some
respite on the way back.
Over 75 signed on at the start in
North Petherton for the climb over the
Quantock and Brendon hills. The sun had
swept the overnight rain clouds away
and with daffodils and primroses giving
a splash of colour to the hedgerows this
had all the signs of a day to be out on
your bike.
Up the first climb coming out at the
top of the Quantocks by the Travellers
Rest pub, should have been called ‘The
Cyclists Rest’, there was then a steep
descent down Cothelstone hill, 1 in 5 in
places and the thought in my mind that
I’m going to have to climb this hill on the
way back to the finish.
Into Bishops Lydeard where I missed
the turn into West Street due to the
amount of 4 x 4 vehicles congregating
in the centre of the village. This is very
much a ‘horsey’ area with every other
vehicle being a large Land Rover towing
a horse box, added to which there was a
Point-to-Point meeting up ahead which
they all were trying to get to.
Got back on route to cross the A358
and pass under the Somerset steam
railway bridge to start another climb
through rural countryside to come out at
the foot of Elworthy Hill.
Elworthy Hill is about a mile long
and climbs up to nearly 400 metres with
sections of 1 in 5. A few of us, including
me, are going to be stopping on this one
to admire the view, although I managed
to stay on the bike all the way up to
the top. Coming out of the climb near
Raleghs Cross, the route continues in an
undulating fashion across the top of the
Brendon Hills. At least the views over
the Bristol Channel to South Wales was
beginning to be worth all the effort I was
putting in on this event.
A steep drop down into Wheddon
Cross, seeing riders coming up the hill
on their way back to North Petherton, I’ll
be coming up here soon as it’s just two
miles now of climbing up to the Beacon
and then the turn back. Tea and cake
available at the control in the car park
at the top of the hill, very welcome, but
now it’s kind of ‘pay back’ time. After all
the climbing to get up here I get a twomile
down hill to the cross.
Up the hill out of Wheddon Cross and
with a bit of a tailwind I’m making good
time across the top of the Brendons
and a very fast descent down Elworthy
Hill. This is followed with rural lanes,
generally going down hill all the way
back to Bishops Lydeard and to the foot
Top left and bottom:
Climbing out of
the start at North
Petherton.
Top right: Climbing
(and walking) Elworthy
Hill.
Solo rider: Author Geoff
Sharpe
of Cothelstone Hill, the last climb of
the day, and it is quite a climb. I have to
admit to walking parts of this but there
again nobody was coming by. Coming
out at the top and turning just before the
Travellers Rest pub its five miles of rural
lanes dropping all the way back down
into North Petherton.
Thanks Keith to you and your team for
a memorial ride and if you can arrange
the weather to be as good as this again
I’m sure we’ll all be back next year. N
Arrivée Spring 2011 9

andonnee
Wesley May Super Grimpeur
Red Cow meets Chairman Mao on the Black Mountain
Gordon Jones
I
was driven to the start by Hazel
feeling very pessimistic. Due to the
amount of climbing on this event I
swapped my Dawes Sport for my old
hybrid Dawes bike, which had the
easier gears fitted.
Unfortunately having had several
mechanical mishaps with this machine
and nursing an upset stomach myself,
I was less than enthusiastic about
completing the task ahead.
It was uplifting then to arrive at the
Bynea Cycle Club to find Dave Harris had
the fire on and ample supply of coffee,
tea and warm croissants at the ready. I
happily consumed my fill of the almond
filled ones before we departed.
About half a dozen riders made their
way from the start on this autumnal
morning. The cloudless sky was a lovely
sight but it remained chilly as we set off
at 8am.
I had already prepared myself to keep
to a steady pace on this extremely taxing
event especially riding the heavier hybrid
machine and soon dropped off the main
group to ride along with a chap named
Stuart on our way to Loughor.
Stuart began telling me it was his first
audax for several years and that since his
last participation he had put on a few
stone so he was a bit apprehensive about
his fitness level for this event.
Having ridden less than a mile with
him and feeling pretty awful physically,
I assured him he wouldn’t have a
problem and urged him to go on as I was
struggling already. So within the first 2k
I was already feeling washed out, with
legs aching and stomach still upset and
we hadn’t reached our first climb yet.
Having lost sight of those in front
through Grovesend I turned right before
WaunGron to take on the first hills of the
day, climbing towards Felindre. The gears
were fine for the climb (28t rear 28t front)
but I wasn’t and I would have packed
if it hadn’t been for Paul Bright passing
me at that moment. Having someone in
front to follow was just the incentive to
continue.
Reaching the first checkpoint at 13k,
along with Paul, I got a further boost
being greeted by Colin from our local
DA. The boost to the confidence quickly
evaporated when Colin mentioned this
was one of the toughest events on the
calendar for this distance. I agreed with
him and said I was feeling the affects
already.
Leaving ahead of Paul I travelled
onward and upward toward Pont
Llechart, passing Dave Harris and his
camera and headed on down to the
climb that would take us to Cwmllynfell.
After the initial climb through a treelined
lane with several cottages dotted
about, I continued my ascent, riding
atop the barren landscape till after
7k I descended to the info control at
Cwmllynfell, 34k.
The next section took me towards
Brynamman where I turned right to
ascend the infamous Black Mountain. By
the time I reached the cattle grid I felt as
if I’d climbed the mountain already but I
hadn’t even started yet.
Now one advantage, or disadvantage,
there is to riding up this monster is
after climbing a few kilometres the
road takes a sharp left turn and from
there you can see the rest of the entire
climb as the road wiggles its way up
and bears right in a giant horseshoe
shape circumnavigating the central
valley and heading towards the summit.
The advantage being you can see how
far ahead the rest of the riders are and
hence you get a bit of a confidence
boost. The disadvantage, as in this
particular case, is looking ahead to see
no one in sight. My pace had dropped
to that of a snail and even some of them
were passing me.
Also perspiring profusely (layman’s
terms – sweating buckets) and feeling
quite nauseous, I was sure my eyes were
deceiving me. Just ahead I began to
make out the shape of a sheep with a
red cow standing directly behind it. This
I knew couldn’t possibly be true but the
closer I came the more realistic it became
until that is the sheep started to move
away and I realised I’d been staring at a
giant boulder painted red in the shape
of a cow. It’s then I noticed several other
boulders on the climb were painted red.
Were these a sign of some kind? Further
on I thought I’d found the answer when
coming across a young chap with long
beard sitting on the kerbside, wearing
no socks, reading a little red book. A
reincarnated chairman Mao sprang to
mind, bringing his thoughts and paint
pot to the mountains of South Wales.
He never moved a muscle; his
Gordon Jones (above)
claims three AAA points
for this 100k grimpeur
John Bastian
Thomas Quest
Ian Sharpe
All photos by Dai Harris
10 Arrivée Spring 2011

andonnee
concentration remained firmly on his
reading as I crawled past him. I almost
asked him for some inspiration in
continuing this dogged climb but alas I
didn’t have the breath to speak and so I
rode on none the wiser, passing a second
Dave Harris with camera before reaching
the summit.
The views northward from here are
breath taking and it was a pity not to be
able to descend all the way to Llangadog
but the route took me off a side road
towards Trapp with an impressive view
of Carreg Cennen Castle on its mound in
the distance.
It was another 9k of sweeping down
hills and steep ascents before finally
reaching the control point at the castle
café including one more encounter with
a third Dave Harris and camera. Had I
become part of the ‘Matrix’?
Mike Wood and a few of the other
faster chaps were just on their way but
I joined Stuart for a lunchtime snack.
Paul soon arrived and the main subject
of conversation became the man with
the red book. It seems he was a man of
different guises as Stuart quoted when
passing him, the chap had no shoes and
when Paul passed him he was walking
but had no book. Maybe he’d just
come to see the red cow. He’d be very
disappointed!
Stuart, who seemed to be handling
the ride OK, headed off leaving Paul
and myself to recuperate and enjoy the
edible delights of the castle café.
I continued on alone leaving Paul to
finish his soup. Passing through Trapp
I continued on, crossing the A483 and
heading down a country lane towards
Panllyn. By now, even with the revival of
lunch, I felt like packing as the nausea
came back but that irritation was soon
Ian Sharpe and John
Spooner
Yan Fargeot
Michael Wood
(top right)
‘I went
down,
smashing
my ribcage
against the
concrete.’
Stuart Davies
wiped from my memory as I flew down
this hill to cross a ford and immediately
ascend a hill the other side.
Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to the
other side of the ford in the same state
that I entered it. What appeared a flat
surface under the inch or so depth of
water turned out to be a slight slope and
I got a close up view as the bike went
from under me.
‘Oh no, not again,’ was the cry as
I went down, smashing my rib cage
against the concrete but fortunately
missing my previously damaged hip.
Unfortunately my previously damaged
elbow took another bashing and the
panniers I had on the bike took a
drenching as well as one half of the
clothes I was wearing.
Bedraggled, I pushed the bike up the
other side and with the shock wearing
off tried to assess the damage. Ribs hurt
to breath, elbow swelling again, but not
all bad. One pannier had to be drained
of water and saturated route map saved.
Fortunately all valuables including
mobile and money were in the other
pannier.
I stood back ready to quit but as with
all audax riders I’ve met, the word ‘quit’
doesn’t exist and having ridden 61k of
the event I was determined to finish.
The climb up to the turning for
Milo eventually got the better of me
and I walked the last 20 metres. For a
few moments the will power had gone
but soon returned and I continued to
Porthyrhyd where I turned left to climb
to the last checkpoint.
I was hoping to pick up a spare route
sheet here as the two I now had were
either a soggy mess or just worn out.
Unfortunately the chap at this point
had no spare sheet and so I rode on
to the final control point, CKs store in
Pontyberem. There I spread both route
sheets out hoping to dry one out and
make sense of any legible instructions.
Having succeeded in this I continued
turning shortly left to make the gruelling
climb up to Llannon.
This climb drags on and on (bit like
this article) till finally after 5k I turned
into Llannon at 90k and began to think I
might just make it.
Almost missing the country lane
turn towards Bryn didn’t help but finally
I reached the descent to Bynea and
back to the clubhouse where workmen
greeted me. No cyclists in site. Workmen
were clearing the deserted car park of
weeds with noisy edge trimmers and
the clubhouse itself was stripped bare
of chairs and tables. I stood transfixed.
What had happened during the day?
Had the club gone bust? Had the current
recession finally hit them or was this a
wind up and everyone would appear
round the corner shouting ‘Fooled you!’
It turned out that the club was
getting some TLC and the event HQ was
in Dave’s back yard next to the club.
A table with various cakes and rolls
awaited all weary finishers and a lovely
thick home-made soup. Thankfully I was
allowed two helpings of this delicious
dish.
I felt a great sense of achievement
after finishing this event and my only
regret is not remembering the recipe for
the soup.
N
Arrivée Spring 2011 11

A ride too far?
Colin Bezant
Last autumn, after 24 years in
one accountancy firm I left
for the excitement of its main
rival. This meant 10 weeks of
‘gardening leave’, being paid
not to come into work. What great
cycling achievements could be possible?
However, I’d used up most of the family
goodwill with 10 days in Italy for the
Mille Miglia and it was now October and
fair weather cycling days were almost
over.
I managed a few projects, some
crazier than others, but each time I was
haunted by the idea that it might be the
ride too far, either for my wife’s patience,
or the one where the winter gremlins
finally got me.
Here’s how I got on.
One man’s cunning plan is another’s
insanity
I fancied the idea of a hill climb. There
can’t be anything more different from
Audax riding than the short explosive
effort required to ride up the steepest
hill around as far as possible, but
my curiosity was aroused. The CTT
handbook showed a time trial on
Leith Hill in Surrey in the morning and
another on Steyning Bostal in Sussex in
the afternoon. A cunning plan came to
mind: ride from home to the first climb,
race it, ride to the second, race that,
and then ride to my caravan in Selsey,
which should be exactly 100 miles. It was
intended more an excuse for a century
ride than a serious attempt at racing.
However, as the day approached, the
competitive instinct crept in…
The first climb was organised by
Richmond CC, it was combined with their
‘So I set
off one
bleak day
thinking
that this, at
last, might
be the ride
too far.’
club run and 50 of their riders parked
themselves on the steepest part of the
hill with horns, rattles, and cheers for
every rider regardless of style. The ride
was not oppressively steep, a maximum
of 12 per cent and I just about reached
the checkerboard before expiring in a
time that turned out to be about 30 per
cent slower than the winner’s. Despite
the excellent tea they had laid on I
couldn’t stop for long. Rain clouds were
on the horizon and I wanted to get to
Steyning 25 miles away to have lunch
before getting soaked. I got there just
before the rain penetrated my base layer
and nursed tea and a sandwich while
it chucked it down outside. Bostal Hill
starts with a steepening ramp reaching
17 per cent and then it’s flat for a bit,
giving me time for a bit of a recovery.
The second steep bit is twice as long as
the first and I blew half way up resorting
to a grovel. Mike Anton was taking
photographs at this point and his gallery
looked more like the National Gurning
Championships than a hill climb. My
gurning was about as dismal as my hill
climbing but despite regretting lunch
as I collapsed over my handlebars at the
top I was still managed a time about 30
per cent slower than the winner. I rolled
back to headquarters in preparation for
30-odd miles of headwinds and rain back
to my caravan. It had been fun. The pain
might have been extreme but it didn’t
last for long and the atmosphere was
good.
St Albans and back and a hilly time
trial
By mid-October the weather was starting
to turn. I’d had a plan for a ride from my
home in Basingstoke to St Albans and
back for several years and a day with a
gentle north-east wind seemed like a
good one for a last long ride on the race
bike. I wanted to give my legs a good
spin before my last race of the season. It
was an unremarkable ride save for the
observation that it seemed to take me
about 80 of the 190km to warm up.
Four days later I rode the Goodwood
Hilly time trial, four 100m-plus hills
plus 250m more climbing on a 27-mile
course. It was a very cold but sunny
morning. It was probably my favourite
ride of the whole year, riding as fast as
possible on the challenging lanes around
Goodwood Racecourse. My goal was
to average more than evens which was
achieved with about a minute to spare,
an adrenalin charged surge from start to
finish.
Cycle touring on Guernsey
OK, this isn’t long distance, but it repaid
some of the family debts. Our two
children had asynchronous holidays
and my wife was wondering what to
do. I solved the problem by taking my
nine-year-old by train, ferry and bike
to Guernsey where we did a little bit of
cycling and a little bit of sight-seeing.
My son Peter was the real star,
managing an ascent of the 10 per cent
road out of St Peter Port with panniers.
The quiet lanes were ideal for cycling
with children, although it was handy to
have a map on display in the bar bag;
the combination of frequent turns and
high granite walls made navigation
interesting. A few hills required push
assistance but the weather was generally
kind and the food great.
12 Arrivée Spring 2011

headwinds, hill-climbs and snow
Photos: Tim Wainwright
One way into a headwind
As soon as we got back my wife took
the two boys up to stay with a friend in
the Peak District. I had a church meeting
on the Saturday so agreed to ride up
the next day and record it as a DIY. It
was over-distance (260km) but I didn’t
think this would be much of a problem
given that I had kept my summer fitness.
Whilst in Guernsey I checked the Internet
weather forecast – 35kmh northerly
winds for Sunday. That could have been
epic. It could easily be the ride too far.
As it turned out the wind dropped
but that brought a new fear. Saturday
had been wet, the overnight calm had
temperatures dropping to near freezing.
I was setting off in the dark and could
easily have icy roads to contend with.
I set off gingerly for an ATM control
at Wallingford and it was only as the
sun came up that I could relax. The
sheltered hollows were indeed white
with frost but it had not quite got cold
enough to ice the roads. A sandwich in
Banbury was followed by a pleasant ride
through the South Midlands (Southam,
Cubbington, Stoneleigh) and a relatively
quite route through the western part
of Coventry before picking up the A423
towards Tamworth. The wind had risen
to a steady breeze and the road rose
consistently towards Corley. It was just
starting to get hard. In order to get
the right spacing between controls,
some judicious Googling identified
that there should be some shops and
cafés in Kingsbury, about 12km south
of Tamworth. It was one of those places
that shuts on Sundays and I had to make
do with another stale sandwich from a
newsagent. Seven hours into a headwind
and no tea!!
Progress became harder towards
Uttoxeter as the wind increased and cold
legs and lack of caffeine sapped at my
willpower. Lowering the gear, tucking
the head down and counting the miles
passed the time. Uttoxeter also looked
bereft of cafés, then I spotted my latest
lifesaver, a Subway. A foot-long BMT
and a pint of coffee later I was ready to
continue.
To this point there had been no major
hills, but 10km north of Uttoxeter the
route took me into the Peak District, with
climbs in several stages to 400m and
then a series of exposed undulations
straight into the wind. Along Blakelow
there were staggering views in either
direction. Sadly the Mermaid Inn is now
a property development. It did mark a
welcome turning point, the last of the
headwind. The half mile to my friend’s
place was a joyful sail downhill with the
wind.
To the dinner!
I’d set a really tough target for my dinner
dart – 500km in 24 hours. Last year I’d
ridden 435km with over an hour to spare
despite having to walk for an hour on
unexpected black ice in Lincolnshire.
My hope was, with increased fitness,
the benefit of experience, and an extra
two hours of riding, that 500km was just
about possible. My plan was to follow my
2009 route – Banbury–Daventry–Market
Harborough–Grantham–Horncastle–
Humber Bridge and then to extend via
Bridlington and Malton. Ha ha ha! There
are plenty of biblical quotations about
pride. On the Wednesday Bridlington
was cut off by snow; the Thursday-night
forecast was for northerly winds and
heavy snow showers in Lincolnshire and
East Yorkshire. I emailed Sheila Simpson
warning her of possible route alteration
because of adverse weather, to which I
received an understanding OK.
It was cold setting off just after lunch
on the Thursday. The wind was light
but miserly and persistently in the face.
My route to Banbury was the same as
on the ride to Staffordshire except that
it started in the daylight and ended in
darkness. The only good piece of news
was checking back home at Banbury
and learning that the school at which my
wife is a governor had a glowing Ofsted
report. Banbury was only required for a
stamp; my food stop was further on at
the Subway in Daventry. By the time I
got there it was already sub-zero and the
route ahead was cause for anxiety. I knew
that my planned ride across the Humber
Bridge was impossible given already
fallen snow with more forecast. My aim
was now to reach Grantham Services and
re-think there. After Daventry I found
myself becoming increasingly nervous
and tentative on the bends, anticipating
the sudden slip of the rear wheel on black
ice, the shock of impact, and the horrible
sensation of sliding uncontrollably along
the ground. My pace became slower
not because of fatigue but through the
combination of darkness and fear. There
are times when it is foolish to continue
and this was one of them. Grantham
was still three dark skiddy hours away.
There were memories of a coffee in a
hotel in Market Harborough at midnight
on an ill-fated Easter Arrow to York.
Inspired by these memories this be
came by destination. After a shivering
descent into the town I found the
appropriately named Angel Hotel, which,
unsurprisingly for a November night, had
available rooms. Home was very happy to
hear that I had stopped for the night. The
500km Dart was abandoned; apart from
the fact that half the rest of the route was
under snow, I wouldn’t be able to make
up lost time. It was also clear, given the
current weather and pessimistic forecast
that I would be stuck on main roads for
the next day. After a couple of beers a
plan came to mind.
My low-tech approach to navigation
helped here, spreading out the torn
out pages of a road atlas on the bed
‘Jack Frost
hadn’t
brushed the
landscape,
he’d been
out there
with a
fencepainting
brush
working ice
into every
nook and
cranny.’
The Humber Bridge
Colin riding the
Goodwood Hilly
time trial
and plotting a new route from Melton
Mowbray using the A606, A46, A6095,
a B road through Ollerton to Retford
before using A roads through Thorne
to Selby and A19 into York. It would
be a main road bash but the best and
cheapest way of getting to the AUK
Reunion and would just make the 200km
required for a Dinner Dart.
A big breakfast: cereal, fruit, yoghurt,
and a full English, helped insulate
against the freezing conditions outside.
The hilly B road to Melton on was
much better on a full stomach in bright
sunshine than it would have been on
empty in the dark. Jack Frost hadn’t
brushed the landscape he’d been out
there with a fence painting brush
working ice into every nook and cranny.
Fortunately the road had been gritted
and bright sunshine showed up the few
icy encroachments. It was –3°C although
it warmed up to a majestic +4° later in
the day.
There’s not much of beauty to
describe along this route; it was good
flat winter miles. I was surprised by
two things, firstly how well gritted
all the roads were and secondly how
gracious the drivers were, especially
along the constant roadworks and
narrow carriageway of the A46. I think
sometimes we forget that despite the
antics of a small minority, most drivers
are careful most of the time and quite
often show genuine courtesy to more
vulnerable road users.
The Kiwi Café in Retford provided
excellent Moussaka just when I needed
food, having suffered from headwinds
the whole way; this was enough to carry
me across the bleak Yorkshire flatlands.
The detention centre at Linkinholme
must be about the most depressing
place I have ever ridden past, at least
the dun walls of Dartmoor Prison encase
the possibility of a view. It was freezing
and dark by the time I reached the York
Racecourse Centre. The cycle computer
showed 199.5km so I rode to the next
roundabout and back to make
certain of the
Arrivée Spring 2011 13
Photo: Mike Anton

HEADwinds, hill-climbs and snow
200km and the Dinner Dart. That was a
total trip of 370km over the two days.
I then had the pleasure of Jim Hopper
and Edwin Hargreaves explaining how
much better three wheels were than two
in such conditions. I’ll keep my 12 per
cent performance advantage for the 330
frost-free days a year.
I’m going out for a while, I may be
some time
It snowed on Friday night and on
Saturday I had a gentle ride out to
Wetherby with John Thompson.
The roads needed care but were not
impassable. After an enjoyable dinner
I slept, looking forward to the idea of a
tailwind back.
I’m not sure iPhones are a good
idea or not, especially when, as you
are contemplating a 200km ride
someone informs you that the outside
temperature in York was –10°C. I set
off towards York centre with Julian
Dyson; –6°C was showing on the
cycle computer. By the time I reached
the outskirts of York it was –8°C, the
temperature at which I am informed that
salt stops working. There were a few icy
patches but careful riding allowed me
slow and steady progress in a flat calm,
the steam from the cooling towers of
Drax riding vertically. The necks of the
water bottles froze so I was quite thirsty
by the time I reached Retford, even if
it was now a balmy –3°C. Although the
water bottles still had liquid centres
they were encased in a thick insulating
blanket of ice. The Kiwi café was closed
but across the road was a magical place
(I wonder if I dreamt it) that offered a full
English breakfast, tea and toast for £3!
More A roads took me around the
north of Mansfield and then into the
southern marches of the Peak District,
through Belper and Ashbourne. Here the
snow was much thicker and as pristine
as if it had just fallen. The temperature
had stayed well below freezing all day
and preserved every snowflake on every
branch in a picture postcard scene. On
the ridge roads I could see snow-covered
fields and hedgerows stretching for
many miles towards the high ground
of the Peak District. It was the perfect
setting for the end of a remarkable day’s
cycling. I just had one more control to
find and then complete the short stage
of 42km from Ashbourne to Stafford.
However, the cold was starting to
bite, as was dehydration. My water
bottles were now frozen solid. The long
descent into Ashbourne in the –4°C dusk
was chilling. Fortunately there was a café
open, much more plush and expensive
than the one it Retford, but providing
welcoming sustenance. A pint of orange
juice and lemonade quenched the thirst;
a large pot of tea and a huge ham and
cheese toastie prepared me for the
arctic night. On the first descent towards
Uttoxeter I felt the exposed parts of my
face start to go numb. The only way to
exercise them was some gurning practice
(see – hill climb TTs do come in useful for
Audax). It was hard to turn the legs but
at least there was enough twilight to be
confident that the roads were gritted and
remained ice-free. The last temperature
check was at the junction with the A34
where, in the harsh sodium-light glare I
could see that it was –7°C.
It is probably the only time in my
life that the concrete desert of Stafford
Railway station will seem like a welcome
sight. I got there 10 minutes before
the café closed for some welcome
rehydration and an hour’s shivering wait
for the last Cross-Country train back
to Basingstoke. Was this a ride too far?
Exactly the opposite; it had been one of
the most challenging rides I’d ever done,
concentrating with every pedal stroke
on as smooth progress as possible in
case the road was slippery. In my view
the conditions were marginal for long
distance cycling, but excellent gritting
work by Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire,
Derbyshire, and Staffordshire councils
had made it possible. The cardboard-like
Windtex jacket and merino base layers
had kept my core warm. Sealskinz socks
and overshoes had done the same for
the feet. But the one investment that
had really paid benefits was in the Assos
three-layer winter glove system as my
hands remained warm throughout.
A last attempt
I’d reached the last week of my
gardening leave. There was one last
piece of unfinished business for the
year. I’d never cycled 100 miles let
alone 200km in a December ride. It was
midweek and the forecast was for more
heavy snow (as it turned out the back
roads in Hampshire were skating rinks
from that weekend until after Christmas).
So I set off one bleak day thinking that
this, at last, might be the ride too far. My
route took me on familiar roads through
Overton, Whitchurch, and Hurstbourne
Tarrant into Wiltshire, where I’d found
some back-roads across the eastern part
of Salisbury Plain to the Avon Valley.
It wasn’t a DIY Audax, which gave me
freedom to adapt the route as I pleased
and put stops where I needed them
rather than as artificial turning points.
The air was damp and the roads
slippery with wet salty mud as the
deposits from two weeks of gritting
were finally washed off. Salisbury Plain
was bleak and I was glad that there was
no wind. At one point where the road
turned to the right there seemed to be
more tracks heading straight on to the
practice grounds than following the
tarmac; these roads probably see more
tanks than bikes. The Avon Valley on a
drab December day was paradise after
this. I reversed a route I’d used several
‘I set off
towards
York centre
with Julian
Dyson;
–6°C was
showing on
the cycle
computer.
By the
time I
reached the
outskirts
of York it
was –8°C,
the temperature
at
which I am
informed
that salt
stops
working.’
times on the Salisbury 100 (before it
was called a Wessex 100 Sportive) and
was glad to reach the cathedral city.
Having made rapid progress it was time
to reward myself with a long café stop.
After 355 degrees of the one-way system
the cafés appeared; the all day cooked
breakfast was more than three times the
price of the one in Retford. The Economist
publishes a big Mac index looking at the
cost of the ubiquitous hamburger across
the planet; I’m thinking of establishing
a six-item special with tea and toast
index to highlight the extraordinary
differences in purchasing prices even
on our compact island. It did give me a
chance to consult the map and plot a
course home.
The road from Salisbury to Downton
was full of bends and switchbacks,
kept away from the river by a couple
of stately homes. Perversely, it was on
the long drag up to the New Forest
where I hit my rhythm. Throughout
the autumn it seemed to take longer
to ‘warm up’. By December I didn’t hit
full speed until after 100km. The amber
bracken and close-cropped green of
the New Forest were an idyllic contrast
to sombre Salisbury Plain. I sped along
the undulations and rocketed down the
descent of its high ground in the general
direction of Romsey, reconsidering my
route all the time.
This ride consisted of little segments
of many Audax rides of the past. By
following minor roads to Kimbridge I
could pass north of Romsey and pick up
a familiar route past the Hillier Gardens,
Ampsford, Hursley and Otterbourne
and pick up fast flat roads to Bishop’s
Waltham. By my calculations this should
get me 200km and allow me to get home
in time. My average speed rose rather
than fell, despite the stiff climb out of
Bishop’s Waltham, and a quick stop to
pull on a rain jacket as the overcast sky
developed a leak.
I’d ridden back from Alresford in a
hurry to meet friends a couple of weeks
before whilst the rest of my club stopped
at a café. Now I was to reprise the same
hurried route on an empty stomach at
an early December dusk. The little shop
in Preston Candover provided a couple
of Twix bars to stave off bonk, a pause to
put on the lights, and a final push over
Farleigh Wallop to a welcome descent
home.
A ride too far? My average riding
speed was almost 27kph over rolling,
slippery roads on a cold day. After a
quick shower I cooked tea for my two
boys and then dinner for my wife. The
next day I went to the gym and at the
end of a hard weights session posted my
second best ever time for a 5,000m row.
I might not have done anything
spectacular or exotic during my
gardening leave, but I doubt I’ll ever be
as fit in December again. N
14 Arrivée Spring 2011

andonnee
A grand day out – riding 400k
Richard Marriott
I’d already completed a couple of 200k events and a 300k so,
I thought, a 400k event would be the natural step up. I had
two events to choose from: the Spurn Head 400 (0 metres
of climbing) or the ‘Old 240’ (with 6,500 metres of climbing).
This being my first ever 400, I made the sensible choice and
entered the Old 240.
In August, sitting in my French holiday cottage, eating a very
nice lunch and studying the route, I really did think that I might
have bitten off a bit more than I could chew. The route starts
at Mytholmroyd (just west of Halifax) and traces an enormous
loop to just east of Penrith, up to just south of Hadrian’s Wall at
Alston, then south-eastward to Scotch Corner then back down to
Mytholmroyd. I had 27 hours to complete the ride.
En route to Hebden Bridge the afternoon before, West
Yorkshire was doused in heavy rain: we were down to 30mph on
the motorway and the wipers were on overdrive. It did not bode
well. But it had cleared by 4:30am the next morning when I got
up and, an hour later, 14 of us set off together for the first mile
as a happy but slightly nervous band until the first long climb
up over Wadsworth Moor, when we split up. I was the last over
the top but this didn’t bother me – this was not a race, and if it
were, it was a quadruple marathon. For the next 50k or so I rode
and chatted with another rider and but his pace was just a little
too slow so gradually I pulled away. Keeping my pace steady and
twiddling my legs up the hills to preserve my strength, I headed
out into what the Organiser described as ‘majestic Pennine
landscapes...where you will need to be resourceful about your
victualling and should have complete confidence in your abilities
and your bicycle …’ I was on my own and, apart from a few brief
encounters with other riders, would be for the next 230km.
In many places the scenery is awesome and where it’s not, it
is simply beautiful. I made steady progress though the lanes and
didn’t have to stop very often to navigate. I began to feel more
confident and enjoy myself and when I approached a ford just
before the tiny hamlet of Crosby Garret, it didn’t look deep, or
fast flowing, or cold. But it was all of these and slippery too. As
the water approached my front hub the bike slipped away from
me. It was all I could do to hold on to the bike and for a moment,
as I struggled to stand upright with my bike, I really did think
that it would be swept away. I was soaked from the waist down.
But luckily my route instructions and map were still readable as I
had kept them in plastic bag. So I wasn’t lost. I set off again, a bit
shaken and very wet and reflected on my stupidity (there was
a footbridge), my good luck and how the sunshine and breeze
made good drying weather.
On sportives I would normally pop a few gels and pick up
a bit of food at the checkpoints. But on a 400k you can’t live
on gels and go-bars – you need food for the soul as well as the
body; and you can’t run on the majesty of the landscape. After
my dunking in the stream my soul-food sausage sarnies were
soaked. So, after climbing to the top of Hartside Fell I sat down
in the highest café in England, surrounded by burly bikers, to a
meat pie, chips, peas, gravy, fruit crumble and coffee (x2). Then
came the long descent into Alston but it dawned on me that I
had been cycling nine hours and I wasn’t half- way yet.
The route was now heading south-east towards Scotch
Corner: I had turned homeward. But the long grind, into a
blistering headwind out of Alston up past Burnhope Seat (very
well named) at 742m, put an end to my minor celebration. Also,
although I didn’t know it, I was heading into what was, for me,
the most difficult part of the ride. After a long, downhill stretch,
the riding became easy and I made good progress. Despite my
progress, the run-in to Scotch Corner felt like it was taking for
‘As the
water
approached
my front
hub the
bike slipped
away from
me. It was
all I could do
to hold on to
the bike.’
ever, and I was behind schedule. I had hoped to get to Scotch
Corner with an hour or so of riding time before lighting up,
but I would not now arrive until sundown. The landscape had
changed from grand, inspiring landscapes to what felt like flat,
dull, cultivated farmland and there was little difficulty in the
riding to focus my attention on. I was also getting tired and I
had been on my own for 190km. In this mental blankness, the
prospect of riding all of the last 120k from Scotch Corner in
complete darkness on my own was beginning, put simply, to ‘do
my head in’.
In my mind I played though lots of strategies: taking a room
in the hotel and getting up at 3am or just making a quick stop
and ploughing on solo before I had chance to think twice.
Neither approach eased my anxiety. If I stopped, I might exceed
the time limit; if I ploughed on, in that state of mind, I am not
sure whether I would have finished. Victoria was, after all, only a
mobile phone call away. After a while, I settled that I would wait
for an hour at Scotch Corner and see if anyone else turned up.
If someone did, I would go with them. If they didn’t, I’d plough
on solo. My mood instantly lightened once I’d settled on a plan I
felt comfortable with. I had always thought of Scotch Corner as
a bit ‘Wild West’ in the North. Of course, with its Travelodge and
Moto service station it is nothing of sort. But as I finally rolled
into the services it did feel like I had ridden out of the wilderness
into what passes ‘in them parts’ for civilisation. Half-an-hour later,
while sitting in the Costa Coffee, my eyes lit up as two cyclists
walked in like a couple of cowboys into a Wild West saloon. After
fuelling up and lighting up and wrapping up warm, we set off on
the long, dark drag back to Mytholmroyd.
My two compadres were very experienced randonneurs,
one had completed London–Edinburgh–London. They were not
scared of the dark. So we ticked off the ks at a steady pace. At one
point we stopped in the middle of nowhere. Martin rummaged in
his saddlebag and put on a latex glove. Puzzled, I watched intently
as he put a knob of Vaseline on the end of his finger. He then said
‘I advise you to look away’ as he put his hand down his shorts. I’m
sure there’s a trick to learn there but I didn’t feel like asking. We
set off again, heading for the last check point at Gargrave, where
a wonderful lady with an enormous flask and sandwiches was
waiting to check us through at 02:20am. What a star!
We had decided to stick together until the very end and
the last 40k seemed easy even though we had to climb back
over Wadsworth moor. Whilst climbing up to Wadsworth moor
at 4am, we were shepherded by a sheep dog for about oneand-a-half
kilometres. It ran alongside us, close to our slowly
rotating legs. I’ve always been a bit afraid of dogs and it was
a bit unnerving. It obviously thought that we were funning
looking, mechanised sheep. Chris, who was behind Martin and
me, was dropping behind a little so the dog dropped back to
shepherd him along a bit quicker. Then ‘F*** OFF!’ rang out of
the darkness and the dog disappeared. Chris obviously didn’t
like the company either. But the dog came back and ran along
next to me again. This time I stopped, turned round, faced it and
shouted ‘F*** OFF!’ even louder. The dog finally got the message.
Surreal. Was I hallucinating?
Finally we rolled back down into Hebden Bridge and then to
Mytholmroyd to get some cash out of the cashpoint to prove
the date and time of our arrival. I said goodbye to my compadres
and we set off in opposite directions – dissolving into the night
except for a few, small flashing rear lights. I set off to the B&B
back up the road I had just come down. I had passed within a
100 yards of a hot shower and a warm bed, but was I tempted?
Not one little bit!
N
Arrivée Spring 2011 15

HEADING IN HERE
Perth-Albany-Perth
Western Australia, October 2010
Julian Dyson
All photos by Steve Keeling and Ted Collinson, Audax Australia
A
couple of months after
completing the 1200km
Great Southern Randonnee
2008 in Victoria, Australia
an e-mail popped up in my
in-box from Audax Australia notifying
me of the 1200km Perth-Albany-Perth
which was to be run in October 2010. I
mulled it over for a few months whilst
concentrating on L-E-L 2009. Nick Dale,
the organiser, and a band of other
Aussies (compete with their ‘Convict
Tour’ shirts) turned up for L-E-L and got
a good soaking so I felt duty bound
to return their support for our event
by taking another trip Down Under
to do another one of their ‘sunshine
guaranteed’ rides.
My ride plan for 2010 started to take
shape and I was soon looking at a fairly
challenging summer after a structured
build-up. An ‘easy’ warm-weather 1200
would be a nice way to finish off after
Mille Cymru (1000km) and Hamburg-
Berlin-Köln-Hamburg (1500km).
The week before flying out I was
giving the trusty 12-year-old Merlin
titanium workhorse a good clean and
service when much to my horror I found
a crack on the inside of the right hand
chainstay where it had been flattened to
give increased tyre clearance. Expletives
deleted! What to do? Panic! A few deep
breaths later and the old 531 frame
that the Merlin replaced was recovered
Organised by Nick
Dale of Audax
Australia, this
1200k event
attracted three
British riders
plus Dave Minter,
originally from
Australia but now
currently living
in England. North
America was well
represented, along
with AUK’s globetrotting
Spencer
Klaassen.
AUK’s Julian Dyson,
author of this article,
rode the event on fixed
wheel.
from the darkest recesses of the shed,
unfortunately not all the current kit
would fit the old frame and I started
rummaging through boxes for front
derailleur and cantilever brakes. Once
a functioning machine was assembled
a test ride was conducted and I came
to the conclusion that over the years
my riding position has become much
lower than the 531 frame would allow
and I would not be comfortable on
a 1200km ride. Now what? Looking
round the stable my eye fell on my
fixed wheel commuting iron, complete
with tri-bars … was this a good idea?
Two 100-mile rides and a 200km brevet
had been completed comfortably on it.
Nick replied to my email explaining my
predicament stating that there were only
three of four climbs of any note, none of
the particularly long and I would have no
problem on fixed.
And so it was that I arrived in Perth
with a tri-barred fixed wheel and more
than the usual pre-ride trepidation. I
soon met up with Pete Turnbull at the
city centre Youth Hostel where we were
both staying for a couple of nights before
crossing the Swan River to South Perth
and accommodation near the start. The
Quest holiday apartment complex was
where number of riders had decided
to set up base. Aussie AUK Dave (he
has a British passport) Minter had not
only organised a comfortable billet,
complete with kitchen and washing
machine, for the AUK contingent – Judith
Swallow, Pete Turnbull and myself, but
also arranged bike box and baggage
storage for the duration of the event for
everybody staying there – thanks Dave.
Pre-ride:
This was the fourth edition of P-A-P, the
first three have basically been out-andback
routes but this time it was to be
a circular route except for the first/last
70km.
Since the vast majority if riders
were from ‘out-of-town’ (Perth claims
to be one of the most remote cities in
the world, so even most Aussies were
out-of-towners) a Sunday night gettogether
was organised at a South Perth
Italian restaurant. The following day a
barbeque was set up in the South Perth
Foreshore Park for registration, picking
up shirts and general socialising. This
was also a good opportunity to recce
the route from the start. With a 5am start
looming an early night was called for
but not before another good feed for
Dave, Judith, Pete and myself, this time
Vietnamese. There seems to be a lot of
eating of various international cuisines
going on and very little riding, never
mind it will soon change.
Day 1:
All too soon the alarm sounded, a quick
16 Arrivée Spring 2011

overseas randonnee
breakfast (just to top up the tanks) and
roll down to the Foreshore Park. A total
of 84 riders assembled there, though not
all were going for the full 1200km brevet
(there was a 1000km option for those
who just wanted to log a 1000km for
P-B-P pre-registration).
Just after 5am we were waved off into
the pre-dawn twilight with the lights of
the city twinkling across the river to our
right. The first 70-odd kilometres almost
all the way to Mandurah were on a bike
path running down the coast, parallel
to the freeway. Wide and traffic-free
as the path was it was not completely
hazard-free and an unfortunate wheel
touch in the bunch brought down
Kerri-Ann Smith (Audax Australia’s
president) resulting in a nasty hand
injury and the end of her P-A-P ride. As
the daylight grew so did the number
of bike commuters heading north into
the city, goodness knows what they
thought us coming towards them,
but good etiquette was maintained.
As with most bike paths this one did
occasionally come to an end, jink around
a back street and start again. The first
control at Mandurah (72km) was soon
reached in good time, where handing
out sandwiches and a drinks. With the
morning sun now shining brightly it
was time to slap on the sunscreen and
change the lenses in my riding glasses
for the darkest possible before scooting
off down the water-side boardwalk.
Now on proper roads, but very
lightly trafficked, the field soon strung
out and I found myself alone pedalling
into a noticeable headwind coming
in off the sea. This leg to the second
control at Bunbury was the longest of
the whole ride (109km) and with no
real place to top up water bottles the
organisers arranged a water stop in a
lay-by on the long drag down a major
highway. After turning off the highway
the wind increased, the sky darkened
and it started to rain but fortunately it
was short-lived. The route sheet directed
us over a footbridge that appeared to
be closed, but to stop us being put off
by the sign it was being marshalled
by Henry (Henno) Klaasson, American
fixie [and AUK member, ed] Spencer
Klaasson’s young son. As I arrived at
Bunbury control (182km) Nick Dale was
there doing a piece to camera for a local
TV channel, I sneaked past and into the
beachside café for soup, sandwiches,
cake and coffee. With beautiful views out
over white sands and sparkling bluegreen
sea with breaking surf – it was
hard to leave such a serene place … but
the ride must go on.
On and off a bike path down the
coast, over dunes and by highly desirable
properties we continued south towards
Busselton. A bit more main highway
riding was required before cutting back
to the coastal road to the Busselton
Former AUK Champion
Pete Turnbull.
‘With
beautiful
views out
over white
sands and
sparkling
blue-green
sea with
breaking
surf – it
was hard to
leave such
a serene
place…’
control (239km). The control was a
picnic affair just past the pier. The pier
had been visible for some time on the
approach since it is almost 2km long
(originally built to allow railway trucks
full of mineral ores to be taken out to
waiting ships in the shallow bay). I was
now entering unknown territory as far
as distance on fixed was concerned but I
was feeling great.
Not long after leaving Busselton
we parted company with the coast
and rolled through lush farmland that
gradually started to undulate more and
more. The light started to fade on the
approach to Margaret River and a pause
to don reflectives and switch on lights
was quite welcome. I missed the right
turn onto a side road to the control but
soon realised my (up- hill) mistake and
backtracked. The Margaret River control
(297km) was in the Community Centre
where I came across my first packee with
whom I commiserated before heading
out into the dark.
Only 33km to the next control at
Alexander Bridge – the lumps were
starting to get bigger but it was nice
to stand on the pedals and use a few
different muscles after all day on the flat.
The Alexander Bridge control (333km) in
the village hall was a warm haven with
a busy kitchen dispensing soup, pasta
and apple pie and custard. I resisted
the temptation to bash out a tune on
the piano in the corner but since some
people were getting some shut-eye here
I doubt it would have been appreciated
– I can’t actually play the piano to any
degree but it did look tempting.
A full stomach was needed for the
final stage of the first day – 92km to
Pemberton. As the temperature dropped
so more clothing went on. The earlier
undulations had now developed into
proper hills and the wind-chill on the
down hills had me digging out full finger
gloves and a waterproof. Small groups
formed, broke and re-formed on these
dark, quiet, seemingly endless roads.
Fatigue was beginning to make itself felt
and the final climb up to the forest camp
Pemberton control (425km) had me
muttering under my breath. Warmth and
food quickly vanquished the fatigue but
sleep was needed and I was allocated a
bunk in one of the chalets where sleep
came quickly. My three-hour alarm call
roused me from the arm of Morpheus.
Washed, in a change of kit (from a drop
bag the organisers transported from
sleep control to sleep control) and full of
bacon and egg buns I was ready for the
second day.
Day 2:
Having climbed up to the control in the
small hours it was an easy start downhill
Arrivée Spring 2011 17

overseas randonnee
in the early morning light. I was soon
cursing the wind-chill as the low sun
was not able to penetrate the forested
slopes but I gritted my teeth, not
wanting to start faffing about putting
on and taking off the waterproof,
and kept repeating a mantra of ‘it will
get warm soon’. Soon after the town of
Pemberton itself it did start to warm up.
Rolling roads past vineyards and pasture
made beautiful vistas. The next series
of ridges heralded the entry into the
Shannon National Park, where the day’s
first control (490km) was the camper
‘I was soon
cursing the
wind-chill
as the low
sun was
not able to
penetrate
the
forested
slopes.’
Julian Dyson on a lonely
road through the gum
trees.
Dave Minter and Judith
Swallow.
Pete Turnbull ready
to leave Pemberton,
Day 2.
van and trailer (that had provided the
previous day’s water-stop) in a forest car
park. Carbo-loading on noodles and rice
pudding whilst relaxing in a camp-chair
sounds great until you try to get out
of the chair – assistance is welcome,
otherwise a sideways roll works quite
well.
The forest continued over a
number of ridges before thinning out
and levelling off as the south coast
approached (we had just cut across the
peninsula in the very south-west corner
of Australia). The coast of the Southern
Ocean is noticeably different from that
of the Indian Ocean and soon the road
started to rise and continued to rise,
occasionally easing off before rising
again – this was getting to be hard work
on fixed. Determined not to be beaten
and resorting to the fabled ’24-inch gear’,
I paused for a breather and realign my
brain. Onwards and upwards, over a few
false summits and eventually the top
was reached – what a reward! A fantastic
view out over a large sheltered bay and
on along the coast. The next control was
at Walpole down by the bay, but first
the descent had to be negotiated – not
quite as hard as going up but a stop for
a breather half way down helped me
remain sane. The card stamping at the
Walpole control (555km) was beside a
small shopping mall with a good bakery
café where I replenished my fuel reserves
with a huge burger bun and milkshake.
A near empty two-litre tub of ice-cream
was handed to me by a leaving rider
– I think I must have been the third or
fourth recipient of it as it was nearly
liquid but mixed well with the milkshake.
A short snooze on the grass down by the
controllers’ van aided digestion before
getting back on the bike. Just as I was
about to leave a message came through
to the control that a rider (‘possibly
that English guy in green’) had fallen
not far out of town – I told them about
it sounded like Pete Turnbull and a car
sped off to check things out. When I
met up with Pete the following evening
he told me ‘yes, it was him’ and ‘no, he
hadn’t fallen off’, just sat down at the side
of the road when he started to feel a little
odd, but all turned out fine.
After Walpole the road, pretty much
the only road, continued east. The
occasional tourist sign for the Dinosaur
Valley and tree-top walks looked
interesting but will have to wait for
another day. The terrain was a not too
taxing on the fixed and the beautiful
scenery of farms, vineyards and forests
made time pass quickly. With the sun
setting behind me a couple of small
twisting climbs had to be negotiated
before descending to the river and
the control at Denmark (621km). The
control staff at the river-side gazebo
were dishing out cake and fruit, and
when I asked for a coffee one popped
18 Arrivée Spring 2011

overseas randonnee
over to the back of a pick-up truck that
was equipped with a commercial coffee
machine – our own mobile ‘Starbucks’,
defiantly one up on El Supremo!
Sandy Varig, one of the volunteers,
was monitoring what was going on in
the Twittersphere and showed me a
message from John Spooner wishing
all the AUKs good luck but she was
somewhat puzzled by the ‘Helium
Knickers’ reference …
Now dark and dressed for night
riding it was time to head back out on
the road to Albany. Having descended
to the river in Denmark there was the
inevitable climb out of the other side of
town. Not long after cresting the climb,
the photographers’ car drew alongside
with a hand-held floodlight to capture
the night-riding atmosphere in a way
that flash photography cannot. It’s
difficult to say what sort of countryside
we passed through in the dark, but
once off the main road the impression
was it was somewhat East Anglian. As
Albany got near I found myself in a
small group and we navigated easily
past the harbour and up through the
town. However, the final kilometre to
the Albany control (679km) zig-zagged
and climbed through some back-streets,
causing the occasional pause for head
scratching and discussion. When we
arrived at the Albany Residential College,
Nick Dale was outside waiting to greet
us and assist in carrying the bikes up the
steps and inside. Inside the lights were
bright and the welcome warm. The great
advantage of rides of this sort of size is
that by the half-way point there are not
any huge groups all trying to get fed
at the same time and Ronnie McInnes
dishing out spaghetti bolognaise for me
as I approached the servery. Once fed it
was time for bed and I was surprised to
find that we were all allocated individual
rooms (no need for ear-plugs!). A quick
shower and so to bed, with a request to
be woken at very early hour.
Day 3:
Rested and dressed in clean clothes it
was time to eat again. It being stupid
o’clock and with riders still arriving,
Ronnie was not set up for breakfast. This
did not bother me and I quite happily sat
down to another plateful of spaghetti
bolognaise. From the Albany control
there was just 5km to a check-point at
the top of Mt Clarence. Since I was the
first to leave and most others would wait
for daylight, Wayne Hickman set just
ahead of me on his motorbike in order
to stamp my card at the top of the hill.
At each turn Wayne paused until I got
near then sped off to the next turn. As
the road turned and climbed steeper and
steeper, I felt like calling out to Wayne
that he could stop and stamp my card
before the top and nobody would be
any the wiser, but I persevered. The top
Spencer Klaassen
leaving Mandurah.
Pete Turnbull on
Mandurah boardwalk.
was eventually reached but not before
resorting to the 24in (two-foot) gear
and Wayne stamped my card at 03:30ish
beneath the ANZAC War Memorial. In
the daylight there is a fantastic view from
the top of Mt Clarence out over Albany
and adjacent the bays and inlets but I
was sticking to my schedule and had to
sacrifice the vista.
On the descent Wayne zoomed
passed on his motorbike, his card
stamping duty done. A bit of tricky
navigation across a car-park to pick up a
bike path was helped by arrows Wayne
had just set out. A few km along the
bike path there was a left turn and I was
again grateful to find Wayne setting up
an arrow pointing back onto proper
roads that weaved their way up to the
main road east out of Albany. Still dark,
the main road was quiet but I did not
have to worry about missing the left
turn onto the Chester Pass Road, it was
a major junction and well signed (I was
to learn later that Simon Watt, the Yellow
Baron, managed to miss this turn in
the daylight and continued for some
considerable time before realising his
mistake – the rider tracking website
was inscribed with the cryptic comment
‘gone exploring’). The Chester Pass
Road heads north into the interior and
as the darkness slowly lifted it became
apparent that the land was getting more
and more arid. By the time it was light
enough to read my computer at a glance
I realised why I was feeling so cold: it
was 2ºC! We had been briefed that we
would encounter road-trains on this road
and soon after first light the first one
roared past. This early in the morning the
road-train traffic was all heading north
and there was little else on the road,
so they generally passed wide. I even
started to enjoy them passing since the
blast of hot air in their slipstream was
brought welcome, if transitory warmth.
Along the roadside were scattered the
sun-bleached bones of kangaroos and
my mind started wonder if this was the
fate of the unprepared randonneur in
this area. With the hills of the Stirling
Ranges on the horizon and burnt out
scrub on each side of the road I was glad
to see some trees up ahead and a sign
for the Moingup Springs campsite where
Brian Hughes would be waiting with the
mobile control (768km). A fresh road-kill
’roo marked the turn into the campsite
where ‘The Man With The Van’ was
prominently parked with table and chairs
set out ready. The kettle was brought
back to the boil for coffee and noodles,
followed by rice pudding. Leaning back
in the chair I gazed upwards through the
trees to an intensely blue, cloudless sky
and digested my meal. Before leaving
some time was spent faffing about with
Arrivée Spring 2011 19

overseas randonnee
clothing, sun-screen and water bottles –
it was only going to get hotter from here
on. Now that Brian knew there would
be a stream of riders out on the road, he
got on the CB radio and broadcast to the
truck drivers to watch out for us.
There was a brief ‘hello, goodbye’
with another arriving rider as I departed
north up the Chester Pass Road. Soon
after the trees of Moingup Springs
had been left behind the route turned
left off the Chester Pass Road onto the
Gnowangerup Road – the ‘ … up’ at
the end of the Aboriginal place names
does not refer to a gradient but means
‘spring’ or ‘watering place’. After an initial
short climb the Gnowangerup road soon
became long, hot and boring. Down on
the tri-bars and not really having to look
too far ahead I was happily pedalling
along when something round and black
(a foot or so in diameter) on the road
caused me to veer quickly to the right. As
the object passed under my handlebars
I saw the head rise and draw back. Wow,
that woke me up, a snake! Australia has
something like 20 of the world’s 25 most
poisonous snakes and later research
identified this critter as a Black Tiger
snake which is about number seven on
the poisonousness list – best steer clear
of them all. Shortly before Gnowangerup
I was caught by the rider who had
arrived at Moingup just as I was leaving,
I mentioned the snake to him – he had
seen it but did not realise it was alive
(perhaps he had given it more room), I
told him it was very much alive when I
went by. Hot and sticky we arrived at the
Gnowangerup control (830km) in the
Roadhouse café. A long, cold milkshake
and a burger refreshed me somewhat
until I opened the door to leave and was
hit by the mid-day temperature again.
Refuelled and back on the road
again I kept on spinning through fairly
featureless farmland. The monotony of
the terrain and the heat, not to mention
my early start, soon had me feeling a
bit sleepy – it was time for a siesta. The
occasional roadside tree offered little in
the way of shade and I must have gone
four or five kilometres before I spotted a
turn off in a clump of trees and bushes
where I could lie down in the shade and
not be mistaken for road-kill. Before lying
down I carefully checked the immediate
area for any nasty little critters, it seemed
clear and I lay back and closed my eyes. I
don’t think I actually fell asleep but after
a while I was roused by ants crawling
over my legs, so I thought it best to move
on. The fields of dusty Merino sheep
eventually gave way to fields of yellow
flowered canola (a type of oil-seed rape)
that were being pollinated by swarms
of little black flies. I was wearing a shirt
that was predominantly yellow and must
have looked quite appealing to the flies
as great numbers of them settled on it.
The less lucky found themselves stuck in
the mixture of sweat and sun-screen on
my arms, legs and face. The yellow shirt
theory was reinforced when I rolled up
at the Katanning control (891km) to find
other riders, not wearing yellow, with
hardly a fly on them. A couple of slices
of pizza and some chips proved a bit
too much and I had to abandon half the
chips! With a plentiful supply of ice in my
water bottles I set off again.
The road to Wagin was more of the
mind-numbing same but more sheep
than canola so fewer flies. A prolonged,
post-feed, bad patch had me reduced
to a crawl but I was perked up and
geed-up on a bit when Peter Turnbull
came by and I sat on his wheel for a
while. With a good half hour’s riding
until Wagin I found my water bottles
almost empty but fortunately just then
the photographers’ car drew alongside
and, after enquiring how things were
going, handed out a bottle of water –
thanks guys. Looking at the route on
Google Earth in the months before the
ride I had spotted patches of white in
the arid land just south of Wagin – snow
capped peaks? Surely not! Zooming in
I concluded they were salt pans which
was not far from the truth as they turned
out to be soda lakes – no place to fill your
water bottles. The sun was going down
as I approached Wagin and was soon
looking for the ‘Giant Ram’. Wagin control
(947km) was under the ‘Giant Ram’
according to the route sheet – how big
was this beast? Even in the failing light it
Dave Minter leaving
Mandurah.
could be seen quite easily in the park just
off to the side of the road. Sausages were
sizzling on a barbeque and lots of people
milling about forcing food and drink on
new arrivals. Amongst those helping
out was Kerri-Ann Smith displaying her
battered, splinted and still swollen hand
(the result of the crash in the first few
kilometres of the ride), relating her story
about now being able to say she had
had reconstructive surgery in Hollywood
(Hollywood being a hospital in Perth).
After dressing for night riding and filling
pockets with snacks from the table a
small group of us set off for the final
50km of the day.
The fixed wheel was now beginning
to be a bit of a burden or perhaps it was
just the distance and general fatigue. The
group got strung out and eventually split
as the road rose and fell, in and out of a
number of river valleys. Peter Turnbull
and I stuck together most of the way to
Williams, chatting to keep each other
awake, even on the climbs. We finally
parted company on the final climb up
and descent down a dual-carriageway
into Williams. The Williams control
(1008km) was at the local football club
and felt similar to the rugby club control
at Thorne on LEL. Ronnie McInnes was
now marshalling things in the kitchen
here, I can’t remember what delights
were served but I do remember having
to force myself to eat in a somewhat
fatigued state. Shower, clean clothes
and a camp-bed followed in quick
succession. Sleep came easily, despite
having forgotten to get my ear plugs
out of my drop-bag, in the hall full of
snoring, farting bodies. The next thing
I knew my shoulder was being shaken
and it was time to face the final 200 odd
kilometres. Back in the canteen area, the
recently arrived Judith Swallow and Dave
Minter were tucking into their supper
as I headed for a breakfast of bacon and
eggs that were frying on a hot-plate.
Day 4:
For the second day running I set off
into the dark at stupid o’clock, but this
time with Peter Turnbull for company.
Again, the thermometer was right down,
but rested and full of bacon and eggs,
brisk pedalling soon warmed things up.
Slowly the sky lightened behind us and
soon we were able to see that we were
riding through lush green fields and
low rolling hills, quite unlike the terrain
we had been through the previous day.
We nearly missed the right turn onto
the Hotham Valley road as my mental
arithmetic in correcting for the slight
over-reading on my odometer was not
quite up to Carol Vordeman standards.
The Hotham Valley road climbed up out
of the valley we were in before dropping
down into the Hotham Valley itself. On
the climb there was an odd, continuous
rumbling noise coming from up ahead.
20 Arrivée Spring 2011

overseas randonnee
The hillside was wooded but it did not
sound like forestry machinery and it
was still early in the morning. Over the
top of the ridge the noise got louder
until, on the descent, we passed under
a big viaduct structure carrying what
must have been an enclosed conveyor
belt from the adjacent bauxite mine.
Peter disappeared ahead on the descent
and after I stopped to strip off a layer
in the valley bottom I did not expect
to see him again until the finish, so it
was quite a surprise to find him riding
back towards me a few kilometres later.
‘What’s wrong?’ I enquired. ‘I’ve been
to the end of the road and there is no
sign of the control’. Had we taken the
wrong turn and pointlessly climbed over
that ridge? The route sheet stated that
Brian ‘The Man With The Van’ should be
by the side of the road just before the
T-junction. Well, there was a sign at the
T-junction pointing back up the road
we had just come down identifying it
as the Hotham Valley road but there
was no van! This was a little worrying
since it was another 50km until a town
where bottles could be topped up and
food found – the next control a further
16km further. We were the first out on
the road so decided to hang around to
see if the van turned up. After a while
a few other riders appeared and a brief
conference was had. Eventually a phone
call managed to get through to the
Williams control only to be told Brian had
left some time ago. A few time-stamped
photos were taken by the signpost and
we set off on the road towards Pinjarra.
Soon the farmland gave way to forested
ridges and I lost contact with Peter. The
road through the forest was shaded from
the sun as it climbed higher in the sky,
which was a somewhat of a relief since
I was now carefully rationing my last
half bottle of water. The dips and rises
in the road began to get progressively
bigger, although not as severe as the
infamous Hereford-Monmouth road
towards the end of the Bryan Chapman
600. After almost 1100km on fixed I was
feeling well whacked and finally alighted
and pushed to the top of a particularly
steep section. Back in the saddle I was
relieved to find the forest thinning and
the coastal plain opening out below, the
downside being the shade decreased
and the temperature went up. I was in
and through the ‘town’ at 50km before
I realised and decided to press on to
Pinjarra with only a couple of swigs left
in my bottle. Coming off the forest ridge
the winding road crossed some railway
tracks but since the fixed wheel limits
speed on the descents my approach to
the tracks was not too fast to cause any
problems. The Pinjarra control (1137km)
at the Edenvale Herritage Tearooms was
a very welcome sight after the mystery
of the Hotham Valley! A good supply of
sandwiches, cake and fluids revived me
Dave and Judith at top
of Mt Clarence.
‘After
almost
1100km
on fixed
I was
feeling well
whacked
and finally
alighted
and pushed
to the
top of a
particularly
steep
section.’
Julian arriving at the
final control.
along with the thought that the next
stop would be the finish.
From Pinjarra there was a stretch of
busy dual-carriageway before turning
onto quieter roads finally leading to the
bike path back to Perth. On the ramp
up onto the bike path I spotted a small
twig with big thorns and gave it a wide
berth – try as you might, P******e Fairy,
you are not going to catch me out that
easily! 200m later I felt the front tyre
going soft as the fickle Fairy had the last
laugh. Stood still with no cooling airflow
and under the mid-day sun, sweat
started to pour out of me as I removed
the thorn, changed the inner tube and
pumped up the tyre. After being passed
by two or three riders I realised I was
slowing down, and when the unshaded
monotony of the bike path brought on
fluttering eyelids I knew it was time to
stop for a siesta. At the next underpass
I stopped in the cool shade for 10
minutes, some 20 minutes later I awoke.
The north-bound kilometres on the
bike path were noticeably longer than
the south-bound ones we had pedalled
earlier in the week, but eventually the
Perth skyline appeared in the distance
and spirits rose even although my target
finish time had slipped past. Through
the car park, under the flyover, left onto
the road by the foreshore, right turn
opposite the ferry landing, across the
traffic lights and into the South Perth
Bowls Club – finish (1220km).
Arrivée:
The ever-present Nick Dale was at the
desk to take my card in exchange for a
fine medal. Only 45 minutes over the
target time I had set myself, before I
knew I would be riding fixed, it was
still the fastest 1200 I’ve ridden. When I
asked about happened to the Hotham
Valley control he explained that Brian
had missed the turn (the one I nearly
overshot?) and then got lost! One end
of the clubhouse was occupied by riders
who, by all the laws of physics and
biology, should be totally exhausted
and craving sleep, but were magically
revived by chilled bottles of beer
(iso-tonics optional) from bowls of ice.
After clapping in a few more finishers,
including Spencer Klaassen (third out
of three finishers for the fixies) I was
wondering what to do next when Peter
Turnbull appeared in civvies, he had
been back to the apartment to wash
and change – that seemed like a good
idea, so off I pedalled for another 2km.
After a good blast under the shower
and dressed in non-lycra I headed back
to the Bowls Club on foot giving my
leg muscles a good stretch on the way.
Riders continued to roll in through the
afternoon and into the early evening,
including Judith Swallow and Dave
Minter (completing a 100 per cent AUK
finish). With tiredness now catching up
on me and only snack food available in
the clubhouse I headed off back to the
apartment, picking up a pizza on the way.
Post-ride:
More than three hours’ sleep but no long
lie-in! Judith, Dave and Peter were flying
back to London that afternoon and I was
leaving in the evening for Manchester,
so there were bikes to pack, clothes to
wash … but not before breakfast at the
café in the local mini-market. The radio
was playing Men at Work’s Travelling in
a Land Down-Under and the newspaper
had a story about the suspension of
filming on the new Mad Max film – there
is no other country quite like Australia.
It is a long way to go for a ride but
well worth it for the experience. The
spring weather is ideal, they use the right
side of the road (ie, the left), the traffic is
generally light and they speak English,
then there is the wildlife and plants that
you will not find anywhere else in the
world (OK so there are snakes and a few
other critters you have to be aware of). If
you fancy a long-haul trip have a look at
www.audax.org.au for their calendar of
events or chat to any Aussie you might
meet on the roads between Paris and
Brest later this year.
N
Arrivée Spring 2011 21

Mille Cymru preparation
Jamie Andrews
What the aims are
When I first heard about
the Mille Cymru, I was
really excited. More so
than I’d been for the
last LEL. I love riding
around Wales and an event that did this
for 1000km just seemed like a great way
to spent a few days.
After the initial enthusiasm and as the
event details appeared I realised that as
well as a lot of fun this route was going
to be physically demanding and require
a certain discipline of actual training. Just
ambling round wouldn’t work. Normally
on rides the key is to get your mental
state okay. Then as long as you can keep
the pedals turning it just happens.
But there was so much climbing on
the Mille Cymru (13,500 metres) that
the easier bits would have to be done
at a good rate in order to have enough
time in hand to get round and sleep. All
the ascent meant I had to be able to do
that as fast as possible. So my physical
training aim was basically to get faster
at climbing. The way to do this is to
increase power and reduce weight. I am
not good at loosing weight and gaining
power is hard work.…
Winter miles count double
But as well as becoming a bit faster uphill
for the year I had to keep a good level
of basic endurance. I commute every
day and this is my ‘base miles’, 30 miles
a day Monday to Friday the whole year
round. Doing even this relatively short
and not particularly fast riding is helpful
at maintaining my form for longer rides.
And you know what they say, ‘Winter
miles count double’. I suppose what this
means is that if you can ride 30 miles in
winter conditions in the ice, wind and
rain then when it is time for events in the
summer they will hopefully seem easier.
As you may recall, January 2010 was a
bit challenging, even for a commute in
Devon. I think I missed about 10 days
Toby Hopper (left) and
Jamie Andrews riding
the Mille Cymru.
‘Doing
more slow
miles
wasn’t
going
to make
me more
powerful. ‘
in total due to ice or deep snow but
through most of the winter I kept at it,
with the Mille Cymru in mind.
Commuting is character building but
not proper ‘training’
Winter commuting is great conditioning.
But it does not actually make one
physically more powerful. As I needed to
be able to generate more power to climb
the hills faster, I needed to augment the
basic 30 miles a day somehow. It did
not seem a good idea to lengthen the
commute for two reasons. Firstly, I didn’t
have the time in the morning. The justover-an-hour
for the 15 miles there and
15 miles back fitted in fine with the rest
of my life. But more time wasn’t available
most days. I could make a special case
now and then but in general it wouldn’t
fit in. Secondly, doing more slow miles
wasn’t going to make me more powerful.
I was quite fine at doing as many slow
miles as needed already. Something else
was needed
22 Arrivée Spring 2011

training
Photo by Tim Wainwright
Spring plan: Do the commute hills fast
Fortunately, a commute on the Devon–
Somerset border is easily adopted to
be helpful in a high intensity training
plan. I don’t have a power meter. I have
a heart rate monitor somewhere in the
cupboard. But everyone knows that
hills are hard work. So all I have to do is
do the uphill parts of my commute at a
faster rate and it should be ideal training
for increasing my speed on hills.
On the commute I firstly climb up
the valley I live in. Then I climb up the
side of it. Then I climb a bit more on the
top of the range of hills between it and
Taunton. Finally I bomb down from the
top into Taunton.
There are three short but sustained
climbs in this. The first one I would warm
up by taking the speed at just a bit faster
than a lazy pace. Let’s call this ‘brisk’.
After a short recovery, the second hill I
would try to do at full speed. Not all out
absolutely 100 per cent but at a speed
I thought I could sustain without too
much pain all the way up. Another short
recovery and the third hill past Wallaces
Farm. This one I timed myself up and
tried to do at absolutely the maximum
effort. So the first two hills were for
warming up and the last one was the real
training. Initially, my time up this last hill
was about three minutes 50 seconds. I
was hoping that this timing would give
me some kind of insight on if my power
was increasing.
The return journey on the commute
uses a different, flatter road. So on
‘training’ days I would simply ride back
as fast as possible, trying to beat my
best time for the 15 miles. I was having
‘training’ days two or three times a week,
leaving plenty of time for recovery.
At the same time after Christmas, I
had cut back drastically on snacks and
alcohol. I was taking my weight twice
a week and it was starting to go down
slowly.
The problem was that as my weight
slowly decreased and my times up the
hill past Wallaces Farm got better, I didn’t
know if it was the weight or the power or
a bit of both. But whatever! I was getting
faster for some reason. My time seemed
stuck at three minutes 30 seconds at the
end of March.
Early season events: Do the usual
I usually do an SR including the Bryan
Chapman 600. This is in the middle of
May, so before then I would do some
other stuff to get me in the mood.
This year, I thought as well as the Mille
Cymru, I would aim to get the K&SW
SR badge. As part of this I had entered
the Penzance 300km in early April.
Unfortunately this didn’t go too well. I
don’t usually pack due to poor weather
but in this case I made an exception.
So forget the K&SW SR badge. I should
have done the Elenith instead. After that
minor set back, I was in for the Brevet
Cymru 400km at the start of May. Again,
the weather wasn’t so good and I had
multiple punctures and I somehow got
lost but I did manage to finish in time.
I had pretty much stopped the
training during commuting as I needed
to recover in between events in May.
After the Bryan Chapman which had
much better weather than the previous
two rides I did fit in one session and my
time up the timed hill was my fastest to
date, 3m 15s.
My weight loss programme was going
fine, I was 79kg for the Bryan Chapman,
having been 85kg at Christmas.
In a sense, my physical training
programme finished here. It was now
just ten weeks until the start of the Mille
Cymru. There was no time to do any
more training and have that produce
physical adaptations before the main
event. The adaptations from all the riding
I’d done in the previous few months were
still going to appear, in due course.
June: Don’t stress
In June I planned to do a test ride for
a 400km event and then switch my
training on the commute to be longer.
The test ride for the 400km went really
nicely. The only problem was that my
company on the ride, Richie, had to pack
with a touch of something nasty after
100km. Apart from that the weather
and scenery was great. I hoped that the
generally relaxed time I’d had on this 400
would be the way I’d end up riding the
Mille Cymru.
The improved training on the
commute had to involve making it a little
bit longer. Because it was now summer
and leaving home slightly earlier didn’t
feel as difficult, this was possible. The
route now involved going up to the top
of the range of hills between me and
Taunton, then down, then up again, etc,
in a loop. The actual hill for the repeat
was 190 metres ascent and had a 16 per
cent ramp at the top.
July: taper plan
For the last six weeks before the event I
was preparing for the event directly. So I
had to try and prepare my long suffering
knees for 1,000km of the finest hills of
Wales.
Of course the last few weeks is far
too late to actually grown any extra
oxygen-carrying capacity or muscles.
But it is fine for a method that Joe Friel
calls ‘Supercompensation’. In this training
regime the idea is to do too much and
not rest properly – to over train – for a
short while and then to rest for a longer
time than normal. After the over resting
there is a period when your body is ready
for another bout of over training – it will
up your performance for a while.
First I needed the overtraining bit. I
was going to up the amount of climbing
‘So this
meant
riding each
day at full
effort for
three days
straight.’
What didn’t happen
on the commute ‘training’ days to approx
1,500 metres a day and the ‘training’ days
were going to be in blocks. Although I
didn’t like lengthening the commute,
this was just for a limited number of
weeks.
The increase in total ascent was
supposed to be a simulation of the
ascent on the event. The average metres
ascent per km on the event was about
13m/km. The average on the ride in to
work with the hill repeats was similar.
The length of the event was 75 hours.
I aimed to pretty much use all the time
and finish with an hour in hand. So this
meant riding each day at full effort for
three days straight. So I was doing the
last bit of training in three-day blocks.
By the end of this my body would
be fooled into believing that climbing
thousands of metres a day for three days
in a row was normal.
I also arranged to do another 400km
event, a test ride for Matt Chambers’s trip
to Wales and back. I favoured doing this
distance as this was the length of the
longest day on the Mille.
That was two weeks before the Mille.
I rode normally the week after. The week
immediately before the Mille I didn’t ride
at all. I took the car to work and took it
easy. This was my rest period.
While all this was going on the
numbers on my bathroom scales were
not looking good. I started the Mille
weighing 82kg
How the Mille went
The Mille went fine. Most days I finished
back at the hall as planned with plenty
of time for a good sleep. The exception
was the final night, and even then I
managed to get the planned hour and
an half sleep before leaving for the last
100km or so to the finish, overnight. The
weather was fairly good on the whole
and I did have a fairly relaxed time of it.
I did not pick up any odd stress injuries
to my knees or Achilles tendon to bother
me afterwards.
N
My weight loss didn’t work. I assume this was
because I am not that good at eating less. In the
period from June to early July I thought I had the
weight loss under control. I probably ate more as
if I was riding a lot when I wasn’t. During the final
overtraining phase I guess my body responded
to the overload by demanding more/too much
food. As it worked out, the extra unplanned few
kilograms I was carrying didn’t seem to slow me up
at all.
Arrivée Spring 2011 23

overseas
Riding the Buffalo
Mount Buffalo is a
mountain plateau in
Victoria, Australia some
200k NE of Melbourne
(as the crow flies). It is
designated as an Alpine Park – one of
the oldest in the Australian Alps, being
first established in 1898. The 1,725m
(5,700ft) mountain, with spectacular
granite rock formations above the tree
line, gains its name from its resemblance
to a buffalo in repose. In addition to
its high reputation as a hiking, rock
climbing and skiing area, the mountain
also plays a significant role in the various
editions of the Australian Audax Alpine
Classic.
The original Alpine Classic was ridden
in 1986, based on the ski town of Bright,
some 350k by road to the north-east
of Melbourne. Six riders started and
all finished the hilly 200k route which
included the climbs up to Falls Creek and
Mount Buffalo before returning to Bright.
The event has expanded over the last
15 years to include a series of distances
from 250k (The Alpine Classic Extreme
(ACE)) to a more reasonable 60k ride over
Tawonga Gap to Mount Beauty and back.
The small tourist town of Bright struck
me as rather like an Australian version
of Bourg d’Oisans at the foot of Alp
d’Huez, with opportunities for 1000m+
hill climbs all around, as well as some
interesting valley rides and big mountain
circuits. Temperatures are comparable to
the French Alps in July, but with rather
more tree cover to give shade from the
burning sun.
Other cycling opportunities
organised by Audax Australia each
January now include a French style
‘Semaine Fédérale’ held during the
preceding week and the Alpine Raid
which covers the 250k ACE course over
two days with an overnight stop in
Omeo. Numbers for the Alpine Classic
events have now increased from the
original six to 2000+ – the biggest event
held in Bright all year.
My wife and I had flown out to
Melbourne in late November to stay
with our daughter’s family for an
extended Christmas break. December
2010 weather in Melbourne alternated
between torrential rain and dry days
with temperatures reaching 40°C+. My
first outing with local cyclists proved that
due to the icy weather in England before
we left and the long flight, I was now jet
lagged, unacclimatised, unfit and in need
of some serious training before arrival
in Bright (where, due to my concerns re:
acclimatising to the heat, I had opted to
ride the 72k Audax up and back down
Mount Buffalo).
The training regime started well by
taking two weeks off with a dose of
bronchitis, but I was ready to go by the
New Year. My first rides were gentle 85k
affairs along the Bay cycle track to St
Kilda beach in Melbourne from Altona to
the west. Gentle in terms of gradient, but
riding against the strong winds off the
David Matthews
The summit lookout tower of Mount Donna Buang. All photos by the author
‘The small
tourist
town of
Bright
struck me
as rather
like an
Australian
version
of Bourg
d’Oisans at
the foot of
Alp d’Huez.’
Southern Ocean often needed as much
effort as long hill climbs.
On January 2 I joined in the 70k Amy’s
ride from Geelong (site of the 2010 World
Championships) along with hundreds
of other fellow cyclists. This annual ride
commemorates Amy Gillett who was
killed some years ago when a deranged
driver ploughed through the Australian
ladies’ elite squad when out training in
Germany. The object of the ride is to
promote awareness of road safety for
cyclists amongst other drivers, with the
message ‘Allow one metre clearance’.
In the afternoon we were able to
watch the first leg of the four-part Jayco
classic crits round a superb circuit based
on Geelong beach and Eastern Park. All
in all, a great day out in lovely sunshine.
My first hilly ride was a circuit from
Kinglake, some 100k north of Melbourne.
This area suffered greatly in the bush
fires of 2008/9 but is gradually returning
to normal. My selected ride descended
from Kinglake to Glenburn and then
returned by means of a long, gradual
ascent of 500m+ through Flowerdale
back to Kinglake. The pub at Flowerdale
where I had lunch is famous for being
saved by the locals during the bush fires,
to the detriment of their houses.
This was a beautiful ride of 76k which
caused me some suffering in the heat,
but nothing too serious. A few days
later I was back in the area to ride from
Whittlesea over to St Andrews and then
up the long 500m hill to Kinglake before
looping back to the start to complete
another hilly 76k.
The next ride was to be my final test
prior to Bright – riding 17k and 1000m+
from Warburton, some 150k NE of
Melbourne, up Mount Donna Buang. I
drove out to Yarra Junction some 5k from
the foot of the climb. This allowed for
a short warm up before the relentless
ascent up through ranks of beautiful
trees to the lookout post at the top. Once
there, an exhilarating descent follows
back to Warburton and some excellent
cafés to reward all that effort.
The following week I set off for a fournight
stay in Bright at the Alpine Motor
Lodge. It is almost impossible to obtain
accommodation in Bright at the time
of the Audax Alpine Classic in normal
circumstances due to the large numbers
of cyclists involved. However, there had
been a number of cancellations due
to riders staying away because of the
devastating floods in Queensland, so
I was able to stay in the town on this
occasion.
Following advice from a very helpful
guy in the Alpine information centre,
my first ride in the area was a car assist
to Mount Beauty (which in spite of the
name is a small village in a large valley)
followed by the ascent up to the ski
station at Falls Creek. This is a typical
alpine ski road climbing over 1,000m
24 Arrivée Spring 2011

overseas
On Mount Buffalo.
Looking up through the trees to Falls Creek at the
summit.
in 31k on a good surface – similar to
the climb up Mount Buffalo used by
my Audax ride on the Sunday. As with
Mount Buffalo, the return is back the way
you have come.
Next day I had a interesting ride along
the flat Murray rail trail to the village of
Myrtleford, some 30k NW of Bright. On
the journey up, I noticed road signs off
to Happy Valley and resolved to explore
this on my return. Well, the Happy Valley
road was well surfaced with sweeping
views of the mountains. I eventually
turned back at an old shooting hut some
18k from the start, having explored a
little of Australia away from a main road.
Parrots, rosellas and beautiful blue birds
were superb. Car count was three in two
hours!
Saturday was the official start of the
Alpine Classic weekend. A cycling village
was erected in the centre of Bright by the
river. In the evening we were entertained
firstly by a French style musical trio
with accordion, guitar and double bass.
Then three rather attractive girls gave
us their take on ‘Paris by Night’ ending
with a spirited can-can. All this before a
backdrop boldly proclaiming Paris-Brest-
Paris. They appear to take Audax very
David
Matthews
at the start
of the ride
up Mount
Buffalo.
seriously in Australia!
On Sunday morning the various rides
set out at staggered times, monitored
by timing chips. My 72k ride was last
off at 08:00. Initially the road was fairly
flat for about 10k before the expected
continuous climb up to Dingo Dell
1,400m near the top of Mount Buffalo.
The temperature soon heated up to 32°C,
which made us all grateful for the two
intermediate water stations provided by
the organisers.
After excellent refreshments at Dingo
Dell where I met the youngest, 10-yearold
rider, I set off for the long descent
back to Bright. I was surprised to find
how many riders were still ascending
the mountain in spite of my fairly slow
ascent towards the back of the 72k field.
Then it dawned on me that these were
the faster riders from the 200k Audax
who had already been to Falls Creek and
back. Chapeau to them!
Once back in Bright there was a free
feed and lots of drinks before I set off
back on the long drive to Melbourne
and the even longer flight home. Thanks
to Audax Australia for laying on such a
well managed event – the riding and the
entertainment!
N
London-Edinburgh-London 2013 News
Our controls in London and Edinburgh
During the winter, the London-Edinburgh-London team have
been working hard to hunt down and book venues to use as
controls during the event. In particular, we want to make the
start and apex controls as good as possible. We visited quite
a few places in both cities, and we’re really happy with the
venues that we’ve found and booked.
Davenant School, in the town of Loughton, will be the
start and finish for London Edinburgh London 2013. The
school has been in existence since the 17th century, when it
was a boys’ school in Whitechapel in central London. It now
sits in a much more tranquil setting, close to East London but
on a great route north to Edinburgh.
Loughton has great transport links, being close to the
M11 and M25, and is less then 20km from central London.
Loughton also has an underground station on the bikefriendly
Central Line, and Chigwell railway station is just a
couple of kilometres away.
In Scotland, we’ve been really pleased at how helpful
Edinburgh Council and its schools have been in finding us a
control. In the end we picked Gracemount Academy in south
Edinburgh. The school is in a brand new building, with lots of
space for us to use. You’ll have no problems finding a place to
sleep if you want to rest before heading back to London. It’s
situated on the Lasswade Road, about five kilometres from the
city centre. Apparently, quite a few riders in 2009 decided to
press on into Edinburgh; in 2013 it’ll be even easier for you to
do so.
The London-Edinburgh-London DIY
If you’re looking for some summertime riding to train for PBP,
or even if you fancy a scenic spin closer to home, you really
can’t go wrong with the London-Edinburgh-London DIY.
For the bargain price of just £1, you can enjoy some of the
best scenery in England and Scotland, as well as helping the
London-Edinburgh-London team prepare the route for the
next event in 2013.
It’s really easy to take part. Along the route are 13 controls,
and you can start or finish at any of these. Then you can build
your own ride, making it as long or as short as you like by
passing through the controls in order. When you ride, simply
get proof of passage by obtaining a receipt or stamp at each
of the controls, or (better still) with your GPS unit.
If you like, we already have a route that you can use. We
welcome any feedback you have on the current route, but
we’d also like you to try new routes between controls. We
won’t have time to try them all, so we’re counting on you to
help make the route the best possible.
Here’s the best bit though. Everyone who takes part in the
London Edinburgh London DIY, and gives us some feedback
on the route they took, will be entered into a prize draw. The
winner will get a free entry to London Edinburgh London in
2013.
For more information, or to organise your DIY,
contact John Hamilton. His email address is john@
londonedinburghlondon.com
As ever, if you’ve any questions or suggestions, or
you’d like to offer to help with the event, then please
email the London Edinburgh London team on danial@
londonedinburghlondon.com.
Danial Webb
AUK’s jersey
for Paris-Brest-
Paris – male and
female versions,
three zip-types
plus ladies’
sleeveless ¾-zip.
See www.
aukweb.net/
Arrivée Spring 2011 25

andonnee
Our friends from the north
London-Edinburgh-London 2009
Steve Poulton
Whatever the event
literature, you cannot
enjoy/survive a long
ride without finetuning
the body (mind
and physiology) to the rigours of a longlong
ride. Thus, I put more thought to
my Trike-bound LEL-inclusive season.
One LEL and three PBPs already helped
my preparation.
LEL was planned as a 14-pointer in my
Trike record campaign. That as an aside,
my preparation included a SR series, with
the 600k not too close, to allow recovery.
As a build-up, I elected final training
to be a 300 and a leisurely 200 to allow
some 10 days’ taper/recovery. That also
ensured my 3xRRTY ride strategy, to
allow for any LEL problems. After the 300
I slept for 11hrs, perhaps aided by only
three hours the night before.
In the 300, and riding new rear wheels
following my car-induced wipeout a
week earlier, I stayed with the eight-man
pack for 75km and noticed fairly high (for
distance cycling) HRM readings. But it
was good to be with the group, though
‘To save
weight,
I fitted
my CXP33
32-bladedspoke
wheels, last
used on
PBP.’
many riders take a time to learn to ride
with a Trike. After that, I was single to
the end, though I met up with the group
at the final M4 Control. During the heat
of mid-event, I felt rough and underpowered,
probably from dehydration.
For the final 70km, aided by a backwind,
I stormed, in heavy rain, across the
Cotswolds, to the Tewkesbury finish.
Reassuring for LEL, as I finished in 17
hours for 300k and some 2,400m ascent
for the event. A final 200 was my Thames
& Avon 200, seventh ride of the year but I
could not ride until the Saturday!
Pre-Ride Prep
In a lazy sort of way, I had entered LEL
early and pre-booked all the pre- and
post-event YHA comforts. I have such
a bad habit of arriving at events short
on sleep, not a wise option for LEL (nor
PBP for that matter). I later realised my
nephew lives only four miles from the
start but with a house of three young
girls, the YHA was probably a better
event sleep. Though, he did oblige for
parking.
The final week was mini-hectic. I had
changed chainrings and chain and on my
last 200, eight days pre-LEL, the middle
four rear sprockets suggested they were
badly worn. So, stripping the trike rear
end, ordering full cassette of eight, axle
bearings and reassembly just added
tension. To save weight, I fitted my CXP33
32 bladed-spoke wheels, last used on
PBP. Then, I bought an AA iGo charger for
the GPS and it was then download the
tracks, hoping they might work. If all fails,
I can leave redundant kit at the Thorne
drop, as I had prepared full paper map
and laminated route cards. Packed spare
batteries, even for my tiny helmet lamp.
Having failed for blood doning,
I loaded with iron tablets and dark
chocolate and probably ate a little more
than normal. Cycling was confined to
trips into town. Also I put together a
sponsor programme to raise some extra
funds for Midlands Air Ambulance.
Final Prep
To describe the registration as a smooth
and efficient event would be an insult,
26 Arrivée Spring 2011

HEADING randonnee IN HERE
Danny Hardstone and
Xavier Brice.
Riders at Middleton
in Teesdale include
Gerry Goldsmith, Aidan
Hedley and Steve
Poulton.
short leg to Middleton Tyas, where it
would be great to meet up with Tommy
Long, my 2005 LEL companion, now
running the Middleton Tyas facility. By
the A1, I came across a group, which
climbed slowly; ahead, Dave Atkinson
of VC167 was moving slowly ahead,
so I moved up to join him. We stayed
together at a matched pace to Middleton
in Teesdale, where we pre-loaded for
the climb over Yad Moss. Sharing a good
pace is a dream and after Alston, we
left together (plus Matheuss (Swede))
to descend to Brampton and move into
Scotland. It was well dark by Langholm
(2300) and then it struck – the climb
to Eskdalemuir. The climb seemed
relentlessly steep and never-ending in
the dark and wet and I was rather upset
when a group from behind came up and
interfered with ‘our’ line. Once they had
moved ahead, the chase was safer from
the back. I believe that was Margaret
Philpott walking a stiff climb – apologies
for remaining quiet. Eskdalemuir was
heaving to bursting and after a mixed
meal, despite the Phils’ (Chadwick and
Dyson) best organisational efforts, it was
blanket and limited corridor space. I later
transferred to a canvas bunk for an hour.
All photos by the author
although, eventually, the queues
subsided and the main winner was the
weather, which encouraged external
lazing and standing. But by the end, I
had number, event goodies, meal ticket,
jersey, polo shirt, room at the YHA and
had parked my car at my nephew’s 6km
away. The evening meal was excellent
with wine and friendly company and it
really set us up for a few kms of riding.
Anticipation was high.
Day 1 Lee Valley >Thorne
Nobody complains when there is a
backwind and the day saw everyone
enjoying the joy, with dry and warm
weather. The lanes were light of Sunday
traffic and Gamlingay, where I arrived
alone, a useful refuelling stop. On the
flatter land I came across Xavier Brice
and Danny Hardstone. Later we passed
Arabella Maude but brought her into our
group to Thurlby. Nice rolling country
through quiet villages, together with
a backwind, made for a very enjoyable
ride. Approaching Sleaford we towed
the Stoke Mandeville team for a while,
then met up with Paul Stewart on fixed.
Arabella entertained with stories of Blue
Bear.
From Washingborough, the route
circuited Lincoln. It stayed wet to Wragby
and into the dark. About 40km from
Thorne, I heard an unfamiliar tinkling
in the back end; changing gear was
accompanied by chain jumping and
missing, which was later confirmed as
a loose inner lock ring. This could have
been terminal – I certainly could not risk
riding the hilly northern route, though,
having staggered to Thorne, I was willing
to risk returning south. Come in Danial
Webb, whose selfless generosity saw us
transferring bits of trike to his big frame
Bob Jackson solo.
Day 2 Thorne > Eskdalemuir
I rode the early route with Jordan and
found Danial’s Bob Jackson workable
with superb Ultegra gears. After a short
power nap, I spotted Helen and Jim
Gresty relaxing alongside. The weather
stayed dry until the final run into
Coxwold. I left Coxwold alone for the
Day 3 Eskdalemuir > Dalkeith (turn) >
Longtown
The ride to Dalkeith was (literally) a roller
coaster, with the tailwind providing an
enjoyable daylight ride in magnificent
scenery. There were now many returners,
so the atmosphere was friendly. Here,
the climbs are long and steady with long
and fast descents. The hall at Traquair was
a real bonus, with, without argument,
the best porridge and cake on the ride.
I avoided the malt extra! After the climb
from Innerleithen, we rounded a final
bend in the Moorfoot Hills at 400m to
the magnificent views over the Pentland
Hills and Firth of Forth. The final descent
to Dalkeith was a pure dream. Sonia
Crawford’s Dalkeith team was in full swing
with young controllers and food activists
galore. I chatted (reminisced with)
volunteer Brian Saunderson, a stalwart
rider on previous early LELs. One of his
tasks had been to escort sleepers to the
church where folk slept in the pews! I
had ridden Eskdalemuir to Traquair with
Arabella and here she was, a towel round
her hair, relaxing after a shower.
The wind was now to be in our face,
so I reckoned on helping Arabella.
We met up high on the A7; the windhindered
ascents were now unfriendly
with the descents not so fast. But
Traquair came up trumps again for
porridge, cake and a power nap. Then,
the late afternoon run to Eskdalemuir
provided torment with the headwind
and some rain coming in. We had
plans for Alston, so, after a meal, left
Eskdalemuir in the heavy rain and
approaching dusk. It was reassuring to
Arrivée Spring 2011 27

andonnee
Walking the cobbled
hill through Alston.
Arabella Maude
crossing Whorlton
Bridge.
Middleton Tyas). Crossing the River Tees
at the Whorlton wooden bridge, the river
was showing the deep peaty colour of
water turbulence. Middleton Tyas was
quieter, so the meal was quicker. Before
we left after a short nap, the rain had
started again and we followed others for
a while. The flatter ground was welcome
until we hit the North York Moors to
Coxwold, quite wet.
The rain eased soon after Coxwold
and the terrain flattened to bypass York.
Route instructions were imprecise, so
we ended on the York bypass, where
we enjoyed a strange cloud effect in
the sunset. We soon picked up the
Howden road, quite boring in the dark.
In Howden, I was tired and desperate
for a coffee. An Indian restaurant could
not sell me one, so with a touch of
Arabella’s charm, we ended up with two
coffees and a chocolate without charge.
Approaching Thorne, we joined a few
others and trained to the end of the day.
Our arrival at Thorne saw the return to
restore the trike and repair/improvise the
rear cassette. Volunteer (and engineer)
Peter Hammond, suggested tie wraps
to stop the inner lock nut unscrewing.
Two tie wraps later, we had a makeshift
solution which seemed to work. Front
wheel, saddle, pedals, lights and routeholder
transferred – oops, forgot the
pump. Then I prepared my sleep gear,
blow-up mattress, and sleeping bag
and went for a shower. Then to discover
my sleeping bag had ‘walked’ (stolen,
borrowed did not matter now but a
search of all sleep zones and borrowing
alternate blanket just wasted sleep time).
‘see’ the route, which had appeared so
unfriendly as a wet night climb.
What I did notice on the descent to
the valley, was considerable buffeting,
which made bike handling precarious at
times, even causing me to slow, where
I would normally run a descent (and it
was to preserve myself not just Danial’s
bike!). What I came to realise later was
a severe weather system was having
an even more dramatic effect on those
still approaching Eskdalemuir. With
much descending and a slow ride from
Langholm, I was soaked through and
cold when we hit Longtown at ‘closing
time’. I thought about hypothermia and
the prospect of the 53km to Alston.
Desperate to warm up, dry and needing
a coffee, we opted to enter The Graham
Arms. Whilst there, a local, identifying
that Alston was a long way off and
seeing the weather, offered us floor
space. Thank you, Jack.
Day 4 Longtown > Thorne
Away at 0400, with the dawn on the
horizon and the weather dry, Arabella
and I were in better spirits on the road
to Brampton. Passing a group of several,
shortly after, Arabella advised I had a
train seven-strong; time for a wee break.
When I returned, there was Arabella
towing the Continental train – mean
lot! Still, the hills to Alston are not far
away. It is a long climb but the steady
gradient and growing dawn, together
with a nibble break in a bus shelter,
actually made it enjoyable. In Alston,
we performed the traditional ‘cobble
walk’ to ride steadily to the virtually
empty control. But as Heather Swift
reiterated, our overnight Longtown
stopover had been a wise move as her
over-nighters were now up the road.
If we had continued, we would have
arrived (hopefully) around 4am! We
opted for breakfast, then a one-hour kip
to leave by 1000. Yad Moss was the last
big obstacle/climb, with a grand descent
in prospect. Descending Yad Moss,
Margaret Philpotts was clearly having
an injured ride (eventually retiring at
A cake to remember
Traquair by.
Day 5 Thorne > Lee Valley
We (me, Arabella, Helen and Danny) left
Thorne late (0700?) on a sunny morning
(Helen had neck support trouble which
slowed her until she was provided with
a neck support; she eventually finished).
All was to change by Lincoln, when the
heavens opened and we were treated
to thunder, lightning, rain and hail in
rapid succession. It was one of those
‘where is the bus shelter?’ mornings.
After Washingborough, the unseasonal
storms continued with wet and dry. It
dried after Sleaford but came in again
whilst we were recovering in Thurlby.
The Nene Valley and crossing the high
farming plateau to Kimbolton made for a
fine evening ride, despite being buzzed
by motor bikes using the road as a test
track. The sunset approaching Gamlingay
brought a cold evening and night but
dry and with no wind – perfect for a
night ride? Because of my loose cassette,
we elected the direct A10. I loaded my
energy drink bottle with coffee granules
and was able to avoid the overnight
catnaps, whilst we plugged south. The
dual carriageway set up TT mode in the
chill. What a relief to read Cheshunt on
the exit signs.
28 Arrivée Spring 2011

HEADING randonnee IN HERE
To Sum Up
Registration one big queue, YHA OK but local
parking poor. Great support from all the controls;
this event is too big and route too remote to rely
on commercial 24-hour fuel stops. My planned
stopovers were maxed out (poor bed spaces) but
coped. It was great to see so many familiar faces up
and down the route, both riding and at controls.
The weather did not support much lying in the
grass for a nap. I found the official LEL jersey totally
inappropriate, in material, size and zip length for
a ride of this duration. For comfort, a full zip is an
essential for long rides, especially when you need
to undress with bulging pockets. Paying up front for
food really worked. You ate well and appropriately
with little need to search for the local shop (not
many on this route anyway). How about spaghetti in
tomato sauce to replace/complement baked beans?
Thank you Melita and AUK for a great event.
And finally
To find my sleeping bag (grateful for its return but
if the culprit is reading this, think of the selfishness
of your actions) had been recovered at Thorne and
was there in Lee Valley.
Acknowledgements
Team AUK (Event and Controls), Danial Webb (great
Bob Jackson), Jack (Longtown), Arabella Maude
(main ride companion).
N
Danial Webb lends his trusty Bob Jackson to Steve.
STATISTICS FROM THE POLAR HRM
Day Ride Statistics km Ascent m
Day 1 London 65, Gamlingay 86, Thurlby 66, Washingborough 104, Thorne (15h 41m @ 20.49kph) 321 1,910
Day 2 Thorne 90, Coxwold 52, Middlleton Tyas 75, Alston 94, Eskdalemuir (17h 23m @ 17.93kph) 312 2,350
Day 3 Eskdalemuir 45, Traquair 38, Dalkeith 38, Traquair 45, Eskdalemuir 43 Longtown (16h 04m @ 13.0kph) 209 2,325
Day 4 Longtown 52, Alston 75, Middleton Tyas 52, Coxwold 89, Thorne (17h 50m @ 15.03kph) 268 1,885
Day 5 Thorne 74, Washingborough 66, Thurlby 86, Gamlingay 65, London (18h 49m @ 15.47kph) 291 1,325
113h 05m London-Edinburgh-London (85h 47m @ 16.33kph) 1,401km 9,795m
So that means 28h 18m spent at controls for sleeping, eating, repairing, etc.
THE CYCLE SPECIALISTS
MADGETTS
✶ SALES – SERVICING – REPAIRS ✶
Superb choice of Clothing and Accessories
Large range of cycles on display
Excellent Wheel Building Service
and Workshop
8 Shelfhanger Road, Diss, Norfolk
01379 650419
www.madgettscycles.com

auk questionnaire

auk questionnaire

auk questionnaire

auk questionnaire

auk calendar
Cycle01_08.pdf 17/01/2008 14:57:59
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article
Questions starting with ‘why’, as American émigré author Paul Bowles once wryly remarked
to a visiting German journalist, cannot be answered intelligently or truthfully. This may
be so because any ‘why’ is aimed towards the ultimate question: why is there something
rather than nothing? Even so, this should not deter us from asking anyway. Beginnings
are inherently unripe and so we may well encounter something rudimentary but it will
nonetheless be a commencement that can launch us into matters that may, over time,
reward our attention.
I
am a relative beginner in Audax 1
cycling, that curious pursuit for,
ostensibly, the recklessly bold but
not necessarily for those wishing
to move with reckless abandon.
Skilled administration of resources and
tolerating whatever our somatosense
systems feed back to us are more
important than speed, the ideal of
which is to get rid of what is in between.
And it is just the in between that I am
attempting to get at presently. I will
disregard the ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘where’
and aim instead for the gap between
impulse and action; that is, the gap into
which one in the psychoanalytic space
seeks to substitute reflection for action.
So, my question is quite simply this; why
do we engage in long distance cycling?
The first and most obvious remark that
we can make is that whatever fuels the
‘why’ must be potent enough to keep
us motivated for year after year of hard
endurance riding.
5 The unconscious is always there,
pulling us to where we need to be. For
sure, we do not always get what we want
but rather what we most require and
the expanse between the two can be,
as we are all aware, potentially vast. So,
in the spirit of Gadamer, my ambition
is that this text revolves less around ‘…
what we do or what we ought to do, and
more about what happens to us over
and above our wanting and doing’. 2 I am
interested in the ‘subterranean’ aspects
of our pursuit; concerned more about
the nature of the subliminal tug that
influences us in this particular context
than in the production of a clearly
signposted historical record. This means
attempting to enter environments that
begin to enfeeble our route maps and
by Ulfson
Arvidsson
‘We do not,
I think,
come to
most things
in life by
chance.’
ON THE ANATOMY
ultimately forces them to fade out to
white and therefore I must caution that
contrary to any actual Audax event I offer
no unambiguous finish here. Rather, I
aim for a loose marshalling of thoughts
and feelings, something more discursive
than tightly reasoned.
My thoughts in this article rest on
the assumption that the particular
zeal with which we engage in Audax
cycling correlates neatly with the
degree to which it is an activity in
which our personal questions are most
conveniently formulated, addressed
and possibly resolved. I also assume
that our route leads inward and
describes a relentless descent towards
the intolerable; a flirt with what, in
the final analysis, we may not be able
to bear. After all, only the impossible
is truly addictive. This all too human
inclination of laying siege to that which
is impenetrable has its own particularly
seductive economy; desire abhors its
own potential satisfaction and seeks
therefore merely to reproduce itself.
What’s in a name?
The Latin term chosen to signify us as
a group is an alluring one, synonyms
to which the most obvious are for
instance: audacious, spirited and
original, unrestrained by convention
or propriety, insolent even. Gradually
emerging into mind are the antonyms
that have been thrust aside in order
that one may live, or at least have a stab
at living, a particular kind of life that
sticks to a distinctive code. Spineless,
weak or timid is what most of us would
prefer not to be when faced with danger
or adversity and possibly even when
immersed in that most challenging
register of reality; the everyday. Audax
is a discipline that carries the name of
an adjective, an aspect of character, a
personal quality or aptitude and not
merely a seemingly arbitrary label for an
activity as such. No one can be described
as being delightfully ‘Badminton’, say, or
demurely ‘Nordic Combined’. One may,
however, be characterised as ‘audacious’.
In addition our organisation’s emblem
featuring a heavily stylised bird of prey
with powerfully commanding wings
extended, conjures associative images
of quietly steadfast men and women
moving with mettlesome vigour through
landscape, bent on forging on through
potentially adverse conditions internal
and external.
Repetition and becoming
It is my impression that Audax cycling,
this self-inflicted leisure with its
paradoxically understated overdose
aesthetic, is frequently the result
of certain ritual and obsession; an
obsession, I believe, with particular
forms of satisfaction. It is in the nature
of obsession to want to get to the root
of the image by which one is possessed,
something that evokes a sense of an
extended search engraved over time
by repeated activity. Following Deleuze
(1994), for our present purposes
radically condensed, we can establish
that repetition may be variable, and
thus may include difference within
itself. Perseveration, on the other hand,
is an invariable form of expression,
which promotes sameness rather than
difference in its mode of presentation.
To repeat, then, is to tenaciously invite
the eruption of the new even though
it may not necessarily feel like that; to
36 Arrivée Spring 2011

article
OF AUDACITY
repeat successfully is not to repeat.
We need to keep in mind, as always in
matters internal, that we have to tread
with care since those whom we deem to
be stuck in monotonous perseveration
may themselves feel that they are
simply being sensitive to something
supremely worthwhile. In any case,
matters such as these take their time to
unfurl and so they ought; with a touch
of good fortune just about a lifetime of
meaningful repetition should suffice
for most of us. And, of course, time,
as a perpetual opening towards the
indeterminable, does have a say in all
of this; ‘No repetition will ever exhaust
the novelty of what comes. Even if one
were able to imagine the contents of
experience wholly repeated – always
the same thing, the same person, the
same landscape, the same place and
the same text returning – the fact that
the present is new would be enough to
change everything. Temporalisation itself
makes it impossible not to be ingenious
in relation to time’. 3 Time, then, is the
inevitable unfolding of alterity. If, for
a minute, we allow ourselves to run
with this thought we can state that the
passage of time is our unfurling towards
an otherness that is a death, that most
indeterminate of certainties, which for
each and every one of us is absolutely
ours but which we can never know.
I think that to cycle is to want to arrive
at matters central to identity through
interesting obliquity, via circuitous routes
within given frameworks consisting of
route sheet directions, cut off times,
distances, minimum and maximum
speeds, technology and so on (alongside
our own infinitely changeable mental
and physical presence, movements in the
earth’s atmosphere introduce into this
framework ceaseless unpredictability).
Obliquity, after all, is about finding other
ways in, of acquiring an angle that gives
adequate purchase and keeps us from
waffling feebly on. We may be looking
for such oblique discourse, such useful
deviation, in order to uncover new routes
towards our own uniquely critical puzzles
of identity. This is something that needs
to be done again and again in order
for us to evolve and to sense that the
progress of time is felt to be satisfying
rather than petrifying. To be alive, then, is
a bit like reading a good crime-novel; we
chase an absolute narrative conclusion,
nevertheless, should the plot unravel
too soon we will, most likely, feel short
changed. We need just that bittersweet
ache of the oblique story line to prevent
our descent into cynicism. In this way
the plot’s resistance to surrender too
easily its secrecy ensures for each and
every one of us a sense of moving down
our own path to death, a path on which,
Freud noted that even ‘the most painful
experiences … can yet be felt … as
highly enjoyable.’ 4 Indeed, even though
it may ache and smart, we do want
our battles to go on. Of course, they
sometimes go on so long that we forget
the initial cause and become increasingly
mired in cultivating a martial spirit that
seeks battle for the sake of battle and
nothing more.
This process of becoming, of moving
down our own unique path, entails the
ongoing work of mourning the death
of possible selves that have been slain
by our fidelity to choice. We must be
sufficiently audacious, as it were, to come
up against our ontological finitude; the
fact that we can never be all that we can
be and are therefore always bringing into
reality one way of being while an infinite
number of other ways are abandoned
and left for dead. It goes without saying
that not choosing is the ubiquitous
preference and so one may drift along
like a thing among things. In my work as
a psychotherapist I have often sensed
how difficult it can be to remain sensitive
to the motives that may drive some of us
towards withdrawal and make us move
back into the murky dreams that tend to
cluster around lives merely intended. The
foundational structures of such forms
of aliveness consist of anachronistic
assumptions that tend to treat future
events as part of what has already come
to pass (something that the ancient
Greeks knew as ‘prolepsis’). This is
how we come to flood an uncertain
future with our present certainties and
turn unknown terrain brimming with
possibility into uninspired parking lots.
A good illustration of this tendency
could be observed in ‘Secondlife’, a vast
user-created online game which over
time, despite being played in a virtual
realm potentially free from constraining
boundaries, became nothing but
a slightly more sexually licentious
reproduction of what we all agreed on
calling everyday reality. Now, apparently,
this virtual realm once heaving with
eager avatars is a rather desolate place
with only a few scattered groups of jaded
diehards stalking the scenes. I imagine
by the way that while we are thinking
this article together, somewhere out
there in some fold of the virtual ether the
construction of yet another computergenerated
facsimile of what we already
know is in full swing.
As cyclists our advance through
Arrivée Spring 2011 37

article
Man of
Kent 200
All photos by Lise
Taylor-Vebel
Control at The Vicarage
Left: Robert Finn.
Right: Clive Bradburn
and Trevor Oliver.
Left: Some of the
Controllers including
Ron Lee and Barbara
Uttley.
Right: Duncan Murray
and Bruce Dunbar.
any terrain is derived from repeated
revolutions – a term signifying radical
change but also a return to a point
previously occupied – of muscles,
tendons and joints, cranks, chain and
wheels. Cycling is undeniably cyclical
and possibly it is that Audax cyclists are
particularly receptive to some of the
lessons of Homer’s epic poem? Much like
Odysseus, king of Ithaca – drifting across
the ocean he is nonetheless always on
his way home, to the home the absence
of which stokes the hurt that drives him
– we tend to return to where we started,
at least geographically. Edward Said, in
conversation with Daniel Barenboim
(2003: 47), says this about Odysseus’s
legend; ‘But it’s not just returning –
that’s where the fantastic power of the
Odyssey is – but returning through one
series of adventures after another to
which he’s attracted. He could have just
come home. But he is also a curious man.
It’s not just a matter of leaving home, it’s
leaving home and discovering things
that attract you as well as threaten you.
That’s the point.’.
Each man has his hunger for
particular kinds of landscape and
like Odysseus we also experience the
complex ache of nostalgia 5 at the
thought of our treasured grounds. At
this juncture we will do well to keep in
mind that at the heart of nostalgia (the
impossible return), which, at a glance,
temporally addresses former times,
lurks a futurity riddled with utopianism,
an alluring what-may-yet-be-become
quality towards which we project
ourselves.… Into the future towards
death, towards the possibility of our own
impossibility. There, it would seem, is we
all are; suspended between a past we
cannot get behind, projecting ourselves
towards a future we cannot get beyond.
Containment and agency
We may translate into psychoanalytic
terms our yearning for particular
landscapes, haunted as they often
are by the experience of nostalgia,
as the wish to return to what was.
This tropism of turning away from
the present is part of our tendency to
‘find ourselves constantly on the alert
for the flimsiest evidence on which to
build and reconstruct our own old, old
story’. 6 We may operate under such a
retrograde inclination because we have
experienced in the past a psychic ordeal,
a ‘nameless dread’, 7 that is then related to
as if always in the future; ‘A catastrophe
that has to be avoided at all costs
alongside a compulsive need to repeat
it’. 8 If psychoanalysis can be likened to
archaeology, something that Freud was
wont to do, an immense dig in which
matter becomes disembedded from
the matrix, then we are just as likely to
unearth evidence of primitive civilisation
as primitive catastrophe. So, what is the
38 Arrivée Spring 2011

article
addictive ‘substance’ that long distance
cycling injects into the wet geometry of
our minds? Spinney (2006), as cited in
Wylie (2007), suggests that one of the
vital services that cycling offers to us is
the kinetic assemblage of self via bodily
performance, technology and landscape.
Amidst very early anxieties about psychic
fragmentation, anxieties potentially
so raw that we may fear losing our
‘spatiotemporal framework’ 9 and suffer
the extinction of the ego, the tendency
can become to search for something that
structures existence and gives us a sense
of being coherent selves. Predictably,
psychoanalytic literature abounds
with theories about why and how we
go about finding such a sense of unity
of personality. What I have just stated
does not equate to all riders worth their
mettle being traumatised individuals;
it means rather that the ideas we are
working with here operate in degrees
and so may bring most of us under their
sway.
According to Ruskin ‘Modern
travelling is not travelling at all; it is
merely being sent to a place, and very
little different from becoming a parcel.’
Inside an average contemporary car
the body’s sense of motion, pressure
and friction is muted by a glut of
scientifically developed materials. On
a bicycle, however, we are exposed
to the elements and so, in a gloss on
Wylie (2007: 169), one may suggest that
cycling, and Audax cycling in particular,
demands ‘that the frontiers of one’s
body be rigorously established and
maintained.’ I read this as an indication
of how our skin functions as the first
container of the self and that cycling acts
to reinforce this bodily envelope. Cycling
is about human will embodied when
slicing through a consolingly resistant
world, with reassuring proprioceptive
feedback communicating to each one of
us: ‘I’m an agent, I’m autonomous, I’m not
falling apart’. We are all familiar with the
reassuring aortic beat, that throbbing
interiority, when rare chemicals decant
somewhere in our endocrine systems
and we descend into the depths of
somatic rhythm. I maintain that on our
long rides we can reach a heightened
sense of what I want to call ‘subdermic
seclusion’. One patient, whom I shall call
Marlow, languorously organised on the
couch in his three-quarter bib tights
and merino jersey, described this inner
process, these epistemologically private
moments, with great subtlety: ‘It’s akin to
the gradual construction of a Mondrian
in reverse, an inching towards lesser
degrees of abstraction, towards less
distilled versions of reality. That is what is
at stake, the crossing of thresholds that
open onto unravaged topographies.’.
Roland Barthes (1957: 65-66),
discussing the theme of seclusion in
the works of Jules Verne, writes about
‘My
thoughts in
this article
rest on the
assumption
that the
particular
zeal with
which we
engage
in Audax
cycling
correlates
neatly with
the
degree
to which
it is an
activity in
which our
personal
questions
are
most conveniently
formulated,
addressed
and
possibly
resolved.’
captain Nemo’s notorious vessel, the
Nautilus’ as ‘the most desirable of all
caves’. He also speaks of ‘a delight in
the finite’ and of the joys of enclosing
oneself; an action that I believe to be
ceaseless for the reason that our skin
resembles a Moebius strip 10 more than
an obvious dividing membrane. That our
inside is simultaneously an outside may
be the reason why we are so attracted to
that which renders minimally ambiguous
our experience of what is inside and
what is outside.
If we pursue this question of insides
and outsides and the establishment of
useful boundaries it is straightforward
to consider that there is nothing like
adverse weather to make the guts of
a house feel exceptionally snug and
secure. I recall some very harsh Swedish
winters when this was indeed the case
and also how my elder siblings and I
used to delight in the severity of further
blizzards forecast. In his book The Poetics
of Space (1958) Gaston Bachelard writes
that ‘A reminder of winter strengthens
the happiness of inhabiting. In the reign
of the imagination alone, a reminder of
winter increases the house’s value as a
place to live in.’ 11 Audax riders’ sense
of adversity, our ‘winter’, is made up
of, to mention the most obvious aside
from inclement weather; the need for
sleep, the depletion of convertible
energy stores, the build up of nonrecyclable
waste chemicals, physical
injury, mechanical malfunction and of
course, the slipperiest one of the lot,
psychological failure. So, for those of us
who have carved intricate philosophies
out of deprivation there’s nothing
quite like the pleasure of denying
ourselves a pleasure because the pain
that this causes is interpreted by us as
a gauge of what we stand to gain, that
is; an amplified sense of our value as
containers and agents and the attendant
arrival of a sense of certainty about being
inside ourselves. We seek perhaps a clear
measure of the punishment that we are
willing to endure in order to determine
the strength of the bonding agent that
holds us together? How much can I
take? To what extent am I a being who
has a capacity to contain and gradually
transcend difficult and painful mental
and physical states? Such questions
may well be fuelled by deep ontological
anxiety and therefore it requires a
measure of audacity, as it were, to pursue
one’s own answers.
N
To be continued in the next issue.
If you would like to read Part 2
before then, please look on the
AUK website http://www.aukweb.
net/resources/arrivee/audacity_
part_two/
Footnotes
1 In the sport of randonneuring
or Audax cycling, a brevet or
randonnée is an organised longdistance
bicycle ride. Cyclists
follow a designated but unmarked
route (usually 200km to 1400km),
passing through check-point
controls, and must complete the
course within specified time limits.
Audax riders do not compete
against other cyclists; randonnées
are a test of endurance, selfsufficiency
and bicycle touring
skills.
2 Gadamer. H. G. (1989) Truth and
Method. London: Continuum.
p.xxvi.
3 Derrida. J. and Ferraris. M. (2001)
A Taste For The Secret. Cambridge:
Polity Press, p.70.
4 Freud, S. (1920) The Standard
Edition of the Complete
Psychological Works of Sigmund
Freud. Vol: 18. London: Vintage.
2001. p.17.
5 The word nostalgia uses the word
νόστος or nostos, the Greek word
for homecoming, along with
another Greek root, άλγος or algos,
meaning pain or longing.
6 Cleavely, E. (1993) ‘Relationships:
interaction, defences and
transformation’, in Ruszczynsky,
S. (ed.) Psychotherapy with
Couples. Theory and Practice at
The Tavistock Institute of Marital
Studies. London: Karnac. p.68.
7 Bion, W.R. (1962) Learning from
Experience, London: Karnac. 1984.
pp. 116-117.
8 Cleavely, E. (1993) ‘Relationships:
interaction, defences and
transformation’, in: Ruszczynsky,
S. (ed.) Psychotherapy with
Couples. Theory and Practice at
The Tavistock Institute of Marital
Studies. London: Karnac. p.58.
9 Noel-Smith, K. (2002) ‘Time and
Space as Necessary Forms of
Thought’, in Free Associations. Vol 9
Part 3 (no. 51): 394-442.
10 Bernet (2000), as cited in Alford
(2007, p.67), writes that ‘Skin
is thus no ordinary bag, but a
twisted surface where the inside
is an outside, in the manner of a
Moebius strip.’.
11 Bachelard, G. (1958) The Poetics of
Space. Boston: Beacon Press Books.
1994. p.40.
Arrivée Spring 2011 39

eview
Satmap Active 10 review
Matthew Haigh
GPS systems are becoming
more popular for Audax
riders, either for navigating
traditional rides or for
logging and validation
of the new style GPS DIYs, but the
demands that we make upon them don’t
fit with the normal uses as envisaged
by the manufacturers. Whilst we want
navigation, we also need to be able to
specify precise routes on a junctionby-junction
basis. We need them to
mount on bikes, for them to be totally
weatherproof, and to be able to run for
days on end without access to mains
power for a recharge.
If you look at the GPSes used by
typical Audaxers you’ll see that the
most common are Garmin, either the
bike specific Edge 605/705/800, or the
outdoors Etrex/Vista style units. The Edge
units can be well integrated with the
bike and have training options including
logging cadence and heart rate. With the
addition of a Powertap wheel they also
log power output. Unfortunately they
have sealed-in rechargeable batteries
which, whilst good for up to 18 hours (so
perfect for road races, sportives and 200k
rides), need to have some kind of charger
arranged for longer rides. The Etrex/
Vista style units don’t log the heart rate,
cadence or power output, but do run off
AA batteries that can be changed at the
roadside and obtained from anywhere.
Whilst I am a regular 705 user (I
bought one of the first production units
and have used it for events including LEL
and Mille Cymru) I’ve been looking at
the Satmap Active 10 since launch. I was
provided with the bike kit for review; this
consists of a very robust Abus Klickfix
mount for the bars, a rechargeable
battery, a holder for disposable AA
lithium cells (lithiums are recommended
for their power characteristics), a
memory card containing an OS
Landranger 1:50k map of the southern
part of the UK (which cuts off just above
Wales), a car charger and a data cable to
connect to the computer.
Mounting the unit
Mounting the unit is quite simple; the
fitting can be rotated to work on either
the bars or stem. It uses a rubberised
nylon strap tightened by an Allen key
operated ratchet mechanism to give a
very stable base for the Active 10. One
worry here is that the unit itself ends up
Satmap Active 10
Comparing the Active
10 with a Garmin 705.
sitting very high up in quite an exposed
position; by contrast the Garmin 705 (my
usual satnav) nestles in a much more
protected location against the bars. To
compensate for this the Active 10 mount
is far more robust than the fairly fragile
Edge mounts.
The unit is quite rugged in looks, and
has large buttons that can be operated
whilst wearing long-fingered gloves. In
common with most portable devices the
operation is a little strange until you get
used to it; as there are so many features,
the buttons have many uses depending
upon where you are in the menu system
at that moment in time. The instruction
booklet is not comprehensive, you have
to spend some time fiddling with it to
understand all of its features and how to
navigate between them. Once I’d got the
hang of it I could confidently manipulate
it whilst on the move.
Large display
The Active 10 has a large 3.5 inch display
which allows you to get a good view
of the surroundings; you can zoom in
and out to choose how much to see on
screen. Compared to the fairly cramped
705 display, riding with the Active 10
is a real pleasure. Whilst riding in the
countryside with the Garmin you usually
All Satmap photos by the author
40 Arrivée Spring 2011

eview
see a blank screen with only one or two
roads, whereas the Active 10 is showing
you it in full glorious OS detail, including
settlements, monuments, landmarks and
all the other features of OS mapping. It
gives you more of a feel for the area that
you are travelling through and added
significantly to my enjoyment of a pair of
solo 400k rides I used to test it.
On the downside, I found contour
lines difficult to read whilst in motion
– and I do have reasonable eyesight.
The Active 10 display, whilst clear, does
need the backlight on day or night,
whereas the Garmin is readable without
the backlight in daylight. For night rides
there is a red filter mode; this gives the
whole display a red tint (electronically,
not by putting a physical filter in place),
which helps to maintain night vision.
The strength of the Active 10 – the
OS mapping – is also its weakness.
Compared to Garmin maps, they are
very expensive if you need full country
coverage. This is not unlikely if you take
part in 600s or like to travel widely. You
can purchase the level of mapping you
prefer, with memory cards containing
Landranger 1:50K or Explorer 1:25K
maps for specific regions or the whole
country being available. If you have
purchased several smaller map areas,
the manufacturers do have a service to
combine them onto a single card for you
– you cannot do this yourself due to copy
protection.
As they are Landranger or Explorer
maps they do not include road names.
If you are navigating through a town
and need to execute a ‘3rd L into Church
Road’, the Active 10 will show you the
roads coming up but not their names. It
also doesn’t contain routing information,
roads are just more pixels on a rendered
map. If you try to plot a route on the unit,
the Active 10 shows a direct as-the-crowflies
line between where you are and
where you want to be. You can refine
this by putting in via points at major
junctions, but this still leaves straight
lines drawn on the display that don’t
follow the bends in the road.
If you ask a Garmin to get you to a
particular address, it will give you turnby-turn
navigation as you’d expect in a
car-based unit, showing a highlighted
line to follow on top of the road, then
automatically zooming in with close-up
picture of junctions and roundabouts.
It has to be said that you have to use
caution when using Garmin-generated
routes; I’ve had it tell me that the best
route home was a meandering set of
lanes over 85km, when I could do a
straightforward main road bash and be
there in 25km.
Putting in Audax routes
Putting Audax routes onto the Active
10 really needs external software. There
are free downloads for the PC and
Mac that allow you to load GPX files
into the device. Unfortunately, these
loaders are needed as the Active 10 has
a proprietary file system and does not
appear as a simple external drive to
your computer – so Linux users will have
trouble using it. I’ve successfully loaded
GPX files that were generated by my
own tracklogs recorded on my 705, and
also used those provided by some ride
organisers as downloads from the AUK
online calendar. You can also plot routes
on Satmap’s own subscription-based
web service, or use one of the many
other free sites (like Bikely) that will allow
you draw routes online then download
them as GPX files.
If you put enough data points on
your routes, then you’ll get a line on
the display that follows the course of
the roads on the map. However, you do
need to pay attention to the display; the
only warning that you’ve gone off-route
comes when you no longer see your
coloured line on the moving map.
The Active 10 does work far better
than the Garmin if you need to do an on
the fly route change (such as if there is a
major road closure or you need to find
a big town for a railway or bike shop).
The road atlas style basemap gives you
a good overview when you zoom out
too far for the OS mapping, and you can
easily make decisions on the road. If
you try to zoom out to this level on the
Garmin you get so much overlapping
detail on the screen that you cannot
actually see the roads.
Battery life
Battery life is a major concern when
using this type of device, especially
as the Active 10 backlight needs to
be permanently on. I found that the
standard rechargeable gave about 14
hours of use – sufficient for a 200 or a
reasonably fast 300. It is possible to get
a second rechargeable battery, or to use
disposable Lithium AA cells (Satmap
don’t recommend standard Alkalines or
NiMH rechargeables). The current unit
has a fairly fiddly and fragile battery
connector; I wouldn’t want to regularly
change them on the road in the dark in
the rain. The manufacturer has said that
this is a detail that may change.
It should be possible to recharge
on the move using an external battery
pack, but this would compromise the
waterproofing as you’d have to leave
a rubber flap open. One irritation on
charging is that it isn’t obvious when
charging has completed; batteries have
to be charged inside the unit, and if you
have limited access to power it’s nice
to know when one is charged so that
you can swap over and start charging
another.
N
Photo: Tim Wainwright
CONCLUSION
So, would I recommend the Active 10? If you do off-road
mountain biking, cycle touring or go walking and want
a single unit that will do all of these then it is a good
choice. The additional level of detail over even the
Garmin Topo mapping makes it very worthwhile.
For Audax use it is less clear cut. The expense of
getting full country maps has to be taken into account,
and the lack of routing instructions can make it less
easy to use than Garmins for navigation. Being a
large unit, it takes a lot of valuable bar space that
would be taken by lights, route sheet and computer. I
have reservations over the robustness of the battery
connectors if regularly removed, as you’d need to do on
longer rides. However, all of this needs to be balanced
against the excellence of having a scrolling OS map
on your bars; even in areas I thought I knew well I was
finding interesting things to explore, and it certainly
helps to pass the time on long stretches on the road.
The Klickfix mount makes the Active 10 sit proud of the bars.
The author riding Mille Cymru.
Arrivée Spring 2011 41

HEADING IN HERE
Paris-Brest-Paris
Advice and tips from riders with
over 70 PBPs collectively under
their wheels
George Hanna
What I did wrong last time
Not much! Had we not had such strong
winds and heavy rain would have easily
cracked 60hrs.
Sleeping arrangements
Planned for minimal sleep and did not
use the ACP dorms – too much snoring
(from me). Slept 90mins at Brest, 60mins
Carhaix; this was sufficient sleep given
pre-ride sleep banking and reduced/no
caffeine for four weeks before ride
Eating at controls and on the road
Never stopped between controls. PBP
controls are vast. Always take your
bottles into control when you arrive, or
lose 10mins/control. I ate sandwiches/
rice, ie grab-and-go food and had
pocket food – gel and muesli bars
always on board. Bottle contents: 1 x
4:1 carbo protein; 1 x water on the road
throughout.
George Hanna passing
the Samye Ling Centre
in Eskdalemuir, LEL
2009.
Clothing and waterproofs
I wore bib shorts, baselayer, shirt and
gilet, two pairs of socks throughout; leg
and arm warmers overnight. Carried/
wore overshoes, waterproof, reflective
gilet. Anything on my skin was worn in.
Start time
20:00 (earliest possible) start. You get a
big tow, and will be well ahead of the
queues at controls. To get the most
from this start you must 1) Expect three
nights of darkness 21:30 to 06:30; 2) Be
comfortable group riding at night. If
not, pick the 84hr for extra daylight; or
90hrs, for slower paced riding and queue
potential.
Tools and spares carried
Two inner tubes, tyre levers, metalbarrelled
micro pump; puncture kit, in
which were spare allen key bolts, chain
link; multi-tool chain breaker; head torch
and spare Cateye LED front lamp; 2 LED
rear lamps.
Did you have a drop bag?
One bag drop at 500/800k at Loudeac.
Bought a thermal base layer, thicker
gloves at Loudeac outbound; delayed
swapping into my new, clean, dry clothes
until homeward bound. Carried smallest
possible seatpost bag, to just fit the
above. If it does not fit in the bag you
wear it, or have it in your back pocket.
Anything more than that you don’t need.
Would you take a camera?
Haven’t done so yet, but may do in 2011,
for stills as I don’t want to carry a back up
battery.
Bike and lighting system
Carbon bike with strap on-guards.
Dinotte LED and two spare rechargeable
batteries; back up Cateye LED.
Preferred tyres
Brand new Conti GP 4000s.
Did you ride to a schedule and how
successful was it?
Prepared a schedule, based on times I’d
managed on UK rides. Target was

preparing for paris-brest-paris
HEADING IN HERE
Photos: Tim Wainwright
Julian Dyson
Julian Dyson riding the Mille Cymru, 2010.
What I did wrong last time
Can’t think of any real ‘Arrrgh!’ moments
– it being my second time I knew what to
expect at Loudeac.
Sleeping arrangements
Like so many others I was resigned to
kipping at Loudeac (in both directions) –
at a table, under a table, across a couple
of chairs. Things normally calm down by
Mortagne-au-Perche and getting a camp
bed and blanket is relatively easy (book
a lie-down time on arrival, then go and
get something to eat). If the weather if
fine, 30/45 minutes siesta mid afternoon
does wonders, especially if you are going
to be riding until 11:00 or 12:00 o’clock
at night.
Eating
No beans on toast or sausage and egg
buns – stick with pasta, soup and ham
baguettes.
Clothing and waterproofs
Nothing special – just what I would
normally wear and carry on a typical
home 600: under-shirt, short sleeve
top, arm warmers, light jacket or gillet,
bib-shorts, leg warmers, thin merion
wool gloves and rain jacket. If it looks
like being really wet then ‘Rain-Legs’ and
over-shoes too.
Start time – prefer daytime or evening
start, and why?
I’m out to enjoy myself so it’s the 90-hour
evening start. To avoid queuing for two
or three hours, relax, hang back and
watch everybody else leaving then join a
short queue and leave at 10:30/11:00.
Tools and spares carried
Topeak ‘Survival Gear’ box with individual
allen keys, spanners, chain tool, etc.
Three inner tubes, one tyre, three
drive-side spokes (+ NBT cassette tool),
two non-drive-side spokes, two front
spokes, gear inner cable, brake inner
cable, a few patches and glue, tyre boot
(from toothpaste tube), Swiss Army knife.
Don’t recall the kitchen sink being in the
bag, but it could have been hiding in an
empty corner. Oh, and don’t forget your
toothbrush.
Did you have a drop bag?
Not last time – did the ride to and
from Le Havre.
Would you take a camera?
I have carried cameras on various rides
but tend to forget to use them.
Touring/audax bike or stripped down
bike?
Touring bike but I’ve never used the
granny ring. Tyres were Michelin Krylion
Carbon 700 x 25.
Did you ride to a schedule and how
successful was it?
I normally do on 1000+km rides but PBP
is different. With so many people on the
road and going through the controls,
unless you are with the Vedettes and
have a support van, there is too much
unaccountable time and a schedule is
going to slip and become a frustrating
burden.
Lighting system
I’m a Schmidt fan – still using bulbs last
time but now on LEDs.
GPS/HRM?
You don’t need GPS, the route is
reasonably well marked (hardly need the
route sheet), but beware of riding 20m
back in large groups there could be a
dozy git chatting away at the front who
will lead you all astray. Only use a HRM
if you like keeping your own records – if
you have never ridden for more than
two days on the trot don’t be surprised
when the readings start to drop below
you norms.
Were you fit enough on the day?
Don’t stop riding once the qualifiers are
done but don’t over do it either (an extra
600, then a 400 and a 200 should see
you through). Mental fitness is a different
matter … my approach is to keep calm
and don’t lose your rag.
Anything else?
Getting there – I’ve used the Baxter’s bus
(hassle-free and you can use the buses
for drop bags at various controls) and
also ridden to Paris from the coast (great
social fun – though the thought of the
ride back can be a bit daunting). This
time I’ll have a camper van support …
could be Heaven, could be Hell. N
Aidan Hedley and Steve Bateman cross the bridge into Brest.
Aidan Hedley (tandem)
Sleeping
First sleep was at Cahaix, controlled at 23:55 – in 2003 we
made it to Brest at 02:33 – ‘twas nice and quiet. Next sleep
was Tintenac, got in at 00:18. I remember psychedelic
hallucinations as I laid down and relaxed. We then rode
through in a group to finish at 02:00 on the 24th – that was
good…
Eating
Ate mainly at controls – early tandem start meant we tended
to avoid the crowds.
Start time
Evening is fine – love the first night but the earlier start this
year is even better.
Tools and spares carried
Multi tool, three tubes, folding tyre, spare Sprags for DT
Freewheel, spare connector and cable assembly for Schmidt
hub – just in case of broken wires.
Did you have a drop bag?
Yes – unofficially with Mike McGeever (who was with
Sporting Tours), he wasn’t around, so we didn’t get it.
Touring/audax bike or stripped down bike?
The Longstaff beast of a tandem (with a Bontrager 24-spoke
rear wheel) was suprisingly robust. Front was a 36 on Mavic
CPX 33 – broke a 13G spoke. Tyres were GatorSkin 28C –
excellent fast tandem tyre.
Lighting system/GPS/HRM
Schmidt and home-brewed twin LEDs (like a Solidlight but
waterproof!).
GPS/HRM?
Nah – get real!
Things Steve and me did right
Carried tube of Conotrane for the backside, highly
recommended – apply before and during ride.
Met Stue Lee who was great company on his trike. He sat
on our wheel on the flat and rode up for a chat on all the hills.
Things that went wrong – changing the chain and
cassette – we did ride 100ks on the new parts, but on the
first night the side-plates pinched in on the chain so it kept
skipping. Had to explain in my best Franglais to the mechanic
at Fougeres that we only need a chain and not a cassette too,
and took the old chain back to Spa Cycles to be told, ‘Yes we
have had a few bad ones’.
N
Photo: Aidan Hedley
Arrivée Spring 2011 43

preparing for paris-brest-paris
Preparation for Paris-Brest-Paris
Part 2
Lucy McTaggart (Level 3 Association of British Cycle Coaches)
The usual problem of where to start
You should by now have at least got past
the 400km qualifier and be ready for the
600. Some may already have finished
their series and hopefully you’ve ironed
out a few problems along the way.
You should also have in place or
at least have some thoughts on how
you will get to the start of PBP and
accommodation, etc.
The aim should be for you to reach
the start line in as best a shape as
possible so the less stress you have to
go through travelling to Paris the better.
There are a few options. Many travel
with Baxters tours who provide a custom
made trip to PBP, booking hotels and
providing back up during the event at
some controls for riders to collect spare
clothes/batteries/wash kit, etc. Others
simply take a ferry crossing to France
and pootle down over a couple of days
aclimatising en route then staying at the
chalets/campsite/hotels near the start.
This can be very sociable meeting up
with other riders on the way down. There
are any number of variables between
these two but the main thing is to
choose the way which suits you best and
allows you to arrive relaxed/well rested
and ready to start the highlight of the
season. If you can get as much sleep as
possible in the days leading up to the
start you will fare alot better during the
sleep deprivation of the event.
Try to be fairly organised over packing
before you leave. You will have sorted out
your own good kit list of what to carry
on the bike during your qualifiers so this
is what you will need for PBP plus extra
changes of clothes, chamois creme, etc,
plus civilian clothes for before and after
the event. (Remember to do that pre-PBP
overhaul on your bike – see Part 1 Arrivée
111, p.14. )
After qualifying
Following your qualifiers there is a
significant period of time before PBP
actually takes place. Use this time wisely.
Keep up some 200/300km rides until
a couple of weeks before PBP either
calendar events/permanents or just
rides. Balance these with shorter rides at
a faster pace to bring your comfortable
riding pace up to a higher level.
The higher the pace that you can
comfortably maintain, the easier you will
ride in the groups on PBP and the better
your body will recover from any harder
efforts.
The nearer to PBP you get, gradually
taper down to shorter rides but increase
the speed. Within the last few weeks
have a few flat out efforts between
one to five minutes in duration on your
shorter rides and try to pick up the pace
over the last few miles on longer events.
Those going for a fast time on PBP
will need to follow a programme of
speedwork, gradually increasing in
intensity leading up to the event maybe
including some local time trials and
perhaps the Mersey or Sussex 24hr
which will be excellent as part of their
preparation.
Make sure though to allow enough
recovery time between long rides and
also between the shorter higher intensity
rides. This is often a very underestimated
but important part of training. The older
we get we can still train just as hard but
need a little extra recovery time .
As in a piece of music the gaps
between the notes define those notes
making it something creative, the gaps
(rest) between training defines that
training and makes it progressive so that
you follow an upward spiral to better
fitness rather than a downward spiral to
overtraining and constant fatigue.
Use any little tricks such as when
returning from training/finishing an
event, the 30 minutes imediately after
you finish is a window of opportunity
when your body absorbs nutrients
much more effectively thus improving
recovery greatly so a small carbohydrate/
protein rich snack at this point will pay
dividends.
Approaching the start
Once you have arrived safely in
St Quentin and settled in to your
accommodation, hopefully a day or two
before the start, have a couple of spins
around the local roads. If possible ride a
little of the final stage in reverse. Being
familiar with this can help when you are
finishing the event in a tired state and
a bit disorientated. It will also help you
relax and ease the legs out for those
travelling by coach, etc.
You will have chosen a time for your
bike check so make sure your bike is
ready for it, ie lights attached securely
and working, gears properly indexed,
everything secured properly, etc.
The day of the start
Try to have as relaxed a day as possible.
If you are on one of the evening starts
Lucy crossing the
Severn Bridge.
‘Those
going for
a fast time
on PBP
will need
to follow a
programme
of
speedwork.’
have a few naps during the day or at
least a lie down now and again. You
won’t get many of these for a few days
so make the most of it. Eat plenty as
snacks rather than big meals. Little and
often is better and a variety of foods plus
plenty of fluids. Have your largest meal
at lunchtime to give it plenty of time to
digest.
Those on the early morning starts
can still do the above on the day of the
evening starts and go and enjoy the preevent
meal, then have an easy evening
and hopefully a good sleep before your
early wake up call. Choice of start time
depends partly how fast you estimate
you will get round (be realistic) and
partly whether you tend to go better on
an early morning start or one later in the
day.
Make the most of your pre-event
meal, whether the official one or your
own, as once you pass through into the
starting area it can be a long wait before
your actual start.
During the event
Finally you will be set off and it will feel
good to finally be away and pedalling.
The start is always hectic with a lot
of adrenalin flowing. Stay tucked in
amongst the groups if you can but try
not to be absolutely on the limit and
gasping plus watch out for bollards, etc,
in the road. Settle in and maintain a good
pace but within yourself. The distance
will pass quickly and within a few hours
you will reach the first feed station and
then the first proper control. Whatever
44 Arrivée Spring 2011

preparing for paris-brest-paris
HEADING IN HERE
Photo: Lucy Rutter
you do drink little and often. Getting
dehydrated at this stage will cause big
problems later and the reverse if you
drink well early on you will be riding
strongly later in the event.
Use the first feed station to refill
bottles, take on some food, sort out
any minor problems and generally get
yourself comfortable to carry on to the
first proper control. You are on your way
now.
Food during the event is better
little and often rather than big meals
and whereas on a short event mainly
carbohydrate works, for a multi-day
event more balanced food is needed
so try to eat a variety of foods that you
find easy to digest as well as any energy
drink/bars.
You won’t usually be short of groups
to ride with on PBP and if you spend at
least some of the time sheltering in the
wheels you can save alot of energy. Keep
an eye on the riders two or three ahead
of the one who’s wheel you are on as this
will give you more warning if anyone
brakes suddenly and the group slows.
Try to stay aware of what’s happening
around you to avoid any crashes/erratic
riding by tired riders and keep track of
where you are. It’s very easy to follow a
group off-route, especially at night.
Controls
Most of the controls have a fairly similar
set up with feeding areas and dormitories.
There can sometimes be a lot of queing
so you may wish to just get your card
stamped and then feed elsewhere at
cafés/supermarkets saving time.
Before the event make a plan of
where you think you will need to sleep
based on other long rides you have
completed but be prepared to be flexible
on this if you need too.
If you sleep at a control, try to at least
have a change to a dry undervest as this
will help greatly to stop you getting cold
and thus preventing you from sleeping.
Have some food before you sleep
and a little more before you set off
again. While you are sleeping is a good
chance for your body to absorb/digest
nutrients much better than it can while
cycling. If you’ve had any problem with
indigestion/nausea a couple of Rennie’s
followed by a few hours sleep can work
wonders and have you ready to get
going again. Just laying down for a while
will allow your stomach to relax.
When you get back on the road after
sleeping, ride yourself in starting steadily
until your legs loosen up (don’t panic if
everything has seized up a bit). Once you
get going carry on your good pattern of
drinking/eating little and often.
At each control keep an eye on how
much time you have in hand and plan
the length of your sleep/food stops
accordingly.
Strategies
Whereas the time leading up to PBP is a
time of preparation, during the event is
a time for survival strategies to get you
through in as good a shape as possible,
whether you are fast or slow.
Three areas that can cause havoc and
stop you from finishing are the three
points of contact you have with your
bike, ie hands, feet and backside. If any
one or more of these becomes overly
sore life can become unbearable so:
● Have a good balanced set up/position
on your bike. This will spread the
weight evenly and prevent soreness/
loss of sensation in the vital three.
● Good track mitts/good cycling shorts
‘Three areas
that can
cause havoc
and stop
you from
finishing
are the
three
points of
contact
you have
with your
bike…’
Below left: El Supremo
feeds the Mad Jack
Fuller John Seviour
Memorial grimpeur.
Below right:
John Ellis,
Kidderminster Killer.
Bottom right: Start of
the Cheltenham Flyer
200 with organiser Ron
Carlton on right.
and chamois creme/well fitting shoes
and socks will prevent chaffing.
● Good hygiene. Changes of kit/
washing away built up salt and
bacteria will avoid soreness/possible
infection.
Being mobile on your bike, changing
position from time to time and getting
out of the saddle every so often allows all
three points a break.
If you have built up a good regime
of stretching exercises over the season
doing a few of these now and again
during the event just gently will help
greatly to ease you back/legs/shoulders,
etc, and keep you comfortable on the
bike.
PBP is a long event but if you treat
each stage separately in your mind
and for each stage carry out a good
maintainable pace, drink and feed
effectively, sleep at regular intervals,
keep yourself warm/cool as appropriate
(sunscreen is vital if the event is hot),
don’t waste uneccessary time faffing
at controls (as a certain auk often said,
‘Time is miles’). Keep a watch on how
your body is faring and fix any problems
sooner rather than later, then eventually
the last stage and then the finish will
come into view and you will feel the
elation at the roundabout before the
ramp over the finish line and get your
final stamp. You’ve made it!
Post-event: After managing to find
your way back to your accommodation,
take care of yourself. Feed well,
rehydrate, catch up on sleep and wear a
big grin all the way home.
As always, if anyone needs more
detailed information on any aspect
covered you are welcome to contact me
at: megajoulesexpenditure@btinternet.
com
N
Photo: Tim Wainwright
Photo: Steve Poulton Photo: Tim Wainwright
Arrivée Spring 2011 45

preparing for paris-brest-paris
Dave Minter
What I did wrong last time
A surprising number of things. Working
stupid-long hours beforehand was
probably top of the list, I was seriously
sleep-deprived at the start and less
fit than preferred. It meant I had to
survive on (too-frequent) naps and was
bouncing against the 84-hour time
limit (eight minuters in hand at Brest!)
until Villaines-la-Juhel (return) where I
finally caught up on sleep and got shot
of a tummy bug. It wasn’t helped by my
being chivalrous at Tinteniac. The lady
immediately booked the last of the beds
for her eight Spanish companions in the
queue behind, meaning a cold, fitful nap
on the café floor for me. Only getting my
new PBP bike just before the start meant
that I had adjust my position, tighten
bolts and adjust cables several times.
Sleeping arrangements
In previous PBPs I’d always slept in
checkpoint dormitories (Carhaix
outbound, Fougere or TIntineac and
Nogent Le Roi return) but in 2007, I
napped on control floors (Tinteniac
outbound, Carhaix and VLJ return), a bus
stop (outbound from Carhaix) and only
got a bed at Loudeac (return). A bed is
my preference.
Eating
Whatever works at the time. In 1999,
I survived on pocket food and a few
baguettes for a sub-70-hour finish. Since
then, I have sit-down meals when I can
afford the time and patisseries and
pocket food otherwise. In 2003, I kept
my pre-PBP resolution to drink vin rouge
every day; that made for a fun ride.
Start time
The 90-hour start suits me well. The
excitement of PBP carries me through
the first night at high speed and I enjoy
bunch riding. I had hassles with the
84-hour start but I’ve never liked rain.
Sitting on wheels without mudflaps
isn’t pleasant and most people descend
too slowly. The 84-hour start would be
enjoyable, given decent weather and the
speed to easily stay ahead of the cut.
Tools and spares carried
Multitool that works on everything on
the bike, two tubes, spare tyre (to fit a
Moulton), spare gear and brake cable.
Did you have a drop bag?
I had an ACF-arranged drop bag at
Loudeac in 2007 which let me swap my
dirty clothing for fresh on the return
(not enough time on the way out). I
carried a complete spare set of clothes
(gloves, socks, shorts, jersey) on the bike
anyway, along with long-finger gloves,
leg warmers and waterproof. In 2003,
I carried three days of clothing on the
bike; more weight and volume than
is ideal. 1999 was similar to 2007 but
using the Aussie dropbag in Loudeac
both ways. I don’t like riding in the same
clothing for days on end or doing the
wash-and-wear thing during a brevet.
Do you take a camera?
In ’99, I laughed at a Yank with a
waterproof camera zip-tied to the
top of his helmet but I wish I had
tangible images to bolster my muddled
memories. My camera stayed safely in
my saddlebag, unused. Since then, I’ve
not taken a camera but always regret it. It
would have to survive in my back pocket
to be used.
Audax bike or stripped down bike?
1999 = S&S-coupled Frezoni with
saddlebag; mudguards brought to the
start but not used.
2003 = 1965 Moulton Stowaway
Duomatic with big rack bag and
mudguards.
2007 = brand-new Moulton TSR30 with
Dave Minter in
Australia.
‘Cyclecomputers
always
tell me I’m
going too
slow, so
I ditched
them and
my HRM
got binned
when I
stopped
racing.’
SQR, mudguards and well-appreciated
mudflaps. I guess they all count as Audax
bikes.
Preferred tyres
Something a bit wider than usual (28
mm or more) that roll well. Paselas are
good but they don’t fit Moultons.
Did you ride to a schedule and how
successful was it?
I had a sub-72-hour schedule in 1999
but on the third day I was getting bored.
Then I hooked up with Gerry Tatrai (twotime
solo RAAM winner) whereupon
we slowed down a bit and enjoyed the
ambiance. In 2003, my only aim was to
finish in under 90 hours and had lots of
fun with hours to spare. In 2007, I chose
the 84-hour start for the first time and
finished just inside 80 hours. I’m a big
fan of hammering out to Carhaix or Brest
and cruising back.
Lighting system you used
Last time, two Cateye LED AA-battery
headlights. In 2003, a pair of Hella
halogens driven by a LightSpin and a
cheap helmet-light. Before that, Cateye
Micros powered by a four D-cell battery
pack.
GPS/HRM used?
Cycle-computers always tell me I’m
going too slow, so I ditched them and my
HRM got binned when I stopped racing.
Recently I’ve been doing long brevets
in interesting countries and learned
the delights of following GPS tracks,
particularly in the dark. One of these
days I’ll have to work out how to use a
GPS and perhaps even get one.
Were you fit enough on the day?
Yes, I got round PBP but more is better.
Being comfortable on the bike is the key
to finishing but having the speed to claw
back any deficit without killing yourself is
very comforting. N
John Spooner
There are no right and wrong answers to riding PBP. PBP
is successfully completed on all sorts of machines with
different tyre sizes and saddles, made of carbon fibre, steel
and titanium. Some have mudguards, some don’t. Some with
drop handlebars, some with flat. Then there’s lighting. Use
the longer qualifiers to find out what works for you.
Give some consideration to the 84-hour start. There’s less
queuing, less night riding, and you don’t have to ride that
much quicker.
PBP is always rife with rumours. One which always puts
in an appearance is that there has been an extension to the
time limit. Ignore it. Even if it’s true, you’ve signed up to ride
it in 90 hours (or 80 or 84), so for the sake of your self-esteem,
do it in that time. And you won’t be disappointed when it
turns out to have been false as usual.
The routesheet, along with the route arrows, is all you
need for navigation. But if you need ballast, use a GPS.
John Spooner
PBP can be the experience of a lifetime. Whether it’s
a good experience or a bad one will be largely down to
yourself. It’s nearly four days of your life, so you might as well
enjoy it.
Revel in the atmosphere. It has been described as
‘Woodstock on wheels’.
See that crowd-control barrier? For once in your life, you
are a sporting superstar and the barriers are there to keep the
crowds back from you.
We may be an island race, but that’s no excuse to be
insular. Make friends. Engage in conversation with people of
as many different nationalities as you can. Carry a Sharpie and
make a note of their entry number so that you can find out
afterwards how they got on.
Brush off that 30-year-old French O-level (start now).
Observe how the atmosphere gets more relaxed as the ride
progresses (especially after Brest). Take advantage of the
locals offering coffee and crêpes at the side of the road. Take
photos. Make sure you thank the volunteers at the controls.
46 Arrivée Spring 2011

preparing for paris-brest-paris
HEADING IN HERE
Ray Kelly
I’m not sure that I’m the best person
to be giving advice as I tend to make
everything up as I go along, utilising
the ‘Kelly minimalist planning system’.
But then again that may be what many
a first-timer needs. Folk tend to worry
themselves silly and make too many
plans.
Certainly last time, my big mistake
was to spend masses of time helping
others along. It cost me loads of time and
when I became sick, I didn’t have time to
recover and it was game over. Without
being too selfish, you have to remind
yourself of the effort and cost it has
taken to get to ride PBP and ride your
own event.
It is essential to get some good sleep.
The controls are busy, noisy places
though and you must find somewhere
quiet. Don’t waste time sitting around
chatting when you could be resting.
Good time management is really
important. I always have a short kip at
Brest. It’s something to look forward to
and signals to me the half-way point.
I always admired Simon Jones’s ability
to sleep anywhere at any time. If we
stopped for only a short time, Simon
would close his eyes and rest.
If you stop for a nap en route, do
it away from the actual route or you
risk being continually woken by wellmeaning
folk, checking that you’re OK.
Really annoying. Also, don’t sleep on the
grass verge by the road anyway. A French
rider warned me that you risk being run
over doing this.
Most controls offer excellent food,
perfect for cyclists. The only problem is
queuing for the food. The controls get
very busy and although they are well
organised, it can take some time to get
served. If you are in a long queue, try to
turn off and rest. Although eating away
from a control is frowned down on by
the organisers, there may be times when
it is better to go up the road and do a
spot of shopping or eat in a café. I never
eat at the Brest control, preferring just
to rest there and eat somewhere on the
way back.
One of the wonders of the event is
the folk at the side of the road offering
up food and drink. Well worth accepting
their hospitality. Don’t forget to show
your gratitude. There will be local people
along the route, day and night offering
free food and drink. In some villages,
there will be more lavish catering
facilities for which a small charge will be
made. You could actually end up putting
on weight en route.
Also, some cafés stay open for the
duration of the event with plenty of
excellent coffee and food on offer. You
could even sleep at a couple of these
places. The people in Brittany are just so
hospitable and think very highly of this
event. They will make you all feel very
special.
I have been fortunate in many PBPs
to have support from the excellent
Willesden CC support team and have
been fed and watered by them. I know
this is frowned down on by some but
it has saved me loads of time that was
invested in sleeping. I always have a café
stop or two as well just to leave the event
behind for a short while.
Clothing and waterproofs
I always travel light but take all
essentials. I have ridden the entire event
in one set of clothes, not ideal but no
real problem. I believe that there will
be a bag drop this time which should
make things easier. Having said that, I
always carry all that I need just in case I
don’t see my bags again, wherever they
are. Bibshorts, thermal undervest, road
jersey, track mitts. For the night riding,
another thermal vest (long sleeve), this
takes up hardly any space but is another
layer. Kneewarmers, armwarmers and
breathable waterproof jacket finish off
my wardrobe. I wear thin socks but often
take them off if hot foot sets in and it’s
not too cold – allows more room in the
shoes.
If you use the bag drops, put a full set
of clothes including track mitts and socks
in each one. Also include bum cream,
batteries, clean water bottles and any
energy tablets or powder that you use.
I carry a razor, mini shower gel and
shaving oil on the bike. There’s nothing
better than a good wash and shave to
brighten you up. Also, a small bottle of
sunscreen. Even with support, I have left
two complete drop bags with the team.
I only use a small saddle pack and it’s
absolutely full so I don’t carry a camera.
In the pack, I have three spare tubes and
tyre levers. Essential tools are allen keys
(must fit all bolt sizes on bike), chain
tool, chain joining link and a short bit
of spare chain, spoke key plus puncture
outfit. Spare thermal vest. Silver thermal
blanket, batteries, small bum cream and
washing/shaving stuff. Toilet paper is a
good idea as well.
You don’t need to carry every spare
under the sun. Most controls have
mechanics if needed and the controls
tend to be 80km apart. It’s not like you
are in the middle of the Sahara.
Bike
I have always ridden a steel-framed
Roberts Audax bike with a triple chainset.
I am considering riding a stripped down
road bike this year though. This also has
a triple chainset. I’ll probably fit some
Crud guards though. It poured with
rain last time and many folk got caught
out being on racing-type machines. My
Roberts has Panaracer Extreme Duro
23mm tyres, but my other bike has
Michelin Pro Race 3s. I don’t have any
Ray Kelly riding through
East Sussex.
‘I don’t
ride to a
schedule.
I let my
body
determine
my
progress.’
Keep your eyes open
for Paris-Brest cake.
This was spotted in
a travelling French
market in London.
Photo: Tim Wainwright
real preference of tyres but tend to fit
new ones before the event. In my case
it’s the difference between more durable
or more responsive tyres. I don’t carry
a spare tyre on the bike and this has
never been a problem for me. I do carry
Park gaiters in case of serious damage
though.
I use Cateye lights – whatever is their
latest and best. I need all the help that I
can get and therefore, have never used
a hub dynamo. I don’t have any problem
with seeing where I am going at night.
I’ll probably use my Garmin this
year. This is just because I have one. It
probably won’t be that useful as the
route is extremely well signed. No heart
rate monitor though, that would serve
no purpose to me.
I don’t ride to a schedule. I let my
body determine my progress. I have
found that setting targets in this event
has worked against me as it can be
demoralising to be behind on schedule.
That’s just me though. I find that I get
irritable when in the company of people
who keep on about their schedule.
It’s a long way and I think that you
have to be flexible when planning any
proposed progress. There are times when
you may be flying and other times when
you’re slumped over the handlebars
riding at 8mph. Don’t get upset during
any bad spells. It’ll soon be better. The
more regular riding that you do preevent,
the better. I do the qualifiers plus
some more 200s. I also try to ride as
frequently as possible. Even very short
distances help. N
Arrivée Spring 2011 47

preparing for paris-brest-paris
Tom Jackson
It is my intention to ride a steel frame/
fork Roberts ‘Compact Audax’ bike
equipped with a triple chainset used
primarily for hilly qualifying rides, though
granny gears are not really needed on
PBP.
Years ago I happily rode 20mm
tyres but have long since moved to
25mm tyres as they are much more
comfortable, given the shocking state
of our roads. The make, as with so
much, is down to personal preference.
In my experience, Michelin tyres are
comfortable, generally grip better in the
wet but are more prone to punctures
than my now favourite Continental Four
Seasons.
I have a small racktop bag for spare
top, gilet, leg/arm warmers, bonk rations,
waterproof and one or two spares but
there is no need to take anything else. In
fact I take more on a 400k than PBP. You
will see many fully supported riders with
no more than a pump and spare tube!
My aim is to ride 5,000+ miles before
the event including a double SR Series,
sufficient preparation in the past. For me,
the effect of sleep deprivation is more of
a concern than a lack of miles.
The controls in 2007 included
‘breakfast bar’ facilities with coffee and
pastries as well as a canteen offering a
good choice of hot cooked food. Soup,
omelettes, cooked meats, pasta and
mashed potato being favoured. There
are many shops and cafés along the way,
not forgetting locals handing out coffee,
cake and water outside their homes.
Be prepared to queue for cooked food
especially on the first day, but look at this
as an opportunity to enjoy the event and
meet others from across the world. Take
in the camaraderie, it is something you
will remember for a long time afterwards.
My advice would be to invest in good
quality cycling shorts, thick padded
track mitts and battery and/or dynamopowered
lights. Don’t forget to factor
in dark early mornings as well as night
times when considering lighting. Be
cautious of any lighting system that
relies on rechargeable batteries.
Arrive at the stadium in good time
before your chosen start time and be
prepared to queue.
The first few miles are on lit closed
roads but all too soon you are on dark
country roads. Early on, there are many
large, unruly groups including nervous,
excited riders; be prepared for erratic,
twitchy riders and all manner of things
falling off bikes: exciting but scary. You
will remember the line of red lights
stretching into the distance for a long
time.
Things calm down after the first feed
station at Mortagne-au-Perche.
My ‘schedule’ is to ride to Carhaix,
arrive by midnight and sleep at the
Photo: Tim Wainwright
control. The dormitory facilities are
basic, the queuing system chaotic
with many tired riders looking for a
bed. Take ear plugs and a pair of eye
shields; if you’re lucky you will sleep
despite the snoring, farting and clipclop
of cycling shoes.
My aim for the second day would
be to ride to Tinténiac, sleep and
continue to the finish with options
for sleeping at Mortagne-au-Perche
or Dreux.
You really don’t need a route sheet
or GPS device as the route is clearly
marked. I will take a small digital
camera and look to use a second cycle
computer set to kilometres to judge
distances between controls. It would,
however, be interesting to have a GPS
device to download average speed,
total climbing, route profile, calorie
consumption, etc, after the event for
posterity.
What you ride and how you ride
the event in the end is up to you. One
thing for certain is that it takes a lot
of time and effort to prepare yourself
for what is a long, long ride. Take care
during the first hour or so, ride within
yourself, don’t be tempted to chase
down every passing bunch and don’t
spend too long at controls or messing
about along the way.
It maybe a well written cliché, but
don’t look at the event in its entirety,
divide it into manageable stages and
just concentrate on the next control.
It’s surprising how after a short rest
and some food you will recover
enough to make it to the next control.
Photo: Tim Wainwright
Matt Chamber (right)
riding the Mille Cymru,
2010.
Tom Jackson riding El
Supremo’s UpperTea
200 in February.
Matt Chambers
As a long-distance novice in 2007 I
finished PBP about an hour out of time,
but I used the experience to finish 1400k
and 1000k rides subsequently. Here’s
some things I see through my hindsight
goggles:
The event is all about sleep if you’re
a slower rider. Read all those Steve
Abraham articles about it, and make
sure you start the ride without any sleep
debt. Different riders seem to manage
on very different amounts, but it was the
one thing that I was short of on the ride.
Think about having a schedule.
Some people hate them, but I’ve found
that I’m more focused if I know roughly
where I’ll be at various stages. It also
helps keep the days distinct – le retour
was a bit of a blur for me in 07.
Clothing-wise, whatever got you
round a wet-cold 600 should be fine.
Don’t assume it will be much warmer
than in Britain, fatigue on the third
night can make it hard to stay warm.
Spare pair of shorts (you can wash-n-dry
the ‘other’ pair in five minutes on the
road) are a minimum, other spares are
probably personal choice. Good hygiene
prevents a lot of problems ‘down below’.
Lighting isn’t worth fretting about
or spending £100s on; the road surfaces
are much better than on British routes,
little traffic to dazzle you, and there’s
almost no steep descending. A cheap
headtorch is perfect for spotting the
direction arrows.
Queueing for food is the biggest
delay at controls, particularly outbound,
so take every opportunity to use shops/
cafés you pass. Try to carry spare food.
We all did it, but anyway: don’t ride
flat out on the first night!
I was never jealous of riders who had
avoided the extra weight of mudguards.
Try to finish at least two hours earlier
than I did. And enjoy it. N
48 Arrivée Spring 2011

preparing for paris-brest-paris
HEADING IN HERE
Sheila Simpson
We have some basic PBP advice in the
2011 AUK Handbook, which I would urge
all entrants to read. For the PBP virgin,
the most important pre-PBP decision
could be:
Choosing your PBP start time
This depends on where you are coming
from and what you are aiming for:
If you are already cycling regularly
each week, have completed a Super
Randonneur series previously, and just
want to complete PBP, no special training
should be necessary, though most riders
increase their mileage in PBP year.
Otherwise you will need to start
building up now for your 200 km.
With qualifying rides in the first half of
the year, you need to be experienced
in riding in poor weather conditions
(though avoid extremes, especially ice
and snow on a two wheeled machine
if you can). Likewise, whilst PBP is not
a Grimpeur (super hilly) event, it is
not flat throughout and you will need
experience of riding in hills. If PBP
doesn’t seem hilly on the way out, it will
on the way back! If you are not yet an
experienced long-distance cyclist then
you might want to take professional
advice from a cycling coach.
There is a choice of start times
I have ridden in all three groups and
found that they all have their advantages
and their disadvantages! You will need to
consider:
1. Will I be happy just to complete
PBP, riding with the Tourists? (sub-90-
hour ride, starts from 18:30 Sunday 21st
August, the most popular start.
2. Am I a hard rider who would like the
kudos of riding with Randonneurs?
(sub-84-hour ride, starts from 04:45 on
Monday 22nd August).
3. Am I a hard riding lifelong cyclist
who can ride with the Vedettes? (sub-
80-hour ride, start 17:00 on Sunday 21st
August, no upper speed limit).
4. Am I a top 24-hour time trial rider,
hoping to win the race? (that’s the
Vedettes too). (Tandems, trikes and
recumbents usually start with the
Tourists or Randonneurs and are set off
before the main field.)
If your answer to 1 is YES, you’re
aiming to ride with the Tourists: You
start by riding through the first night
– not what most of the events in the
qualifying series will have prepared you
for! It is difficult to do a fast time as most
people find they have to take time out
for a sleep on the second night. Also,
you can spend a lot of time queuing
in crowded controls (not as bad as it
sounds; you might find yourself looking
forward to it). But a fast time is not what
you’re after. You want that added cushion
of the full 90-hour ride (you’re paying for
90 hours; you want your money’s worth).
If your answer to 2 is YES, you’re
with the Randonneurs: You set off in
the early morning, which sounds OK
until you consider that you have to get
up, get to the start, have breakfast, sign
on, and wait in line before 04:45 – ie you
might get some sleep, not as much as at
first sight, but just enough to be able to
ride through that second PBP night and
thus do a fairly fast time. So, during your
qualifying rides you need to be thinking
about whether you function well with an
early start time. This Randonneur field
is much smaller than the Tourist so you
can move more quickly through controls.
Tourists will eventually begin to get in
your way but controllers usually spot this
and wave you through as priority.
If your answer to 3 is YES, you’re
with the Vedettes: The group is small
(a few hundred) and you can make your
way through controls quickly. For the
super heroes, the rule of thumb is: it is
difficult to do a sub-60 hour time without
personal helpers. This is because controls
are large and it takes a fair amount of
time to navigate between signing in,
cafeteria and ablutions.
Unless you have proved that you can
go for a UK record, by riding a 480-mile
or more 24-hour TT, or previously riding
a 60-hour unassisted PBP, I would say
that your personal helpers just get in
the way of the real cyclists. But if you are
a top cyclist with a chance of honours
then your helpers will be welcome and
everyone will celebrate your successes.
If that sounds nonsensical, think about
this:
PBP is three different events
rolled into one, different rules apply to
different abilities, and different amounts
of respect will be given to different riders
for different reasons!
If your answer to 4 is YES: I’d advise
making contact with regular Vedette
riders, now. You’ll need allies in that front
group! The vedettes usually set off in two
groups, with known international stars
in the first group, so make sure that our
Correspondant, Peter Marshall, knows
you are riding and has informed ACP that
you are one of our stars!
How will you know which start time to
choose?
By your qualifying rides. If you qualify
in the UK (ie not on super-flat routes),
you should be able to ride PBP as a
Tourist, even if you can only scrape in a
600 at 40 hours. PBP might be painful,
and without much sleep, but you have
the ability to get there – if you also have
the determination and everyone will
need that.
You need an 11-hour 200, 22-hour
400 and 33-hour 600, for a comfortable
PBP with the Randonneurs. This was
the early 80s wisdom – we’re riding
more lanes and hills in the UK now but
‘I have
ridden in
all three
groups and
found that
they all
have their
advantages
and their
disadvantages!’
Sheila and Jim Hopper
completing their
seventh PBP, 2007.
PBP is lanier and hillier too (swings and
roundabouts)! You can add an hour to
the above times and still have the choice
of riding as a Randonneur or a Tourist –
but if you can’t do a 34-hour 600, you’re
pushing your luck as a Randonneur!
You need a sub-10 hour 200, sub-
20 hour 400, sub-30 hour 600, for a
comfortable Vedette ride but you will
also need to be capable of that 480-mile
24-hour ride in order to stay with the
front group for long!
London-Edinburgh-London riders,
who have not yet ridden PBP, may need
to revise their game plan because, unlike
our Super Randonneur series, LEL was
not devised to train you for PBP!
Realistic assessment of your riding
time
You won’t believe how much time you
will lose in controls. As an average or
slow rider, at a main control, you could
be getting your card stamped in one
building, having a sit down meal in
another and carrying out ablutions in
another. Unbelievably that is usually
an hour gone. Make sure that you have
footwear in which you can walk safely on
slippy floors and stairs.
Don’t rely on getting as much
sleep as the LEL riders. For three hours’
sleep it’s a good strategy to allow an
hour beforehand for your supper and
preparation, then sleep, then an hour
for breakfast and ride preparation –
that’s five hours gone. Personally, I have
never stipulated a three-hour alarm
time, finding it better to oversleep than
be awakened from deep sleep. Most
people find that the best five hours to
waste is between 0100 and 0600 when
they would not be riding at their fastest
anyway.
Slow riders (and those aiming for
a fast time) crash out for the odd 20
minutes in the restaurants or at the
roadside. Make sure that you carry a
space blanket, or something similar (bin
bag), if you plan to sleep at all – just in
case the dormitory is full when you get
there! The record breakers, of course,
don’t sleep.
N
Arrivée Spring 2011 49

preparing for paris-brest-paris
Photo: Tim Wainwright
Any which way
Steve Abraham
Tim asked me to do an article for
Arrivée about how to ride the Paris-
Brest-Paris, so, for what it’s worth,
here is a taste of what I’ve learned
from two continuous decades of SRs
and four PBPs. I’ll start with the basic,
unavoidable facts.
First of all, sleep
As far as sleep goes, the best preparation
for the ride is to get as much sleep as you
can, at least in the month before the ride,
or at the very least, in the week before
the ride. Sleep is similar to food, in that
you won’t be able to function without
enough of it. I’d technically be wrong to
tell you that you can bank your sleep so
that you have enough to get yourself
through X number of nights without
feeling sleepy, but it is a very good way of
thinking of it.
In actual fact, you deprive yourself of
sleep and then pay back your sleep debt
when you sleep. If you are doing very
well, your sleep debt will be about 15
hours when you wake up in the morning,
which will increase all the time you are
awake until you sleep again to pay back
that sleep debt. Assuming you are awake
for 16 hours a day, your 15-hour sleep
debt will now be a 21-hour sleep debt.
Sleep for eight hours and it will be down
to 15 again. A very rough guide is that
you need two hours of sleep for each
hour you are awake. I say 15 hours is very
good, because it accumulates throughout
‘It’s a very
hard thing
to judge
and even
with as
much
practice as
I’ve had, I
never get
it exactly
right all the
time.’
Steve Abraham, riding
a very wet Mad Jack
Fuller–John Seviour
Memorial grimpeur,
2011.
your lifetime, almost everyone has a
much higher sleep debt. The lower your
sleep debt, the easier it will be for you to
stay awake. So, as I say, get as much sleep
as you can before the ride.
If you struggle to sleep and feel wide
awake all the time, you probably have
a low sleep debt. If you feel tired all the
time (especially in the daytime) you
probably have a high sleep debt and
may not be getting a very good sleep
when you do sleep because of something
such as sleep apnoea, where you stop
breathing while asleep and wake up very
briefly, almost certainly, you won’t know
you’re doing it.
Always try to sleep at the same time
of day (or night) and maintain a regular
sleeping pattern. When you ride the
event itself, unless you’re one of the very
fast sub-two-day riders, you will almost
certainly need some sleep. The best time
is when you are normally asleep. If you’re
only intending on a few hours, then try to
go as far into the night as you can before
you get drowsy. It’s very hard to get right
and very easy to think that you’ll get to
the next control before you get sleepy.
It’s a very hard thing to judge and even
with as much practice as I’ve had, I never
get it exactly right all the time. I’d say get
as much sleep as you can get away with
without getting behind the time limit.
You begin the ride with no time in
hand and all of the distance to go, so if
you start the next day with half an hour in
hand and have just over half the distance
to go, you’re better off than you were at
the start. It’s often very tempting to try
and get ahead of the game by skimping
on sleep, but if you are fast enough, use
what time you have for sleep. You’ll go
much faster if you’re awake than if you
feel dog tired. That’s not to say that if
you feel wide awake then you should get
going.
Taking a midday nap can be a very
good plan on PBP too. You’d avoid the
midday sun and the midday sleep will
help you get much further into the night
before you feel sleepy again. There’s less
chance of oversleeping in a midday nap
too. There’s also the added benefit that
most other people will be out on the
road, leaving the beds at controls free, so
possibly saving time on queuing.
You must learn your own sleeping
patterns, what times of day you feel
sleepy, what times you feel awake and
plan your riding time around that. Forget
what time of day it is. Have a doze when
you feel sleepy, even a 10-minute nap can
keep you going for hours if you have a
low sleep debt.
Now food
There’s lots of advice and so on about
diet and what is good and bad to eat. I
take very little notice and eat what I like
and find that I eat what a lot of people
say is the right kind of thing. If you prefer
50 Arrivée Spring 2011

preparing for paris-brest-paris
HEADING IN HERE
to eat one thing instead of another, there
must be a reason. My body knows what
it needs so I tend to eat pasta, biscuits,
bread, fruit and other carbohydrate foods.
Sometimes I go for protein, but only if I
want it. I’d never tell anyone what is best
for them to eat, I say eat what you feel
like eating. The experts seem to say avoid
meat and alcohol. I have eaten steak and
roast pork on a PBP. I’ve even had wine
with my breakfast. But this was a very
tiny part of my food and drink intake. The
wine did cost me about 2mph for the
next 30 miles, but hey, it was my birthday
and I still finished in plenty of time! Your
body will tell you what it needs. There
was beer at Brest in 2007 and I’m hoping
for the same this time around.
That pretty much covers the
unavoidable facts. You need to eat and
your riding style and usual diet dictate
what you should eat. I think that you
know what works best for you better than
I do. Sleep is inevitable, even if it’s only in
preparation.
My best tip for riding PBP is to take it
easy at the start. There is the very good
adage that you race to Brest and tour
back to Paris. This is a very good way of
riding PBP. But! Even if you’re racing, you
need to pace yourself. The hardest thing
on PBP is to not start too fast. It starts
with speeches from the local royalty.
You’re lined up in the street before you
start. Crowds cheering, motorbike outriders,
a countdown start, fireworks and
much celebration. Then they’re off!
Ever so easy to get carried away by
it all. They’re starting a 1200km ride as if
they were riding a club 10 mile TT! It turns
to a road race. But look at them at the
end of the ride. Not so keen then! Take it
easy, enjoy the crowds. The enjoyment
will carry you and I bet that anyone who’s
never ridden PBP before will look at their
computer and be astonished to see that
30 miles have just gone by without them
really noticing. It’s not uncommon for
people to do their fastest 200k in the first
200k of PBP. Partly because of the lack
of controls, which means no stopping,
but also the getting caught up in all
the excitement. It’s still fun if you take it
steady, just much less tiring. It’s not as
much fun as going fast at the start, but
at least your fun will last for much more
of the ride if you’re not tired because you
hammered it at the start.
Pacing yourself is about the most
important thing to do. Taking it easier
often means that you feel less inclined
to hang around at controls, which saves
you much more time than you gain from
trying to ride fast. If you’re going to ride
fast, do it before you stop for sleep or at
the end of the ride, but never at the start.
The fastest way to recover is not having
anything to recover from.
Another thing about riding faster
than steady is that it’s a very good way
of making you sleepy. Muscle building
exercise produces sleep-inducing
hormones, so if you ride hard all day,
even with a low sleep debt, you’ll feel
more sleepy during the night. Sure, you’ll
have more time for sleep from riding
faster, but your sleepiness will be greater
than the time you’ll gain for sleep.
Logistics
This is really an article of two halves. The
first half is pretty much hard fact. This
is now the second half, which you will
really have to work out for yourself, but I
can only point at what I do or have done
over the years. Each individual has their
own needs, ideas, plans and reasons for
riding PBP.
Getting your card swiped and sorting
out the paperwork is always quick and
very efficient on PBP. Food at controls can
be different though.
Queuing for half an hour isn’t unheard
of when it’s busy. It’s generally busier
going out and much faster service
coming back. You don’t have to use
controls though. There are plenty of very
good cafés en route. I like to use cafés
going out and controls coming back.
The food at controls isn’t special. It’s
convenient sometimes though. I think
it’s best to be flexible and look at what is
happening and do what is best for you.
I find that the food in local restaurants
en route give faster service and better
food than most PBP controls for about
the same money. On the other hand, if
the control is quiet, the controls are still a
good place for a feed.
As I said earlier about sleep, a midday
nap is a good idea if you feel sleepy
midday. Never try to sleep if you don’t
feel sleepy, you’re wasting all those
hormones that help you stay awake. But if
you do feel sleepy in the daytime, then it’s
a good plan to catch some shut eye while
the beds are all free and maybe escape
the strength-sapping midday sun (or
torrential rainfall if it’s like the last PBP).
Lots of people have different ideas
about what the best way is to ride PBP.
There are the ‘race to Brest, tour to Paris’
and there are the ‘pace yourself all the
way’ schools of thought. Some say ride
fast and gain sleep time. Others say ride
steady and don’t get so tired so you
don’t need so much sleep. But therein
lies balance between the two. Those that
pace themselves still stop for sleep and
food. Those that race and like to stop at
controls still ride for long periods at a
time. You have to find your own pace,
your own times of day when you’re fast
and awake, slow and steady, or just need
to sleep a while.
Some like to commit to a buddy and
share the experience, others ride alone
all the time and others ride with different
people at different times, or sometimes
ride alone. There is no way better than
any other. Each has its own drawbacks
and merits.
‘The wine
did cost
me about
2mph for
the next
30 miles,
but hey,
it was my
birthday
and I still
finished in
plenty of
time! ’
Steve Abraham
hopes to get a group
together to ride to
the start of PBP. Start
at Milton Keynes
on Wednesday 17
August. 200k ride
to Newhaven for
Newhaven-Dieppe
ferry. Then two (100k)
day rides to Paris,
arriving on Friday
19th. Same thing
coming home. Two
100k days from PBP
to Dieppe, starting
on Friday 26th and
catching the ferry at
Dieppe on Saturday
27th, then home.
Same with the bike. It’s a trade off
between comfort and speed. One thing
I will say is stick with what you know,
where the bike is concerned. Beware the
new. Do at least one 200-mile test on
your PBP bike, at least before you go, if
not in qualifying. Just so you know that
it’s reliable and comfortable.
Lighting
You don’t need super-duper lights for
PBP, it’s not a technical, twisty route along
narrow, wooded, bumpy, hilly lanes like
a Wessex SR series, but if you have them
and want to use them, then it makes
night riding a lot more fun.
Preparation
Once you’ve qualified, you have about
two months until PBP, what to do? I say
keep night riding to a minimum to keep
your sleep debt down. There are two
24hr time trials before PBP. Riding one (or
both if you’re really keen) of those will be
good preparation. If not then maybe one
more 600k ride, even if it’s a permanent.
Other than that, some good solid riding.
Weekend tours or even week tours if you
have the time. Lots of steady miles, but
not losing sleep. Time trialling and other
racing would be handy to get your speed
up, but I’d still do some good, long all-day
rides to keep the miles ticking over. Don’t
overdo it, just as many steady miles as
you can without tiring yourself out or
getting behind with sleep. The steady
miles will help you sleep better also.
That’s about it really. I could go on
about my own tactics that have worked
over the years, but that is only what
has worked for me personally. We’re
all different, have different strengths,
weaknesses, dietary habits and sleeping
patterns. Different motivations. Different
ideas and different things that can keep
up our spirits when the ride turns a bit
grim. My way of riding is only my way.
You have to find your own and you’re in
a much better position than I am to find
out what works for you, what you like
to eat, when it’s best for you to sleep,
whether you want to ride alone and slow,
in a wheel-sucking group at speed or
whatever.
Don’t be shy of changing your game
plan mid-ride either. I do it all the time.
You can’t predict everything that might
happen on a ride. All you have to do is try
to finish the ride in time. The weather, the
way your ride is going, sleeping patterns
and available food or facilities can alter
a plan. Some like to use schedules, but if
you get in front or behind schedule, then
it’s no crime to reschedule because it’s
not going how you expected.
Now never mind reading all this. Get
out on your bike, get the miles in and I’ll
see you somewhere near Paris sometime
in August this year. You can buy me
a beer if you like. Hey, it’ll be near my
birthday again…
N
Arrivée Spring 2011 51

preparing for paris-brest-paris
Tim Wainwright
For me, long-distance riding is all about
comfort on the bike. It doesn’t matter
how fit or fast a rider you are, if you are
suffering major discomfort, your speed
will reduce and your mental state will
rapidly go downhill. PBP brings its own
set of problems many of you will not
have experienced before. French road
surfaces in general are pretty good,
far superior to the Third World state of
our roads in the UK, but French roads
often deteriorate to British standards in
small towns and villages. As the event
progresses towards the latter stages,
your body will be aching, your feet will
feel vibration from every little bump in
the road, you will be shifting around on
the saddle trying to find a position that
does not hurt and your hands just add to
the pain. Factor in the sleep deprivation
and you get one unhappy rider.
Hot-foot is a major pain problem; if
you suffer with it you will know what I
mean. Your neck muscles may get so
fatigued they cannot hold your head in
position. You will see people riding with
their chin resting on their upper chest
and others with neck braces or inner
tubes tied between their helmets and
waist to keep their head up.
An old cliché: Prevention is better
than cure. For your qualifying rides
put into practice everything you can to
help your comfort on the bike. If you’ve
finished your 400 or 600 with any of
the symptoms mentioned, imagine
how you will feel after nearly four days
in the saddle. You have time to make
amendments and make PBP a ride to
remember, not just for the pain you rode
through.
I normally ride on 23 or 25mm
tyres, but for long distance comfort,
you can’t beat wider ones; you notice
the difference in comfort immediately.
All right, they may be slightly slower
but outright speed is not what you
want on PBP. My Roberts audax bike
was designed to take 35mm tyres with
mudguards and dual pivot Shimano
brakes, not cantilevers. For three of my
PBPs I used Michelin World Tour 700x35
folders and though they looked heavy,
only weighed 330 grams each. The shock
absorption and comfort was well worth a
slight loss of rolling resistance. Although
the Michelins are now not available, fast
rolling, lightweight folding tyres worth
considering are Panaracer Pasella 32 or
35mm from St John Street Cycles or Spa
Cycles, and Schwalbe Marathon Racer 30
or 35mm or Schwalbe Kojak 35mm.
Points of contact
Hands take a battering. It is not unusual
to find riders still suffering with hand
problems months after PBP. After my
first one, I couldn’t hold a cup straight
for months. The answer is to heavily pad
your bars. I use two layers of gel padding
under the bar tape and use padded track
mitts. Result: no more numb hands.
The constant pressure of feet on the
pedals can result in extreme pain. It feels
like your feet are on fire, but in actual
fact your feet are not hot. Stopping only
gives relief until you start riding again. I
bought a pair of plastic/fibre Scholl shoe
inserts which have a pronounced arch for
the foot. They were expensive at about
£60, but worth every penny now that
I don’t suffer any more. If you get hot
foot for the first time, try this tip which
stopped my intense pain early into an
Easter Arrow. Roll some paper napkins
or a cotton handkerchief into a sausage
shape and place under your arch.
I’ve never found a comfortable longdistance
saddle and I’ve tried them all:
Brooks (fine up to 200k), plastic ones,
gel ones, ones with slots in (the soft and
tender parts get squashed into the hole
– agony). Currently I’m using a new Rolls
San Marco with Ti rails. Without a lot of
attention to hygiene, I would soon suffer
saddle sores. Quality shorts with a good
insert are essential and Gore’s top of the
range with elastic inserts are very good.
I’ve tried the more expensive Assos but
noticed no difference, except to my
wallet. I change my shorts every 300k on
PBP and apply zinc and castor oil cream
to my skin, after either a good wash or
cleaning with baby wipes. I’ve recently
started using a new product, Chamois
Glide, recommended by ultra marathon
That’s me, winching
my way up the road to
Tregaron on the Elenith
300.
Photo: Dave Pountney
‘For your
qualifying
rides
put into
practice
everything
you can to
help your
comfort on
the bike.’
cyclist Ken Bonner from Canada. It is a
balm, looks like shaving soap in a plastic
case and is applied to either skin or
shorts. Can’t say how effective it is as
I’ve yet to try it on very long rides, but it
could be just what I need for prevention.
Available on-line and from major bike
shops.
If you get to the point where you
can’t sit on the saddle any longer, a tube
of Lanacane will help relieve the pain.
This is an anaesthetic cooling cream and
it will deaden the pain for an hour or so,
enough to ride pain-free until the effect
wears off. Creams such as Sudocrem are
OK for grazes, but won’t help with saddle
pain. I’ve also used Ibuprofen gel with
some success on saddle contact areas,
but definitely don’t use if the skin is
broken – you will jump up and down on
a ten-minute war dance if you do.
A vision I can easily recall is when
sitting in a roadside café about 100k
from the finish, watching rider after rider
coasting down the slight slope, either
sitting on one buttock, or standing out of
the saddle.
If your bars are cluttered with lights,
computer, GPS and Map-trap I would
suggest for PBP only you leave the Maptrap
at home. The route is well signed
and the only time you might need the
routesheet is if you go off-course or to
check how far it is to the next control.
Just keep it in your back pocket or
saddlebag. French routesheets are not
like AUK ones, with R at T and SO at
X, they are just a list of road numbers,
towns and distances to follow.
Keep to the golden rule and don’t
assume the rider in front knows where
he/she is going, make your own
decisions where to turn. In 1999, Vedette
Richard Hallett (check him out at RCUK
took off from the start at great speed,
following a large, fast group for miles
into the dark. Eventually they realized
they were off-course, the group split
into different directions, no one really
knowing which way was correct. By the
time he was back on route, the leading
riders from the Tourists, starting two
hours behind, had caught him. N
Left: Murdo MacLeod
finished in 2007 with a
neck brace.
Right: Floor mosaics
at Michelin House in
Fulham Road, Chelsea.
52 Arrivée Spring 2011

preparing for paris-brest-paris
HEADING IN HERE
Jim Hopper (trike)
To ride the PBP is a personal event and so
you must ride to your own programme.
Do not make a fixed schedule as this will
tie you down, just be flexible and take
things as they come. I never make any
sleeping arrangements as a stop that
is booked could mean that you do not
want to sleep then, but some miles up
the road you may feel tired and you will
have to stop again.
Alway carry some food in the bag.
Some controls, especially the first one on
the return, can be crowded and the toilet
facilities cannot be believed; get your
card stamped and go to a café along
the route instead. There will be plenty of
places open both day and night.
Do not carry too much clothing. If you
get wet you will always dry out. Last time
I only swapped my shorts for the return
trip. Riders get wet and then ride on to
dry their clothes before putting them
in the bag, but once they have dried
out seldom bother to change as they
are now dry. Remember that nothing is
going to keep you totally dry, so don’t
expect it.
Start time
For me I find the last start, in the early
morning is the best. At least the ride
begins at a time when you are usually
getting ready to start the day. The night
time start is usually when you are getting
ready to go to bed. For this you have to
give up some time so you do not have
the full 90 hours.
Tools and spares
I only carry the stuff I would on an event
over here. Each control has a mechanic
and a spares shop so you are really better
catered for than on a domestic event.
No bag drop
This is supposed to be a ride testing your
ability and self-sufficiency. You are also
relying on other people getting their bit
right.
Bike used?
I use a touring-style bike; a racing type
will probably be stiffer and have no
arrangements for mudguards. Both can
have uncomfortable results. You can fix
your bag and lights properly on a touring
bike and this too gives greater mental
surety. Bouncing lights and a swaying
Jim Hopper’s ‘barrow’ is banned!
bag are not what you want. Take a bag
that is not too small as you do not want
everything crammed in so that you
cannot find things easily, but do not take
a huge one as your gear will become
jumbled. Everything in your bag will
become mixed up anyway, so you need a
bag to be able to turn your rubbish over
easily, but not too big.
Do not skimp on tyres. Good quality
that roll well. I have used many types, so
have no preference.
GPS/HRM?
I thought it was a holiday?
Were you fit enough on the day?
I have always been fit enough, but
perhaps the year I rode with a broken
collar bone, I could have been fitter.
The ‘do nots’
Do not fit a new saddle for the event.
Do not wear new shorts.
Do not wear new shoes.
Do not wear new mitts.
Do not use new wheels.
Do not experiment with fancy food.
Do not rely on anyone but yourself.
Everything like this should be proved
beforehand.
The ‘do’s’ (for me anyway)
Take a few days getting there, ride out.
To arrive at the last minute is not the best
preparation. You will have time to get
used to the, hopefully, warmer weather,
the different food, riding on the ‘wrong’
side of the road and the ambience.
Understand the basic words on the road
signs and the ‘calls’ in a mixed bunch. Be
prepared for different styles of riding.
Not all nationalities go at the hills as we
tend to do.
You will be asked lots of silly
questions about your bike, diet,
preparation, schedule, clothing, gearing,
lighting, etc. In the early part of the ride
this can be a bit irritating, but later on,
not so. It is not the considered etiquette
to thump them, but you can get away
with being grumpy or not understanding
them.
Arrive at least a day before the cycle
check and have a ride to cover the last
hour or so of the inward route. This could
be helpful as you will be tired at the
end and a recce will help you to identify
landmarks where to turn, etc.
Use a drinking bottle with a cap to
cover the nozzle. Last time there was
plenty of tummy trouble and I feel
some of this could have been caused
by regular drinking from dirty bottles
that had been splashed with roadside
unmentionables due to the constant
rain.
This is the big event for most riders,
so, do not skimp on money. After all the
trials and tribulations of qualifying, do
not ruin everything for a few quid. N
Here’s a collection of cycling- and health-related books
which can help you on the road to peak fitness. Simon
Doughty’s The Long Distance Cyclists’ Handbook is
probably the most informative book you’ll find anywhere
for long distance riders and is packed with good ideas.
Simon was for many years an AUK member, one of the
original ‘Brindisi Seven’, PBP rider and LEL organiser
(alongside the late Bernard Mawson), but was sadly mown
down by a motorist as he cycled to work in Sheffield. To
the best of my knowledge, he is living permanently in
a nursing home now. All the books are available from
Cordee Ltd at www.cordee.co.uk.
Mad Jack Fuller John Seviour Memorial grimpeur
Photo: Tim Wainwright
Arrivée Spring 2011 53

preparing for paris-brest-paris
PBP, endurance, and the en
Rod Dalitz
People imagine all kinds of
mystique about PBP, but really
it is just like another 600 –
except double the distance,
with huge numbers of cyclists,
onlookers, and helpers at controls, and
much more excitement, due to the
French enthusiasm. For many riders, PBP
will be their first ride in France, or even
out of their home country.
Much advice has been given about
the amount of training needed to
complete Paris-Brest-Paris, but the
character of the training is more
important than the number of miles
covered on a bike.
There are plenty of stories about
riders who have done the minimum, for
example Alan Pringle, who at one point
had completed two PBPs with only one
200km more than the minimum eight
qualifiers. I have done more, but only up
to 300k more than the qualifiers in any
PBP year.
That is not to say that anyone can
get started in PBP year and expect to
succeed without any preparation. To
introduce my point of view will take a
few words, but I would like to assure you
that my words come from many years of
reading and thought, and are supported
by experience – both my own, and
others.
Running probably provides a more
difficult challenge than cycling, since
for one thing it is impossible to coast
while running, even on a gentle downhill
there is effort, jolting, stress on the
muscles and joints. Everyone knows
about running, from the television sports
even if you don’t do it yourself. Lessons
learned from runners largely read across
to cycling. I have completed PBP five
times, and LEL once; also, I have run
52 races of at least marathon distance,
including the 55-mile London to
Brighton three times. I think a reasonable
guideline is to compare the marathon
of 42km to a randonée of 200km, both
are roughly the dividing point between
ordinary and ultra. So PBP is comparable
to running a 100-miler, the West
Highland Way Race, or better the Tour de
Mont Blanc race.
A sprinter may run 100m in 10
seconds. That is hardly time enough
to really need to breathe, though you
will be breathing heavily at the finish.
Your heart will speed up, but it hardly
has time to make much difference, all
the glycogen and oxygen really has to
be there in your leg muscles already.
‘I think a
reasonable
guideline is
to compare
the
marathon
of 42km to
a randonée
of 200km,
both are
roughly the
dividing
point
between
ordinary
and ultra.’
Rod, camping before
the start.
Below: Control at
Villaines le Juhel.
There is no sense in training over shorter
distances.
A mile needs lots of breathing. Your
heart and lungs work as hard as they can.
Running a mile needs preparation, like
food and drink beforehand, but no one
needs to eat or drink during the race.
After the race, your legs may feel as if
they are on fire, the lactic acid needs to
be flushed away, your body demands
rest to recover. This is comparable to a
short time trial, say five or ten miles on
the bike.
A half marathon of 13 miles is difficult
to run without drinking, especially if
it is warm. The running race generally
provides drink stations at four, seven,
and 10 miles, which for a fast runner
is every 15 to 20 minutes. But, no one
should need to eat. This is like a fast
club run, a couple of hours out, take
your drink bottle, maybe a café stop for
replenishment.
For distances over a marathon, you
really do need to replace carbohydrates.
Few cyclists would consider riding
200km without feeding! Also, if it is warm
and you drink a lot, you really do need
to replace electrolytes – that is, mainly
salt. The absolute minimum is a good
sports energy drink, which should take
care of the carbs and the electrolytes,
otherwise you may experience cramps.
I can positively recommend Succeed
electrolyte capsules, they are not much
more than ‘Lite salt’ with a pinch of
sodium bicarb, but very convenient
to carry and take. Look at www.
succeedscaps.com/main_scaps.html (no
financial interest!) – cheap to order from
the USA. Barratt’s Refreshers are a good
source of sodium and sugar, genuinely
refreshing, but hard to find.
In the UK, many people get
electrolytes wrong – there is much to
learn from athletes from a hot, humid
climate. I had to learn for myself what
symptoms and feelings tell me I am low
on electrolytes, and how important they
are. Puffy hands are one sign. Particularly
significant is feeling shivery even when
the temperature is warm, and nausea.
A bowl of soup with plenty of salt fixes
a lot, similarly the all-day breakfast –
it is good to reflect on the essential
components of food: carbohydrates,
protein, sugars, electrolytes, fluid. Fats
are also important: 10 per cent fat in your
diet is good, if your small intestine is low
on fat, you will feel nauseous. One of the
really good stomach settlers is the plain
yoghurt ‘Sucré.’
Now we get into less well-known
territory. For events over 24 hours, you
need to consider sleep. You may want
some mental stimulation, depending
on how boring the scenery is, especially
at night. A companion to talk to, or a
radio or tape player, otherwise the eyes
start playing tricks. 400km is, I think,
the hardest distance, since you begin to
need sleep, but there usually isn’t much
time for it. A 600km generally includes a
place to put your head down, and there
is generally enough spare time to use it.
Actually you don’t need a lot of sleep, or
even a comfortable bed. Ninety minutes
appears optimum, two REM cycles,
long enough to get your eyes working
properly again. If you are uncomfortable,
it is easier to wake! A space blanket is all
you need, don’t waste time queuing for
a mattress. A small beer may help you
to relax! Otherwise, Orangina has the
carbonation and all the benefits of fruit
juice without sweeteners.
Here is one which few people think
about. The mechanism which speeds
up your pulse, gets your metabolism
into top gear, and generally keeps you
excited is easy enough: we refer to it as
adrenaline, though the proper medical
name is ephedrine. There are a set of
related chemicals produced by the
endocrine system. What happens when
you take part in a long event, longer
than you have ever done before? For a
start, your poor old adrenal gland has to
work overtime, pumping out more and
more adrenaline, to keep everything else
working well. How long can your adrenal
gland keep it up? What supplies does it
need to do its job? How can you train
it? After all, you can’t see it at work, you
can’t measure its size, as you can biceps
or quads. You really have no way to
evaluate how well it is coping, or even of
judging what the result of it not coping
might be.
The real recovery issue after a major
challenge such as a 600 or 1200 isn't the
muscle damage so much as the fatigue
to the endocrine system – manifested by
symptoms such as constant tiredness,
elevated heart-rate on up-hills, inability
to complete interval sessions or long
rides, weird eating/sleeping patterns, cuts
healing more slowly. I have felt that I had
wooden legs, and slowed quickly on hills.
You may feel unnaturally greedy, eating
anything available. The first time it may
take six weeks to recover, after a few times
you may take three weeks. But a longer
distance will knock you back to six weeks.
54 Arrivée Spring 2011

preparing for paris-brest-paris
HEADING IN HERE
docrine system
I know of no way to build up the
endocrine system other than by using it.
That is, hitting it fairly hard, for extended
periods. However, there seems to be no
reason why that should be on the bike,
or running, or any other specific exercise
– just something demanding. I suspect
mountaineering is one of the best
activities, because that combines long
days of exposure to the weather with
unexpected problems.
Start as you expect to finish
A good rule of thumb: you can generally
do up to double what you are used to,
without discovering interesting new
ways to suffer. There are many aspects
of longer rides which might cause you
trouble. Anything which begins to irritate
after a certain distance will increase
exponentially to become unbearable
after double. That includes thirst, blisters,
chafing, pressure points, and weather.
The PBP qualifiers are a very good way
to ramp up, but are not a substitute for
building endurance and experience over
several years. A point about pacing: start
as you expect to finish! It is too easy to
burn yourself out.
As well as physical toughness, there
are a few other angles. I have always
been impressed with the Olympic
athletes who seem to recover from major
accidents and injuries so quickly. Think
of Lance Armstrong, after his cancer. I
used to joke that the cancer had burned
out the part of his brain which felt pain,
but the truth is that he learned a lot
about motivations – ‘pain is temporary,
quitting is forever.’ Those guys know
what they should be able to do, and are
not about to put up with anything less.
More important is their determination
to overcome any minor obstacle like
a broken handlebar stem, or a broken
finger. That attitude asks ‘How are we
going to overcome this?’ rather than
assuming it is a show-stopper.
For PBP, try to give your points of
contact a rest as often as you can. Swing
your arms to relax your shoulders. Stand
on the pedals uphill, shift your bum
to the side and rest your thigh on the
saddle coasting downhill. Even on the
flat, you can stand on the pedals for five
strokes, then coast, then repeat on the
other side, a few times. That can make all
the difference, avoiding numbness which
may last for months.
What you don’t need for PBP is high
speed or a smart new bike. I have heard
people say a new bike will make it all
‘What you
don’t need
for PBP is
high speed
or a smart
new bike.’
Below:
You don’t need a smart
new bike to ride PBP.
easy, but they still have to push it with
the same old legs. What we do need
is knowledge, about our bodies and
our minds, but also about the bike and
repairing it, and about our equipment.
If you ride your qualifiers on the same
bike, you build lots of experience with it.
You should be able to repair a puncture
in the dark in the rain, without forgetting
to find and remove the thorn or flake of
glass which caused it.You should know
that you need a spare light, maybe a
Petzl Tikka, to change the blown bulb or
the dying batteries in your main light.
Perhaps you need a backup light for fast
descents, and you need to experiment
with setting the beam to pick out the
signs (lovely PBP reflective arrows!) and
see far enough ahead. You need to be
confident in your waterproofs and know
to put them on early, before you get
damp. Riding PBP you will not have a
reliable weather forecast when you leave
home, and you will not have anywhere
to dry wet clothing. That is why I suffered
trench foot in 2007!
So you need to face up to the rain
and cold, sunshine and sweat, hills and
headwinds, not just to practice suffering
but to test and improve your equipment,
your technique, your mind, and most of
all your body.
Enjoy.
N
Below:
Five times finishers
Murdo MacLeod and
Rod Dalitz.
All photos by the author
Arrivée Spring 2011 55

A wee jaunt round Scotland
A 1300 km GPS DIY audax
Paul Dytham
During London–
Edinburgh–London
2009, three of us
(Chris Narborough,
Toby Hopper and Paul
Dytham) agreed the
route would be more
interesting if it was
entirely in Scotland. Of
course, the ‘London’ part
of London–Edinburgh–
London rather precluded
this. So, we thought,
why not create our own
Scottish DIY?
Hence we found
ourselves in Stirling on a
bank holiday Saturday
morning in late May
2010, lining up for 109½
hours of banter, sprinting
for control-town signs,
black pudding breakfasts
and more than a little
climbing.
Day 1: Stirling–Helensburgh–
Inveraray–Connel–Invergarry
278 km official, 286 km actual
The key to our plan was the
recent AUK rule change
allowing GPS to be used for
ride validation. All three of
us had GPS units, taking the
worry out of both controlling in the
far corners of Scotland and finding our
way there. Instead we worried about
battery life and rain-induced GPS death.
To confirm our doubts, the batteries in
Chris’s GPS died within an hour of the
start. Receipts were stashed away from
as many controls as possible for peace
of mind.
We immediately found what would
be the worst road surface of the ride, just
outside Stirling through Glentirranmuir;
then one of the steepest climbs, Cardross
Road climbing out of Renton. I bagged
the first sprint victory of the ride at the
Helensburgh sign as Chris and Toby had
no idea what I was doing. I doubted I’d
win many more once they were informed
of the game.
We were rained on for a while in
Argyll, climbed the Rest and Be Thankful
(my old commute for six years) and
received comments about our lycra-clad
rear ends by a woman on a motorbike at
Inveraray.
By the time we were heading northwest
through the Pass of Brander we
Chris and Paul on the
Rest and Be Thankful
climb.
had a fine tailwind and were making
excellent time. No mechanicals, no low
patches, no midges and no real rain.
Wait, did I say no midges on the west
coast of Scotland? A stop at the village
shop in Connel, sheltered from the
breeze, gave us an insight into the midge
hell we would be enduring if it wasn’t for
the wind. Pasties and sandwiches were
eaten with haste and we crossed the
Connel Bridge heading north.
Before Fort William the rain started
and the promise of a warmup prompted
us into a well-known fast food restaurant.
I was a bit miserable, not being a fan of
fast food (or heavy rain for that matter),
but the meal saw us to our hot-tubequipped
B&B at Invergarry without
incident.
Biscuits and tea were gladly accepted,
but strangely none of us opted for a hottub
session. Instead, we tumble-dried
56 Arrivée Spring 2011

diy randonnee
All photos by Paul Dytham, Toby Hopper and Chris Narborough
our wet kit, destroying Toby’s sealskinz
gloves in the process. Takeaway bacon
sandwiches were booked for 5.30 am
and day one was declared a success.
Day 2: Invergarry–Kyle of Lochalsh–
Applecross–Kinlochewe–Muir of Ord–
Inverness
282 km official, 300 km actual
Some light drizzle accompanied our
departure and persisted until Kyle. There
we found not only a bridge across to
Skye, but also some amazing public
toilets. Leaving Kyle we rode our first
minor roads since Glentirranmuir, cutting
the main-road corner to Stromeferry.
We were perplexed as to why the
road along Loch Carron needed to be a
series of 14 per cent rollercoasters whilst
the train line alongside remained at sea
level. After Lochcarron itself the sun
came out whilst we climbed over one of
the highlights of the ride: the Bealach Na
Ba. The climb was comprehensively ‘won’
by Toby, but we all had an amazing hour.
Chris managed a little more excitement
than the rest of us descending back
to sea level by clipping a pedal during
some enthusiastic cornering, but stayed
upright.
My elevation profile for the day
showed the 626m pass but failed to
convey just how relentlessly hilly the
rest of Applecross peninsula would be.
Absolutely destroyed, we stopped at
the pub in Sheildaig to recover, only
managing to get Guinness, coke and
crisps as we were too early for dinner. We
carried on through Kinlochewe, up Glen
Docherty and on to Muir of Ord before we
found any food; just in time for kebabs all
round! Revived, we finished the day with a
flat 20 km along Beauly Firth through the
calm, clear night finishing at a Travelodge
in Inverness at 12.30 am.
Day 3: Inverness–Muir of Ord–
Ullapool–Scourie–Lairg–Inverness
307 km official, 316 km actual
Day three started at 6.30am but was
warm enough for short sleeves almost
straight away. We retraced the previous
night’s route to Muir of Ord (ice creams
instead of kebabs this time) before a
long climb up to Loch Glascarnoch dam.
A fantastic descent down other side to
Ullapool followed, where Toby began to
‘My
elevation
profile for
the day
showed the
626m pass
but failed
to convey
just how
relentlessly
hilly the
rest of
Applecross
peninsula
would be.’
Right: Chris climbing
the Bealach Na Ba.
Below: Toby climbing
out of Ullapool.
show his KOTM credentials to take the
uphill town sign win easily. Ten minutes
later we were tucking into a full Scottish
breakfast, sitting outside on the seafront
in glorious sunshine.
Continuing north it was endless blue
sky, quiet roads and amazing scenery.
Our only route-plan regret was we hadn’t
included the Lochinver road for time
reasons and went direct to Scourie via
Ledmore and Kylesku. At Scourie we
found a ridiculously well-stocked Spar
supermarket, and the iPhone users in
our group found they had no signal. We
spent a while eating more ice cream
before carrying on to our most northerly
point on the route (18 miles south of
Cape Wrath) at Laxford Bridge.
The sun and near 30°C heat was
obviously getting to me as the scenery
just kept getting better as we headed
down Loch Stack and Loch More. Finally
we were brought back to more normal
audax conditions with a stiff headwind
slog for 35 km along Loch Shin to Lairg.
Three tired, sweaty randonneurs brought
the tone down significantly in the Lairg
restaurant, much to the annoyance of
the waitress, but we ate enough lasagne
to double their profits that evening.
Our last stage for the day involved
nice quiet roads through Shin Forest
and over Bonar Bridge, then the stingin-the-tail
climb up to Cadha Mor at
dusk. A head-down night ride across the
Black Isle brought us in to Inverness for
another finish about midnight.
Day 4: Inverness–Nairn–Aviemore–
Keith–Tomintoul–Braemar
251 km official, 263km actual
We treated ourselves to a long lie in
after our hilly 316 km the day before,
not leaving until 7am. This put us in the
rush hour traffic out to Culloden, then
on to Nairn, where we enjoyed a bakery
breakfast and coffee whilst bemused
school kids crossed the street to avoid
the strange, hungry-looking cyclists.
Next we climbed away from coast
up to Ferness for possibly the toughest
conditions of the ride: high-altitude
exposed moorland past Lochindorb
against a strong headwind and driving
rain. Amazingly, as we dropped into
Aviemore the rain ceased, sun came back
out.
By now we were just nominating
one person at each control to buy a
three-pack of Magnums regardless of
the weather. Whilst enjoying our icy
cold energy bars, I learnt my Carradice
Barley saddlebag was waterproof from
the inside thanks to a split in a can of
coke. Before we left we had a Scottish
stereotype moment when a pallet of
Buckfast fortified wine was offloaded
from a delivery truck, amusing Toby
in particularly with him being from
Buckfastleigh.
We turned north-east so the wind
was now behind us and had a superb
run along Abernethy Forest, through
Nethy Bridge, Grantown on Spey
and Charlestown (home of Walkers
shortbread) to our control at Keith.
Another surprise; the wind dropped and
our south-west trip up the valley through
Dufftown to Tomintoul was flat calm in
sunshine.
We arrived at Tomintoul at about
7pm, with 50 km and another ride
highlight – the Lecht Road – to do
before the end of the day at Braemar
YH. A phone call to the hostel confirmed
Braemar would be 100 per cent closed by
the time we arrived, and Chris had been
suffering some ankle pain during the last
stage, so an hour was spent ‘fortifying’
ourselves in the pub.
The Lecht Road was astounding, both
the terrain and scenery at dusk, for me
eclipsing even the Bealach Na Ba as the
highlight of ride. A sheep dashing across
the road right in front of Toby as we
descended at speed down to Gairnsheil
Lodge kept the adrenaline going as the
light faded. However, clear skies meant
Arrivée Spring 2011 57

diy randonnee
lights weren’t needed until Balmoral
Castle at about 10.30pm for the last 40
minutes to Braemar itself.
Paul descending the
Lecht Road.
Day 5: Braemar–Pitlochry–Killin–
Comrie–Stirling
191 km official, 195 km actual
We had an early start having raided the
hostel kitchen for bagels and Marmite,
but were still 15 minutes out of time for
the Braemar control when we left. We
failed to make up much of this time on
the significant climb up to the Cairnwell
ski centre (665m highest point of the ride)
due to creaking knees and a nagging
headwind. The mad descent past the
Devil’s Elbow after the ski centre brought
our average speed back up though and
by the time we reached Kinnaird we were
feeling ’kin ’ard! Another thoroughly
enjoyable descent into Pitlochry and we
were tucking into breakfast.
There had been some considerable
planning involved to try and find a flat
‘victory lap’ route for the final day back to
Stirling. This turned out to be a complete
success after Pitlochry, with hills and
scenery to look at but not to climb.
We followed the river Tay then along
Loch Tay to Killin. We were starting to feel
like the end was close, but were in for
more treats yet. A short climb out of Killin
led to another mad descent down Glen
Ogle to Lochearnhead then 20 km of pan
flat tailwind-assisted cruising along Loch
Earn to Comrie.
The penultimate control meant
celebration ice creams; Soleros instead of
Magnums! The final climb over to Braco
was dispatched without effort, with all
three of us attempting to save our legs
for the Champs-Elysées-important sprint
finish to the Stirling sign … which Chris
took from me as Toby didn’t spot the sign.
Our final control in Stirling, and the end of
our fantastic 4½ day epic, was at 7pm. N
Kylesku Bridge.
Below: Kyle of
Sutherland from
Cadha Mor.
Summing up
We were incredibly lucky with
the weather. Nearly 12 months
on we still wonder whether we
would have been successful
if we’d had ‘proper’ Scottish
weather. As it turned out, we
had an amazing Scottish holiday
completed within 1300 km audax
time limits.
1,314 km official total.
1,384 km actually ridden.
Moving time: 62 hours 20 mins.
Total time: 109½ hours.
19 AAA points.
Town sign sprint champ: Chris.
King of the Mountains: Toby.
Calories consumed in the form of
beer: Lost count.
More information on our route,
elevation profiles, etc, can be
found at www.TenCC.co.uk
58 Arrivée Spring 2011

Mad Jack Fuller/John Seviour Memorial Ride. Photos: Tim Wainwright

Rob Bullyment, Man of Kent 200. Photo: Lise Taylor-Vebel