After yesterday’s abject failure there was a definite danger that my morale and confidence would collapse and my cycling mojo would evaporate like a fart in a hurricane. So I’ve planned a solo 600km. It’s a ride I’ve wanted to do for a while and I even managed to start it in 2022. Got as far as Malmesbury (160km) before getting fed up with the rain and wind and riding to Bristol and a train home.
This is the same ride I was havering about entering as a Calendar event before LEL. In the end I decided that it was too close (plus I’m frightened of 600s) and volunteered to run the overnight control instead. It would have been very rude to withdraw that offer and I still have concerns about the date being too close to LEL, so it made sense to enter it as a Perm and ride it at a time and date of my choosing.
Luckily I found a cheap hotel that does a breakfast buffet. It’s at 372km, earlier than I’d have liked, but there weren’t any other options at the 400km mark. It’s a Holiday Inn, which means check-in virtually any time and minimal fuss. Hotels like this are a bit soulless, but they’re comfy and very convenient. Regular pubs are fine, but there is inevitably more faff involved when it comes to arrival times, bike parking etc. Basically pubs = having to deal with people.
My ride schedule revolves around breakfast, so I need to get to the hotel by midnight-ish. That’ll give me a good seven hours to shower and sleep, before eating all the croissants and drinking a gallon of coffee. Working further backwards it does mean an earlier start for the ride than I’d prefer (6am) but as the start is only a few miles away, it’s not too ghastly. Waking at 4am for a 5am start on the Anglesey was another kettle of otters entirely. I hate early starts with a passion.
I’ve planned a schedule which should see me get to the hotel with plenty of time to sleep. The schedule errs on the side of caution – it’s slower than Back to the Smoke, but I’d rather be cautious and pleasantly surprised than overly optimistic and disappointed. It uses the standard allowance of 1hr faffage per 100km, which is very generous and usually results in additional time in hand. It gives me plenty of additional time for the last 230k and assuming I finish according to schedule, I’ll have nearly five hours in hand.
Everything is set up to be simple and frictionless. The ride will be validated by GPS track, so there’s no need to faff about with receipts, or even to stop at the control points. The hotel is pre-booked and I can turn up more or less any time. The official start and finish is less than a mile from where I work, so I can park there. The bike and kit will be left in the car overnight, so all I need to do is wake up, eat a tin of rice pudding and get my arse in gear. Nice and relaxed. All I have to do is ride and sometimes that’s the easy bit.
Well Chuffed Cycling 
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