Ride Across Britain Prelude

The Ride Across Britain is only 10 days away and tomorrow I will do my last, easy, ride on the trainer and then pack the bike into its S+S case. This will be the fourth time; I wonder if it will be easier than last time, which was on the return from Paris-Brest-Paris. Probably not, as I'm sure I've forgotten all the tricks needed to get it safely packed into such a small space. The most annoying thing is having to remove the fork as my custom frame with its long headset won't fit in the case otherwise.

I'm looking forward to the ride; it's been a long, long buildup, and I'll finally get to meet some of the people I have been corresponding with on the rider hub website. To the best of my knowledge there are only four US riders participating, none of whom I have met, unlike PBP where I knew lots of US riders. To be honest, I'm not feeling quite at my best having had a bunch of minor physical problems with the body this year, but I'm confident I'll be ok if I take it easy and pace myself. My diet of 200/300K brevets and the recent Mt Tam double century should make the average 100 miles a day seem relatively easy. By comparison, I know some UK riders who have only just completed their first century. Certainly the fear that I had before PBP isn't there this year. Nine days in a row, however, will be a new experience, and I know that minor niggles can become serious as the days mount up. Also sleeping in a tent might make for some early morning stiffness! I'm prepared for rain and will be sporting fenders and carrying my RUSA Showers Pass jacket, Rain Legs and shoe covers. Of course, I am hoping for a long stretch of dry sunny California-style weather! Growing up in the UK I've experienced vacations with two weeks of sun and also two weeks of rain, so you never can tell what will happen. Because of the almost certainty of rain, the bike will be set up in "brevet" mode, with the rear bag I used on PBP. However, no need to carry food or a change of kit on the bike as that is taken care of by the organizers.

I've got a GoPro HD video camera on the bike, and plan to get as much footage as I can fit on the 500GB portable hard drive I'm taking with me. That's about 5000 minutes of HD video which should be plenty!

I also hope to be posting my progress on Facebook, and will follow up with a ride report on return.