What of it....?Bridgy! Tourmalet-ya bugger!
It was my first sportive and the longest ride I'd done - although I had done a few other longish rides.I've already signed up so will definitely be there. Not sure on campsite or B&B yet - depends how weather looks closer to the time; don't fancy a wet camping night before a long ride!! This will be my first ever sportive, and most probably my first ever time over that distanceIt gives me something to aim for and encourages me to keep up the training
Actually talking of not having ghosts, I was riding it aiming to beat your time Bob (not sure who Andrew is and he's not on a Pro so I'm therefore assuming he has some huge advantage as he's ahead of us Bridgy! Tourmalet-ya bugger!
) so I had your time in mind.
No, good point I was going to ask the same. I went in and changed my outfit to my team blue kit - and updated it - but apart from that all I can do is change between that kit and the default one - clicking anywhere else doesn't seem to do anything?
Nice new Cyclechat avatar
There is a repair kit option in bsim, settings/avatar/click the circles, they correspond to one of your kits. If the kit has been used there will be a repair option there.
. I wonder if there will be a performance benefit? 
As long as we keep the colour code on fitness levels, I like my yellow and blackNice new Cyclechat avatar
).
Actually talking of not having ghosts, I was riding it aiming to beat your time Bob (not sure who Andrew is and he's not on a Pro so I'm therefore assuming he has some huge advantage as he's ahead of us 
Unfortunately my aging mind mis-remembered it as 54 minutes instead of 56, so I was beating myself up trying to beat 54, and was disappointed with 56. Only to then discover your time was actually 59 minutes
Not sure I'd have gone half as hard as that if I'd been chasing your actual time!
I might just have a sneaky go at beating yours. I thought i had a little left in the tank when i did the ride having misjudged the end. Perhaps i am just deluding myself-only one way to find out.Go for it Bob! It's a long enough ride (and obviously all uphill so no breathers!) that I had to pace my effort to some extent, as opposed to some of the 30 minute chaingang rides which are more a matter of go hard and hang on till the end! So there's always room for improvement if you get the pacing wrong inititially.I am honoured to have you chasing my times bridgy
Good advice Andy.Whorty, I can agree with Bridgy's comments about the physical endurance on longer rides.You have done the first major step and booked your ticket! I have not done many, and probably wont do any more. I trained to do my first 100 miler a few years ago, building up distance to around 90 miles. It took several months(4 actually) of weekend rides to go from easy, comfortable 50 milers to make the jump to 90 miles. It takes time for the body to adapt to long hours in the saddle. I personally found my Achilles became sore after 4 or more hours in the saddle, a tweak to my seat height of 5mm relieved this. Once I had done one 100 miler, mentally it was easy to another then another. The DD with 12K of climbing is quite a task, I would personally alter my gearing to allow easy spinning up long climbs(I have 40T cassette for silly climbing, big guy setup
A side note, I set up a mates bike with a 34T cass. He wanted to do the 'Wiggle punisher 100 mile' 10K feet climbing. He was relatively new to cycling but could do 70mile club runs OK. He said it was the hardest exercise he had ever done, unfortunately the organisers diverted his route down to 70 miles because he was too slow.
Don't go too hard or follow anyone above your comfortable cruising pace, or you will pay the price later on. This pacing is crucial to enjoying the event, you will find a pace which allows you to ride mile after mile after mile during training. Good luck and we look forward to yours and other comments of the day
