The Fridays Tour

[dellzeqq]

I've been putting off coming to the inevitable conclusion - the Barcelona to Nice idea is pants. Sorry, not least to RichP who tried to tell me ahead of time. I goofed.

Some of you will remember that Susie and I recce'd the ride in October. She did brilliantly in difficult circumstances, but there was no getting away from two realisations
1. Traffic levels in the south of France are just extraordinarily high - we had days that were akin to cycling around Basingstoke.
2. Some towns along the Cote d'Azur are just plug-ugly suburban hell-holes. It would be invidious to pick out one, but, hey, Palavas les Flots, or however you spell it, is just ten miles of crap. Apologies to any Flotians in the audience.

I'm indebted to Chris B who referred me to his blog. I'd intended to go back and try route B. Chris has travelled part of route B, and his account makes the best possible case for route A.

So - where to go? I've received some very worthy suggestions, but none that couldn't be sorted without a full recce, and I can't really set up a tour that involves people using annual leave without checking out the hazards, assuring myself that it's suited to the mix of people that make up the FNRttC and being able to describe it properly. So what I've decided, knowing that this will not please everybody, is this

1. I'll mull over a continental tour for 2013, and do a recce later this year
2. I'll set up a HPCJoG for 2012

The HPCJoG will not be everybody's cup of tea, but it does have the following virtues

1. I know the way (although I'm going to test a plan B route for part of the way)
2. People will be able to dip in and out for one or more days - for example the Yorkies and Hullidilians could join us for the first two days and be home in time to go to work on the Monday
3. I think we will be able to afford motorised support, which will enable people to camp without carrying oodles of stuff, and others (I name no names) to change in to something smart for dinner at their hotel. We may even be able to use that motorised support for all or part of the return trip from JoG
4. Scotland is fab. Truly, truly fab.

So here's the plan

1. Start HPC midnight Friday. Ride through the night, take breakfast, go on for another thirtyfive miles or so, and then stop early or mid afternoon.
2. Cycle Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, return Sunday. That breaks down in to one 120 mile schlep to start us off, then seven days of 75 miles or so. If people are very smart about returning it will mean that it can be done with one week's annual leave.
3. As many stopping places as possible to offer a choice of camping, B+B and hotel accommodation within a short distance.
4. Start 15th June/7th September/14th September. At this point it looks like 15th June - but if you have thoughts on this, please e-mail me on fnrttc@yahoo.co.uk Doing a midsummer ride to JoG is smart - there's always plenty of accommodation in Scotland, and the extraordinary length of the days means that we can start as early as we like.

I've got a spreadsheet of accommodation (I'm sorry but people will have to book their own) and I'm hoping that people with local knowledge will help me out wit that when the route is fixed. We have a very generous offer of accommodation in York. Which brings us to....

Plan A
London - Bingham - York - Tow Law - Jedburgh - Kinross - Aviemore - Tain - JoG
Plan B
London - Sleaford - Wetwang/Malton - Durham - Coldstream/Longformarcus - Kinross - Aviemore - Tain - JoG

Plan A is slightly shorter but the ride from Tow Law to Jedburgh is very, very tough indeed

let''s think about numbers and cost. I guess that we will have thirty people on the first night, and thirty people on the second say. From that point on we might have ten to fifteen people for each day on......that's about 135 peopledays, which would give us a budget of (say) £1000 for the support vehicle. On the other hand - if we had twenty people on the first two days and ten people thereafter, we'd have 100 people days which might give us a budget of (say) £800 for the support vehicle. I'd welcome views on whether people thought this was reasonable, and, better still, some indication of where you are coming from - by which I mean, whether you're a Camper, B+Ber or Hotel-er.

So - apologies for the change of plan. As I say, this won't be universally popular, but I think it's within my abilities, as it were. If you want to tell me I'm wrong, then please feel free, but I'd prefer to have this thread devoted to the practicalities of the HPCJoG.

I'll be revising the blog tomorrow......

 

[mmmmartin]

I have just spent the last five minutes trying to calm down. And failed.

 

[mmmmartin]

Well yes it is.

Am calmer now. Have emailed Simon, put dates in diary. Am about to cancel the ride down the Danube with mates. Can do that any old time.

So who will be designng the FNRttC HPC-LeJog shirt?

 

[ceepeebee]

tempted, but...... I doubt I could do a week of 70 miles plus everyday for 7 odd days, even with the training. Also (and more prohibitively) doubt I'd swing it past SWMBO (and would not really convince myself that it was fair to) when I'm angling for a mini-tour to France that takes in the TdF finishes in Boulogne and St Quentin a few weeks later.

Am well up for first 2 days or so though as 1 of my resolutions is to finally do my first imperial tonne.

 

[mmmmartin]

I doubt I could do a week of 70 miles plus everyday for 7 odd days

It will be just like a FNRttC then the SMRbtH. Then a good night's kip. Then seven days with a 100k ride each day with no heavy kit to carry cos it'll be in the van. In summer. With your mates. What's not to like?

 

[dellzeqq]

tempted, but...... I doubt I could do a week of 70 miles plus everyday for 7 odd days, even with the training. Also (and more prohibitively) doubt I'd swing it past SWMBO (and would not really convince myself that it was fair to) when I'm angling for a mini-tour to France that takes in the TdF finishes in Boulogne and St Quentin a few weeks later.

Am well up for first 2 days or so though as 1 of my resolutions is to finally do my first imperial tonne.

I've got a target 'market' in mind, and that's Becs, Susie, SRW, and TMN. I reckon if I can work it so they can do it (should they want to come), then I'll have done my job. Now.....if the weather is rubbish, and the wind from the north, then they're not going to do all the distance every day, but I think a group ride can be 'worked' to get more miles done than a singleton or twosome. Equally - group rides can come unstuck if there are too many ideas going around at the same time. It's all down to management.

What is important is that this ride is not seen as a series of boxes to be ticked. LEJoG is pretty meaningless unless you ride the entire way, but HPCJoG isn't about 'doing it'. If people want to take a day off and take the train then that's absolutely fine. If people want to do half a day and take the minibus for the second half, that's great.

I suppose the minibus/van isn't essential, but if we did have one then I'm not thinking that it would follow us along the way that John followed us down to Brighton. We'd get up, drop our stuff in to the vehicle, set off, and the vehicle might meet us at elevenses, lunch and at the end point - or maybe just at the end point. If we were camping a couple of miles from a B+B then the vehicle would have to do a bit of a round dropping off stuff and picking stuff up.

 

[mcshroom]

I wouldn't count out being able to do a succession of 70 milers. I did a set of 60 milers with camping gear in October and I'm not exactly what anyone would call fit (morbidly obese would be more accurate)

 

[mmmmartin]

I wouldn't count out being able to do a succession of 70 milers

That is the distance of the Whitstable ride, and you do that at night, in the dark, perhaps in winter weather, after being awake all day, and perhaps not going to bed until the following evening. If you can do a FNRttC but quail at the prospect of HPC-LeJog, then I think what you lack is not fitness or stamina but confidence. And if it's all too too much, or the weather is vile, then the train is an option. It's a social ride, to be enjoyed, not to suffer. It's a FNRttC. OK, it's a bit out of the ordinary in that the coast just happens to be in in the north of Scotland, but the support and chumminess of the event will be the same.
And imagine it: the scene is HPC, near midnight in mid-June. A passing tourist stops and asks politely: "Where are you going?" ..............

 

[growingvegetables]

One interested party here - at least for Yorkshire (or parallel) northwards.

But HPC? What/where is that?

 

[mcshroom]

Hyde Park Corner GV

 

[StuAff]

Basingstoke? Aaaaaaargh!!! Cycling purgatory.

As I hopefully made clear to Simon last night, I am most keen on coming along, though it'll probably mean missing Dieppe-Paris again (either that or I'll have to go eight or nine months without any leave). But after the travesty that was the NotLeJOG I need to do an E2E, or something equivalent, in the not-too-distant future. I have unfinished business, and this will do nicely to finish it. And it has the added advantage of missing out the overpriced tourist trap dump that is Lands End.

June for preference, definitely. Take advantage of all that lovely light. One of the multiple things that hacked me off about the travesty was the inability/unwillingness to get out on the road early enough. Riding in the early morning is an absolute pleasure, and makes life so much easier when you want to cover big distances and/or have riders of varying abilities. Makes time your friend and not your enemy. Rather than, say, not getting moving until 9ish, then forcing people who are perfectly capable of doing the distance because they've done the prep and are in decent condition into a van for a bit because you're 'late' and 'need to catch up' (even when you're on a charity ride, and the idea is to RAFB the whole way). I remain somewhat bitter about that, for some reason.....That, and being nagged for daring to freewheel on occasion, being left to ride 36 miles alone into a headwind, and not getting to cross the border on two wheels and, and.....Which makes me all the more keen to do it again, the right way. The Fridays way.

As I've made clear in previous discussions, I'm firmly in the 'chuck the bags in the van so I can bring my lovely Italian carbon' camp. But now that I have the perfect fast tourer (the Trek has a triple and can take a rack), more than happy to pack light and carry the load myself. Should User482 read this, hope you had the smelling salts nearby As for the route, both have advantages. Route B probably nudges ahead from what Simon's said so far, but then A goes to York (near the residence of my best mate- who's as handy in the kitchen as a certain cake-baking forumite...)

CPB, you will be fine. You're more than up to this.

 

[User10119]

Nice enough campsite in Naburn, couple of miles outside York - it passed the Butterfly and Clarion test, anyway. Lots and lots of B&Bs and hotels of all grades in York - but they ain't particularly cheap. York is indeed a source of much cake but I've ridden to Stamford Bridge a couple of times just to deliver cake to passing cyclists and Wetwang isn't that much further away (although I do believe there may be one of those scenic lumps in the way from my slightly hazy memory of riding there with a couple of tipsy loons one summer's night this year). And has a bonus of a completely silly name and a rather good chippy....

No idea if I'd be able to turn out and ride a bit. I'd have to wait and see what the dates end up being, and then figure out where my children are at the time. Term time, whichever you go for, so no weekday holidays for me.

But it is still a serious offer of grub and washing machine use and stuff in York. And depending when it ends up being we could maybe find a bed/floor space for a few cheapskates

 

[rb58]

Registering a gentle interest here.... Only I do want to tick the LeJog box in 2012, so will think about a plan that might be LEHPCJOG.

 

[dellzeqq]

Plan B, at the risk of offending anyone local, are there hotels in Sleaford?

there is one. And camping nearby. But, yes, Bingham is the easier bet, which gives route A an advantage.

By the same token there's only one hotel in Tow Law and I wouldn't fancy camping up there. It might be smart to leave the tougher riders in West Auckland, but, taken with the horror that is the A68 Monday is the day on which you'd prefer to be on route B.

I wouldn't have any reservations at all about Route A if it were not for Tow Law to Jedburgh.

 

[martint235]

A gentle interest from me too. It may clash with other things (jury service being one of them, I've asked to be deferred to 1st June) but will see.