Too Early for a YD300 thread?

whitestone · Post by **whitestone** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 1:14 pm

Richard G wrote:I was just looking and my emails say that the final route would be emailed 5 days before the event... but I don't have any more up to date email with a route in it.

Is there one?

As far as I know the one linked from the YD300 page on Riders Cycle Centre site is still the one http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=shajkmhxbzjkunzq The YD300 page used to say something like "Jan 2016 version" but it doesn't now. Can't tell offhand if the one I've already downloaded is different in any way.

Richard G · Post by **Richard G** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 1:36 pm

Yeah, the "route may" is the one I have. Odd that he didn't confirm it.

whitestone · Post by **whitestone** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 2:32 pm

This is what Chris Hope rode last weekend - https://www.strava.com/activities/614065653/ looks pretty much the same as that on the gpsies link

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 4:34 pm

Richard G wrote:Hmm... have appear to have smushed up my knees squatting weights that were probably a bit much for me (should have worked back in slower post injury).

Definitely wont be setting any records with my pace this weekend now.

weights like that are a bit like an interval session, a little goes a long way. I'd have thought the residual effects would be more than the 3 days you had until the event?

fatbikephil · Post by **fatbikephil** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 8:58 pm

I got an email today with a link to the GPSies site for the latest route but its the same as the one emailed out at the beginning of June. For interest the Pennygarth cafe in Hawes is open until 9 and does pizzas. Its off route a bit (a mile and a bit) but could be on if your fairly quick (its about 100miles to this point....)

whitestone · Post by **whitestone** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 9:44 pm

OK, just set up a findmespot page - http://share.findmespot.com/shared/face ... RTmpF3htCA There won't be anything there until Saturday morning.

Oh, it's Hawes Gala on Saturday, might be busy

Richard G · Post by **Richard G** » Fri Jun 24, 2016 2:14 am

Ian wrote:weights like that are a bit like an interval session, a little goes a long way. I'd have thought the residual effects would be more than the 3 days you had until the event?

Not usually no. When you're used to doing them regularly then 48 hours is just fine for recovery, problem is that after a break your body sort of loses the groove and all bets are off.

whitestone · Post by **whitestone** » Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:22 pm

Bike now sorted and packed

Weight (including food but not water) is 15.6Kg. There's about 1Kg of food in there

Wotsits · Post by **Wotsits** » Sat Jun 25, 2016 6:07 pm

Ian wrote:So there is, I should've scrolled down more...

Jason M and Phil S are on the list.

That might make bettering last year's 3rd place quite tricky then

Somehow i don't think i'll be troubling the podium Ian!

Really wanted to do this but realised last week it was doubtful i'd be able top make it. Emailed Stuart to try & defer my entry to the 200 later in the year but didn't get a reply. Tried to hang on to the idea of riding, but after a fairly brutal week in work, even after getting my gear together last nigh, it was obvious this morning that it was pointless me even trying to make it over

I hope you're all enjoying yourselves & ride safe. Looking forward with envy to the ride reports!

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Sun Jun 26, 2016 5:58 pm

Well that's all done. It's a proper hard ride, the YD300. Relentless climbing. Great trails though, and this time spent much of the ride in company of others riding s similar pace. Decided I'd try the no sleep strategy to "see what's it's like". Answer: hard, and I needed to resort to a couple of power naps around 5am.

Final time was 28 hours 46 mins, over 3 hours quicker than last year.

Bearbonesnorm · Post by **Bearbonesnorm** » Sun Jun 26, 2016 6:21 pm

Well that's all done. It's a proper hard ride, the YD300. Relentless climbing. Great trails though, and this time spent much of the ride in company of others riding s similar pace. Decided I'd try the no sleep strategy to "see what's it's like". Answer: hard, and I needed to resort to a couple of power naps around 5am.

Final time was 28 hours 46 mins, over 3 hours quicker than last year.

Good effort Ian

whitestone · Post by **whitestone** » Sun Jun 26, 2016 6:38 pm

Ian wrote:Well that's all done. It's a proper hard ride, the YD300. Relentless climbing. Great trails though, and this time spent much of the ride in company of others riding s similar pace. Decided I'd try the no sleep strategy to "see what's it's like". Answer: hard, and I needed to resort to a couple of power naps around 5am.

Final time was 28 hours 46 mins, over 3 hours quicker than last year.

You did look rather tired when we got back! Felt harder than last year - a definite push to get to DBC in time for food, I just made it.

A sort of mirror image of last year: poor weather on Saturday and nice today. This year I hardly had any company for Saturday but rode with Ali from Matlock and lad from Inverness whose name I've forgotten - thanks for letting me doss in the shed lads otherwise it might have been the no-sleep strategy

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Sun Jun 26, 2016 9:46 pm

lad from Inverness

Dave

Wotsits · Post by **Wotsits** » Sun Jun 26, 2016 11:39 pm

Well done Ian, Bob & anyone else that took part!

whitestone · Post by **whitestone** » Mon Jun 27, 2016 11:40 am

Not at work today (booked it as holiday), here's a blog post http://bobwightman.blogspot.co.uk/2016/ ... s-300.html

Richard G · Post by **Richard G** » Mon Jun 27, 2016 1:32 pm

Well that didn't go well at all.

Day One: We'd set a relatively easy target pace but sadly my riding partner was having real problems with his knees and then later dehydration so we didn't end up getting anywhere near it. That basically resulted in us having to take on massive amounts of liquid at each stop, and later culminated in arriving too late to get any proper food at the last pub we got to. My mood wasn't greatly helped by the fact that the new undershorts I was using were giving basically no airflow to my bits and it was all getting a bit sore and nasty down there. At somewhere after midnight he and a couple of others who were with us decided that they weren't going to make it so the plan was to bivi then bail. I reckoned if I really pushed I could probably make it... but I'd sleep for safety's sake. Of course, I never manage to sleep on these things, so day two began with me feeling worse than if I'd stayed awake and knowing that we'd done less than half the distance.

Day Two: I've never had any experience of getting dressed in a swarm of midges... and it's not one I'd like to repeat. We'd picked a bivi spot that we knew would be risky for them, but we had no idea just how bad it would be. By the time I left my legs looked like someone had tried to set up a dot to dot picture with a red marker. Horrible.

I set out on my own and I was making OK progress until I got to the first major hills, when I realised that my crotch rot from the first day had basically become terminal. Climbs now became a matter of desperately trying to get the right position on the saddle to reduce the pain, which really wasn't easy given how rocky most of them were. I think I was pretty much stopping every hour to apply chamois cream too. Feeling pretty frazzled it look me a long ass time to get down that crazy shale / boulder crevice too (anyone have any pics of that by the way? Was insane.).

I eventually got a bit of a second wind and started making much faster progress, especially on the flats and the downs. ...and then I smushed myself and my bike to pieces. There was a cobbled section next to a river after a long road section which went next to a camping / caravan site. Not entirely sure if where I ended up was actually the trail (seemed more like a footpath, but the GPS route was pretty shitty at points so it was hard to tell) but what I do know is that at some point my front wheel got trapped between two roots and I ended up over the bars and breaking my fall with my arms.

I knew it had been a big one, so I tried to walk it off as best I could which is when I noticed that my arm was bleeding fairly heavily. After dropping down to the river to wash it off, I noticed I now had a rather large hole in my elbow. Initially I tried to put a large plaster on it, but the blood took it straight off, so I had to hold a pad on there for a while to get some initial clotting going, before swapping it to a bandage / pad combination and strapping it up. As an aside, a walker passed by at this point and helpfully asked me if I'd "had a little fall"... "No love, my elbow pisses blood as a party piece".

Feeling somewhat mashed up I got back on the bike but noticed that I was really struggling to descend (every small hit was hurting my elbow quite badly), this coupled with not being able to climb properly because of crotch rot was seeing my average speed drop from where I could fairly easily get back before 7pm, to where I didn't have a chance in hell. Missus was driving me back too (5 hours), and with her having work the next day finishing much after 7pm wouldn't have been an option anyway. So, around 240km in I decided it was time to bail. Ironically, the shitty route the Garmin picked for me (was in mountain biking mode) wasn't any easier than anything I'd been doing over the last hours (especially as it was now hammering down with rain). I really need to look at the best settings for bail routes.

So yeah, not a great weekend for me in all. Will decide if I need the hospital later (right now I'm ignoring the fact I may have damaged the bone by hitting up max ibuprofen) and I've got to properly analyze the bike damage, but on first glance I'd cracked my handlebars, sheared off part of my light clamp and damaged my exposure diablo (when I turned it on, it just kept going through different modes on the back, before eventually flashing and turning off never to return).

Bleh. :(

Edit - After finishing the stupid bail route, I'd done 285km total.

Oh, and on the ride in general, there were some amazing descents, and some utterly incredible sights... but at always on these things, there were bits I hated more than words can describe. Right now I'm really not sure if I'd return. I know I could have finished the ride fairly easily with at a decent pace on day one, so I don't feel like it's something I'd need to prove to myself.

whitestone · Post by **whitestone** » Mon Jun 27, 2016 1:47 pm

Ouch! Hope that your injuries aren't too serious.

The steep gully is called Friarfold Hush http://gunnerside.info/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=172 shows it from one of the side ridges also http://www.panoramio.com/photo/8156833. Apparently it is rideable (but not by me), Strava shows the average gradient as 30%.

Not sure where you had your OTB, can't picture a cobbled section.

Richard G · Post by **Richard G** » Mon Jun 27, 2016 1:50 pm

If I'm honest, I don't think it was the actual route, I did see that a number of fat bikes had clearly gone down there though as the grass was all pushed down in that manner. Will try and find it when I get my strava data up.

As for that crazy descent. Maybe with another rider present I'd do bits of it... but no, it's really the sort of section I'd only even vaguely consider on a downhill bike normally.

24tom · Post by **24tom** » Mon Jun 27, 2016 2:40 pm

Really enjoyed that!

Solid route, with a good mix of tough (brutal) climbing, but also some classic Dales tracks, and blissful singletrack. Had the pleasure of sharing the ride with Ali and Dave (in Bob's write up) and Lee Craigie early on, as well as Ian B and Mike Collins for the majority of the route. Inevitably had long chunks of solitude though, and completed the last 50km by myself, with Mike 15mins up the road.

It's been a while since I've ridden through the night, but was happy with how I was moving. Had one major low point around 4am. Had run out of water and anything remotely palatable to eat. Found a can of pop in my bag that I'd forgotten I saved from Dales Bike Centre, and was rejuvenated. Top up of water and a cheese sandwich from a very friendly hotel in Malham saw me through to the end.

There were a few times that I questioned my decision to go singlespeed, including walking up Buttertubs after a pub tea, but on balance I don't think I'd have been much quicker with gears.

A few standout moments for me. Spinning along and down the south side of Buttertubs, with the last of the days light in the sky was beautiful. Then a few short hours later, the first warming of the sky in the east, just after passing through Ribblehead. As always at these kind of things, the company was excellent and it was lovely to concentrate on talking about bikes and adventures, rather than worrying about what was going on in the wider world.

Richard G · Post by **Richard G** » Mon Jun 27, 2016 2:48 pm

It did certainly take my mind off this EU bullshit. Have come back to that with a vengeance today.

Edit - Oh, and holy sub standard, the rabbits. At points on the first day we were literally seeing hundreds crossing our path when we entered a field. It was biblical.

24tom · Post by **24tom** » Mon Jun 27, 2016 2:51 pm

Richard G wrote:If I'm honest, I don't think it was the actual route, I did see that a number of fat bikes had clearly gone down there though as the grass was all pushed down in that manner. Will try and find it when I get my strava data up.

I'm not sure whether it should have been in the route either, although the GPS track definitely went that way. I spent 5 mins in the dark checking for a parallel bridleway or something, then just rode it. Got part way along and decided the route should probably have been on the road, but it was only another couple of hundred metres to the end. Felt a bit guilty riding through the campsite in the middle of the night!

Richard G · Post by **Richard G** » Mon Jun 27, 2016 3:02 pm

I don't really understand why the GPS route was so bad given the whole ride had been done already. Would have been easy enough to clean up a version based on that ride.

I'm complaining mostly because I got fecked up, I realise... but it was annoying in enough places to have had me wondering why it wasn't better (at least where there were multiple paths).

whitestone · Post by **whitestone** » Mon Jun 27, 2016 3:04 pm

I know where you are talking about now: Cowgill at the top end of Dentdale. Not sure if that bit between the bridges is footpath, permissive bridleway or bridleway.

I hadn't noticed that the route went that way TBH as last year it went round by the road (and Stuart himself missed the turning!

).

Edit: Just followed the GPS track on gpsies. There are some areas, notably around Pateley Bridge where the track is somewhat "coarse" in that it is marked as a straight line but the road or track that you are on wiggles about a bit but it is/was pretty obvious when you are there that you keep trucking along the road. There are one or two definite mistakes: One is just after the 95Km point, the GPS trace makes it appear as if you bear right then a couple of hundred metres later you cut back left. The line on the ground just carries straight on. There's a difference between the OS map and OpenStreetMap at this point, the OS line matches what's on the ground. Another is at the 75.5 mile mark where the GPS track forms a shallow "M" where the legal right of way indicated by a post on the ground goes slightly to the south.

Apart from the above there aren't any "mistakes" I'm aware of but given that I live in the area and so know the tracks and trails pretty well I could well have overlooked something.

Richard G · Post by **Richard G** » Mon Jun 27, 2016 4:41 pm

Ok... I've just looked at veloviewer and I've realised that I'm going to have to come back. The iffy pace in places has hurt my veloviewer score.

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Mon Jun 27, 2016 6:11 pm

Richard, nice to meet you at last; sorry to hear your ride didn't work out

The rocky gully descent, if you did the right one, was Gunnerside. I rode >80% of it - only two distinct bits I walked as the risk of OTB wasn't worth the 20 yards of trail.

Looks like my GPS might have buggered up recording my track (for the second time in a month), so it might not appear on Strava

Rabbits; yes, why does Yorkshire have so many rabbits? I nearly ran over a couple...

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