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OPINION

Video: My Brevet Cymru

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400km of highs and lows, in more ways than one

Well, that was pretty epic. I rode further than ever have I done before, and learnt new and deeper meanings of the term 'bonk'. Many hills were climbed, and one farmer's gate decorated.

I'll do a full write up soon but in the meantime here's a video I made of the day to give you a taste of the fun. Enjoy!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/308631008

Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.

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39 comments

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backflipbedlem | 10 years ago
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Well done Dave, Epic ride mate! very inspirational! I'll use that on my upcoming sportive!

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Percespb | 10 years ago
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Having watched the vid I am now thinking an Audax should be on my to do list. I joined Audax UK in '97 but then got into mountain biking before entering an event.
My longest ride so far is 125 miles but you have fired me up for something further.

Well done on your ride.

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stealth | 10 years ago
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I did 200k a couple of years ago & struggled into a headwind for the last 50, it was the longest I've ever been sat on a bike. I can't imagine what 400 feels like. Respect is due!

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Dropped | 10 years ago
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Fantastic effort and not something I would do BUT - Andy Wilkinson holds the UK 24 hour time trial record at 541.214 miles! Nearly 300 miles further in the same time, but he did have to be put in the recovery position after finishing!

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dave atkinson replied to Dropped | 10 years ago
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Dropped wrote:

Fantastic effort and not something I would do BUT - Andy Wilkinson holds the UK 24 hour time trial record at 541.214 miles! Nearly 300 miles further in the same time, but he did have to be put in the recovery position after finishing!

i spent a bit of time in the recovery position at talybont. or possibly the foetal position  1

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mingmong | 10 years ago
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 41 Absolute quality.

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rockfield | 10 years ago
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fantastic achievement. Did you ride on your own most of the time? i sort of assumed on these longer events people tend to buddy up a bit? I stick mostly to 100/150 audaxes but this vid has made me think a longer one would be a good challenge! Looking forward to the write up!

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dave atkinson replied to rockfield | 10 years ago
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rockfield wrote:

fantastic achievement. Did you ride on your own most of the time? i sort of assumed on these longer events people tend to buddy up a bit? I stick mostly to 100/150 audaxes but this vid has made me think a longer one would be a good challenge! Looking forward to the write up!

i did ride on my own for most of this one, i was just in that kind of a mood that day. got into a group going into hay-on-wye but apart from that i mostly kept myself to myself  1

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Bez | 10 years ago
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"You'll never ride further in one go"

Why not? If you can do 400 then 600 is eminently doable IME.

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TR McGowran | 10 years ago
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Good work Dave, what's next? 600 or big beard?

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dave atkinson replied to TR McGowran | 10 years ago
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TR McGowran wrote:

Good work Dave, what's next? 600 or big beard?

contemplating a 600 or even a SR series next year, but also keen to go do some stomping round the odd down circuit so don't know which'll take precedence  1

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alotronic replied to dave atkinson | 10 years ago
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Dave Atkinson wrote:

contemplating a 600 or even a SR series next year, but also keen to go do some stomping round the odd down circuit so don't know which'll take precedence  1

Well both is fine, old school long rides on the weekend, new school speed in the week, no problems!

I too have discovered that, like Inuit for snow, I need a hundred words to describe the kind of shattered and bonked you get on a 400! Best advice I heard was: "You will feel terrible once or twice on a 400. You need to have rations, and to keep slowly riding through it... and you'll be fine." ie for newbies (I am too) a 400 is pushing your body in all sorts of new ways and a carbo-crash somewhere along the way is inevitable. So... you did that and survived! Chapeau! Do a 200 in a couple of weeks - you'll feel fantastic!!!

I also know you will be thinking of a 600 and an SR soon enough. And PBP in 2015! Addiction approaching...

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sling | 10 years ago
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Top riding, well done Dave.

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viveLaPants | 10 years ago
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Never have so many saddle bags been seen in one place  26

The stats are amazing - 254 miles - 24:07:35 - thats like nearly a day - chapeau - or perhaps the audax equivalent 'Barbe'  13

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marcusjb | 10 years ago
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Good work - 400s are the hardest distance in my experience.

You'll never ride further in one go (with longer events like LEL and PBP broken down into 350km ish days and the sleep stop on most 600s being around 350km).

Impressive stuff and a great video!

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but its all gon... | 10 years ago
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Kudos to the guy on the trike, true manliness

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Simon E | 10 years ago
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Well done Dave, what an experience! Looking forward to the write-up.

If I had got to Newquay in the sun I don't think I would have turned round and ridden back.

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bikeandy61 | 10 years ago
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 13  4

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mr-andrew | 10 years ago
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That's really fantastic. Inspirational stuff.

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Bez | 10 years ago
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Chapeau. Offer of the 500 still open if your calendar changes  1

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Yennings | 10 years ago
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PS: Which Genesis bike were you using, BTW? Couldn't recognise the colour scheme? Is it a prototype?

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dave atkinson replied to Yennings | 10 years ago
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Yennings wrote:

PS: Which Genesis bike were you using, BTW? Couldn't recognise the colour scheme? Is it a prototype?

it's the equilibrium 853

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Paul J | 10 years ago
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Wow, just wow.  1

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MCLK | 10 years ago
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Well done, Dave! 600 next?

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Yennings | 10 years ago
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Nice little vid, weather not quite as epic as that new Rapha Wales film, still massive respect though, that is a long old way to ride a bicycle by anyone's standards.

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Low Speed Wobble | 10 years ago
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Kudos! And I don't mean Strava-style kudos. I mean REAL kudos and respect.

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othello | 10 years ago
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Massive respect Dave  1

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sponican | 10 years ago
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Great ride. I did my very first 400 this weekend too, although I did the Porkers down in Dorset. Some interesting moments of self discovery although I would say I generally fared better than on my first 300, which was a month ago.

There were several riders on Porkers who'd also done the Brevet Cymru. That presumably entailed finishing in Chepstow at about 0600 and hightailing straight to Poole to start Porkers at 1400. Bad, bad craziness.

I am relaxing with a pot of sudocrem today.

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dave atkinson replied to sponican | 10 years ago
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sponican wrote:

There were several riders on Porkers who'd also done the Brevet Cymru. That presumably entailed finishing in Chepstow at about 0600 and hightailing straight to Poole to start Porkers at 1400. Bad, bad craziness.

that is madness. i guess London-Edinburgh-London isn't far away though...

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Ad Hynkel | 10 years ago
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Did you not notice the stubble was turning to beard as the ride went on in the video? Another 100k and the cap would've started growing too.

Well done Dave. You have my respect.

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