A friend sent this over to me this morning. GBDuro is a self supported bike race in its 2nd year, fortunately for the organizers, won by pro cyclist Lachlan Morton last year. The race is an ‘ultra’ event that starts in Land’s End and finishes in John O’groats, a route that’s probably on the to-do list of every self-respecting ‘bike packer’ out there. It’s a mixture of on and off road. The race is 2000 km long.

And then it gets tough.

Normally ‘self supported’, this year due to Covid19 the organizers have made the race ‘self sufficient‘, so riders will have to lug all their food with them, they can’t enter any building, public or private, and they can’t rely on the kindness of strangers. Oh, they also have to keep their trash with them.

Bike-pack it in, bike-pack it out.

In addition to the above, GBDuro is a ‘no fly ride’, so competitors need to get themselves to the Land’s End by other means. Retired pro (and current Canadian), Svein Tuft, has ridden to the start…from Andorra. Well, he’s not quite there yet – you can track all the riders making their way to the start line here. He’s nearly there…

This story fits in well with our discussion (okay, my discussion) about the environmental impact – however small – of adding gadgets to our cycling lives. Read these guys’ manifesto on their site for an extreme (or maybe not) view of how cycling events should be done.

So, with pro racing starting up this week and live tracking of this event (starts Saturday), you now having something other than Netflix to binge on.