So I have decided to enter the 600km Dales Divide off road endurance event in mid April. I’m pretty apprehensive about it, but enjoying having a goal to focus on.

I spent 4 years working as a courier doing high mileage in shit weather, had a decent stint racing road bikes, don’t mind sleeping in hedges, and generally consider myself to be reasonably fit, but this sort of thing is a step into the unknown. How will I feel when I’m a day in and have barely slept or stopped pedalling? We’ll see. Probably a bit rough. There is a ‘short cut’ to make the route 400km rather than 600, but I’m aiming for the full sitting. I’ve no ambitions as far as placing is concerned, but hope to get round in not too much over 3 days. This means covering about 120 miles per day, including the crossing the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors. Previous mountain bike touring escapades have taught me that it can take a very long time to get not very far, so hopefully this isn’t too ambitious.

Preparation so far has involved looking closely at last years route and trying to familiarise myself with it to some degree, buying some Ergon grips (eww!), and doing a lot of stretching. Before the event itself I’m going to get out on some longer solo missions and try to gradually increase my mileage without doing anything too silly. Perhaps having a crack at a 150 mile route from home, riding overnight after work to see how that goes.

I’m going to be riding my trusty Santa Cruz Chameleon. It’s a middle of the road trail hardtail, not super slack and heavy, but neither is it an XC race rocket. With some fast rolling tyres I think it will do the job just fine. I’ve considered putting a rigid fork on, but want to be able to really enjoy the fun bits. Some people do this route on gravel bikes, so I’m sure I’ll lose out on some pace on the flat road sections, but last years winner and current record holder James Craven rode a Cannondale FSI hardtail and completed the route in a mind blowing 39hrs 44mins. So the mountain bike isn’t exactly a bad option!

I’ll be posting a few updates on how prep is going for this, whether I make it round alive, and whether or not I enjoy it. whatever happens I’m super excited to have a challenging goal on the horizon.