Anyone going to try the Rapha Festive 500 this year?

[patchb]

My old neighbour who I was mates with when I was younger is starting this tomorrow and trying all 500km in one ride, 29 laps of a local circuit! He also rowed the Atlantic with no training after one of the guys meant to be doing it injured his shoulder at the last minute so no doubt he will succeed!

Baffles me!

[ALawson]

Was planning on doing it but not been on the bike in 8 weeks. Not likely to complete it unless I pulled a ride like this.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8299102742

[PGM]

Setting off at 3 in the morning for the Full Fat Festive 500, hopefully returning Friday morning, done it twice before but has man flu for a week this year so see how I go! Organised by GWR Audax but I'm riding it as a 'perm' so on my own timetable which means I can join the route near home in Buckinghamshire rather than traveling, starting in Bristol at 6am with everyone else!

[lauda]

I’ve got about 90km to go which should be easily dispatched with a quick ride tomorrow and my normal Saturday morning cafe ride.

I’ve mixed up indoor and outdoor riding this year as it was practically difficult to do it all outdoors and the weather has been cack. As a result, it hasn’t felt anywhere near as hard as previous years but it has still provided some motivation to ride every day, which I probably wouldn’t have done otherwise.

Also ticked off my annual target of 8,000km today which I hadn’t even remembered that I’d set in Strava.

[PGM]

I bailed my FFF500 in one attempt after 300km yesterday, by then I had done 200km straight into a strong and cold wind and I wasn't properly recovered from a bad cold so enough was enough.

There's always next year!

[JayRidesBikes]

Never thought I'd manage to finish one of these, but I'm only 25 miles from completion so will spin that out this morning. Managed to ride outdoors for half of it (xmas eve, boxing day + 27th) and the rest indoors due to the crap weather during the latter part of the week. If I manage to get out on new years day I'll do my first ever 300+ mile week too, which is nice.

[mikey P 500]

Pleased to say I completed this today. 539km in the end (all outdoors on the winter road bike) across 7 rides, more than would have normally ridden this time of year.

[mooseracer]

mikey P 500 said:

Pleased to say I completed this today. 539km in the end (all outdoors on the winter road bike) across 7 rides, more than would have normally ridden this time of year.

Nicely done.

I got up to 240miles outside by Thursday evening but that was my last realistic cycling oppurtunity.

[emicen]

I bailed/failed at 416km today.

Variety of excuses but bottom line, I’m just not fit enough and my body is pretty smashed up these days.

[yellowjack]

It's been a few years now since I completed a Festive 500. I think I lost interest when Rapha allowed indoor trainer rides to count to the total, and when they ditched the cloth patch. Sadly I have to confess that I've not swung a leg over a top tube nor turned a pedal in anger since September 2022. My last ride was a simple 19 mile run out to a nearby town on some errands, but the last-but-one was a proper doozy, 142 miles getting to and riding the entirety of the cancelled Dorset stage of this year's Tour Of Britain. That was on very little training/riding building up to it. I probably should have had a crack at the Festive 500 though. It would have given me a nice little fitness boost in preparation for Battle On The Beach which is at the end of March this year and will doubtless be "on me before I know it". I know it'll be hard to build cycling back into being a habit, especially with a degree of pressure to actually "train" for BOTB. There's a possible entry into the Minley (third and final) round of the Gorrick Brass Monkeys MTB series too. That's the end of January so I'm going to have to pull my finger out if I'm to make that one in any state to treat it as a "warm up". The only thing I've got going in my favour is that my downturn in cycling terms was matched by an upturn in running regularly, so there's some limited hope that the damage won't be too bad...

[wobert]

The use of turbos for the F500 is an interesting one.

I have a friend who completed the challenge just on a trainer.

Whilst I would agree that sitting on a turbo for 25+ hours is mind-numbing to even think about, doing ‘miles’ on a turbo presents a different issue.

My friend regularly will average 20-21 mph on the turbo, but when out on the road will be closer to 14-14.5mph.

I suspect the turbo isn’t set up correctly, but allowing trainer use leaves the achievement open to question in such cases.

It doesn’t take a genius to realise the goal of doing a set distance at a higher ‘average speed’ kinda devalues the achievement.

I have another friend who did the same challenge entirely outside, and I know from his posted rides, his effort was nearer the true intention of the challenge.

95 miles in the cold and pissing rain sets a level that is entirely different imho.

Edited by wobert on Thursday 5th January 12:01

[okgo]

It’s easy to ride at 25mph on zwift round the desert flats. If you find a pacer group then 27-28mph not difficult either.

To be fair, that does mimic real world large pelotons.

[z4RRSchris]

well on a turbo you can "ride" a flat route with no lights or traffic in a bunch of 100 people.

Pretty hard to get that outside

average watts on turbo usually higher,

i tried 500km in one session last year for F500 but gave up at 300

[wobert]

Ok, but my observation is the turbo isn’t set up correctly 14 mph outside vs 21 mph on the turbo.

It just makes a mockery of the challenge imho

[JEA1K]

wobert said:

Ok, but my observation is the turbo isn’t set up correctly 14 mph outside vs 21 mph on the turbo.

It just makes a mockery of the challenge imho

I would say living in the southern hemisphere makes more of a mockery of the F500;)

I didn't try and do it as it makes me miserable having to ride when I don't want to The weather was garbage up here ... so much rain, daily bike cleaning gets right on my tits.

But completed by default, 135km on the Wattbike but doing some TR sessions, so not just rolling and to counter that, 22 miles were on the MTB at a local trail centre ... then a 150km, 130km and a 90km ride thrown in to complete.

[JayRidesBikes]

wobert said:

The use of turbos for the F500 is an interesting one.

I have a friend who completed the challenge just on a trainer.

Whilst I would agree that sitting on a turbo for 25+ hours is mind-numbing to even think about, doing ‘miles’ on a turbo presents a different issue.

My friend regularly will average 20-21 mph on the turbo, but when out on the road will be closer to 14-14.5mph.

I suspect the turbo isn’t set up correctly, but allowing trainer use leaves the achievement open to question in such cases.

It doesn’t take a genius to realise the goal of doing a set distance at a higher ‘average speed’ kinda devalues the achievement.

I have another friend who did the same challenge entirely outside, and I know from his posted rides, his effort was nearer the true intention of the challenge.

95 miles in the cold and pissing rain sets a level that is entirely different imho.

Edited by wobert on Thursday 5th January 12:01

Have you ever ridden on a decent turbo with Zwift racing or similar workouts?

[z4RRSchris]

wobert said:

Ok, but my observation is the turbo isn’t set up correctly 14 mph outside vs 21 mph on the turbo.

It just makes a mockery of the challenge imho

and I'm saying it is set up correctly,

200w average outside on roads with traffic and stopping etc may give me a 30kph average,

200w average inside in a zwift group ride i can sit hapily at 40kph.

same effort.

people who do F500 need to get a life in general anyway, xmas is for family and drinking.

[wobert]

JayRidesBikes said:

wobert said:

The use of turbos for the F500 is an interesting one.

I have a friend who completed the challenge just on a trainer.

Whilst I would agree that sitting on a turbo for 25+ hours is mind-numbing to even think about, doing ‘miles’ on a turbo presents a different issue.

My friend regularly will average 20-21 mph on the turbo, but when out on the road will be closer to 14-14.5mph.

I suspect the turbo isn’t set up correctly, but allowing trainer use leaves the achievement open to question in such cases.

It doesn’t take a genius to realise the goal of doing a set distance at a higher ‘average speed’ kinda devalues the achievement.

I have another friend who did the same challenge entirely outside, and I know from his posted rides, his effort was nearer the true intention of the challenge.

95 miles in the cold and pissing rain sets a level that is entirely different imho.

Edited by wobert on Thursday 5th January 12:01

Have you ever ridden on a decent turbo with Zwift racing or similar workouts?

Yes, I used TrainerRoad for 4 winters, My average speed pretty much matched what I do outside.

[lauda]

wobert said:

JayRidesBikes said:

wobert said:

The use of turbos for the F500 is an interesting one.

I have a friend who completed the challenge just on a trainer.

Whilst I would agree that sitting on a turbo for 25+ hours is mind-numbing to even think about, doing ‘miles’ on a turbo presents a different issue.

My friend regularly will average 20-21 mph on the turbo, but when out on the road will be closer to 14-14.5mph.

I suspect the turbo isn’t set up correctly, but allowing trainer use leaves the achievement open to question in such cases.

It doesn’t take a genius to realise the goal of doing a set distance at a higher ‘average speed’ kinda devalues the achievement.

I have another friend who did the same challenge entirely outside, and I know from his posted rides, his effort was nearer the true intention of the challenge.

95 miles in the cold and pissing rain sets a level that is entirely different imho.

Edited by wobert on Thursday 5th January 12:01

Have you ever ridden on a decent turbo with Zwift racing or similar workouts?

Yes, I used TrainerRoad for 4 winters, My average speed pretty much matched what I do outside.

There's no doubt that you'll go faster on Zwift than on the road, particularly if you join group rides where the benefit from the draft is significant. I think the basic physics on Zwift are pretty sound but you're riding (mainly) smooth roads, no headwind, no need to slow down/stop for traffic lights or junctions so for the same power output, you'll travel further.

I've ridden the Festive 500 fully outside and predominantly indoors. It's much, much easier indoors.

[wobert]

z4RRSchris said:

wobert said:

Ok, but my observation is the turbo isn’t set up correctly 14 mph outside vs 21 mph on the turbo.

It just makes a mockery of the challenge imho

and I'm saying it is set up correctly,

200w average outside on roads with traffic and stopping etc may give me a 30kph average,

200w average inside in a zwift group ride i can sit hapily at 40kph.

same effort.

people who do F500 need to get a life in general anyway, xmas is for family and drinking.

So you you’ve confirmed my thoughts.

Speed or average speed is a function of power or average power.

If your average speed on a trainer is greater than outside, whilst the power is the same, then there’s a lack of correlation in the software you’re using or the accounting for “drafting” or “road surface” etc is awry.

If the average speed is greater, then you will complete a set distance more quickly.

Ergo, everything else being equal, it’s an “easier” deal, that said, as my original reply states, the thought of sitting on a trainer for 20+ hours is a feat in itself.

Edited by wobert on Thursday 5th January 17:35