All–

Our French overlords — the ACP — have decreed that intermediate control times are . . . no longer a thing. The control itself IS still a thing–you’ve still got to verify passage through every control, including the intermediate ones without exception–but with this change you’re now allowed to arrive and depart intermediate controls (meaning, not the start and not the finish but every other control point on the route) whenever you want.

This really isn’t relevant to us. In 13 seasons of being an RBA hosting over 1000 riders on brevets in those years, I have never had a rider “out of time” at any control, including the finish control (one rider came within two or three minutes and several have been within 10 minutes, but I’ve never had an HD/ DNQ rider). I’ve also never had a rider (other than someone in a velomobile on the 2016 Cracker Swamp) able to “ride ahead” of a control opening time, even to the first control (one of you came within 4 minutes once, which was impressive). So, while there won’t be opening and closing times enforced for intermediate controls, I’ll still print those times on the cue sheet and brevet card to help in planning/pacing your ride.

All this said, nothing changes with the start and finish of the brevets: You cannot start early (brevets are mass-start at the designated time) and you cannot finish late. Doing either of those things = DNF. Otherwise, enjoy the additional freedom in how you pace yourself around the course. Personally, I’m looking forward to more rest and sleep on the 600K and longer events, especially on the last night of a 1200K. I’d rather finish in 88-89 hours with 8 hours of sleep that last night than in 85 hours because I had to leave out early to make it to some gas station at 1050km by 6am. Woo hoo!

Paul