Was listening last night to the Outdoors Station podcast with a bloke who ran the length of Europe. It listed the other big challenges he has done including leJog, and how he was looking to do the Bob Graham round. Smaller challenges like the 12 hour 3 peaks were covered too, you get the idea.

It got me thinking, are there any routes that exist or we could think of that could become the mountain biking Bob Graham. That is something that is hard to do normally, but not impossible. Would need to be trained for, would need some nav skills and maybe some support.

Ones I thought of in the car last night were:

1) The Bare Bones Backpacker long distance ride.
2) A couple of the #RideJenn rides in the lakes I saw routes for.
3) The Dales 300 run by the shop in Skipton that I can’t remember the name of.

Any other thoughts in what could be done?

I thought you were proposing riding an MTB around the Bob Graham 😯 Given the problems that occur with existing usage, it wouldn’t be advisable.

There’s quite a few ITTs around, you’d want one that is just about achievable in 24hrs (that’s one of the “rules” of the Bob Graham) see here. ITT rules are no external support – you can use shops etc., but you can’t have someone in a car/van following you around in the same way that happens on the BGR.

The longer of the JennRides is actually the existing Lakeland 200 and is reckoned to be the hardest of the shorter routes. – only 4 out of the ten completions are under 24hrs so could be one to consider.

The YD300 is run by Rider’s Cycle Centre – Stuart occasionally posts on here – again only a small handful are under 24hrs.

That website is brilliant, thanks.

Not really looking for anything for myself, was thinking what could be done? Or is being done?

Yes a poor title looking back now, can’t edit it now however!

I was about to head out to work when writing my previous post. I think having 24hrs as a time limit is less arbitrary than any other time limit: it’s a day so even non-contenders have a grasp of it.

Terrain makes a big difference: the YD200 is easy in a day, the Lakes 200 isn’t. These days GPS makes route finding a whole lot easier but there’s still opportunity for mistakes. 🙄

At the minute most are happy to complete one of the ITTs but with familiarity, both of routes and of personal capability, some fast times are getting done: Chris Hope has done very fast times for the Lakeland 200; Cairngorms Loop and YD300 for example.

An interesting concept really, fell running has its big three 24hr challenges: Bob Graham Round; Paddy Buckley Round; Ramsay Round which just happen to be in England, Wales and Scotland respectfully. At the moment there’s candidates for the English and Scottish MTB equivalents but not a Welsh one.

It comes back to a view that I have that for our sport to develop and mature things like this than can provide some heritage are great.

Things that can be trained towards, documented and compared over time.

Those ITTs have really given me something to think about. I would love some wider thought on taking on something like the rounds you mention for mountain biking.

Skiddaw, Helvellyn and High Street in one ride – not in the same league of difficulty as the BGR, but still quite tough. Wales – Pen-y-Fan, Cadair Idris and Snowdon over a couple of days? I recently finished this – eight days perfectly do-able in one continuous trip, I think. ITTs are about the one aspect of competitive mountain biking that interest me.