What is the Pan Celtic? How does it work?

The Pan Celtic Race is a self-supported bikepacking event. Everyone starts together, and we have a set course that we have to follow from start to finish. It is self-supported, so once you start, it is entirely up to you to get to the finish and do the event how you like. Some people will ride as many hours per day as possible, camping out for a few hours of sleep, and try to finish in the shortest time. We are aiming to finish by the end of the 10th day (11 July), which is when the finishers party is on. We will be staying in accommodation along the way – which we will book day-by-day as we go. You can have any special assistance that is not available to other people in the event. This means no support vehicle, no pre-dropped food packages, etc. But you can make use of publicly available things like purchasing food and staying in accommodation. There is no time cutoff.

When does the race start? How will you get there?

The race starts on Sunday 2 July 2023 in St Malo, France at about 9:30am local time, which is 5:30pm Melbourne / 3:30pm Perth.

We will fly Melbourne to Paris, spend a few days in Paris, then take a train to St Malo with our bikes in bike bags.

I have calculated the total travel time door to door from home to the race start is about 36 hours.

How far do you have to ride? What is the route?

The race starts in St Malo, Brittany (north west France) and finishes in Llandudno (northern Wales). The total distance for the long course is 2,300km, which includes the ferry crossing from Caen (Ouistreham) to Portsmouth. The total ride distance is 2,100km. We have entered as a pair for the long route – by my count, there are 13 pairs doing the long route.

This is the route map: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/42915468

Our race plan has our riding days ranging from 145km to 255km – depending on where we can get accommodation, and with a bit of a mix of longer and shorter days. It is an average of 210km per day.

The ferry crossing has a big influence on the race strategy, as there are three ferries per day and the crossing is about 7 hours (plus an hour earlier for checkin). Taking a day-time ferry means losing most of a day of riding. Taking a night-time ferry means unknown sleep quality, probably in a seat not a bed. Plus, the route profile is much hillier in the UK section (after the ferry) – so for us, trying to hit a deadline, we want to make sure we allow enough time to get through the UK section in time. We are aiming for an afternoon ferry on Saturday 8 July.

Can we follow along? How can we track you?

Check out the Dot Watcher website for race profile and live updates during the event: https://dotwatcher.cc/race/pcr-2023

Maprogress will be used for live tracking of each rider using GPS during the event, it should be at this link when it is enabled: https://pancelticrace2023.maprogress.com/

Our personal Garmin In-reach tracking page is https://share.garmin.com/panceltic

I will be sharing to Instagram and Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/ems.myriad.adventures/

What are you carrying with you? How much does your luggage weight? What bike are you using?

I will be riding a Specialized Diverge with 32mm Specialized Roubaix Pro slick tyres, Portland Design Works bidon cages, aerobars, a single 40 tooth chainring at the front and 10-50 tooth rear cassette. This is my bike and luggage setup.

My total luggage weight is 8kg – excluding water, food and bike. I have 2 x 650mL bidons.

I am carrying wet weather gear (560g): 7mesh rain jacket, Dexshell waterproof gloves and socks, montane waterproof pants:

Spares and tools (585g): as shown, plus a pump, plus supplemented by what Greg is carrying.

Handlebar bag (2kg): off-bike clothes, bathers, pillow, charges, adaptors and cables, battery pack, eye mask, mini foam roll and cork ball

Saddle bag (2.7kg): second set of bibs and socks, toiletries, down jacket, gilet, emergency blanket, muesli, mini milks, instant coffee, collapsible bowl, recovery mix

Handlebar pocket (725g): spoon/knife, toilet paper, earphones, mini first aid kit (mainly bandaids and a few small dressings, panadol, antihistamines), chamois cream, bike lock, spare front light, power adaptor, emergency cash, mini backpack, spare sunnies lens, lens cleaner, extra bag that can be tied on to carry food for the day.

Plus a pair of sandals, and a couple of bags for snacks.

It will be the hardest things I’ve ever done, but we are looking forward to getting going!