TINAT 2019 Details – 15th & 16th June

First, on behalf of the team that organised TINAT 2018, I’d like to thank everyone that helped to make it a truly memorable weekend. We saw a wonderfully diverse mix of cyclists, drawn from many cycling scenes, descend on Llandrindod Wells in memory of Mike Hall.

As requested, we have been working quietly to agree on what rides to organise over the weekend of the 15th-16th June 2019. We reviewed a lot of feedback following the 2018 rides. Whilst overwhelmingly positive we have also listened to our critics. We had to consider the volume of work the weekend generated not only before and during the rides but particularly after the weekend. We also had to be mindful that 2019 is a Paris-Brest-Paris year and the requirements that Audax UK asked us to consider. So in 2019, we are organising 10 rides that will again run out of Llandrindod Wells in Mid Wales.

Saturday

  • 1x 400km (multi-surface)
  • 2x200km (multi-surface ride that runs over Saturday and Sunday)
  • 1x300km (multi-surface)
  • 1x300km (100% road)
  • 1x200km (multi-surface)
  • 1x100km (multi-surface)
  • 1×100 mile (160km – off road)
  • 1x100km (off road)

Sunday

  • 1×100 (multi-surface)
  • 1×200 (100% road)

OK, so let’s just run through this list. Firstly, the keen-eyed will notice the absence of a TINAT 600km ride this year. Basically, due to this being a Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) year, Audax UK has requested that 600km rides be suitable as qualifying rides for PBP. A TINAT 600 is not a suitable ride!

This means that in 2019 riders would have 40 hrs to complete a ride that in 2018 they had 42hrs and 22 minutes hours to complete. This year there were 23 finishers from 45 starters (49% DNF rate) of which only 7 would have made a 40 hour cut off time. This would have resulted in an 84.4% DNF rate. To place that in context, it was our opinion that the 45 that did start contained some of the strongest audax riders in the UK at the time. Interestingly an additional 45 people that signed up didn’t even start the ride. Don’t worry, we drank their beer for them.

Given this year’s stats, and that the planned 2019 600km route was to more audacious than the 2018 route, there was a high risk that people would fail to fully appreciate the challenging nature of a TINAT 600 (as they did in 2018) and opt to use it as their PBP 600 qualifying ride. If they fail to finish TINAT in time then they would fail to qualify for PBP which was not a desirable outcome. So no TINAT 600km in 2019. However, 2020 is a different matter.

With that out of the way, let’s move on. There was a lot of unfinished business with the 400km route this year, so that will remain for 2019 in the same format as 2018. Maybe we shall tweak it for 2020.

The ‘slow’ or Brevet Popular events will not run in 2019. They didn’t really work out for a number of reasons but we won’t bore you with the detail. The slow 400km concept was to facilitate an overnight bivi. In 2019 in order to facilitate the same concept, we shall run a 2 x 200km event. Essentially you will ride a 200km Brevet Randoneeur on Saturday starting from Llandrindod, finishing up around Dolgellau. This will earn you 2 AUK points and a stack of AAA points. On Sunday morning, you will commence another 200km from up near Dolgellau and ride back to Llandrindod earning you another 2 AUK points and a stack of AAA points. The 2 x 200km rides will start early on both days to get you back to Llandrindod at (say) 7pm on Sunday rather than the 10pm as with the 2018 slow 400. The time between the end of the Saturday 200 and the start of the Sunday 200 is your own. We shall not be arranging accommodation! Why not embrace the spirit, pack a bivi kit, a hipflask and sleep out under the stars.

On Saturday there will also be a 300km multi-surface ride and a 300km run entirely on roads. They will be joined by a 200km and 100km multi-surface rides. All the rides mentioned so far on Saturday will be standard Brevet Randoneeur events and eligible for AUK distance points.

This year we also had requests for rides with a much higher off-road content and we like the idea. Indeed, in our initial planning for 2018 we had explored rights-of-way that would have suited mountain bikes but we opted to play-it-safe and restrict routes to gravel tracks. However, for 2019 we propose offering both 100km and 100 mile (160km) high off-road content routes. To be honest, we still have some more work to do to ensure AUK validation of the off-road routes. So that’s Saturday explained.

On Sunday we are keeping things nice and simple. There will be two rides, a road-based 200km at Brevet Randonueurs pace and 100km multi-surface Brevet Populaire pace. Of course, there will be plenty of Saturday riders still out on the road during Sunday.

We are still working in the background to bring the events to life on the Audax UK website, and we are yet to provide full details of each individual ride on this website. However, expect more of the same as in 2018, hills, gravel, tarmac and weather with the added bonus of some proper off-road for some.

Whilst you are unable to enter the events today (21st October 2018), you will soon. All the rides outlined above will run over the weekend of the 15th-16th June 2019. So please put them in your diary and look out for news of the entrance opening via this website, the YACF forum, facebook and the AUK website itself. We expect the two off-road routes to be the last to go live.

We look forward to sharing more details over the coming months and welcoming you back to Llandrindod Wells on the 15th & 16th June 2019.