 good luck to him, if anyone's fit to challenge rob's time it's mike
how much stuff do we reckon he'll have to carry for the ride. i know there's a couple of taps along the route, but he have to take a serious amount of food.
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 Wouldn't doing it on a 29er make you go quicker?
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 Only if you rode it faster.
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 Well, Kate does 24hr solos on Torq bars and gels, although the key difference for Alpine style rides like that is that we're handing her energy drink in bottles each lap, whereas Mike would have to have some way of dumping sachets of powder into the bottles or bladders running unsupported. Quite tricky, strategy-wise.
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 Just stop and pick some blackberries
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 Having ridden it Alpine one-way, I took 2 sandwiches, 6 energy bars and enough SIS powder for 12 750ml bottles. For the double I wouldn't take twice that, as it gets hard to eat on the return leg. But it seems to vary from person to person, some people just eat a lot more than others. There are plenty of public taps along the way (list here ). There's a bit of a gap each end though - 18 miles Southease to Eastbourne (so 36 if turning at Eastbourne) and around 35 miles Cocking to Winchester (exc. QECP). Black Heart Billy, when I did the double (supported) I used a 29er - don't know about faster, but I figured it would make the ride a bit smoother.
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 I assume if there is an attempt it will be done when the ground is dry and firm? Looking out of the window today I guess Rob's record will stand for quite some time.
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 If you read Rob's article he took a huge amount of stuff including 12 rounds of sarnies iirc! And he didn't dump empties.
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-- don't know about faster, but I figured it would make the ride a bit smoother. I was just thinking rolling circumference etc
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 BHB 650b is the Wheelsize of the future  What is the expected / advised water intake for something like this?
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 Poor Rob.Theyre comming to get ya. 
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If you read Rob's article he took a huge amount of stuff including 12 rounds of sarnies iirc! And he didn't dump empties.
I hefted his backpack at the start and couldn't believe the weight of it - amazing! Plus seeing all the rubbish brought back in it at the end too, massive respect!
As the first person to do the 'Double' unsupported, Rob's effectively set the ground rules for future 'alpine' attempts - and the standard he's set is high indeed! (can't really see how it could be higher, other than carrying all your own water - and that's really not feasible). IWH, water intake depends on the person and the conditions - but still, it was hot in August when I went, didn't track my water intake precisely but it was well over a bottle per hour, so somewhere over 20L (i.e. around 20Kg of water!). The SDW dries pretty fast - a few days of dry weather and it'll be good. A few days before Rob's ride, it was pretty soft in places - and you can see from the state of his legs in the pics there were still a few mud puddles about when he went. Best conditions are actually after it's rained and then dried - if it's been dry for a while then the surface gets a bit more broken up and loose. Mike knows all this, of course - he'll have his own plan, and all the best to him if/when he does decide to go for it!
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Well good luck to him. It would be a shame to see Rob's record broken so quickly but I doubt he would roll over and be beaten. This could get interesting.
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I was just thinking rolling circumference etc For a given gear ratio you'll go a bit further for each pedal stroke. But that just means that it gets harder to pedal
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So self-sufficient is called 'alpine' now?! I love it, mountain bikes rock 
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Found it..... from Robs article The night was pure magic and I felt so happy as I made my steady progress hindered only by the ridiculously heavy bag (contents included 48 SIS gels, 12 rounds of sandwiches, 12 SIS Go bars and 2 bottles of For Goodness Shakes. All my spares, lights, water and tools were strapped to the bike which added another 5kg to the overall riders/bike/kit mass.
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Couldn't you just stash half of it, half way along the route, so you pick up the rest on your way back? Or is that not in the spirit of 'alpine'?
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The general view is no pre-drops or anything like that - basically you take everything you need to the start line (except water) and you bring everything back. Sort of like you'd do if you were tackling an unconquered mountain for the first time (hence 'alpine'). However, it's considered ok to drop stuff off during the actual ride, e.g. to leave lights/food/drink hidden in a bush on the outward journey, as long as it's picked up on the way back. Incidentally, there was a bit of a debate about whether it was ok to use litter bins - but Rob's shown the way on that one by example. Since basically he took the harder choice on all the open questions about what 'alpine' meant, the way he did it is, I think it's fair to say, the benchmark for the future.
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 respect to anyone who has a bash at it.
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Sort of like you'd do if you were tackling an unconquered mountain for the first time (hence 'alpine') If I may be appallingly pedantic for a moment, while "Alpine style" is a way of tackling an unconquered mountain, it's not the only way - a long time ago it was all about "siege style", going up and down partway, stashing supplies, fixing ropes blah blah. Alpine style lobbed all that out and replaced it with just carrying what you needed and going up and down in one hit, fast. Which is why it's been adopted for Rob's style on the SDW. Carry on
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