On Saturday the 21st of June 2026, Vicky and I started a 400km timed cycling event called the Festum Prophetae, as part of the sport of randonneuring. Randonneuring, commonly labelled ‘rando’ riding is an approach to long distance cycling originating from France and involves distances from 100km to 1200+km on the all-road bike, most commonly timed to a minimum speed of about 15km/h including rest stops and sleeping. It’s a kind of suffer fest with rules and strategy that only a cyclist would come up with, but the concept remains simple: get from A to B within x hours via y route. Most notably, it’s not a race.

A few months beforehand, Vicky and I had been introduced by some keen friends to try an event called Paris-Brest-Paris: 1200km in 90 hours via rolling hills in France held once every four years. Without knowing too much about the sport we were both excited about both the challenge and community that this kind of event brings – not to mention a keen group of friends I had met a year earlier riding around Sydney. After bikepacking a bunch in Sydney and touring in Turkey, this kind of thing was offering a challenge that enticed both of us in just the right way. After a casual 200km ride, and a 300km ‘brevet’, we felt nervous but ready to take on this somewhat notorious event labelled Festum Prophetae 400km BRM held on the longest night of the year through the Hawksbury area just north of Sydney. The route was a lovely collection of roads with a fair bit of elevation and gravel in the mix, which was a bit nerve wracking, since I would usually take a 2.6in mountain bike while bikepacking about 80km/day on some of these gravel roads, and on this ride, all 400km would be done on 37c tyres and a trusty flexible steel touring bike from the 80s, in less than 27 hours. Let’s just say it was great to have some friends for company.

Both Vicky and I learned a lot from doing the 200 and 300km in the weeks leading up to the 400, however this ride was different. It would be our first overnight brevet, extending into to wee hours of 10am the next morning. This route in particular was a bit intimidating due to the remoteness of the route, with a 100km section of no resupply from around 9pm to 6am the next morning – at least that’s how long it took us – along the roughest gravel roads of the whole route. Not to mention the expectation of packing light, the only silver lining being that we would be sleeping for such a short amount of time that a lack of sleeping kit doesn’t really matter unless we got into trouble. The prep for this route really did wear us down in the weeks prior. Calculating carb intake, scheduling solid food snacks, investigating the route, calculating our timings, resupply points, water intake, considering on-the-bike storage and access considerations for gear and sleeping kit decisions – it really added up to a lot of admin which we weren’t prepared for. Compared to our regular weekends of throwing the pack into the car and driving to the mountains, this trip involved meticulously looking at every aspect of the ride and making sure we had done everything we could to prepare for it, down to our movements the day before and after, since we both ride to work everyday, and I had a flight to China the day after the event, which meant an early sleep Sunday night after the event.

Without the preparedness of the others in our group of ten, there is no way we would have been ready for the ride. Dana suggested doing 150kms of the route to check out the gravel section a few weeks prior and Bre made an awesome spreadsheet with calculated timings and control points, as well as food and water stops along the way. On Dana’s 150, Chad was invaluable with his knowledge of working on bikes, snacking strategy and vintage bike appeal. This pushed us to really consider the ride with a bit more gravitas than we had for the 300, which was harder than it needed to be due to our lack of preparation, something we realised afterwards. It was good to see things fail on the 300 though, as we could fix them in preparation for the 400. Probably the most important thing was getting enough rest before the ride, and this meant having everything ready a few days beforehand, so that there were no last minute additions or changes that had to be made which would eat into our night-before sleep time. The most time consuming thing was weighing out our nutrition bags for each bottle. I had calculated from previous rides that I drink about 333ml of water every hour, and that I wanted around 60g of carbs every hour. So together with a hefty 42g of carbs from a peanut butter date bar every 2 hours and 110g of carb mix per 975ml bottle, I would be at around 61g carbs per hour while riding which was perfect. After looking at the route, I realised we could resupply water every 100km or so, which made for three short water stops. Something I had changed from the last ride was getting some clamp-on bottle cage mounts for my steel tubed bike, and this let me fit 2 975ml Zefal Bottles on my bike, as well as putting my spare tube and tools under my downtube, freeing up the saddle space for a bigger saddlebag for my sleeping gear. In addition to that, I used my 1.1L Bike Bag dude top tube bag to store all my sugar in a super convenient location for refills, but in retrospect it probably would have been better to use it for snacking, since I found it difficult to pull snacks from my cargo bib pockets while on the ride, especially with cold gloved hands.

I had a flap-top Wizard Works handlebar bag that my friend Jing lent me. In it I stored my rainjacket, a 15mm spanner for my front wheel, chain lube, a headtorch, some loctite, the date bars that Vicky made for us, a warm riding jacket, my reflective vest, glasses case and spare battery incase I needed to re charge my bike lights. With three bags, my jersey pockets and my Bib Cargo pockets I had plenty of storage space on the bike in the end and was quite happy with my set-up. Possibly the only change for a 300 would be a warmer sleeping system for a longer sleep. All Vicky and I packed for this was an emergency blanket and a sleeping bag liner for the 30 minute nap on the 10 degree night.

In addition to the bag packing, Vicky and I needed to install dynamo lighting for the first time for this ride. After struggling to find a used wheel for her 650b Bombtrack, I spotted a dynamo wheel on my housemate Caitlin’s Velo Orange that wasn’t hooked up to any lights at all. With some negotiation, Vicky bought the wheel and opted for new lights to go with it which was lucky because I had no idea what I was going to do about lighting, and it meant I could borrow Vicky’s Knog Blinder front light. In the end I had 7 bike lights strapped to my bike, 3 for the front and 3 for the back, with an additional white/red helmet light that would be a back-up both sides. I also realised I could charge one light with a battery while the other was working, and then swap them out, which worked really great. In the end I only needed one rear light at the back. The front was good, except that I use my Ravemen 500 on about 300 lumens which was just a bit dangerous especially when travelling on road at around 22km/hour. There’s no way I would see a wombat in time and avoid it. Since I mounted my light just beside my front wheel on a custom bracket I made, potholes tended to be basked in shadow and I actually found somewhat easier to see them on the gravel sections, though I had to really stretch my eyelids to let enough light in and see to the very depths of the light’s throw to see the gravel undulations fast enough – I really wish I had bright dynamo lighting and could forget all about the battery and mounting locations of 3 front lights, not to mention more space on the handlebar. It was great to ride next to Vicky as her new dynamo was really bright enough for the both of us. After some research, some lights on the market support charging while using them, which I think would be doable for a few nights with enough battery, any longer and I would prefer a dynamo due to weight and reliability concerns.

The seemingly simple task of preparing for this event really wore us down in the days beforehand, and made us question how much we enjoy rando riding including all the prep. I think we both agreed that it was just teething pains of getting into the sport, and finding the right setup that was time consuming, and that next time wouldn’t be so bad. We both dismantled our front racks from the bike on Wednesday night and planned to ride with our rando setup to work for the next few days, and then on Thursday night we packed and strapped our bags on. I took Friday off to help my family with some housework, and Vicky took the train into work that day. Then on Friday night we filled our bottles, I pre-mixed one carb mix into one bottle, and I left the other with normal water for the train ride up in the morning – to be filled and mixed right before the start. With Input from Bre’s planning spreadsheet, Vicky and I had come up with ‘run-sheet’ of key destinations and the activities we would need to perform at each one to keep us on track, as well as estimated timings for a 17km/h average speed – which would be our absolute latest time we would like to arrive at each point of interest. Vicky printed off the sheet and smartly colour coded each line item by category: water, food stop or control point and laminated them on a small card we could fit into a pocket – this turned out to be an incredible mental boost for me, breaking the ride into digestible chunks and keeping our timings and activities front of mind throughout the whole ride. It made a huge difference to see only the important information on that small peice of paper.

Finally, we were in Hornsby, rearing to go with all ten of us there waiting for Tim to show up right on time at 7am to start the ride. We all stayed together for about 100 metres until the first traffic light cut group in half, which was the last time Vicky and I saw Robbie on the ride, unfortunately. Afterwards the group split into a few different speeds, with everyone taking their preferred snack and water stops wherever they had planned. There was an agreement that everyone was on their own for this one, though Vicky and I decided to stick together. The front group consisted of Zac, Dana, Bre, Chad and Cam, and soon after Jack caught up to them. Vicky and I were in the middle and Robbie and Caitlin at the rear, though Caitlin caught us up and we exchanged hello’s on the ups and downs until Wyong, the first control where we all caught up. We later learned that Robbie was dealing with some medical issues in their leg and was cramping up pretty rough. Being of world circumnavigation material though, they pushed on.

Vicky and I decided to stop and say hello, take a picture for the control point proof and continue going to our planned lunch and water stop of Morisset Bakehouse, 116km down the road at around 12:30pm. I was really surprised by the pace of the group at the front, and from this point on they stayed about 30 minutes to an hour ahead of us for the rest of the ride. Bre unfortunately had a flat, but together with Chad caught us right before our lunch break and then continued on for their lunch at Yarramalong. We breaked for a planned 30 minutes, and I was feeling good that my water was lasting exactly to around the 110km mark, which meant the rest of the water stops should work out for me.

Learning from Chad on the 150 recon ride, Rock and Roll lube only lasts for about 100km, so we re-applied and kept rolling. The next few hours were pretty easy going to be honest with no real hiccups and we found the route very easy to follow without many turns to make. Compared to the 300 we did from Wollongong to Badgerys Creek and back, this was a lot less stop-start and I found the ground was being covered significantly faster with less mental effort. It felt like the hours and kms whizzed by, and before we knew it, it was dusk and we reached the start of the first gravel section right at sunset. Having ridden this section on the bikes we had a few weeks prior, it was a familiar and enjoyable climb. Going down the gravel would be the first time I had done such a thing in the dark with my bike lights, but there was no surprises, and the 300 lumens was thankfully just bright enough for me – though I’d prefer more light next time. The sliver of moon was really helping here.

After reaching St Albans a whole hour and a half earlier than our expected time we both felt great, and we were really keen to see Josh and Annie in 21kms at the next control point of Wisemans Ferry. Having done the previous PBP, they were our support crew and had been kind enough to carry some of the others sleeping kit for the night ahead. Support was allowed to be given only at control points according to the rules. They were also kind enough to cook some warm curry, Milo, hot chocolate and coffee for the long night ahead. What really made a difference the most was having this support and company to be honest, it was a really lovely gesture. We totally lost track of time and ended hanging out for about an hour with Annie, Josh and Jack, who unfortunately had to call it at 244kms after some funny neck and knee pain. After that we perched our aching bums back onto the bikes for the next 78kms until our nap stop at the top of Comleroy road climb.

This next section along windy river roads really slowed us down. Having lights pointed directly ahead did not help to see around the corners, which meant we had to take them slower. In addition to that, the final 30km was on a gravel road, finishing in a steep climb out. It was about 6 degrees in the humid low lying area next to the river, and I felt it until we started the climb out. Thankfully the climb warmed us up enough for a 20 minute nap, on top of some sandstone blocks, and then we were off back down the hill towards Richmond. Vicky and I had been hearing that this descent was meant to be quite rocky and bumpy, so we were a bit nervous, but thankfully it had been graded recently, so it was a lot more easy going even in the dark. After this it was one more similar climb, and a long section of rolling downhill to Richmond Maccas for the next control point.

We initially planned to have brekky later on at 8am in Windsor, but both of us had been missing our solid food throughout the night, as well as underfueling due to how we felt. I also realised that trying to pick out a snack from a zip loc in a tight pocket with gloved cold hands is next to impossible – so that was a major contributor to not snacking. We stopped at Maccas for a warm coffee, bacon and egg roll and a hash brown, refilled water, and got going in 20 minutes. We were behind schedule and had 50km to go in 3 hours and 50 minutes. Vicky said to me, it’s okay we can definitely average about 13kph on the way back – however looking at the cycling computer I could see we had Galston Gorge and one other significant road climb right before the finish. We were also travelling about 15kph when Vicky said to me that it feels like 20kph – fatigue was settling into the legs – so I was nervous for the entire 50km that were weren’t going to make it, especially with the climbs slowing us down. I suggested we up the pace to at least 18kph on the flats but we settled for 16kph and attempted to start drafting the whole way back.

As we neared closer to the finish line, it became difficult to see how much longer the final climbs were, and the distance we had after them rolling into Hornsby. Vicky was really struggling with fatigue and wasn’t sure if she would make it. I had a faint glimmer of hope but didn’t know how hard Vicky could push so remained calm and said I was happy with the effort even if we missed the finish. Then Vicky had a surge of optimism and said we should really push for it so I decided to start picking up the tempo and made sure Vicky could stay in my draft the whole way back. Slow and steady up the two hills was the key, not tiring out needlessly. Both of them went by quite quickly actually and we were suddenly on the gentle downhill gradient back into Hornsby for the last 3.5 kms. We had made it! 20 minutes before the finish. I could almost not believe it but I was very proud of both of us for giving this tougher 400 a crack for our first one, after all the prep and organisation, I was so glad it payed off.

Rolling into the finish through a set of lights we spotted Cam at the cafe and it was great to see a familiar face. He had finished about an hour before us, and 30 minutes or so after the other front group of Chad, Dana, Bre and Zac. We heard from Annie and Josh that he had a knee problem and was mostly pushing with one leg the entire race, which is an incredible effort especially with the gravel climbs throughout the night. We all sat and chatted about the ride and our experience while I waited for a coffee.

Before long we were checking the train times and raced off to the station back to central, and then onto Wolli Creek for us. It was a 10 minute ride home up a final steep hill into Earlwood, which both of us independently considered walking up – but we rode. The rest of the day at home was a complete write-off. We had vague plans to nap, then go see my visiting Dad, Hella and brother Tobey for lunch but suggested we would be terrible company. Similarly we had dinner plans and we’re still overcooked to attend – even though Jing and Burbie would definitely understand our state having bike packed with them for a few weeks. We both felt so funny, I could only stomach warm broth and freshly cut pears for dinner while Vicky had some noodles. We watched Masterchef and Alone Australia and relaxed on the couch while I packed my Bags for my flight to China the next day with work. A 9pm bedtime was a very welcome change compared to the night before. I left for China, and Vicky had excruciating cramps the next day, which we were thankful didn’t happen on the ride – poor Vicky 🙁 . We both felt a minor sickness come on as I was transiting to China, and I have been slowly recovering with a lot more spare ‘me’ time than my usual schedule of climbing and biking during the week. What a weekend!