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I've taken it out, fine with my phone but now Joe's ones show them so not needed any more.

Interesting analysis, Joe.
Doing them in a different order occurred to me.
My first thought was that they must have done it intentionally to have several different routes through the controls all of similar length. So I looked up the control opening and closing times, and that makes most of the variations more challenging. Also long ferries won't be allowed (only river crossing ferries).
I reckon if you can still make it work with closing times, it would be ok to change the order though. Sure, in audax, you can't do that, but Mike wasn't from an audax background. I think his Valleycats were like that, and in 2015 didn't some people do controls in a different order?
It adds another dimension to the route planning, which favours those who are strong in that aspect (aka hill avoiders).

Lalalala

The other thing: wheel covers. The Aussies will think you are from Mars, but it's a windy ride. I used £40 wheel covers from eBay and I'm sure they saved me time. £40 wheel covers on an old back wheel would beat an expensive carbon deep section!

This article suggests an efficient dynamo will cost you up to thirty seconds over 100km when switched off and up to nearly six minutes switched on.

Agree with @hippy's point about one less thing to think about, there is a bit more stress with batteries. There's also a little bit more bulk if you are really short of space, and a bit more hassles if it rains to keep stuff dry.

But I think the gains are bigger. Those articles aren't written with ultra racers in mind. The power output for most of us is lower, after a couple of days, so losing 6 W when you're only putting out 80W is more damaging.
But even on those numbers, 6 min per 100km is 5.5 hours, or 100+km, so still worth having. (It's an autumn ride so quite a lot of dark, + gadgets, means people with dynamos would use them most of the time).

Final bump in case anyone fancies this, there's 14 places left, will probably sell out today or tomorrow

That's right, I might nip out and do the short ride while everyone is out so I can work up an appetite.

14 places left, if anyone fancies it!

Discuss with the org and he may well validate it. GPS track and any witnesses from other riders would help. I've known others get validated in that situation. You have to provide proof of passage, not specifically a receipt, which the above could be.

You only need a dynamo if you are planning to camp out each night. If you take a hotel every fourth or fifth night you'll be fine with batteries (depending on your power needs)
The nullarbor is not that much of a problem for finding a room, actually it's harder elsewhere because the small town hotels close very early, like 8pm, while the Nullarbor roadhouses have long hours.
You're welcome to borrow my battery and charger setup if you want to go without dynamo.

Last time I was in those conditions I'd ridden 4hrs to the race only for it to be cancelled because the spray was bad for visibility. I wonder who decides the spray cancellation thresholds.

I expect it would be the organiser's call to cancel if he judged it was unsafe for any reason. I'm not aware of any actual measure or threshold of spray.

DC courses are obviously not great in spray, especially ones like the F1 which have a fair bit of traffic and run north-south, hence prone to crosswinds. I was once on the R8 / A40 Abergavenny course on a wet day. I do remember not being able to see much when riding west, more from rain on my visor than spray. It was quite early and the traffic was light, and I got a PB so I was happy.

FYI if you want to know what an honest course is like compared to the E2,

Fifield.
My best there is 1:05:00, and I was pleased with it.

Was that the same year? Too many long rides ruin your memory...

Yes, it was after the first Newbury 12. Not much shocks me in terms of long-distance riding but I could hardly walk after doing 264, and saw you ride 290-odd, then have a quick shower and jump on your other bike to ride home.

I was probably just rushing to my team to get them to take the pins out of my back :)

ISTR you were rushing to get back so that you could get ready for your night ride!

That debate is one of the winter staples on the TTF. Some people think like that, others want PBs which means drag strips.

Until such time as casualty rates become an issue, I reckon there is room for both.

I'm not: doing a ride round the Chilterns on Sunday instead, to put out the signs for the Winter Warmer next weekend.
I've thought about doing the PS for the last six or seven years but always found an excuse not to!

Need a better way. 7 months to find it.

I think that is the key, you've got time to try things out and it does take time to get happy with it.

I use drinks almost exclusively during the day, but it doesn't work at night as I don't drink so much. Then I eat a lot of cereal bars and some fatty/salty stuff for variety. I mix my own energy drinks with really bland flavour, the commercial ones are too sweet for me. But that wouldn't work for others, you've just got to try and see what works for you.
But the key number is how much carbohydrate you can get in per hour.

I reckoned it was 5 miles better, based on what I did, but that kind of ballpark. You were flying that day at the Newbury, looked significantly faster than topham at the end (he passed me around the same time)

In my very unscientific tests, riding a 12hr before a 24hr is about 20mi better than doing it the other way around, even with ~3wks in between

ISTR you overtook me a bit earlier in the day when you'd already done the 24

It's remarkably effective!

I enjoy the solitary aspect of night riding.
But in the south of England there's a reasonable chance you might bump into Steve Abraham

I'm probably in for some crazy overnight ECE shit from London this year.

I did a couple of those in 2016 as TCR training; entered events in Wales and rode out through night. It's not mainstream, but it's kinda fun.

there are some pretty grim stretches that just sap the life out of you.

They're my favourite bits! ;)

Yes, I thought it was all like that!

Is there a general rule of thumb if picking up a wheel of a faster group on an Audax ride, or will my tyres be let down at the next checkpoint

As @hippy says audaxers are terrible group riders. It's pretty normal for someone to ride up behind, sit on your wheel for 10 minutes, then - usually when there is a little hill - they'll attack and come past you at a speed that makes it impossible for you to get a tow back. This happens even with people you think you know quite well.
Also, people on the front don't usually know to peel off, so they sit there for half an hour getting more and more pissed off.
Short of actually pushing people off, you can't go wrong in terms of bunch etiquette on most (uk) audaxes.

It depends on your recovery. It may well be fine. Only way to find out is to try it.
Agree with don't try it the other way round, I did that 2 years ago and ran out of power half way round the 100.

As little as possible. I was off for 45 seconds last time I did the Newbury one: no support crew so I had to stop to change bottles. If I'd had a helper I wouldn't have stopped. Needed a long piss at the end though, and recall it was rather painful.

That still probably cost me almost a mile in distance, stop time plus it maybe takes a minute to slow down and another minute to get back up to speed.

Not sure if this has been mentioned, Ride across Finland next September:
https://www.randonneurs.fi/ruska-ride-across-finland-2018/ruska-ride-across-finland-info-page/