How do bag drops work?

To help you get to Edinburgh and then back to Writtle, we provide you with two drop bags.

These allow you to send clothing, toiletries and other useful items to two control points of your choice – where your bags will be waiting for you when you arrive. After the control closes to the final rider, we bring all the bags back to Writtle for you to collect at the finish.

How can you make the best use of your drop bags? Here is a quick guide to how this works.

  • In 2025, when the rider area of the wesbite opens, you can select two control points for your bag drops.
  • You can select from Louth, Hessle, Malton, Richmond, Brampton, Innerleithen, Moffat and Edinburgh.
  • You can select one bag drop in England (Louth, Hessle, Malton, Richmond, Brampton) and one bag drop in Scotland (Moffatt, Edinburgh and Innerleithen). All of these controls (except Innerleithen) have showers.
  • When you register, we will give you a cotton drawstring bag (38cm x 45cm approx.) for each bag drop you have selected. Here are the bags we gave riders in 2017.

  • You can fill the bags with up to 2.5kg (maximum) of things you think you might need.
  • Please don't put any bottles or tubes of liquids or oils in your drop bags.
  • We weigh your bags at the start to make sure they do not exceed 2.5kg, so please plan your packing carefully.
  • You then drop your bags off in the bag drop area.
  • When you arrive at your selected controls, your drop bag will be there for you.
  • At your selected English control, you can access your bag in both directions.
  • When the control closes, we collect all the bags and return them to Writtle, where you can collect yours.

IMPORTANT

  • Many of the drop bags won't arrive back in Writtle until Thursday evening.
  • If you don't want to wait for your bags, we can post them back to you. To do this, you don't need to do anything until after the event.
  • We will contact you after the event with a link where you can pay for the cost of posting your bags back to you.
  • If you live outside the UK, please note that we cannot post powerbanks or batteries. We check the contents of every bag we post outside the UK; we will remove any batteries and donate them to charity.

After you collect your drop bags, the bags are yours to keep as a souvenir. Riders have made cushions, quilts and framed displays with their bags, while others use their as liners in their panniers or gym bags. What will you use yours for?