I do agree on success is not bonking in the first place. The trouble is it's so easy to happen unless you always ride in a perfect world...no one does. You can train all you want and then come ride/race day find yourself in a totally new environment that will throw you and just about anyone that is unprepared into 'shock'/bonk.

My first double this year was the warmest day of the year to that point. I had no way of being able to train for it. It was the temps and blaring sunshine that ended up helping me to pretty much bonk on the ride not the lack of biking. If I would have had the same conditions all day long that I had in first 3-4 hours of the ride, mid 70's and high cirrus overcast, I very highly doubt I would have bonked. I had no way of being able to train under those conditions because I hadn't seen them in 9 months.

You never know when Mother Nature is going to throw you a curve ball and turn what should have been a great ride into the ride from he--. You've trained and trained for the double century and everything is going great. The problem comes up right before the event when a big warm front moves in and sends temps, normally that time of the year in the low 80s, into the 105-110 degree range. You can change your pace and make sure your drinking a lot more fluids than you normally would but your body is still not use to being in that kind of an environment. Do you know how to handle it when you body 'breaks down' and you bonk. Could you recover from it so you could finish the ride, both physically and psychologically? There is plenty to learn from bonking when you stop to think about it. When life, err circumstances, hands you lemons...can you make lemonade or do you drop out of the ride/race.

One thing I have always heard in life is to hope for the best but expect the worse. You never know what's going to happen so you have to be prepared for anything to happen. The more you know how to handle the better off you are...including bonking. Sooner or later you will 'bonk'.

Thinking back to your originally reply Steamer their may be a bit of meaning difference between what I'm saying and what your meaning. I always thinking of bonking of when you notice the 'rather' sizeable drop in average speed...say you've been doing 19.5-20 average for the first 5 hours and then you drop down to 17.5 or even slower and the terrain/wind hasn't changed any to help create the slower speed. At the same time you feel the energy waning. In this kind of situation, like I said above, can easily strike at any time because Mother Nature throws you a curve ball that you have never had a chance to train under. Can you recover from it or you drop out.