StephenH

I've done the Texas Time Trials and found that to be a tricky question to deal with.
One time: I wasn't getting too sleepy, but was getting dry-eye syndrome so bad I couldn't see the road, and had to stop for the night (3 hours or so).
Then also: The ride started at 6:00 PM, I had it planned out that I would get to a motel early, sleep all day, then hop on that bike. So I get there early, I'm all keyed up, can't sleep a wink. So that theory is right out the window.
I've gotten so sleepy I've had to stop a few times. On The Texas Time Trials, I was able to stop where volunteers were, just sack out in a chair a few minutes, then continue. Anyway, that kind of thing works fine if the weather is nice, but if it's miserable weather out, would be hard to pull off, too.
Staying at a motel "in case you get sleepy" sounds great, but if you get sleepy 4 hours before you get there or 2 hours after you've passed it, you're kinda screwed.

I've seen a couple of cases where people did 600k's and rode straight through, and wound up finishing maybe an hour ahead of people that slept 4 or 5 hours. The guys that rode straight through still stopped at that overnight control, for maybe an hour or more, then got so exhausted and sleep deprived, they were riding 10 mph, so they pretty much lost all the advantage of riding straight through. I think a fast rider would be better able to take advantage of a ride-straight-through approach, even though they're the ones that need it least.

On 600k's, I can sit here in an easy chair and theorize "Well, garsh, I'll just go ride for30 hours straight and be done!" And it sounds like a great idea. But then when I actually finish the first 400k, I'm totally wiped out and have zero desire to keep on riding through the night, and I am really really glad I didn't plan it where I was stuck doing that.