[Closed] 2017 XC Racing Thread

Ferrals - you definitely are right at the sharp end - just go for it! Hopefully see you tomorrow, raining here now 🙁

Iain, mtb marathons are definitely races for the first 50-100 riders. Not technical. Do night race if long seems too long, but you'll be fine. Good luck tomorrow.

Good to meet you Iain, good luck tomorrow!

Enjoyed Pembrey today, fun course and had some close racing. Funnily enough, despite poor preparation and no structured training I came more or less where I came in all the Nationals last year. Chasing commuters and sleep deprivation has there merits!

Hope whoever it was came acropper on the a line is ok.

Edit. Cheers Chrispo. Might give it a crack!

Do it Ferrals - I'll see you there!

Likewise Ferral, good to meet you and well done yesterday. Thanks, Iain.

Pembrey was a fantastic course. The A lines were fantastic and a fair bit quicker than the B lines. I'm happy with the results. Despite being gridded at the back I provisionally came 8th in the Sport cat. Saying that, I've been missed from the results completely but the lap timer guy had a paper record with me on it. I reckon my chip was goosed!

Midlands Swynnerton next weekend folks? That'll be 4 races in 4 weekends for me!

Well done! Your gridding to placing was the reverse of mine 😆

My only criticism is we could have done another lap to get to the 1.5hr time, though given that I lost 3-4 places on the last lap no bad thing for my result! Lost two places messing up gearing on the climb to the first a/b split 😳

Thought the a-b lines were spot on, I road all the b lines and apart from the last one there was only a couple of seconds in it

Yea another lap definitely. Reckon I'd have gained another two places with another lap as I was closing in on the guys ahead!

My mate is racing Expert today. He's doing 5 laps and Elite are doing 6.

Those two sandy climbs were horrific!

That's the normal number of laps for expert/elite. Heard they shortened it, sounds an odd choice.

Shortened the lap number or the course? It was a long lap distance but my lap times mid pack sport were 22.55, 22.55, 23.20 (pleased with the consistency 😆 ). The sport winner must have been sub an hour. Would have been faster today as the puddles/damp bits were were being ridden dry yesterday afternoon.

Thought the a-b lines were spot on, I road all the b lines and apart from the last one there was only a couple of seconds in it

I thought b lines were supposed to be a disadvantage?

Anyone got a link to the results today in Pembrey? I think I ended up 15th in GV but not sure, lost my chain on the sandy steep climb on the last lap and my team mate got past me, which did make him happy at least! In fairness, he was quicker than me!
Managed all the a lines which was looking doubtful on Saturday so pleased with the weekend all in all.

Shortened the lap number or the course?

Sorry, meant I heard they shortened the sport race, a friend was racing. Not the others.

I think they use the Sport race as a bit of a Guinea pig to help decide the number of laps for the Sunday races. My lap times were all around 21min 30s give or take a few seconds.

I'm still waiting for the results to be fixed as I'm still missing!

All my lap times were in the 21 mins as well going by Strava, the a-b line deficits as I saw it were:
Gap jump, 5 secs
Rooty descent, 8 secs
Hobbit drop, 5 secs

All seemed pretty fair.

Good result Iain! Somewhat regretting not trying the a-lines. Even though I know it makes no difference whether I come 20th or 30th afterwards I always look at the results and count the seconds 😳 according to my hr monitor I wasn't trying hard enough either, average hr 160, probably as I was spinning out a lot on the flat. (Race was same time as a cx race where average hr is 175+ )

Pretty certain I could have ridden the a-lines but didn't get a chance to practise them arriving at 1.15 for the 2.30 race. That's my one bugbear with the national series, the 12-2 practise is so congested it's hard for sport riders to get a full practise lap in and a decent look at the a-b lines. That said, at Pembrey, it would have probably been fine if I'd got there to start at twelve.

Had said I wouldn't do Wasing but might have to break that promise!

My average HR for Pembrey was 186 with a max of 195 😯

😯 😯

I would be dead at 195 😆

I've averaged 195 for a Southern XC before!

The more I think about it more I want to race Wasing, I'm only going to be an hour away that weekend and I guess being centrally located should be a big sports cat field so nice tight racing. Only problem being I said I wouldn't as we're going to be at my folks with our 3 month old so maybe a bit unfair to leave my wife carless for too long. How reasonable is it to race wasing without a pre-ride? Many a-b lines or bits that might sneak up on you? I've seen the big drop photos and i wont be riding that! I'm thinking get there 1.45 so i dont miss registration, warm up, race and hammer home, can make it a 4hr excursion!

Wasing if absolutely terrifying.

I don't think you could choose a worse course to race without a pre ride.

I've just entered Wasing. It's another 190 mile each way trip! Anyone know if there is camping on site?

It seems the Nutcracker series is fading. The sports category for this Sunday only has 2 entrants compared to the midlands series at Swynnerton that already has 30 entrants (same race date). Just wondering if anyone on here is turning their back on the nutcracker series and why?

For me, Midlands races are a little closer to home. Nutcracker Course practice is only available first thing meaning a very early start to get there even if i'm not racing until late morning / afternoon. Midlands series allows practice between race 1 & 2 meaning it's not a silly early start. That's the main factor for me as I can rock up about lunch, get a practice lap in and race straight away. I've asked the nutcracker guys about a later practice lap but was told no. In addition, results can take weeks and their website still has last years schedule on it. Anyone else?

adsh - Member

Wasing if absolutely terrifying.

I don't think you could choose a worse course to race without a pre ride.

Guess I better persevere with diplomacy for a longer day out then! 😆

Whats the scoop with Scott Marathon registration and pre-ride info? Nothing appears to be sent out via email - is that normally the case?

Official results from Pembrey online. They can't be that official though as I'm missing still! Booooo!

I've contacted them again. I want my points!

I keep clicking on rootsandrain to see the lap analysis but they are not there yet 😥

I'm toying with the idea of racing the Builth mtb marathon next weekend. Never done one, never even ridden 65km before, longest ride i've donerecently is about an hour and a half. Dumb idea? I'm also confused as to whether it's actually a race or a sportive type thing as they give rider times not positions. Could do the 45km one I guess. How technical are they?

Remember it's not a race 😆 😉 It's a off-road challenge where they give out times and announce Nick Craig as the winner.

Go for it, you can always bail on the long one at one of the various course crosses,

Whats the scoop with Scott Marathon registration and pre-ride info? Nothing appears to be sent out via email - is that normally the case?

Yup, they don't send out courses as a lot is on private land so you can't ride them before or after unless you're a Welsh Farmer.

General script is rock up, sign on, get bag of free stuff, eat free pasta, ride (race), collect free t-shirt, queue for the bike wash, go home 8)

There are some "untagged" photos from Pembrey on roots and rain. I guess the e-mails will go out form R&R once the results are uploaded.

What's your name Ferrals? I go by the name of James Stockton...

Thanks ferrals, I was also down on HR with pretty dull legs despite feeling good on Saturday. I did have to go back out on the last practice on Saturday to get that last A line sorted out as I kept bottling it on the lunchtime one, after getting my nerve up to ride over it, it was fine.

Nutcracker events are fading a little I think, I don't want to slag them off too much. I love having these xc races local to me and understand the hard work that goes in.
However, using the same courses year after year, with little or no change or adding in a short man made section with no flow etc, waiting a week for the results, no actual podiums for the winners, hardly any race photographs, having to go through the BC entry faff, and packing up before racing has finished isn't good practice, all that for £25 - and 90 mins (if your lucky) racing, with no practice lap, hardly surprising!

I don't think Wasing's that bad, although I didn't ride the Southern earlier in the year, I know there were some new bits.

There are a couple of rather hairy a-lines, but the B's are all pretty easy and not much slower.

S'pose it was my first foray away from Gorricks etc. I just wasn't expecting to have to have both wheels off the ground. The big drop B line is fairly hard core.

So results are up on R&R from Pembrey. I've got a quandary.

I know my electronic timer wasn't working on the day. Paper lap logs captured me as 8th. I've been entered as 9th on the "official" results. I noticed that both 4th and 5th position ahead of me have identical lap times and same finish time (to the second). The strava activity for 5th place finisher shows only 2 laps rather than 3. I questioned his result and he had a crash on Root Chute on lap 2. Says his garmin fell off but he continued to complete lap 3 without it. All seems a bit odd to me. Especially to then chase down the rider ahead and finish at exactly the same time.

I may be wrong and apologies if I am! Should I question it or let it go? I wouldnt mind so much if I wasn't chasing points this year!

I'd raise it. Don't be a dick, just make a friendly observation that you believe the guy in 5th DNFd (that is what you're saying, right?). They obviously had some problems, but whoever did the timing was paid to do it right, and they appear to have failed here.

If they had a paper record of you then presumably they had a paper record of the people in front of you too to verify that.

Wife and I are doing the Scott Marathon this weekend and not sure what to expect. Done the Northumberland Collossus and Behemouth, presume these run on a similar format ie mass start and a big first climb to sort it out. Good luck to all doing it, looks good weather wise 🙂

My bad, I managed to contact the guy that came 5th and it all checks out. I'll settle for 9th 8)

Nutcracker Gandale race still only has 2 entrants into the Sport category. Talk about easy BC points.... is there not a minimum number of entrants needed to qualify for BC points?

I'm racing Swynnerton in the midlands instead this weekend. Decent number of entrants already

I've got points off a race with five in it before.

Family negotiations done and Wasing entered 😀 even going to be allowed to get there in time for a practise lap 😆

Quite pleased looking at the roots and rain analysis, because of the big field I beat a higher percentage at Pembrey than I've managed before in a national.

As my timing chip was broken at Pembrey they just picked a random finish time which slot me into 9th position and then divided it by 3 to give 3 identical lap times!

Wife and I are doing the Scott Marathon this weekend and not sure what to expect. Done the Northumberland Collossus and Behemouth, presume these run on a similar format ie mass start and a big first climb to sort it out

Gandale is usually one of the quieter Nutcracker rounds anyway. Then they had to move the date (also making it land in school holidays). So lots of people had already entered other races or booked weekends away / holidays prior to the date change.

But Dalby was definitely a bit quieter than last few years.

rsvktm - Member
Wife and I are doing the Scott Marathon this weekend and not sure what to expect. Done the Northumberland Collossus and Behemouth, presume these run on a similar format ie mass start and a big first climb to sort it out. Good luck to all doing it, looks good weather wise

Yeah it's a mass start, whippets and those who think they are get to the front, but thankfully the big climb at the start sorts that out.

If it's windy, by god it's windy.

Don't be tempted to ride across the concrete bridge looking thing on top of the moor as it's got a **** off big gap in the middle

and those who think they are

See you at the front! 😀

Don't be tempted to ride across the concrete bridge looking thing on top of the moor as it's got a **** off big gap in the middle

Is thier a marked alternative e.g. a/b line?

Cheers all, really looking forward to it. We've been racing xc for a good few years and will have to temper the initial rush to singletrack urge 🙂
Kryton57, starting further back means more fun ie overtaking rather than been overtaken..

Anyone racing Midlands round 2 on Sunday?

No racing for me till Wasing. Off to find some gap jumps to practise on 😆

Marginally OT, but figured may as well stick this here - is anyone using thunder burts? I am optimistically convinced its going to be a dry summer (seeing as I used beaver for half the summer races last year). Are they that much faster than racing ralphs? might get one for the rear and put the ralphI normally put on the rear for the summer on the front to replace the rons f&r I've got on at the moment.

I'll be at the midlands! Never raced at Hanchurch before so no idea what to expect.

I've got a tunderburt! Never used it though.... I'm half tempted to stick it on the rear with a Ron up front. I'll wait until my 2 ralphs wear out first.

I've heard they are good but don't last long

If you've got it use it but adjust your braking accordingly. I know at least one podium dweller who tried them and didn't get on.

Ferrals, i think the gap jump has gone at Wasing. Wasn't in for SXC Rnd 1. Better off practicing your drop offs for the big A line..
Hope its drier than SXC.

Burts are one of my favourite tyres for particular courses, Wasing being one. They don't like braking on loose surfaces, they don't like rocks/flints and they don't really like cornering hard, so Wasing is about perfect for them as it's all either hardback dirt or loam. Just don't touch the front brake and you'll be fine. They have good cornering knobbles but you have to lean it over a bit. They are much faster than a Ralph, and lighter too, but they are also smaller volume and thinner - it's the same size carcass as the old Furious Fred. They are considerably less scary than a Furious Fred, which was the old semi slick and was totally bald. Go for a 2.25 as it's about the same size as a 2.1 Ralph.

Make sure you buy the Snakeskin ones. The normal ones (Racelight) are like ribbed condoms they are so thin.

I used them in the Alps for MB Race once, not knowing what to expect. They weren't entirely suitable...

Anyone raced with SWXC as their series is starting soon in Devon.
First race at East Budleigh. Anyone know what this location is like ??

Cheers Gee, think I'll stick to the Ron/Ralph combo, too lazy to change tyres that often and lots of rocks and loose gravelly stuff by me.

Burt on the front was great for battle on the beach

Raced at Hanchurch Woods today. Midlands Round 2. Wow that was a really tough course and the weather was just hot hot hot!

Raced Sport category and came somewhere in the top 10. 7th or 8th I think. Massive turnout too, I reckon at least 45-50 riders in my category! Start was fast, dusty, couldn't see the ground... climbed into 2nd place before we got to the single track and quickly realised I wasn't going to sustain that pace for the whole race... lost a few places when someone from another category stalled in front of me on a technical section. Lost a few more places over the next few laps.

Course was ace, some long climbs and the descents were really demanding. Dusty as hell, rooty and slippery.

So that's 4 races over the last 4 weeks for me. No racing next weekend thank god. Next race Wasing Nationals

That's great going again mate.

I've got southern xc planned next Sunday, but a lot depends on Rockingham the day before.

I absolutely loved Hanchurch today, those climbs felt like they were made for me and I actually felt vaguely confident coming down the descents.

Got a terrible start because I just couldn't see anything and the mid pack where I was felt really sketchy, didn't want to put a massive effort in on that first climb either since I knew I'd have to manage the heat and cramp.

I ended up being stuck in a no mans land for the last lap or so which I really hate and find it really hard to stay motivated to push on.

Scott Marathon at Builth Wells, That was hard, not helped by the 20 degree heat, Ive got -red- tan lines. Not being a climber I struggled a lot, especially on the second section over the moorland that together with the wind coming across went on and on and on and on. And once that had you dog tired after about an hour, you then plummeted down the whole lot hard bouncy drop-edge single track trying to keep focus in about 10 minutes.

Very tired now, 62k and 1500m claimed in 4h dead. But, brilliant. I think it'd be wise to take the Anthem rather than carbon HT to future marathons!

I was at Builth Wells today, too. Old school xc fun. Really enjoyed it - 3.25 for the 62km loop, despite a few mechanicals, reasonably pleased with that. Glad I was on the spearfish and not the hardtail, but still managed to hit a tree avoiding someone who crashed in front of me.

Hanchurch results online -

(Website slow at the mo though). Managed 7th out of 51, proper chuffed 8)

http://www.timelaps.co.uk/assets/uploads/EVENTREPORT.aspx?eventid=226SwynnertonOldPark09/04/2017

Builth Wells for me too. 62km in 3hrs10min 😀

Hanchurch for me today too. Cracking course, really enjoyed it although the heat was a bit of a shock to the system, as was the race duration! Proper flowing course where the tech bits were a place to make time if you were capable but without being dangerous for the sake of it.
Managed to get on to the podium in the V40s off the back of few weeks' base training so more than happy.

Builth Wells at the weekend, that was hot. Next time carry more than one bottle, fair bit of cramp. A few numpties on the road section, can see why they have a safety car. Just under 3:30 for me and 4:45 for my wife for the full. Well organised and signed event, even I didn't get lost.

Good work LS. Quick lap times from you too.

So what's Wasing Park like? Flat, hilly, rocky, technical? All I know is it's a 380 mile round trip for me!

plenty of youtube Vids on Wasing mate.

If they run the same layout at Southern XC it seems to be very fire-roady and fast.

rollindoughnut - 3hrs10 is a great ride - were you riding with Nick Craig?

rsvktm - I guess we probably crossed paths a few times given your time - what were you riding?

Next time I'd carry two bottles and only stop at one feed stop. And make sure that the mech I fitted the night before was working properly under load, and not just in the stand... 🙄

So what's Wasing Park like?

Never been there but as I understand it its flat and fast with a few things like this:
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drop on facebook[/url]

Vids on Youtube make it look really fun. Decent number already entered for sport when I entered. It must be hillier than Pembrey?

Ianpv, riding a black fs trek with a red top on, you? Chatted to a few people out there, was a good day out. Been used to a dropper and grippier tyres so was a bit clueless in the woods and edgier sections with seat right up, but the fast tyres came in everywhere else. Official time 3:27 just need to lose a bit of winter chub for the next one.

Orange salsa spearfish making terrible noises, swearing rider, black top.

I really enjoyed it - don't often do proper flat out descents like those, and all the bench cut sheep tracks were great - even the one I rode off the side of 😕 . The course was way better than I was expecting to be honest . Glad I went for fast tyres, although I struggled a bit in the woods too and hit a tree when someone crashed right in front of me.

How competitive are these Scott Marathons? Am I right in thinking that they're not official races? (Assume because of public land?). Any prizes for the first guys back? From people's stories it sounds like a flat out race!

The one in September in hope Valley is quite local to me so I'm tempted to have a go

They're not races, and there are no prizes. But I'd say there are probably about 100 people riding quite quickly, and trying to get to the end as fast as possible 🙂

More people are there for a biggish sociable waymarked day out in the hills, with food stops, too.

I rode most of it with a guy called Lewellyn, who was wearing Poc shorts.
Funnily enough came across Nick Craig just before the finish line as 3 of us were sprinting for the finish. Not that it's a race;)

Question folks -

Why do you think Expert and Elite categories are significantly smaller than the likes of sport?

For example - 50-60 riders in Sport this weekend at Hanchurch, about 10-15 in Expert and Giles Drake was the only Elite Male rider of the weekend...

Imagine working hard to get promoted into Elite and then having nobody to race. Much bigger field at the nationals but still no comparison to Sport

Its the way it should be, not everyone should be elite / expert!

I guess they try and arrange it so only the very best are elite: 1/6th elite 2/6ths expert 3/6ths sport or so would be about right i think.

They move the top x up every year towards elite but there are also people in elite/expert becoming vets so should be able to maintain a steady number of elites.

If you get moved up to expert but constantly come last do you get moved back down to sport?

I do get your point though, sometimes in the welsh series, it looks there is only 1-2 elites racing

From what I gather there are 50 Elites in the county with usually the top 5 experts move up plus 1 or 2 juniors depending on ability. 5 elites move down but some can stay or go Vet or be both... Experts there are probably close to 150, doesn't appear that the get dropped back to Sport unless they score no points in a season but could be wrong. Top 15 sport move up to expert aswell as a few juniors

raced rd.2 of the Midlands yesterday. great course and what a nice day for it. gridded out back but didn't put in a performance any how. lack of racing and skillz. seem to have lost over 10 places since the midland races early last year. all good though.

Southern xc at checkendon today.

Lol my class is full of race gods. Chatting to guy next to me who's using as a warm up before heading to Denmark to race big boys series!

Along with guys sponsored as part of the pedal on shop team.
Loads of guys running Di2 gears etc.

Course has been ridden, its fast, rooty, tight and twisty. Nothing too complex though for sure. Took it easy until a few fast lads came past so jumped on their wheels for a lap. Should be good fun either way!

well that was just massive fun. I was gridded a fair way back as I've not raced with them so its just a free for all. I went a reasonable pace off the start but not crazy and was soon in an 8 way battle, down the side of the field I put 2 riders behind me and knew there was a lot of woods coming up.
Very little in the way of overtaking through them, then into another field edge, I lost a place but that guy cleared off and took 5 of us in seconds.
The race kind of blurred into woods, sprints, power and a cool log jump I kept launching on the Whyte just for fun. I picked up another 5 riders over the next hour and a bit, having fun battles throughout and some chatting in the single track while trying to breathe!
A big tall fella passed me on lap 4 in the fields and I jumped on his wheel, he was quick in the long bits so we caught another guy and put him behind us.
I came round the start finish absolutely finished and saw the clock had 8 mins showing which meant another lap! Oh for the love of all things holy, I was knackered. Happily, anyone else behind me was the same. I lost about 10s to the guy in front I was following but was happy the gap behind wouldn't be closed down. So I clawed my way to the line, almost crashing twice on the final lap as I was dying! I have no idea what my result was.
I do know this, it was the best and most fun xc course I've ridden, just constant twists, turns, etc brilliant.

My boy was then out in the U9s race. He got a bad start as he was gridded near last and struggled at times to make up ground. Partly because he seemed to be in the wrong gear. I suspected he'd dropped into the granny as he was spinning like a loony! I was right.
He did however pick up some places and 2 in the last sprint for the line, for what I think was 7th! Respect for that!

Awesome day out.

Now, pub for massive burgers and beer while watching Liverpool game.

Nice one weeksy and weeksy jnr. I'm sat in the car waiting for the start of my race and nursing a bad back. Bit dryer than round 1 isn't it?

I didn't make round 1 mate as my lad ended up at a Philharmonic concert instead and Mrs Weeksy and MIL Weeksy like him to do that, so we skipped round 1. This round was ideal as its only 15 min from home.