[Closed] 3 Peaks Cyclocross roll call & tips

I've entered a few times but never got in. I was brushing up my cross skills this summer and I'd probably have ended up killing myself, anyway. 😆

It's rubbish give your ticket to me.

There's not too much to know. Pump tyres up nice and high. Ingleborough will be great in this weather. There's lots of false summits up to Whernside. If you are there the night before then the bottom of Penyghent is legal to ride up and down, test yourself out.

Yep, I'll be there for my 9th race.

Tips - bit late for that now, you should already be sorted! 😉

I was in but had to pull out due to injury. 🙁

OP you have practiced carrying your bike up a hill haven't you? Its a bit late in the day to be deciding if a camelbak is good or not ?!?!

For what its worth I had to use a Camelbak. I ride a small frame and I couldn't shoulder the bike with a bottle cage on, but you will know all this right? 😯

On the way up the first hill the bite valve caught on a bit of my bike and came out, the bladder then leaked out almost completely. I had actually super glued it in place for this year. I wasn't the only person this happened to. Luckily I found the valve, another women didn't !

I also got an mtb inner tube, cut it open and taped it to the underside of the top tube. You see people with pipe lagging etc on the tube, but an inner tube just stops the bike moving around on your shoulder, which IMO was more beneficial than padding.

Use the road ride from Ingleborough to Ingleton to refuel, its about the only rest in the whole route. Take on food and drink off Whernside. The road ride from Whernside to PyG is harder than you think and full of cars (support crews) driving like d!cks.

Coming off Whernside don't just follow the path. Look for the sneaky tracks that the fast guys use.

Enjoy, its an amazing chance to ride your bike on some very nice hills, whilst absolutely killing yourself 😆

The road ride from Whernside to PyG is harder than you think and full of cars (support crews) driving like d!cks.

Yeah this too. The bitter irony of getting punishment passed by fans of cycling and vans labeled up in cycling brands.

Ride with a gopro, then go and torch 'em later while they're in the pub.

Starting, only line up at the front if your aiming for 3hrs!!! 😉

I've got no intention of getting anywhere near the front, got landcruisers, beefy tubes, 2 spares, and can carryou my bike so all should be good.

I couldn't figure it out from the instructions but are there feed stops or is it self supported?

The bit of BW heading towards Ribblehead below where the footpath off Whernside joins it has been sanitised so you don't need to take the line to the right. This ends at the steep section with set stones.

If someone is stood by the side of the track with a camera and away from the obvious road/refuelling points then they are there for a reason 😉

Make sure you have read and understood the rules and regs. NOTE the bit about being able to maintain disc brakes if you're using them, this is my 1st time using discs for it so nearly missed it.(i'm taking it to mean carrying spare pads and the tools to change em)

No feed stops, only 1 water stop as listed in the regs.

13. BRUNSCAR DRINKS STATION
There will be a drinks station at Brunscar between Chapel-le-Dale and Whernside at the start of 20
metres of bridleway, where competitors must walk the 20 metres and ride again after the bridleway
(due to bridleway laws).

I couldn't figure it out from the instructions but are there feed stops or is it self supported?

There's a water stop at the foot of Whernside (on the climb side).
It is literally plastic cups of wtaer being handed up. Most people use it to wash down a gel, it's not an option to stop and refill a CamelBak or bottle.

Other than that it's entirely self-supported although you are permitted to take spares, food, drink etc from any helpers you may wish to station at opportune moments around the course.

Traffic WILL be horrendous - huge numbers of supporters, spectators etc who all feel the need to drive big vans around the place desperately trying to be in place for their rider. Plus the usual crowds of walkers, motorcyclists etc who didn't know / have forgotten than the event is on.

Its a bit late in the day to be deciding if a camelbak is good or not ?!?!

why is it too late to be deciding how he's going to carry water?

NOTE the bit about being able to maintain disc brakes if you're using them, this is my 1st time using discs for it so nearly missed it.(i'm taking it to mean carrying spare pads and the tools to change em)

Maybe in a wet race you would need them but I didn't take spares last year, and Im still on the same pads now and done loads of riding on the bike since.

I didn't think it was that brake heavy anyhow.

why is it too late to be deciding how he's going to carry water?

Because it implies he hasn't been out with the bike trying it out.

Because it implies he hasn't been out with the bike trying it out.

hardly a show-stopper.

It is if you realise you cant shoulder your bike with a bottle cage on it, and you don't have a camelbak 🙂

But op has already confirmed he has tried.

It is if you realise you cant shoulder your bike with a bottle cage on it

terrahawk - Member
your original point/issue was that it was 'late in the day' to be considering it, which it isn't. He's got all week to sort himself out

...... and in my world that's a lifetime 😆

So long as I find the start, do some pedaling, a bit of carrying, some falling off and I make the finish line in a reasonable time I'll class it as a success.

I'd rather the security of a camelbak as that can't bounce out and leave me fluid-less on whats set to be a reasonably warm day.

As for carrying a bike, can do it with or without cage, done it before and can therefore imagine that doing it again won't be an issue; with the exception of the shoulder pain.

I found that a Camelbak made it easier to drink while trudging upwards. Each time I've done it, it's been a battle against cramp more than anything else.

I'm there, tall chap on a Blue Pro6 in Kinesis/Gore Kit.

Its my first time but the start of my 14th Cross season so I've ridden a bike a bit but looking forward to a genuine challenge.

I've ridden my peaks bike enough to settle it in and will just be riding 60psi and holding on to my hat (so to speak). I'm going bottle on the seat tube and pad taped to my shoulder with Kinesio tape, been doing a few walks recently and other than that i'm just looking forward to riding my bike in a cool place.

Oh and I'm working at the cycle show Thursday to Saturday so come say hello on stand G15 if you're racing on a Kinesis !

How much do you weigh? 60psi will be comfortable, but might put you at high risk of pinch flat....also depending on what tyres your using.

73kg and tubeless cross boss's 35mm

I'll be there....marshalling 🙂

Carrying a bike up and down boggy hills isn't really my idea of fun. Fair play to those who manage it though. I'll be doing the foot version next year, if all goes well, which may sound even less appealing to many of you...

Warm and dry as anything right now with a week of the same to come, but I think the rain is forecast to arrive just in time for Saturday (still warm though). I'd have thought it will still be unusually dry underwheel.

I just had an email confirming my rave number. 135 for me. First time too

Any supporters, have a look on the Three Peaks website, the rules download has been updated and they seem to have got much tougher on support vehicles including a ban on vehicles following the race route off Cold Cotes.

Good news I think, some of the driving (and associated cheating) I've witnessed in the past was getting way out of hand.

I'm No.480 say 'ello if you get a chance / can breathe.

I'll be on a KTM cx bike with bright yellow bar tape

I get pissed off with all the cars. It's a bike race FFS. I keep saying I'm going to run all our sheep from home down towards Austwick which can take 45mins.

Ggrrrrrrr !!!

C

Take care on the ride out from the start to not get taken out by riders with no interest in the safety of others on the road.
On the first climb you don't have to walk up next to the fence following everyone else.
Don't wear slippy plastic race shoes as the stepped climb up to Whernside can be unforgiving and a bit slippy

The cold Coates thing has been in operation for at least 2 years. I marshalled near there 2 years ago and a farmer did get his sheep out on the road at an opportune moment. People were going mad. All a bit sad really.

I'm in favour of banning bike changes/wheels swaps etc. To me it should be carry the spares etc you think you need. Being able to change a bike or wheel is not very sporting or fair on those who can't afford lots of spare kit. Plus it should be about rider skill to maintain their equipment and get it to the finish.

I`m in hoping for an 8th completion

I'm torn on team support. The team support has come from the roots of the event in cross and road and is just part of the culture and been there years and years. You accept it when you sign up. The fast guys are properly good and deserve it too. But.... to anyone who has come from mountainbiking first it is a bit weird. Can you not ride round some hills for 4 hours with your own kit?

Mrs Kilo is doing it, unfinished business after a bit of a 'mare last year. I'll be out as limited support crew for her on my road bike, more to shout at her than anything else 🙂 The driving was a bit lary in places last year from various crews, not sure what support you need which can't be handed up from a cyclist, more so if you're not going for the win or a very high place. As for the support coming from the road and cx aspect of the event you wouldn't be allowed support like the flying van convoys in most road races and iirc any tt under 100 miles, even then it's much stricter rules, only cx races I've done have been fixed point pits

I`m not very good at the peaks at all but do have two cross bikes if the rules allow I will have support if they changed the rules then I would abide by them .I need all the help I can get

Number 640 starting on an old blue Kinesis ,but may end up on a bright orange Dave Lloyd

Long range weather forecast isn't looking too great. Rain all day Saturday, showers and windy on Sunday...

I achieved my PB in the 3 Peaks that year when it rained for months beforehand and was super-windy. The one where there was a lake near the bottom of Pen Y Ghent.
Happy days.

anyway, chuffed I'm not doing it this year!

I achieved my PB in the 3 Peaks that year when it rained for months beforehand and was super-windy. The one where there was a lake near the bottom of Pen Y Ghent.
Happy days.

anyway, chuffed I'm not doing it this year!

Really? - that was my worst year by quite some margin (even including the year I collapsed on PyG!).
I deliberately took a year out of it last year, my PB was 2014 which was near perfect weather - not too hot, almost no wind and dry ground.

yep. Mad isn't it? I put it down to the bike I was riding rather than anything else.

Sadly not able to do it (didn't get in) but I did enter the Hope event (that got cancelled a couple of weeks ago) which I was really looking forward to doing, considering I didn't get in the 3P.

Best of luck all.

Setting of now for a pint or two in the pub at Helwith Bridge then a night in the bunkhouse.
Good luck to everyone.

Going to bike over in the morning and watch.

Steve_b77 - some more tips for you, and others:

Tyres: 75 - 85 psi with heavy/touring inner tubes

Gears: aim for a 1:1 ratio, but 34 x 30 should be OK

If you're creative, roll your survival bag up and strap it under the cross-bar to give you some padding

Don't forget your whistle and waterproof

I don't recommend sunglasses. They'll either steam up, or get covered in mud, or both

Wear an MTB helmet and use the visor to stop mud splashing in your eyes

Do your helmet strap up tighter than normal as it'll get shaken all over the place

Don't strap the timing 'dibber' too tight near your wrist, otherwise it'll dig into you

Carry necessary tools, pump and tubes - don't expect any other riders to stop for you if you have a problem

If you arrive on a road section on your own and can see a rider ahead of you going about the same speed, do what's necessary to catch them, and then work together

Watch out for rocks and stone water-channels on the downhills, particularly Whernside. It's still possible to pinch-flat with 80psi in your tyres - you'll be crying for your full-sus !

And don't worry about the riders who get bike changes - they only do it to get faster bikes (with smooth tyres) for the road sections, and then change back again before heading offroad - tossers

The organisers and marshalls are brilliant - thanks them as you pass by, if you've got any breath left 😉

Have fun - it's probably the only time you'll descend like a maniac on rough rocky trails on a CX bike, and the scenery is stunning

The sleeping arrangements at the bunk house are interesting. The pub is looking like a good idea!

Turned into a nice day for those still out there 🙂 First couple of hours weren't so great, at least for those of us standing around. Hope everyone survived ok - looked like a broken collarbone (at a guess) and one or two broken bikes heading down off Ingleborough. Interestingly, Rob Jebb seemed to have about a 2 min lead already by that point but obviously didn't hold on to it. Didn't see anything to tempt me into doing it!

The start

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Random hill some where ?
[img] [/img]

The random hill *looks like* the summit ridge of Whernside.

You can just about see me in hi viz marshalling the junction on the first pic. I was also the one with the cowbell just before the turn back to the finish (about where the pic was taken from). Ran to Horton and back to see the leaders come through. Glad the weather cleared up! Not tempted but I think my oh is.

Double post

Here are some more pics from today, the light and weather was all over the place, so lenses misted up, covered in water etc.

[url= http://s1182.photobucket.com/user/FunkyDunc/slideshow/3%20Peaks%20CX%202016 ]Album here[/url]

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

Well I had a nightmare.

All fine to the summit of Whernside, well on course for a sub 4hr.
A joint puncture and jammed/twisted chain on the descent cost me a huge amount of time to split, untangle & rejoin the chain, fix the puncture and when I got going again I was behind some triathlete who had all the descending skills and grace of a 3-legged donkey.

Then I had a front wheel puncture on the lower slopes of Whernside so ran to Ribblehead, got it all fixed with the aid of a friendly random person with a track pump.

Chain went again on the road section, the short steep climb so again I fixed that, another 5 minute delay.

Got to PyG, half wondering whether to just bin it off there but various friends hanging around there said go for it.
Got up PyG lane, easily 45 minutes down on schedule now, turned off on the footpath and the chain went again. **** it. Out of tubes, chain incapable of holding under any power so I fixed it, turned round and rolled down the hill and home without making the summit.

Gutted. But I guess that's the luck of the draw and today wasn't my day.

Happy Birthday!!!! 🙂 So it sort of was 'your day', but maybe not in the sense you meant...

Richpips had a good ride, he did it on a fixed gear CX and took the fixie record off Samuri, also of this parish. I think Samuri had a 4.52, Richpips did 4.45.

This was his second attempt, he'd tried it fixed about 3 years ago and had a similar nightmare of mechanical problems and punctures. Samuri's record had stood for 10 years, presumably because very very few people are insane enough to think about making an already ludicrously tough event harder than it has to be!

Did anyone notice a creep in tyre sizes? I am sure I saw some quite a bit over 32's !

The rule is 35mm.

That'll be all the landcruisers people were riding on

Did anyone notice a creep in tyre sizes? I am sure I saw some quite a bit over 32's !

Kind of - on my bike!

Fitted the new version of Land Cruisers. Still 35c (says so on the sidewalls and everything) but looked twice the volume of the old style ones to me!

Yeh, I noticed some decidedly 'plus' sized tyres. TBH my 35mm Cross Boss's would have probably measured a little over. What bike were you on Twinklydave?

Also, did they relax the rules for riding over the white line during the neutralised start? Couldn't hear the briefing but it seemed way worse than last year.

Scrapped in to the top 25. Half way up the final climb i was telling myself never again but i'm already thinking about where time can be saved!

Also, did they relax the rules for riding over the white line during the neutralised start? Couldn't hear the briefing but it seemed way worse than last year.

I couldn't hear the briefing either, any sort of "briefing" via a megaphone on the start line was doomed to failure with that wind. TBH, I thought it was the safest start in years in spite of the weather. There was at least one Police moto, 3 NEG and 2 Lead Cars (normally there's only been one) and the Police locked it all down so what little oncoming traffic there was had been stopped and held.

I was over on the right on numerous occasions and there were people much further right than me.

The neutralised section actually seemed to be more neutral this time round - fast enough to string it out, not so fast that it caused sprint-brake-sprint style riding. Well controlled I thought.

The marshals on all the junctions were superb. Excellent job.

Agreed, it definitely felt safer. Marshals brilliant as ever.

I'm trying to work out if the weather was a hindrance compared to the last ywo years. Despite constantly trying to blow the bike off my shoulder on numerous occasions during the hike-a-bike it only felt like we were riding in to a headwind on the dash to the finish. Thankfully it was a tail wind for the final climb.

top 25??!! Blimey. I've just missed crossing paths at the bottom of PyG lane (4:27, v50 fwiw. Just have to hold that sort of time for podium 6 years from now...)

Second go for me. Brilliant. Don't think I actually did anything very wrong, apart from not ride fast enough. Downhills were a bit of a pootle (last year felt I passed loads of folk, this year opposite). Riding Ribblehead to Horton pretty much on my own was a poor idea. Hooked onto what I thought was a fast guy but he faded and disappeared, as did a couple of other back wheels. Thought I'd better keep going, heart rate through the roof, then blew up predictably on penyghent. With great age comes zero wisdom. But then with wisdom would come not doing the 3 peaks.

Just out of interest were many riders running 1 x systems?

Mrs Kilo finished it a shade under six hours. Before doing it she said it was finish it and job done, don't have to do it again, after finishing it wa s "I can do this to save time next year..." 🙂
Organisation seemed really good again, all the Marshall seemed to be doing steeling work.

There seemed to be quite a few trashed rear mechs out on the course.

I would've been 1x if my Snapierre hadn't lived up to it's name! As it was I ended up riding with 46/36 up front and and a hastily added 11-32 out back. Really missed the 42 and 11/40 of my 1x. Also the chain slap was pretty disconcerting!

Mrs Kilo finished it

there's a strategy I'd not thought of - send my wife next year

I was on a 1 x 11. Sram CX1 set up with 38 chainring and a 40-12, it was fine and caused me no bother.
Second time for me and a much better time than the 1st but suffered terrible back pain every time I needed to carry, never had any hint of it in training.[img] [/img]

Sub 5 hour finish here, which was my modest target. I'm curious about route choice off the top of Ingleborough though - everyone rides away from the route marker, which means a scramble down the hillside to the path. It's more direct but the path looks rideable, maybe quicker, does anybody go this way?