[Closed] Black Park . 14 March. Who has entered?

As discussed Tim - me too.

Yep, I'm doing the elite/expert category!

Should be good, pan flat, absolutely flat out racing, a proper dirt crit. It's always good fun.

I've heard that there's a recce on Saturday.
Is this correct?
Can we ride the route in advance of the race?
Not that it'd make a huge difference as I've only one bike working right now!

You can ride there normally I'm pretty sure, but it's a country park, so there's loads of dog walkers and stuff.

Dunno about the recce, they'll be marking it out on the Saturday, so I doubt you'll be popular if you just rock up and ride round. You don't really need to anyway, just pre-ride on the day, there won't be anything to catch you out.

Cheers.
I'll try it out mid-week to be sure (maybe), although I've never bothered in the past with the Gorrick / Brass Monkey etc rides as I set off somewhere at the back and pretty much remain there! 😉

We'll be marking out the course on the 13th. It does take us most of the day to rake, clear leaves, tape etc. We don't have a problem with people pre-riding it on the Saturday but please wait til we've finished. It will only be about 5km in length (short circuit, lots of laps) so you could easily pre-ride on Sunday morning.

You can ride at BP any day of the week but the course wont be identifiable until the 13th. There is a pre-ride this Saturday but for WDMBC members only really.

Oh - Singlespeed for me.

A little confused!

If we non-club members can pre ride it on Sunday, as you say, how will it be identified if it's not until the 13th that we wil be told the circuit?

I am assuming you're refering to the fact that you'll have cleared vegitation, cut back foliage and generally made it 3 lanes wide (!) so it should be more obvious, plus the many tyre tracks across the park too might give it away!

Sunday it is then!

I'm wrong on one count. This weekend's pre-ride is Saturday. Oh, and I wasn't being elitist...we're not that sort of club and anyone is welcome to join.

Anyway, there's a network of trails over a BP which anyone can ride any day of the week 🙂 Its a pretty regular venue for the club weekly night ride.

The exact route for the race wont be obvious until the tape is put up on Saturday 13. We tend to put in changes the day before as its not til you ride it in anger that you realise you've left good bits out/made it too fast/slow etc. You can of course get an idea for the course any time.

There isn't to much clearing to do and we wont be making any of the singletrack wider. It can actually be a tricky course to pass in as it is singletrack heavy with only short stretches of fire road. Keeps it interesting though.

Heh,

I hope to be there, weather permitting...

Will the course be better strimmed for brambles? Last 2 occasions I raced there I got sliced to sh1t by the brambles round each lap.

George - MTFU 😉

We'll try and make sure they're aren't any.

i`m in Vets too if i remember from last year the singletrack barely clears your knuckles great fun not much down slope to recover on

Indeed. But the pain... the pain...

It's a good fun race - great warm up for Sherwood.

GB

I will be there but not racing 😥 My wife was keen to race, and we couldn't find anyone to look after the kids, so that is my job for the morning...

I did it last year and enjoyed it, the great weather helped. I remember the course being fairly tight and twisty, I managed to end up with a nice watch shaped bruise on my wrist where I bashed into a tree somewhere near the start of the lap.

is 32:16 the way to go for this or what? did it once before but dont recall..

I went with 34:17 last year, and found it too spinny on the fireroad bits, but ok in the singletrack. If I was riding this year it would be 34:16. I think Rob Lee, who won the SS cat last year, was on 32:16.

thanks jason might have to give it a go