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Entered this yesterday… another 4 hours slogging round some Army training ground on the SS to look forward to 😀
Anyone else in?
I feel I should support them, even if the weather is a bit naff!
Give me cold and crisp any day!
DrP
Bit pedally for me that.
I'm in DrP. 2hr though which is the length of my endurance these days.
I'm in, 3 hour grandads.
Maybe - it’ll depend on how I feel after this bout of this fancy bug doing the rounds!
I was all up for it but snuck away for a ski holiday and have thumped my knee pretty hard.....so physio this week for me instead. Hope to be there for R3.
Yep, I'll be there again - 2 hr 40+ (or Grandad cat as aptly described up there by Stiggy!) Looking forward to it, hopefully doing better than Rd1 when I wasn't on it!
I'm signed up for the 40+ 2 hours again but have been nursing a hamstring and other injury so not intirely sure whether to race or not. The latest variant has me pondering a bit too.
I was in for the next one at Minley, but am still 10 days or so away from finding out how much fatter and unfitter I am after covid.
Have a great race at Rd2 all.
I would do the grands vets but there's no way I can do a race-ish pace for 3 hours.
@stiggy I didn’t realise there was a grand vet cat in this series - thought it was just under or over 40. Obviously wasn’t paying attention (although I’m ‘only’ 47 so not old enough to worry about it 😂😂😂
I would do the grands vets but there’s no way I can do a race-ish pace for 3 hours.
Firstly; it's a 'short' 3 hrs, ie you have to complete by 3 hrs so in reality might only be 2.5 hrs or thereabouts.
And secondly; surely whatever you can do for 2.5-3hrs 'is' race pace. Might not be as fast as someone else's race pace but is that not what endurance racing's about?
theotherjonv.
Yes I get all of the above,cheers.
Sold out. That's a relief. Hopefully I won't remember about the next round until it's too late as well.
I entered last night.
Received the email this morning that they are splitting the starts by category (allegedly to reduce virus transmission).
Which means I get a 3 minute head start on you 40+ guys. Apologies in advance for you all having to overtake me.
Red Bird hardtail with mudguards, feel free to shout some abuse/encouragement when you catch me up.
Also means its a 126 minute race making the mental maths that little bit harder.
@muddylegs Come along just for the crac! Doesn't matter where you finish or even if you get to the end - it's just a good ride innit!
No it really is to allow more space between riders Andy, unless you can think of another reason??
It's done to allow gaps between groups as the speeds can be different so reduces bottlenecks.
As explained in the email to those riding, a decision has been taken to start riders in their categories just a few minutes apart so as to avoid the usual mass starts at this time.
Yep I'm in. Went for another tester ride yesterday and all good with the body today. Hopefully it will have stopped raining by tomorrow but what ever the weather I'll be there👍.
just seen weather forecast for the area - should stop raining later this afternoon and then may even be frosty first thing. Even if it's muddy, in this area it's thin dysentery mud that'll splatter your legs but won't clog your wheels. Might eat brake pads though (still has nightmares after *that* Gorrick 100)
@muddylegs excellent, enjoy. I’ll be in Redhill CC kit on a pink Epic if anyone wants to say hi… Looking forward to it, at least it won’t be as grim as today has been!
I'll be on the SS with full mud guards...my trademark look 🤣🤣🤪
DrP
Cooling. A little concerned how thr brake pads will hold up, but too late to get a new set now!
I'll be on an all black Fung Wu with black kit and white helmet. Hopefully towards the front of the 2hr vets race.
Good luck STWers
@ernie see you on the start line! Probably the last time I see you, but I’ll give it a go!
Wow that was tough. But also kinda fun. How did everyone go?
2nd place again for me, albeit only 90s off the winner. My start is still truly horrendous but not as abysmal as the last round. But I loved some of the singletrack sections especially when i got a clear run at them.
Well done @ernie, that’s a cracking result. I loved that, the course was great - even liked the big hill to start the lap 😂. The cows and Randy bull added an amusing element too! Not been to Caesars camp for several years - it’s a great venue.
Not sure on positon yet, but think I was in the top 10, just got 4 laps into my 2 hours.
Yes another great course from Gorrick. 3 laps 27th in the 40+ 2 hours for me. Couldn't do anymore, by the third I was cooked with the awful fittness from the past few weeks. As above interesting collection of cattle at one point showing their support. Nice vibe as usual. Well done all who competed,let's do it again in 2 weeks for round 3!
Bravo dude...
Oof.. that was a tough one!
Slightly odd starting in smaller groups, but worked OK I guess...
Kept rapid pace with the fast over 40s for the first lap, then realised I could race my own SS pace!
A fair bit of sloppy grinding (the first 1km after the start was the worst!) But, as usual, the rest of the course was great fun...
The latter half of the course was nice and swoopy and grippy!
Happy to nab top step of the podium for single speed too.. 8 laps... 70km...
233 watts normalised power for just shy of 4 hours 🥵🥴🤘
DrP
@DrP Good effort! 70k singlespeeding must’ve hurt, especially that hill!
@muddylegs well done - definitely worth coming for!
If you like riding the area, worth reading this and if you're local asking your MP / local councillors to keep DIO honest
https://trailactiongroup.co.uk/
Great work guys. The thought of 70km makes my legs hurt just thinking about it.
I forgot about the cows! Trying to ride around them on the really steep climb was challenging
Just looking at the timings Edit * 28th for me not 27th. DrP you where knocking out some decent consistent lap times there and on an SS! Fair play to you.
Cheers @muddylegs..
Here's my lap times...
00:26:36
00:27:21
00:28:25
00:29:07
00:29:37
00:29:52
00:30:12
00:31:11
Nice to see I was getting slower, albeit very gradually 😀
DRP
My son was there in the juniors and came 5th. Good course by the looks of things. He also said there were cows, but it wasn't a problem. Overall, he had a good race and enjoyed it.
Well done to the rest of the stwers.
For me it was only on lap 1 that there was an interesting moment with the cows and the massive bull - as Ernie says they were on the steep climb and the bull was err in the mood! Wasn't too sure about passing him too close, but all was fine! Later they had moved up the top and it was fine up there. There were also a lot of walkers and dogs on the course - I didn't have any problems, but felt unusual.
Finished 10th, which I'm happy enough with - I burned up everything trying to get the 4th lap in - stiff legs this morning!
I only encountered the cows on lap 3 or 4 onwards... and thankfully htey were up the top.
Meeting them on the climb would have been a right pain!
I managed to weave through, but it was an odd encounter..
(so.. nearly got kileld by sheep at Ard Rock, and now a Cow obstruction at a BM XC race!)
And also the VAST number of walkers and dogs was noticable this time around too... Never DIRECTLY in the way (i,.e blocking narrow singletrack) , but I had to ting my bell a few times to make space to pass on teh wider firetrack sections.
DrP
That too. My son did say that on one pass attempt there was a dog on a long lead blocking a bit of the track so he couldn't pass the rider and had to wait a bit.
Good call having a bell DrP. What bell for xc then?
@yak et al..
I've this one. ora copy of it. or a copy of that..
Yeah... the ORIGINAL was part of much controversy (think it was fifty quid or something), but..I had nothing but positive remarks about my little ding-a-ling..
DrP
Gutted to have missed Ceasar's - been yrs since I raced there!
Had a great time. Great course GorrickEvents, amazingly dry given saturdays weather.
Just failed in my goal of being top half in category.
My fears of being swallowed up and shoved out the way by a roaring lead pack of 20 vets were unfounded.
There was a point in the first lap when I'd lost sight of the guys in front, nobody visible behind, and nobody from vets had yet caught me. Genuinely thought I was last which was a tad demotivating.
Anyone give me any advice on warm up? I tried to do roughly what zwift gives me as a warm up on a workout, 20 mins of gradual increasing effort. But the inevitible 5 minutes of standing around at the start line my HR dropped right down and that start climb nearly killed me, felt like I was on the limit of cramping most of the way up.
Looks good DrP. Never gone down the bell route before. Might be nicer/ better received?
https://singletrackmag.com/shop/timber-bell-v4/
Got one on my gravel, usually raises a smile with it's gentle tinkling rather than an urgent DING DING DING
Might be nicer/ better received?
I reckon so... I give a ting-ting when I'm approaching a rider, then the usual "on your left" when I'm ready to pass...
Just lets them know someone is comeing up behind, rather than immediately behind...
Plus.. this isn't a specific race bike.. it's just my SS with a bell (and mudguards!). I ride it all year round, and I quite like having a bell on a bike!!
DrP
Just because, here’s a pic from yesterday. I like to support the photographers and Kevin Sheldrake always does a great job.