[Closed] Bristol Bikefest roll call!

I'll be there. Spare wheels in car in case it craps out. Not bothered bringing the spare bike with crap clearance if it's going to bugger up. And that would also require building it.

Six hour solo for me, ridden around the course once with a mate and it seemed ok, but as this is my first ever 6hr my view may change after 4hrs 🙂

Don't burn yourself out on the first climb! I think traffic will be a bigger deal than usual as this year everyone is finishing at 21:00. Could be fun *and* frustrating.

Conversely, do burn yourself out on the first climb - on the first lap at least. You'll lose much less time blowing up mid way through the lap than you will getting stuck behind slow riders on the singletrack...

Sadly I'm not racing this year but I may come along to catch up with a few mates.

Oh, summer tyres regardless of conditions - the trails are armoured where necessary apart from the short steep climb after the zigzags and don't ever need mud tyres.

Fair point. You can and do get mud and lots of it after the zigzags, but that section is short. Summer tyres all the way.

Just be careful if it's wet as some sections get very slippery. Saw a couple of very nasty crashes at Oktoberfest last year. One on the zigzags where a guy went down on his shoulder, hard, and one on the Beggar Bush section where a girl missed a tree, but tore a huge chunk out of her knee. The quarry section can get a bit sketchy when it's wet and busy too.

There's always bad crashes - fast trails with rocks/trees to hit...

They resurfaced a lot of the trails fairly recently so the grip shouldn't be an issue. Summer tyres all the way. Sad not to be racing this year due to a broken knee but might try and head up to support mates.

we're in... were supposed to be going to Erlstoke, but due to the postponement going for this instead... Or at least that's what the wife thinks, got all summer to sort that one out in my favor 🙂

We'll be there team of 4 12 hour. Hopefully it'll be reasonably good weather - at least it'll be warmer than Oktoberfest.

Having a go at 12 hour solo (my first and probably my last!)...it seemed a good idea when I entered...!! All encouragement and offers of a tow gratefully received! 🙂

You'll have to give a description so that people know who to tow 🙂

Small female wearing a green and red jersey (North Wales Mountain Bike Association)...likely to be talking to myself.

Everyone got snorkles ready?

Looks ok tomorrow
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2654675?day=1

So long as that's right, you'll be fine (other than if you're camping tonight...) as the trails will dry quickly.

Oh, summer tyres regardless of conditions - the trails are armoured where necessary apart from the short steep climb after the zigzags and don't ever need mud tyres.

Definitely this- pick the fastest tyres you have 😀

There's always bad crashes - fast trails with rocks/trees to hit...

This is the main reason I've never entered 😳 The combination of tight, fast sections and people being mid pack heros when I watched really put me off. I also don't like the extra logs rolled to the edge of the course to block of the slightly cheeky lines- seems to be asking for trouble and tape would more than do the job. I am a big wuss though and I'm sure if I MTFU one year I'd thoroughly enjoy it 😀

Good luck everyone, hope it's a good 'un!

Loved it !! Can't wait for next year already....
Any pointers for the results page ?

Results are here:

http://www.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=27&RId=30294

Indeed good race despite the damp, feeling it today!

Mudfest! I literally had mud everywhere.

Brilliant as usual. Bit rubbish that they moved the portaloos well away from the solo pit area.

The air cadets are awesome there. They are out all day in the mud and the rain and every time you pass, they are cheering you on.

Anyone know who was doing the photography?

Chuffed to bits! I managed 7 laps and had an excellent time......well the rain starting at 7pm wasn't a highlight but apart from that it was cracking! I am already sitting here with sore legs contemplating either trying to get more laps in next year, or trying out the 12hr solo!

A really friendly atmosphere and a great event, I even enjoyed a cheeky Cider on my last lap!

That was fun (possibly of the type 2 variety at times)! The early rain made the course interesting later on in the day - a nice mud/glue type concoction in some places. Predictably though, the Ashton Court trail remained nicely ridable throughout. 21 laps solo singlespeed here & enjoying eating my own body weight in junk today 🙂

My wife was racing in a ladies pair & unfortunately had a nasty crash on the rock garden, cutting her forehead open. Paramedics were called etc, but in particular there was a fellow racer chap who stopped and stayed with her for the duration. I wonder if anyone happens to know who that was? I owe him a huge thank-you!

Member number two of the same pit - 3rd place in the mens solo 12. So tired, so very tired. Way to used to the long climbs and recoveries we get up here in Calderdale.

Was a great race, first time there for me, greasy or what?

Thoroughly enjoyed that. First time I've done pairs and it's bloody hard. Will definitely be back. Mostly a fantastic atmosphere, but witnessed an amusing/unnecessary argument between two guys in the rock garden when one wouldn't let the other (faster) rider past. People really should get a grip, it's only a bit of fun 🙂

I had an argument with my pit crew when they tried to make me pedal faster. I think my response was "sod off. Can I have a coke please?"

21 laps SS solo? Jebus!

I managed 17. Could have done 18 if I didn't have to deal with a dodgy stomach shortly after the fourth hour, but I still wouldn't have got to fifth.

Out of curiosity, how much training are you putting in to get that pace? Do you have children?

lol! Not that much training really, but I suppose I've been doing this long enough that I can fall back on my base a bit. I'm only able to ride weekday evenings (sometimes lunch breaks) and every other weekend (have the kids every other weekend).

And you should probably mention that your also a pretty good talented rider Mark 🙂

Not taking the piss btw.

Ah thanks buddy, likewise! 😀

Is your wife OK? Was pretty dicey in places. Didn't help with photographers popping out of nowhere and firing flashes in your face right at the time when you needed to concentrate the most.

I saw one guy lying on his back at the bottom of the bung hole, so he could snap people coming down. Completely bonkers.

The photographers were silly. I had a flash go off in my face going over one of the drops in towards the end. Also saw the guy in the hole, he seemed to be taking his art a little too seriously 🙂

Thanks for asking...my wife (Ceci) is bruised & cut but pretty lucky we reckon. Her helmet hit the rock before her forehead did and we suspect took most of the impact. Could have been a very different story otherwise 😯

Sounds like a new helmet time to me 🙂

Yup, sure is. Her current one doesn't match the bike anyway 😀

We mixed4 had a good time, met some friends, some new ones - hi to Charlie and (solo) Sam.
Found it tough as it got dark as I've lost a lot of sight in my left eye, and the Bongo leaked somewhat in the heavy rain on Friday night.... T30LWB coming Friday week, so that should be better for next year.

Waves at Pedalhead. Hope all's well with Ceci.

Have to say that 99.9% of the passing was done all very politely with great banter but i was going steady on my first attempt at solo so happy to let folk pass if they were bearing down on me. Only guy who got my goat was the bloke announcing " I'm leading my class " and was bit overbearing rather than wait for a suitable spot to pass. We may have different goals but you're not the only one racing chum, even it's just a personnel goal rather than a placing. Still, one twit doesn't spoil a great event.

Big thumbs up for all on the Steve Worland cider station. Always raised a smile from their antics as a rode past. Cider was pretty good too 😉

Also the lad from the air cadets doing the dancing at the scaffold bridge was ace. Good to see those guys, they worked really hard.

Lastly, return of the jump of doom (or whatever it was called) at the finish line was a welcome return, even managed to get a decent launch off it!

Damb good event from our end mixed team of 4 came in 9th happy with that one of our guys never raced before but gutted I missed my suacide lap by 1min and keeld over at the finish haha
Hard to steer hard to see hard to pedal...that's racing baby bring on next year

Big thumbs up for all on the Steve Worland cider station. Always raised a smile from their antics as a rode past. Cider was pretty good too

Agreed, one particular moment was when they shouted across to the cadets:

"You're wearing camouflage and high vis. What's that about?"

Good course, if not a bit harder than I was expecting, but fun all the same, just finished a blog post actually if anybody is interested: http://ridingcircle.blogspot.com/2015/06/race-report-bristol-bike-fest.html

lol! Not that much training really,

Yup - only 234hours and 53,000m so far this year. Pretty lightweight really especially given he only has 9 KOMs - as in 9 [u]pages[/u].

Good course, if not a bit harder than I was expecting, but fun all the same, just finished a blog post actually if anybody is interested: http://ridingcircle.blogspot.com/2015/06/race-report-bristol-bike-fest.html

Good write up, tallies with my experience, glad to see someone else found the middle laps sticky!

It would say though I don't think it's that technical a course, though I've not done any other endurance races this far south only more northerly or Scottish ones. Ashton court's all smooth and fast, with no roots to speak of and the rocks are all obvious and avoidable.

Ashton court's all smooth and fast, with no roots to speak of

Let us speak of the freshly exposed roots after the event village hair pin. Roots that cannot be seen in the dark with wet muddy glasses.

Yup - only 234hours and 53,000m so far this year. Pretty lightweight really especially given he only has 9 KOMs - as in 9 pages.

Is that all?!

Good course, if not a bit harder than I was expecting, but fun all the same, just finished a blog post actually if anybody is interested: http://ridingcircle.blogspot.com/2015/06/race-report-bristol-bike-fest.html

Enjoyed that!

Thanks IA & Duncan.

Whilst technical isn't perhaps the correct phrase, certainly courses like Mayhem and Sleepless (RIP) are/were more forgiving on the body for such long periods of time in the saddle. Not saying Ashton Court was bad, it wasn't, it was awesome fun!

Whats non technical after 2 hours, is very different after 12 hours in my experience. Technical does not always equate to gnarrr.
Sure it's not the same as the WEMBO course, but the course and conditions required constant tweaking of your position and balance on the bike to stay smooth.
After 12 hours of riding, yeah, I found the course technical. but more due to the nature of the riding than the features.

Oh yeah, I totally get your point about what a course feels like after 12/24 hours etc. Been there etc.

I guess as above technical isn't the word, I'd say it's more relentless - there's nowhere you can just cruise with no real effort. Beggar's bush and the quarry descent are all no-effort from the legs and you can coast them all fast enough if you know the corners, but you are working the upper body. There's no-where you can really switch off your brain.

Two different types of tricky I guess, occasional hard to ride bits vs. a relentlessly fast/twisty course.

Still it's all good, and I think it's a good venue for endurance racing as it holds up well.

Not sure I could mentally handle the short laps riding solo though, I felt 10 laps was enough for me (I was doing pairs).

AC has always been the type of trails that are easy to ride slow but pretty punishing to ride fast. It's non technical in that anyone can ride it but IME, only decent (technical) riders can really ride it fast.

technical isn't the word, I'd say it's more relentless - there's nowhere you can just cruise with no real effort. Beggar's bush and the quarry descent are all no-effort from the legs and you can coast them all fast enough if you know the corners, but you are working the upper body.

+1. By the end of a 6hr solo I was struggling with arm and hand fatigue more than my legs (or so I thought, until I tried to get out of the saddle and pedal up one of the climbs on my last lap). My hands still ached when I rested them on the tops riding to work this morning :/

Try 19 laps - the only reason I have working hands are my Jones bars. To make matters worse my forks packed it in with about 3 hours left. Go team.

Big fan of ESI grips to help hand fatigue here, after a nasty broken hand a few years back I can get pain with the constant battering, but the ESIs really help.

IA - Totally agree with you. Running them on my SS, geared bike runs Gripshift so the stubbie ones aren't quite as effective.

How did the Steve Worland cup work? Times show 8/9 hours, but winners on 16/17 laps.

Great effort if they cidered on every lap!

I was riding a 26" fullyrigid skinny tyred aggressive xc setup
Wrist pump was a bitch by the 3rd lap my upper body was punished just from trying to keep on the trail luckily being a local helped in some sections like quarry whare i can loosen up abit and flow through but its still a relentless course that never Lets off and gets harder in the wet
Will be running full sus next year and hopefully faster