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Well organised event, the weather was kind long enough for most finishers I think and there were LOADS of sausage rolls and Flapjack at the food stop.
So that was the good, but I must admit to being a bit underwhelmed by the route, given all that CyB has to offer, seemed like 2/3rds of the lap was just slogging up fireroad climbs. What say you?
There was a lot of fireroad climbing, but I think that was kind of necessary for an event aimed at a diverse range of abilities. Passing riders on the singletrack sections was tricky to say the least - some riders were very good at letting people past where appropriate, others not so much. Besides, the majority of the climbs at CyB are on fireroad and they did include quite a few singletrack climbs too (the first section, the Minotaur hairpins climb, and the techy climb before the berms.
I've been mulling it over more last night, and I'm really struggling to think where the benefit of the event was over just going and riding the trails for the day.
There arent many events where the above isnt true.
I did ride the Antifreeze yesterday, had lots of fun.
No different to any road sportive. The only real advantage over just riding the trails were the medical backup, feed stations, event photography, and timing (and timing isn't really any different to using your own GPS), plus you get a token memento. I didn't use the feed station so there was even less benefit for me, but I still enjoyed it and pushed myself a little bit harder than I normally would have riding the trails at CyB (which for me is the point). Challenge events like this give some people something to aim for (either a distance or technicality of trails that they wouldn't normally ride), for others they're a reason to push themselves a bit harder than normal on a ride. If the distance is one that you would easily ride and you turned up and didn't push yourself any harder than normal then you would definitely have been better off riding the other, better, less crowded trails at CyB. Of course you could just turn up at the trails and decide to ride further than normal or harder than normal without entering an event, but you probably wouldn't have the same mental focus and, more importantly, you wouldn't have the same medical backup should something go wrong.
Ah well, that's fair enough. There's a few of happy campers so the organisers obviously know their market, I hope it's a success for them in future years.
I definitely pushed myself hard! 2hrs 32 for 3 laps.
I did it, ride CYB reasonably often, so I get what the OP means about missing out some of the better bits. I had a blast though as I generally wouldn't spend 3 odd hours going as fast as I possibly can around loops, so I liked the difference to a usual trail center visit.
I thought it was well organised, people (who finished quick enough) were in good spirits as they missed the really bad weather and I only saw one jam really. I stuck around for a bit afterwards and some of the later finishers looked pretty drowned.
Trail manners seemed pretty good to me, lots of moving over and I in turn did the same, said hello to everyone and there were only a few that didn't return the greeting.
Loved it. Attendance numbers were high and I did my three laps so I was happy. Muck Off tent blowing away was a shock!
Ah well, that's fair enough. There's a few of happy campers so the organisers obviously know their market, I hope it's a success for them in future years.I definitely pushed myself hard! 2hrs 32 for 3 laps.
2hrs 36 according to the official times 😛 Still nearly 7 minutes quicker than me.
I do understand where you're coming from, but I thought the event description was very clear about the nature of the event and the inclusive nature of it does mean that there are practical limitations when it comes to selecting which trails to use and how to link them.