How do people decide which of the above to enter?
Sport Team "Open to single sex teams of fun/sport ability riders only. All riders have to be over 18 years of age"
Open Team "Open to single sex teams of all abilities. All riders have to be over 18 years of age"
We're all over 18, and doing it for the fun. Doesn't "Sport" mean pro in some events?
It's about racing licenses. If you have any riders with expert or elite licenses they cannot ride in Sport.
Open tends to be quicker at the front (for this reason) but tails off. Sport is a closer race. I'd enter the bigger category so you've got the most potential competitors.
We were having this discussion at work this am.
IIRC it has been a variable experience at MM. Some years sport has been more competitive, but I seem to remember one year in particular when a number of expert / elite vets entered the open category...
I seem to remember one year in particular when a number of expert / elite vets entered the open category...
They have to! If you're a same sex team with one expert or elite you have to ride Open.
Until 2008 there were Expert Men/Women categories, but they changed it so there's now only the Expert Mixed.
That makes sense, it would have been 2009 or 10 that we had a shock
It's all pretty daft really. To my mind 'sport' sounds like it should be quicker. Don't really know why they don't just have one category (and the Expert Mixed), they tend to end up being very close anyway.
Thats the answer I got...
http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/mountain-mayhem-entry-questions
I agree its worded very badly.
Last year we entered 'Open Men' ooo er. Froom what I can recall of the results I think the we would have been higher up the order if we had entered the sport category. There were also quite a few big team names in the Open category
Edit: Just read posts above, I'm sure there were some teams that I would class as 'expert' in the open class last year.
Just tried to find the results but cant find them
I just checked last year's results for the Men's teams. In "Open", 22 teams completed 20 laps or more. In "Sport", 67 teams completed the same.
That would suggest that the "Sport" category is the harder to rank highly in. Which seems madness since the entry form says that "Sport" is for fun only...
Where did you find the results, I couldnt find them
😉
That would suggest that the "Sport" category is the harder to rank highly in. Which seems madness since the entry form says that "Sport" is for fun only...
As said above though, Open is harder at the sharp end. How many Sport teams did 23 or 24+ laps versus in Open?
Please
dunc ashtonAT ho tmailDOT com
all one word.
need to decide what category to enter this year. Maybe mixed Elite 😆
How many Sport teams did 23 or 24+ laps versus in Open?
Open 8
Sport 15
The fastest "Sport" team was beaten by 2 teams in "Open".
Ok, fair point! (Our team has ridden in both Sport and Open and we have to put in a [i]lot[/i] more effort to do well in Open)
It does seem to vary from year to year
Edit: Just read posts above, I'm sure there were some teams that I would class as 'expert' in the open class last year.
Yes, there is no longer a single-sex expert/elite category. Ergo if you have a team of 4 Elite men they have to race Open.
We came 4th in Open last year with one Elite and one Expert, no idea where we'd have been in Sport, have a feeling it was the same 😕
You'd have been 3rd in Sport.
Oh well, couldn't have ridden Sport anyway!
I have another problem, we have 5 blokes who want to ride. We don't want to leave anybody out. We don't care about winning anything, as we are not anywhere near quick enough for that. But having read the rules it seems it a team of 4 or 10 and nowhere inbetween, am I reading this right?
Enter Sport Mixed (5)
Short straws for "Roberta"
ETA - we've done it the other way around many times 😉
Reckon you'll be alright in a team of 10, may be worth checking though, and that's a slightly daft category anyway! Want to give it a go sometime with 10 really fast riders!
