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Who's racing at Graythwaite this weekend? I'm going up this afternoon with a mate. It was risky camping, but looks like it'll be dry all weekend -bonus! Over stretched calf and told 4-6 weeks out last weekend might hamper my result, but fk it, I'm excited!
Didn't realise there was a Spesh weekend on at grizedale. Going to be busy in that area!
Yep,
I'm heading up there after work. Forecast looks better every time I check!!
those wet weather tyres were money well spent !
Not been to one of these before...what is the camping like?
Showers?
Catering?
I've given it a miss this year, having done it the last two. It's gonna be mint, my favourite stage from the first year is back plus a new one.
Sweet! Trail Vids look good 🙂
Not been before, but the way kev has talked about it, the camping area should be great! Showers £2 and bike cleaning available as well (not in shower!)
How did everyone get on? I've seen mixed reports from their Facebook page, sounds like it was a very challenging course?
Nope. I didnt enjoy it.
I did 4 stages of the practice and left. I didnt undertand why it was so filthy everywhere when the rest of the lake district was bone dry? I was spinning the wheels driving across the camping ground which was a bad omen. Stage 1 started off down a muddy rutted fire road and straight through a fetid 2 foot deep puddle at top speed. Cheers for that...good start. Stage 2 i cant really remember. Stage 3 was down right dangerous. Couldnt even envisage hitting that at race speed. All of the transitions bar 1 were pushes rather than peddles...usually through swamps. Stage 4 i had a bit of fun but not enough to keep me there on such a fantistic weather weekend. Cleaned the bike off and went to ride some superb lake district mountain peaks instead.
in contrast to ndthornton I thought it was a fantastic weekend! Sure it was tough with the ground being damp and if Im being honest the technicality of the trails were a bit above my pay grade but that is why i do these events, to be challanged.
Looking forward to National Champs at Innerleithen and wondering how the trails up there compare to the ones from last weekend.
@ndthornton are to sure you meant stage 3 was dangerous? After stage 1 then stage 3 was by far the easiest.
Stages 2 & 6 were the most technical IMO. After a few crashes during practice my hopes of a steady mid pack finish changed to make it round safe and clean on race day. I just about managed that as the trails had dried out quite a bit overnight, I still had a few moments but it was a really good challenge to try and hit some of the technical sections at speed.
Having to do the same push up 3 times during the loop was a bit annoying but the pre event description did say expect steep push ups so no complaints there.
All in I thought it was a good weekend, well organised and big thanks to all the marshalls and people who give up their time to make events like this work smoothly.
Yes i think it was stage 2 actually. Shit me that was nadgery! The bit where there was a martial whose job was to continuisly replace the tape from a big roll as virtually every single rider shot through it off into the trees!
Looking forward to National Champs at Innerleithen and wondering how the trails up there compare to the ones from last weekend.
Longer stages, more flow, no pushups!
Did the national champs at grizedale last year and while it's a great technical challenge, inners runs faster up & down & is more fun for me
Very tough technical stages at graythwaite. They certainly were a challenge to get down clean. Practise went pretty well for me, although all the pushing up played havoc with my calf injury. Being practise I was able to stop and look at the obstacles before riding them. In the race, I couldn't remember where any of the obstacles were, or which line to take and had a complete nightmare! By end of s2, I'd fallen so many times, I decided it would be best to do the lite race, skipping 5+6. S7 was the only stage I managed well.
I thought the campsite was great, the showers were a welcome and the whole weekend a good one, I really don't care if my bike gets muddy.
Just wish there was more pedalling to do and less push up, and more time to practise
ndthornton, if your on about where i think you are thats because a lot of people where taking the wrong line down the right hand side, left hand side lined you up much better. i normally love that stage and do well on it but sunday must have hugged about 6 trees on it. not the best of days with a couple of crashes and plenty of other mishaps. was a very tough weekend. the ground being so wet from all the rain we've had here spoilt it a bit.
Cheers Kimbers, It will be my first time up there so really looking forward to it.