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I did. First time. Thought it was fantastic. Superb trails, fantastically signage, lovely marshalls and awesome cake! Really enjoyed the descents even if a few were pretty sketchy after the rain. Was happy to ride everything up and down and get back in a tad over 4 hours (on GPS, bit more elapsed).
Rode with some great people as well, some good skills on display on a few of the descents. Sure it was muddy after the rain, but apart from one section - that shall be every known as 'life-sapper' - all fun and rewarding to ride.
Really well organised event and all for some excellent causes. I'll be back next year. Oh and Solaris was brilliant up and down, glad I left the rocket at home!
Fantastic event - great organisation, warm & friendly marshals, great cake and a course which was out of this world
Some of the downhills were mental - trying to thread your way past slower riders was some of the best fun i've ever had - how i stayed on the bike i'll never know
Its was a like the Passporte Soleil without the chair lifts
2nd time i've entered and its my favorite race i've done in the UK - awesome
Right now, I'm very broken 🙂
Yeah I followed a local who had some fairly committed lines to get through some slower riders. But good vibe all day, none of that 24 hour ego-fuelled nonsense.
I feel pretty good actually. All that winter training paid off. Probably should have gone a bit quicker. Ah well there's always next year.
I need to go back and ride some of those (public) trails!
I didn't ride the enduro today, but it's one of my local riding spots and we've built some super tech Dh/AM tracks which you would not of rode today.
It's a great place to ride but is wet a lot of the time
3rd time for me, and totally agree that its one of the best uk events I've done. Boy was it hard though ! fitness was ok but my bike handling after months on the road bike was awfull, and it was so slippery.
The trails there are better than any trailcentre in the UK
Even with the mud, it was incredible - the slides you could get going were a dream
I do apologise for some over enthusiastic overtaking maneuvers!
The steep drop into the river where people were getting off to push was frightening - how i didn't collect about 6 riders was gods doing!
To put the mud into context for people who didn't race today - see the state of my machine below
[url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8392/8546389480_b282ca30a8.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/67749037@N02/8546389480/ ]IMG00042-20130310-1936[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/67749037@N02/ ]boltonjon[/url], on Flickr
its was ****ing horrid lol very hard mostly all climbing. the downhills were very tame you crosscrountry girls :-P. i wont be doing this enduro again its just too ****ing hard. great marshalls and whole event is well put together. big thanks to the bike mech on site who set up my gears for a cup of tea... now thats service.
the downhills were very tame you crosscrountry girls 😛
The downhills were tame?? Really - jeez, not where i was sitting - they were the most gnarly i've ridden in a XC race - no, they're not full on 10" of travel DH bike territory - but Christ they were challenging
Yes, lots of climbing, but the rewards were worth every climb!
i thought the descents over machen were much harder than this. it was mucky but pretty much a straight line down never rode a xc trail before so didnt know what to expect. very tough
[url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8241/8544963841_23a0555ed4_c.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexleigh/8544963841/ ]It felt muddier than that.[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/alexleigh/ ]Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr
Mine wasn't so bad. That river drop was ace 🙂 I thought the descents were fun in the mud. Glad I had the HT, some of the FS boys looked broken at the end.
"the downhills were very tame you crosscrountry girls"
Never done a uk enduro with serious technical downhill sections, being so slippery these were hard enough ( more than ) to be fun for most. Got to remember it's got to be safeish for all 400 riders.
Had a great time today, loved every minute of it 😀
Definitely going to do next years
Didn't think it was very muddy at all......maybe I'm just used to South Downs quagmire 😥
3rd Time for me and by far the toughest. Great day out, great route and well organised. Legs are still a bit tender!
Really liked it, loads of climbing which killed my back ! Didn't find it that muddy, but then I did do the Mud Runner Icebreaker a few weeks back 😛
Write up nonsense: http://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=2845
Scales tell me I lost 2.4lbs in a day. Probably best drink more next time then 😉 Surprised i could still manage the stairs today. Not all at once tho 😉
Alex
Great right up fella - describes the day well
I might have been riding with you as out times are similar - i was with a guy on a bright green Orange Alpine with matching rims and i was on a long travel black machine?
See you at the HONC
Bolton-John - yep I saw you definitely at the top of that long fireroad climb just before the mid point stop when I was waiting for Ian. Remember thinking at the time that's a lot of bike to be hauling up the hills. Must have been awesome on the way down then. Assume you'll not be riding that at the HONC!
Ha ha - the perfect tool for the job - great for hooning around!
Used similar for the HONC last year, but might use the singlespeed this year for bloody mindedness instead
I know i'll regret it!
This was the hardest 48k I've ever done! Much harder than trail centre stuff. I felt like i had done two skylines by then end. Great event with good marshalls etc, it was freezing and muddy but great descents. Glad I took the hardtail.