Big Wight - Isle of Wight MTB festival

GhallTN6

Me and a couple of keen mates have signed up for this, we are doing the 100k on the Saturday (then seeing how many pubs we can find on the Sunday as part of the Navigator event).

Although we're pretty experienced, It's our first event and we're pretty keen having started the training and looking into diet etc... Has anyone done one of these in the past or are you an Isle of Wight resident who can tell me what the terrain is like, and are we just taking it too damned serious!

clarkson

i dont live there, but ride there fairly often. its fairly hilly, especially in the middle; a bit flatter towards the edge. when is it anyway?

GhallTN6

In my mind I'm kind of thinkings it's the same terrain as the south downs, Is it mostly tame bridleways or is there some decent single track as well?

the event is the weekend of the 26th may.

clanton

I've not done any mountain biking there but done a two day road ride and it was surprisingly hilly - not huge climbs but lots of little buggers!

JasonRwmb

It is very much like the South Downs, lots of rolling hills. The Trailbreak events all take place on legal rights of way so don't expect much singletrack, however the downhills tend to be fast and fun.

dunker

i'd guess they'd pack in alot of hills to make it challenging? the island has about five main downs i think with none of them being higher than 250metres? so no long mountain climbs just alot of 500-1000metre long steady climbs depending on path chosen, some can be rather steep but then shorter of course. so train for lots of hills i guess? is that 100km over two days or 100km each day?