Whinlatter Challenge

EarlofBarnet

I'll see you all there. I'm only doing the half-enduro, don't think I could complete the full one. I've put in a fair bit of training since early December for it and put in an alright time doing a trial run a couple of weeks back, but we'll see what happens on the day. Sharing the route with 500-odd other people could make things interesting, if not a bit annoying on the single-track sections (trying to pass people/people trying to pass).

thelodge

Anyone know what the parking situation is usally like?

pinarellodude

From bad to dreadful last time I raced there. Made you park on forest dirt tracks? Don't know what they did last year?

320DMsport

Parking on forestry roads again last year.

Earlo dont worry about all the single track as they only use parts of the ultura trail, most of it backwards.

Lots of off piste and the steepest climbs they can find so plenty of fire roads to pass on.

Enjoy it folks.

epicdaza

I'm really looking forward to this, never road MTB that way before (Plenty of Road with Lakeland Loop and Keswick sportive) and I've done alright in the hills. In fact my best performances are on hilly courses which is strange as I'm not exactly streamlined ;-)

No idea what tyres or bike to run so I'm probably going to be the idoit on the S-Works Stumpjumper HT with slicks.

Game on!

Daza

pinarellodude

epicdaza wrote:

I'm probably going to be the idoit on the S-Works Stumpjumper HT.

Don't worry mate thats two off us then

epicdaza

Nice 8)

I'm heading South today for a few days so I have to go with a guess on weather as well. Taking a big gamble but Supersonic Twister Rear & Supersonic Speed King front :twisted:

Daza

pinarellodude

Tyres? Think I'll go with whatevers been on the bike for the last 12 months mmm?

320DMsport

Semi slicks should be ok, there has been abit of a snotty climb last two years, i'm going with well worn nobby nics, my racing ralph is goosed or that would be on the back.

Mind my bald nics will be fast enough....hopefully!

See ya Sunday Tony!

pinarellodude

Think I'll just be doing the Half Marathon tomorrow. My riding partners rear Avid brake is fecked, knackered piston. And I've got dodgy guts waiting for bloods back from the Doctors. So just going to plod around tomorrow. Arm warmers me thinks and Gillet, looks like the odd shower on the cards?

EarlofBarnet

Ow, it's looking moist! Good luck for today everyone, enjoy it

320DMsport

Well folks how did everyone get on?

I really enjoyed the course, the DH was fun, struggled with my right knee towards the end, put it down to not riding my mtb since last october so not used to the position compared to my roadbike.

I ended up 3hr 17.01 so a good 12 mins faster than last year so well happy!

Think there is a problem with the positions though, i dibbed in for the second lap but its showing i only did half enduro so pressume its including the half enduro positions as most will be faster than 3hr 17?

Seems quite a few have this prob and we all dibbed and have a split time, so have to wait for the results.

Hope everyone had a good day and i hope hoofrace did your sub 3 hours, hats off to you if you did.

Cheers

oodboo

I though it was a bit crap to be honest. The half deflated start line summed it up for me with the finish being the biggest anti climax.

I'll ride Whinalatter again but I'm not pay £25 to do it.

cw42

My first time at whinlatter and I enjoyed it. Some were saying it was harder then Kielder which I did last year and only managed the one lap, so I was a bit worried I'd only manage one lap of this. However, I found the course much better and more flowing than Kielder was. At the end of the first lap though I still wanted to quit!
Had a little break and something to eat and pressed on though. Then I ran out of water and nearly gave up again as I came through the visitors centre area for the last time, then realised the feed station was nearby and stopped to fill up and have another little break. By that time I was knackered and it was a big effort to push to the end. I asked a few marshals how far left to go? I got told about 5 miles at one point, then half a mile by the next Marshall along the route!
Thankfully the second Marshall was right
One final push up that last hill and the anti-climatic finish line was crossed in a time of 4 hours 43 mins. Happy to have done it in less than 5 hours.
Will be back next year.

rock_hopper

A cracking event with a good atmosphere and a course that truly tested your fitness and technical ability, couldn't have asked for anything better.............well, maybe to have the fitness to stay with Rob Jebb would have been nice! The wet trail centre rock surface was quite slippy and you had to have your wits about you to stay upright. Would recommend to every mountain biker and I will be back next year to try and beat my time.

I heard that someone was complaining off too many hills and rock.............location check, it's the lake district, what did you expect..........thetford forest?!

oodboo

Might as well expand a bit on why I thought it was crap.

Car parking was a joke and the marshalls couldn't even tell me how to get to the start.

No signage or instructions. I found the pre race process of signing in awkward and badly thought out.

Timing devices. I haven't entered many events but for the last one I done I had a timing chip on my forks and you rode over a pad and your time started and ended when you crossed the line. The dip thing meant as soon as you get through the finish line you have to queue up to dip and record your finish time.

Mass start. Unless you're one of the pushy competitive racer types then your going to start mid to the back of the pack. This meant that as soon as we got up the forest road climb to the first bit of single track we had to queue to push up the hill.

Single track. Because there was so many people on the course the single track sections for at least the first half of the course were clogged up with people and we just couldn't get any speed or flow. This resulted in walking the bike over a lot of stuff I would have normally ridden.

Anti climactic finish. Cross the finish line, dip your timing thing and get your receipt. Left thinking "I paid £25 for this".

I'm sure I read somewhere there was supposed to be some sort of goody bag. I'm not really bothered but once you got your reciept that was it. Over. Maybe the extent of the freebies was the powerbar and sticker they gave out with your race number.

The course was great. I got a weird satisfaction out of getting up the hills. Nothing was too technical, I done it on a 100mm travel hardtail but any bike could have managed it. All the drops were easily rollable, good job becuase due to all the people speed to ride them properly just wasn't happening. There was also a lot of people there that were clearly out of the depth. I don't have a problem with this though as I'm all for more people getting out on the trails as it can only help the sport.

All these issues could have been easily fixed with a bit more organisation and seeing as the event is in it's 3rd year I was expecting more.

There were over 500 people entered. All paying £25. I just left with the feeling that someone is sitting on a big pile of money laughing at me. I don't know how much it costs to put an event like this on but that seemed to be on a shoestring budget. Nowhere near the £12500+ they'll have pulled in from the entry fees.

I'll go back and ride Whinlatter again. But I wont go back and enter that event again, and I certainly wouldn't reconed it to anyone.

RallyBiker

This was my first MTBing event.When do the results actually come out? I was expecting some terminals with printers at the finish with live results/ positions seeing as the process was all computerised. Or have I been spoiled during my rallying years? :?
Enjoyed the event, although it was all new to me. Couldn't believe how fast signing on was compared to the faffing around involved with doing a rally, excellent. The mass start on the other hand ain't such a good idea. Surely setting the field off per 50 every 5 minutes would be a better idea as the first couple of miles I was thinking of hiking boots instead of SPD shoes. It was a good enjoyable route with friendly, chatty competitors who let me passed,when needed. I'm deffo bitten by the bug and looking to do another in the summer! :shock:

320DMsport

Rally, the results are on www.sportident.co.uk

They did a computerised finish ticket, although now the results are out i'm 29 places higher than i thought so all good.

The course wasnt technical as i did it on a 80mm hardtail and a lad i know did it on a full ridgid single speed in under 3 hours!

As for a mass start its a mtb race, may call it a challenge but its a mass start race so if your being held up a the single track you just start further forward and get some clear space.

I enjoyed it and the finish is the finish, you cross the line and thats that, i'm not interested in bells and whistles and goodie bags, i want a fun course, good crack and some good tussles with other riders which i had, we all shook hands at the end and hopefully bump into some of the lads i raced with somewhere else.

cw42

what a dumb way to show the results! I want to see my finish time in relation to everyone finishing around me and in the order we finished, not bloomin' alphabetically! Took me a while to cut and paste them into a spreadsheet, but eventually I worked out I came 288 out of 349. Happy. :0

oodboo

I just want something for my £25 that I can't get for the cost of parking.

320DMsport

Thats strange CW, i looked lastnight and they were in position order?

Must of changed it today to make it look more of a challenge than a race.

oodboo i must admit i was surprised there wasnt a cup, got a nice mug last year!

The same people organise GMBC which alot of the money goes to charity, well all of it after expenses, i always pressumed the WMBC was for the same causes, Air Ambulance, Cancer care etc, could be wrong but i'll have to check it out.

mmmbeer76

To oodboo Absolutely spot on. What a waste of money. What free gift? I
was never there to win but would have liked to get a realstic time instead of queueing to get on the single track. It was my first event and I could not believe the rude and poor attiude of so many of the riders. I stopped to help a guy who fell and had a head injury and could not believe the ignorance of so many riders who would not stop or slow down. As if you were ever going to win. You were behind me and I was never in the running. Too many arrogant wannabe`s. I came away thinking `is that it?` I will not bother next year.

320DMsport

I checked my bike comp tonight to see what speeds i got to on the event, 39.1 mph, think it was on that decent after the muddy downhill then steep climb then whoosh under those trees, bloody great fun!

HOOFRACE

Hello
all
Sorry to here about the disappointment of some of you. Don't let that stop you. Its a newish event so it will get better over the years.
Well I didn't quite get a sub 3. Did it in 3.08. my computer said 3 dead. So the 8 mints were down to a couple of dropped chains and cramp in both hamstrings on different climbs.
Not bad for a 90 kg rider. I also road up and back to the event from Keswick so I am very pleased I got round with out any major incident.
Next year sub 3!!!

320DMsport

Hoofrace thats a cracking time!!

Welldone and good effort after riding from Keswick! Masochist!

It wasn't you that was peeing and eating at the side? I rode abit and there was a guy with a 90 kg type build that was abit quicker than me and would of prob done that sort of time.

Anyway don't ride from Keswick next year and blitz that 3 hour mark!

Id like to do 3 ish to 3.10 but its very early in the season for me.

EarlofBarnet

Fair play to those that did the full Enduro, the half-enduro was enough for me!

I thought it was a good event. I got there early and parked up in the main visitor centre easy enough. Got signed on fine too. I rocked up to the start line 15 mins or so before the start and easily got a place towards the front of the grid (maybe 10 rows back). Agree that the singletrack at the top of the first climb was a little cramped, but most people were being patient and staying in position so it was ok. After that people were fairly spread out so it was a lot better than I expected.

I came in 6th place overall in the half-enduro, and 3rd in the mens so was pretty pleased. Didn't realise that I'd done that well, so went home and missed the presentations (would have had to wait 3 1/2hrs anyway).

My Giant XTC was great on the couse, never felt out of it's depth. Only casulties were a broken link on the chain (outer plater had came away) and a bent and twisted front mech. Not sure how I'd done it, but it must have been near the end. Think the split link had snagged on the mech and pulled it in to the chainrings. Could have been worse!

Roll on next year

SiLanc

sorry to hear some didn't enjoy it, remember it's not technically a race it's billed as a challenge. As for the costs, I know one of the popular series down South costs thousands per round to run once you have paid out for timing (can be as much as £500), the insurance, marshals, first aid, number boards, forestry commission cut, advertising, plant hire...I could go on...you wouldn't believe the costs and organisation involved in organising just one event. Generally speaking people might make a little money, but a lot struggle to break even.

I might be wrong but I also think this event is still run for charity so console yourself with the knowledge that your money is helping a good cause.

I agree on the parking though, it can be a bit of a bugger to get in and out of, but where else do you park several hundred cars?