Mud, Sweat and Gears 2012

bigdawg

Well after the drama of the warm up lap did actually manage to start, probably the last vet to cross the start though. Hated the first part of the course the 2nd half was a dream (if you dream about riding through 3 inches of gloopy mud, actually make that riding against a river with a bit of mud in, and riding through 'puddles ' that submerged your bottom bracket) and actually quite fast

was good to see you vw though always welcome a friendly face - just wish I had watch details it with you

guity

I have to say, all things considered, the course held up really well. The drag through the first field was not much fun but the majority of singletrack was still firm and fast, just with an inch of slop on top. I was on a 2.25 rocket ron/racing Ralph mix and had no problems with grip. Apart from mud still seeping from my eyes, and having to run the last quarter of a lap after a puncture and faulty cannister, I really enjoyed it!

VWsurfbum

tHere were a lot of guys not wearing glasses, I recon thell have seeping mud from their eyes until thetfords race!

Bigdawg, it was fun watching and No1 enjoyed getting muddy without getting told off! Lol

evo3ben

Wow that was mega!! I dont think i have raced in worst conditions and even though it made going extremely hard, i thoroughly enjoyed it and thought the course was great 8) I found the hardest part was the single track running along side the river which was off camber, very rooty and hard to stay upright. The fields were a serious slog, really hard.
I managed 20th which i am really pleased with considering the conditions and the fact that half way through the 3rd lap i lost my rear brakes due to worn down to the metal meaning having to use front only which in turn made me come off the bike 3 times, then on the 4th lap the fronts wore down to the metal :roll: definately made things interesting lol. My 2.1 racing ralph tyres held up well but did on occasion find myself running with the bike on my back at later stages where the mud just got too thick.
The sun was out before the race which was nice but in all honesty i think it would have been better raining to stop the mud from getting too sticky.
A big well done to everyone that raced as that was an epic and seriously hard race! 8)

pilch

Hey VW, would have come & said hello if I had known you were there (and who you were )

Brilliant course, must be amazing in the dry... very tough race, loved all the singletrack, hated all the grassy drags, rode the Scandal 29er with a ron on the front and a Bonty team on the back. Great course for 29ers, bags of grip from the big wheels and great tracking through the off camber river bits.

Managed a hard fought 3rd in the vets - 'chuffed'

No glasses, eyes are killing me today and my vision is stilled blurry!

C0LL0

Well that was errrrr, fun

My very 1st race was round 10 of the beastway last year, given the name of "hell night", well this was "hell day".

But it was a great course, quite fast really given the conditions, didn't like the 2 field sections with wind and rain in the face and the fact we were riding over what I can only think resemble rice paddy fields .

Must get to the start area in good time in future.
Was knocked off once when a large gent in front couldn't make the 1 st tiny little slope and proceded to stick his foot through my front wheel, then used siad wheel as purchase to haul his fat arse up the mud bank "thanks".

But no damage done bike just sank into mud rather than bend. Hit a tree in last single track following a junior my fault entirly but he apologised anyway, and when I remounted and cought him again pulled over and let me through,thanks kid , then with cramp in both calf's got bogged down in deep soft mud and toppled over.

Loved the course the single track by the river was great, so slow the 1 st lap behind riders but 2 nd lap flew through half until got trapped again but was good to catch breath and pass a few riders over the paddy fields section.

will be going back to ride the course when it dries out

Had to take glasses off steamed up too much but didn't have a problem with muddy eyes, the rain falling must have kept them washed out.

Roll on Thetford, I think a full suspension bike for that round instead of the 29 hardtail trek, I don't like the thetford bumps nor does my back.

VWsurfbum

Top tip for riding hylands is to do very early mornings or nights as the place fills with walkers.
Great fun and fast in the dry.

pilch

Somebody mention mud?

bigdawg

31st again!! This is nuts Ive never placed so low in 20 years of racing as I have in my last two races- although they were both exceptionally bad for 2 totally different reasons. Got to say there seem to be an awful lot of vets on the startline nowadays....

Well in hindsight (lovely thing!) my plan was doomed to fail... The idea was it was tipping down, no one would turn up, let alone make a 100 mile trip from suffolk, so Id turn up 20 people on the startline and Id walk away with a whole bunch of points! 8)

So turn up - tipping down still, check the sign up only 12 registered - happy days! Wait till 1 (I did actually know it was going to stop raining for the race) dress up toasty warm, winter full length waterproof goretex leggings, 2 jerseys, undervest, winter gloves, and waterproof jacket and off I poodle... Didnt particularly like the 1st part but the rain actually kept it rideable, Conti Edges are an amazing mud tyre, tons and tons of grip and mud just sheds, couple of slippy bits and off the rooty bit - didnt particularly like this at all, in honesty would have been quite slow in the dry I think for me, but soldier on, into that overflowing 'puddle' you know that one that came up over your bottom bracket (?!) big push to ride out and I snapped my chain - my day just took a huge turn for the worse - the furthest part of the course away from the start, pick the bike up, shoulder it and jog, walk, swim back to the start finish - get there around 10 to 2!!! I know Ive got a new chain somehwere, did actually find it quite quickly (at this point Kev showed up with loony dog and his daughter) but could I find the connectors - could I hell, mainly because they were sitting in my spare parts draw at home!! Fortunately Kev mentioned a chain tool and my brain started working kind of normally again - pressed out a link stuck it together (it was now 2pm!!) - cheers kev - you literally saved my race! Quick dash to the start and got there litaerally as the vets were lining up all 60 of them (there was only 65 in a dry tunstall!) - Remember what I was wearing - yep all that lovely warm waterproof clothing to keep me dry on the practice lap from the moment I started it was like riding in a sauna!

Got my traditional crap start due to joining the back of the field, and we were off - still didnt like the first bit, hated the rooty stuff, but everything after that I loved - the draggy climbs were a godsend after the traffic jam that was tunstall, the second part of the woods was an absolute joy and very fast, loved it, hopefully Ill get to ride it dry one day. Only downside was on lap three one of the soldier guys just after the roots said 'only ten more minutes to go' I just assumed that as the leaders had passed this had become the last lap, so put my (wet) foot down overtook a whole bunch of people, sweated about a gallon of fluid and then got waved through for another lap! I nearly cried! Pretty much lost all the places Id just taken and then the sun came out and almost immediately started to dry bits of hte mud - nightmare! I was actually hoping it as going to rain again to soften stuff up! Oh well crawled round the rest of hte lap and that was it! limped back to the car and nearly gave it all up when I saw my position - was not happy. Oh well what happened happened, albeit not quite according to plan.

Thetford in 2 weeks - Im prob going ot give a miss - theyre forecasting another weekend of rain next weekend at the moment and I really dont feel like travelling 200 miles for a repeat of yesterday, thats before I work out if I need a new bottom bracket and wheel bearings.

Kev you really did save my race yesterday - thank you, I wish youd have popped up a bit earlier so we could have had a bit more of a 'relaxed' chat but as you saw I was kind of tearing the car apart looking for those links!! Really sorry about your Dad, stay strong....

Oh and loved the pic of your daughter in the puddle!!

bigdawg

pilch wrote:

Somebody mention mud?

how is the guy on the right so clean???

pilch

He's a Ninja...
















...and he put a clean top on just before the pic was taken

VWsurfbum

Bigdawg, just glad you got to race, I would of had spare links in the car but had to take my box out to fit the big gay dog into it!

bigdawg

having had another look at the results I appear to have moved down to 33rd and the winner's first lap took him 23 hours and 52 minutes... :shock: Think there may be a few mistakes there. As usual though the winning vets were on par with the elite /pro /experts - this really bugs, in case you hadnt noticed!

Serioulsy now considering getting a licence again and racing in the expert category - If Id have done that yesterday I would have come 9th (and not last either my time beat one ofhte chlmer riders)...

guity

Did anyone get any photos of the Expert race? I can't see any oficial photographer info on the website but I definately saw a few people with cameras. To be honest, with that much mud coverage it could probably be a photo of anyone, you wouldn't be able to tell it was me! If anyone has a photo of me (#400, blue and white Giant kit and white helmet) i'd be happy to pay a couple of quid for it.

Bigdawg, looking at the times for the vets, only 1 was really quick in the elites cat (assuming the guy with the 23 hour lap didnt actually win) and Ant does race that level in national races, its not like he steps down a level for regionals. You should be glad some of the quickest vets (Lewis King, Paul Hopkins etc) werent there too! They are proper quick!

bigdawg

I think the photographers on the course were just taking pics of the friends - in fact I think 3 of the photographers were one person who moved around parts ofh te course rather quickly - I remember thinknig how odd it was there were three blonde female photographers on the course (about lap 3!)

Guity a quick question - Im assuming you need a licence to race expert is it full or provisional you need??

pilch

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/mtb/ar ... -Explained

bigdawg

pilch wrote:

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/mtb/article/mtbst_Mountain-Bike-Category-System-Explained

If only that would happen - that would mean the winners of previous rounds being told they have to move up to expert or elite - but the same riders from the previous three years are still racing in Vets...

Thanks for that though - I didnt realise you couldnt just call yourself an expert and race in that category.

Did notice though that to race langdon hills, according to MS&G site and BC you need a full licence (not a prov) - and yet it lets you register for the race whilst staing you have no licence?!?!

guity

To be honest I had so much mud in my eyes I couldn't see if they were all the same person or not!

To race Expert you need a full race license but also need to get promoted in to it from sport, masters or vets. I don't think there is anything stopping you from changing your license from vet to sport if you wanted. Promotion happens at the end of the year based on National rankings so if someone wins all 4 MSG rounds they will still need other wins to challenge for promotion.

pilch

bigdawg wrote:

If only that would happen - that would mean the winners of previous rounds being told they have to move up to expert or elite - but the same riders from the previous three years are still racing in Vets...

Its not abundantly clear from the BC website, but I don't think there is an option for expert/elite XC once you are a vet?

bigdawg

Cheers for that - it used to be the case (in the 90s :oops: ) that you could just enter the Expert cat even at national level providing you had a licence. Its a bit daft though, esp when the previous years winners just keep re-entering the vets cat - doesnt really give anyone else the chance to move through...

For photos maybe worth having a look over on the thetford site - for the last race there was a guy there that ook hundreds, but I dont know if theyd have made the trek down on the weather yesterday...

ollie51

pilch wrote:

bigdawg wrote:

If only that would happen - that would mean the winners of previous rounds being told they have to move up to expert or elite - but the same riders from the previous three years are still racing in Vets...

Its not abundantly clear from the BC website, but I don't think there is an option for expert/elite XC once you are a vet?

You get defaulted to vet once your reach 40 - I think. You can definitely race in the Elite cat at any age (19+), you've just got to be fast enough; Nick Craig still does.

Note to self, Racing Ralphs are not a sensible tyre choice in those conditions! I lost a lot of time in the boggy muddy sections... still managed to ride it though!

I have had to replace my BB, both front and rear wheel bearings, brake pads and chain - a very costly race! It is also probably worth mentioning that it is within the rule of law to clean your bike with a hosepipe, you are not exempted from doing so!

evo3ben

Shame there is not a pro photographer for the series unlike last year

I raced with racing ralphs and considering the conditions i thought they held up ok. Saying that, i do think i different tyre choice would have been better. I did see a few people with ralphs on and even one with a renegade on the rear :shock:

Starting to think about tyres for Thetford now. Thetford held up well during the winter series but after all this rain i think its going to be a different story. Anyone had a ride over Thetford recently?

bigdawg

tbh I dont think there was a right tyre choice due to the changing course - at the end of hte day if it got you round it was the right tyre..

Anyone else notice the food / coffee van running off just after the race - I got changed went to get a drink and it had gone!

guity

Yeh, that was odd. I could have killed for a burger after smelling them going through the start/finish every lap, then when I actually had the chance to get one, they had gone!

bigdawg

Ok Ive just noticed and had it confirmed by MS&G that if you want ot race at langdon hills this year you will need a full racing licence, we'll not be able to turn up and ride the same as a normal MS&Gs race...

Don't know if theyll do one day licences as they do for road races, otherwise its the best part of £50 before entering the race! :?

C0LL0

bigdawg wrote:

Ok Ive just noticed and had it confirmed by MS&G that if you want ot race at langdon hills this year you will need a full racing licence, we'll not be able to turn up and ride the same as a normal MS&Gs race...

Don't know if theyll do one day licences as they do for road races, otherwise its the best part of £50 before entering the race! :?

I have alreday enterd and paid, but do not have a full license, I do have now a provisional but not when I enterd I'd better e-mail Matt I think..... :?

bigdawg

Its annoying that the site asks if you have a licence you answer no and it makes no reference to you needing a licence to race! I know a few people that have entered but dont have a licence...

C0LL0

I've e-mailed Matt, Just waiting for a reply

pilch

BCF National XC round 5, you can race open or fun without a licence - I think

C0LL0

but them races are on saturday, when I have to work, which is why I entered the sunday races. Just waiting for matt to reply to see what happens next.