Mud, Sweat and Gears 2012

stylish

It would take me allday to get there from Home...............

evo3ben

New website is now live!

Ok, open is the new 1 hour warrior race but what is sport?

bigdawg

sport is racer category - people who take it a bit more serioulsy under 30s I think...

evo3ben

It says on website 18-39 for sport cat.

bigdawg

it used to be (back in the day 8) ) sport, master, veteran, Im guessing sport is combining the old sort and master categories.

bigdawg

chrsit Ive just seen the course thats replaced danbury... that'll be a trek and a half...

ollie51

Master has changed in recent times, you have to ask to be in it, or BC put you in it if you are expert cat or better and over 30.

VWsurfbum

Well, thats a real Sh1tter. I liked Danbury, hated tunstall and not so keen on thetford. Still if nothing else comes up i may as well do them, but not so keen as in previous years.

bigdawg

although kind of hidden dont forget langdon hills - may be worth entering that aap as its a national round this year...

VWsurfbum

bigdawg wrote:

although kind of hidden dont forget langdon hills - may be worth entering that aap as its a national round this year...

Yeah i'll be doing that one, Codham is a saving grace too. Hylands i do well at as i ride there most weeks so know it very well but its not exactly a challenge. I like the technical tracks not the fast open ones :?
Oh well see what happens

ollie51

It's no longer viable to have a course at Danbury, the outdoor centre's building even more high ropes around the areas where bmx tracks were, which is what made the course fun for me, and meant the course was long in enough, in terms of distance.

I liked the course at Danbury in 2010, but not in 2011, similarly with Codham, I didn't particularly like the course this year.

VWsurfbum

Oh i really liked Codham this year?
but your right Danbury was too short last year, but still a lot of fun

evo3ben

So what cat are people entering? Looks like my choice (age 36) is either open or sport being as I can't enter masters and I'm definaty not expert or elite lol

VWsurfbum

at 35 and doing the 2hr i will be in the sport i believe?

stylish

I can, health permitting only do the first 3, by then i will have hit the big 40, so veteran for me, and 2 hour, but still no idea which class that is!

I want to race for 2 hours and with the other old gits, any ideas?

Pirahna

Just looked at the event format, so that's 2 of us who won't be riding this year. There are a few couples who ride these events and to have a 4 hour gap between the mens and womens races just doesn't work for us. Not sure how other couples feel about this, I would expect them to be as p155ed off as we are.

evo3ben

I emailed Matt about the Masters cat and he came back with a super fast reply 8)

'The Masters catergory can be entered by anyone conforming to the age range. You dont need a BC licence either.'

So basically its open to anyone in that age group. So that gives me three choices now, Open, Sport or Masters.
Not too sure i want to do the 1 hr Open series so am leaning towards Sport or Masters. Sport is a wide age group where as Masters will be my specific age group with no young whippets flying past me lol

VWsurfbum

I still think it should be all 2hr guys/girls off at 10/11 O'c then the kiddies at 12/1 and the hour guys/girls 12/1 that way everyone would be packing up at roughly the same time.

ollie51

evo3ben wrote:

Sport is a wide age group where as Masters will be my specific age group with no young whippets flying past me lol

Look at the results of all the other series that have run both a masters and a sport, the former are almost always faster.

bigdawg

veteran is still veterans isn't it..??

My other half was going to do the masters women but theres no way we can even get there for her start, esp at the thetford & bury courses - tbh Id struggle to get to langdon hills for 10am!

Masters will always have fast riders in there, unless you go up to elite at that age theres no other choice, bit like the grand vets that match elite riders times... :evil:

Pirahna

VWsurfbum wrote:

I still think it should be all 2hr guys/girls off at 10/11 O'c then the kiddies at 12/1 and the hour guys/girls 12/1 that way everyone would be packing up at roughly the same time.

Email Matt and tell him then.

VWsurfbum

What do you rest of you think? Strength in numbers and all that?

bigdawg

unfortunately would be too early for me - I couldnt get to races on time to start... I barely get there in time for the starts now :?

ollie51

There'd be too many people on the course with you solution VW, the format MSG is using will pretty much be what every other regional race series will be using, obviously to an extent, and the reasoning behind it is pretty much because it's the lesser of evils, whilst it's not perfect, It works and more importantly, it's safe, having 500 people on a 4 mile circuit would be utter chaos. Plus nobody would have time to practice the course before hand, which is a BC requirement.

Having all the Juve, Youth and women together is for insurance purposes, last year they were bending the rules by letting the u16s race at the same time as warriors and as a compromise the u16s had to be set off last.

But if I'm honest, 10am is very early and should ideally be moved back to 11. Getting from south Essex, for example, to Therford in time for a 10am race would make for a very early start.

VWsurfbum

I won't be bothering with the midweek blasts as they changed layouts and conditions changed from Wednesday to Sunday

Pirahna

VWsurfbum wrote:

What do you rest of you think? Strength in numbers and all that?

If you don't like the change if format then say so. I sent Matt a polite email last night and he sent a polite reply back this morning. He's looking for feedback and format isn't cast in stone, a change is possible but not for the first race.

stylish

Ollie 51, many of us have to make the reverse journey, from all over Norfolk to get to essex for the race start, its simple really, you just have to get up a bit earlier and enjoy the drive, and believe me, the roads are rubbish around here on a sunday at any time............

ollie51

I've no problem with early starts, I do a few of the gorrick races which are far further, than any MSG races, they MSG races are never more than an hours drive for me, but the Gorricks are double that distance away.

It's just a large gap between my brother and my self racing, and makes it difficult to prepare, he starts at 10am, I start at 2.15pm.

stylish

Same issue here for me, my son does the under 12"s race, then has to wait around for me to do the 2 hour race, which potentially could be a finish time of around 4.30pm, then tidy up/get changed and drive home for 90 minutes plus, its going to be a long day for both of us. I liked the start time of 1pm for the racers last year, made the day alot more compact.

VWsurfbum

I will be contacting him, my body will be on shut down by 2pm in the afternoon :?

Another thing from the FAQ's

MSG wrote:

How old am I?
Most categories have an age restriction on them. These are listed below. Your age for the series is defined as your age on 31st December 2012. For example Jack is 14 years old at the beginning of the 2012 season. He turns 15 on the 1st October 2012, therefore he is classed in the Youth category.

Under 12’s – For riders who DO NOT become 13 years old during 2012.
Juvenile – 13 to 14
Youth – 15 to 16
Junior – 17 to 18
Sport – 19 to 29
Masters – 30 to 39
Veteran – 40 to 49
Grand Veteran – 50+
Open – 17+
Expert – 19+ British Cycling licence
Elite – 19+ British Cycling licence