Mud, Sweat and Gears 2012

bigdawg

pilch wrote:

Had a good race, loved the course and loving the new bike - 10th vets, here's me doing my best Bevis impression down the sandpit

well done thats a good result - Im guessing from there you werent stuck in traffic for two hours

pilch

Yeah, had a good start & nailed it up the long section to the 1st singletrack, after that evreything was moving pretty freely and I just moved up when I could

evo3ben

Have to agree with bigdawg as I thought this course was horrible! I thought Thetford was bad for humps but they seemed to cram as many as they could in the 8km course. There were no hills to speak of and a lack of overtaking points so if any fast guys wanted to get past you had to slow down an pull over into the trees!
The two bomb holes were good, one technical and testing just to stay upright and the other needing a little faith.
Everyone was kind and polite with lots of please and thank you during the race.
My start wasn't great and had to pull over on third lap to check my front tyre had sealed from a puncture which sprayed my face in sealant lol. Thank the lord for tubeless!!!!
I must admit I was hoping for a top 16 finish but wasn't gonna be my day. Tried catching best I could on lap 5 but to little too late finished 24th in sport and hoping this is my worst result of series lol
Roll on Round 2!! 8)

flange.

In contrast, I loved it. Proper fast course, really bumpy, dusty but the bit after the first bombhole was glorious.

Had a much better result that the nationals the week prior, got myself some points and happy all round. 6 laps was a killer though, I was out of fluids on the 5th. I pre-rode the course on the Saturday and got lost - which was a blessing because I found loads of new singletrack I've never ridden at Tunstall before. I'm a proper Tunstall convert, I'll be heading there rather than Thetford from now on.

As an aside, the MSG/TROG crew did a great job of organising the event and everyone was really cheery and friendly. A big contrast to the last winter series at Thetford...

VWsurfbum

robbed it from facebook again
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A ... MgnbEKtXPg

Tomskii

Looked like great fun to me as first time spectator and potential future rider. I watched the morning session and had a wander around the course so I can go back and ride it later

Saw one moment of potential disaster on the second lap when a herd of deer ran throught the riders on the dense wooded section after the first bomb hole. A few seconds either way and someone would have taken a serious hit. Unfortunately the TROG cameraman I was chatting to was set up looking the other way so it's not on film.

stylish

At least it wasnt wet! every other race in that part of Tunstall has been a wash out.....

Bigdawg, spotted the Brooklyn top riding round, you looked like you were having a grim time of it from the sidelines to me, and not really enjoying it as you should.

As for the friendly nature of the day, i would question it a little, standing on the feed zone straight, towards the end of the afternoon race (with my 7 year old daughter) i have to say i wasnt too impressed with some of what i heard, its not hard to notice thats the main point for spectators/helpers and lots of kids, its not really needed.

bigdawg

having now had a while to mull it over I still think it was all down to that start. Having a nose through the results I see guys I I usually fly past ten places up... Within five minutes of the start I got stuck behind a guy at the start of the singletrack who wouldnt move over and i think there were about 10 people queued behind him by the time we could get past (and he didnt get a lot of thanks!) and that was the story of my race - 5minutes getting up to speed, then stuck behind a group of riders in singletrack, easily lost anything up to a minute a lap just sat behind slow riders - very frustrating, that and the bumpy nature of the course and youre right I wasnt in the best of moods, and what was up with that little stretch just before the start finish, it felt like riding through glue??

On the whole I did find most people in good spirits and a joy to ride with, there were a few people taking things a teeny bit too seriously, and some language that needn't have been used (esp when your at the tail end of the sports field, going bakcwards, no need to swear at someone youve been holding up for half a lap) - even in the kids race...!

Oh well hopefully on to better and more open courses, take this as lesson learnt re getting a better start.

Are there any more pics up anywhere..?!?!

bigdawg

Just had a proper look over the results - the top four or five in the vets at least would have had effectively the same position in the elite category... Nice to see people cruising for easier wins...

C0LL0

No photo's of me anywhere....

pilch

bigdawg wrote:

Just had a proper look over the results - the top four or five in the vets at least would have had effectively the same position in the elite category... Nice to see people cruising for easier wins...

My mate Rich won the Elite... I doubt he was 'cruising', maybe the old boys just got faster , Paul Ashby (vets winner) is a Machine...

bigdawg

No not the elite winner cruising, the vets winner, going for an easy win. Admittedly its an old bugbear of mine from years back - always wanted a points system in mtb - but surely someone with those times (in the vets) should be in the elite category.

Hell I could have entered the elite and got better points / position than in vets, and got a better start!

Hmmmmm....

ollie51

nice report on Velo UK... http://www.velouk.net/2012/04/03/report ... c-round-1/

evo3ben

A week and a half to go till Hylands Park 8) never been there before. Hoping it's not like tunstall with then stupid humpy bumpy things lol. Weather not looking good though could be a wet muddy race.

bigdawg

I was think that this morning looks like rain for the next week at least...

VW whats it likely to be like - crappy like codham or ridable??

VWsurfbum

It holds up pretty well over there, what i will say is the roots over the far side if its raining will catch a lot of people out.
Over the last few months they have put down quite a lot of stones on the single track to make it more "all weather" but they are big stones and it slows you right down. Also worth remembering they have a few long grass areas to cover too (always nice in the rain)
will be interesting to see what sort of track they put together for you there.

bigdawg

you not here either..??

VWsurfbum

Long story short, I was meant to be at a porsche club day with the old man, he's now critacally ill in hospital. Unlikely i will be out on the bikes for a while.

C0LL0

VWsurfbum wrote:

Long story short, I was meant to be at a porsche club day with the old man, he's now critacally ill in hospital. Unlikely i will be out on the bikes for a while.

Sorry to hear about your dad VW, hope all works out okay

Looking forward to Hylands, it'll be my first time there as well

bigdawg

sorry to hear about your dad VW - thoughts are with you...

VWsurfbum

Cheers chaps. Not an easy time, and I could do with a bit of racing to take my mind off it.
Just shows doesn't matter how fit you are/was anything can happen.
This started out as a straight forward plastic knee replacement and now he head rhumatoid arthritis on the lungs and is sedated and kept paralised as the drugs they gave him 2 years ago

C0LL0

I'll be trying out an on bike camera next sunday, so if evryone can can slow down towards the end of the last lap to make sure I can catch you and get you on film as I pass, otherwise you won't be famous on film.....

bigdawg

you might need to waterproof it first!!

not looking great:

http://www.yr.no/place/United_Kingdom/E ... /long.html

C0LL0

I'd better be changing my tyres as well, knew it was too early for semi slicks

evo3ben

Same here. Just changed my rear tyre today as a really cant see it drying out over the next week. Its wetter now than it has been all through winter lol

bigdawg

VW did say it drains well and some of hte stuff I was riding this weekend (albeit not in Chelmsford) was bone dry!

However the forecast is now for rain on Sunday too!!

Pirahna

The forecast isn't too good at the moment, if it's chucking it down on Sunday I'll stay in bed. With the big time difference between the womens and mens events, and with wifey entered, I don't fancy spending a day sitting in the car waiting for the mens afternoon ride.

ollie51

Guys with local knowledge - given the current 'muddines' and the fact rain's on its way. What would you say tyre wise?

VWsurfbum

Rons or XKings.
I'm tempted to do it now? knowing the terrain in these tricky decisions could work to my advantage and cover my lack of training

VWsurfbum

Trying to work out where this bit is?

this looks good


but this will still be fast but sticky.