Anyone for a bit of End to End?

Meatfox

Has anyone has entered the Isle of Man End to End "race" or has done it in previous years?

http://www.manxe2e.org/categories/view/3

cat_with_no_tail

Yes, done it several times. It comes past my house. I ride the route all year round. It's a great event!

I am hoping to do it again this year. Recovering from surgery though and they initially said I'd not even be able to get back on a bike until Oct. So my goal for this year is just to get back on the bike in time to do a little training and just make the finish line within the allowed time.

Meatfox

Nice one. Ive entered this year. Tried last year but could only make the 200 long waiting list...then i smashed my collar bone to a few bits and that was the end of that haha
What sort of time you finish in? Is the terrain hard going? I've read all the blurb on the website but good to hear other opinions.
You do it on hartail?
cheers

cat_with_no_tail

I HAVE done it on a HT before. I've also done it on the Edison and had much more fun. I find that unless you're in the first 100 or so, the climbs create massive bottlenecks, so you usually end up pushing a fair bit of the harder climbs as people wont get out of the way. I like to make up time by taking the "alternative" line over the stuff that the XC bikes tend to avoid. I can also squeeze a little more speed out of the descents because I know them all very well.

It can be done on all sorts of bikes though. Last year there were everything from Genius LTs all the way down through the travel to hippies on rigid singlespeeds. Even one old fella on a CX bike.

Finish times are anything from sub 3hrs down to about 8hrs for the very last stragglers. In order to finish with a recorded time though, you need to be somewhere around 6hrs, but you also have to make the Check points within specific times too.

I usually do it in about 5hrs. We don't push overly hard and tend to have a laugh on the way.

Terrain is not too bad. You tend to get a pretty big mix. Everything from roads to hardpack, to babies head rocks to loamy soil to loose-over singletrack and even some wooden boardwalk sections. If it's been a very wet summer (like it was in 2011) it gets VERY boggy in places.

Training, try to get comfortable with distance if you are not currently used to it. Make sure you're happy being in the saddle for 40ish miles with a LOT of climbing (long, steep climbs are best). Also, remember, riding 40miles on a road bike is NOT the same as doing the end2end...... Remotely...... At all...... seriously!

Try to be honest with yourself about finishing times too. Olympians and pro riders do it in about 3hrs. Race whippets are 3-4hrs. Pretty fit people 4-5hrs. Weekend riders 5hrs+ as a very rough rule of thumb. No point trying to start with the top 100 if you've got no realistic chance of finishing there.

Couple of pics snapped by me from various points around the route.

mak3m

3rd pic looks perfect ht terrain

cat_with_no_tail

mak3m wrote:

3rd pic looks perfect ht terrain

Make sure your fillings are securely fastened in place

amclinden

That looks great!

Meatfox

Nice one CWNT. Can't wait!
Best get training. Was all ready for it today, but then the snow was dumped.

Gibbo GTI

I did it last year on my Carrera hardtail. The weather leading up to the event last year was horrendous, so much rain the hills were extremely muddy and slippy. I'm entered into it again this year and i'll be taking the GT with me although I had no probs on the hardtail apart from my lack of fitness.

fritzz11

Yeah me and a mate booked in, toying with using it as an excuse to get a Scott Spark 29 er as I think my Cube Fritzz won't be much fun!
Training started at begining of feb, averaging 100 - 120 miles per week (35 mile off road round trip commute helps) but will start to do 40-50 mile off rod days end of April hopefully.
Not enjoying the lack of pies in my diet though LOL.