Anyone doing the Wiggle New Forest ride 6 Oct?

miss notax

Hello

A quick shout to see if anyone is doing the Wiggle New Forest ride (not a race ) on the 6th October? I managed to get a place at the last minute - they have now sold out - but I don't know anyone else that's doing it :oops:

I don't mind riding alone as you get chatting to people on the ride etc etc, but it's always nice to know some people to have a slice of cake with at the end!

miss notax

What, no-one??!!!

Well, i'll be the girl eating a massive slice of cake by herself at the finish then. Come and say Hello if you see me

Day172

Myself and a friend are having a crack at this.
We did the Ups n Downs event earlier this year so this should be a nice gentle ride this time!

miss notax

Cool 8)

Say Hello if you see me - i'll be on a pale blue Santa Cruz Juliana with orange decals (think Gulf racing colours...)

Fingers crossed the weather is better than the last one I did where it rained non-stop!! :?

Day172

I'm riding my Giant Anthem and mate is on an Cube AMS. I'll look out for a unique coloured bike flashing past at some point then :P

Weather looks ok - don't mind a bit of cloud but rain isn't my cuppa!

allez24

Look out for an old silver haired/bearded bloke on a Canyon X9( probably walking!) and youve found me.

frogstomp

I'll be doing this on Saturday.. Scott Scale 29er..

Anyone know what the conditions are likely to be? If it's muddy is it the sort of mud that clings and clogs things up? Don't have much clearance on this frame!

miss notax

You'll be fine - it's mostly on fireroad / gravelly type surfaces.

Sounds like there will be quite a few of us riding then! I'm not entirely looking forward to doing this by myself so please do say Hi if anyone see's me - it'll be nice to see some other BR peeps 8)

arthur_scrimshaw

Me and my Daughter doing the road (the standard 66 mile) ride, hoping it's going to stay dry! If you can bear to say hello to some roadies I'll be on a black and white Cannondale 6 (or Boardman CX if wet!) and she's on a red Allez.
I also ride MTB if it helps?

miss notax

Well, the Wiggle signs are up for the road ride (they follow my drive home!)

Looking forward to it - hope everyone has fun 8)

frogstomp

Weather's looking ok for tomorrow.. fingers crossed we stay dry!

Day172

I'm prepared for the worst!
Anything but rain and wind is now a bonus

frogstomp

Well, the weather was good.. but certainly didn't stay dry! I reckon some of those puddles could have done with depth markers!

Good to bump into you MissNT.. if only briefly! Made it round under my (optimistic) target time of 3 hours, so I'm well chuffed!

Next stop, Tunnel Hill next weekend..

miss notax

Good to meet you too! Well done for doing it in under 3 hours - that was my target but sadly I saw it gone and go!! I think my final time was about 3:20 but I need to check... I'm definitely feeling it now though!

Funnily enough I have literally just moved house (3 days ago) and as I was washing my bike one of my new neighbours said it looked like I had just done the Wiggle ride - turns out he'd done the epic too! Small world and nice to find another mtber close to home!

miss notax

By the way - thanks also to the very nice chaps who stopped to see if I was ok after I rather misjudged one of the ditches.... I thought I could ride through it, turns out I couldn't :oops: All I could say by way of thanks was a kind of WWWARGGGH croak - I was rather winded!!

Off to fine my time now

Day172

Well that was harder than I thought!

Set the bike up for the expected gravel only to be caught out by the non gravel sections. That very puddly section along the side of the A31 killed me, felt like my bike was being sucked into the ground throughout it, loads of people on the correct tyres shot past

My riding buddy had a puncture before we even got to the off road bits so lost a large amount of time before we even got going. At one point we were headed for a silver but missed out as my riding buddy's fitness waned and I didn't want to leave him in a ditch somewhere if I pushed him too hard. Eventually he gave me the nod to shoot off so put in a last minute 2 mile sprint but could only manage a 4.08.

Still had great fun, ached last night but all ok today, will be back next year for sure!

Rankles

Fun ride! Gutted I got a puncture twenty minutes from the end meaning I ended up clocking 3:28 on Epic rather than 3:18...

To the lifesaver who lent me his pump I couldn't find you afterwards, would love to get it back to you!

The marshy bit just after the first feed station was a little soul destroying though. Lot's of people struggling through that!

miss notax

Yes, I agree, the marshy bit was a killer!

I came in at 3.25 - under the circumstances i'm happy with that

frogstomp

From the results it looks like I came in 16th (although it's not a race!) with 2:52... really happy with that!

Just waiting for the photos now.. why was there no-one on the final water-splash!? That would have made some great pics! It certainly seemed to amuse the group of ramblers..

frogstomp

Pictures now available on SportivePhoto.. shame they're not a bit more creative in their selection of photo-taking locations - hill-climbs (a la road sportive) just don't come out looking particularly dynamic for MTB!