Wiggle southdowns rough ride March 3rd

Fearn0

Evening all anyone out there roughing riding it in march??

frogstomp

Yup, should be along to ride this with friends... hoping for a nice course!

neilrosser

Just booked

miss notax

Yup. I am hoping for no mud.... :roll:

BTW - anyone else riding the epic route? My very fit neighbour did the standard route last year and - after I had just booked the epic yesterday - took great delight in telling me how hilly it was and that it almost killed him :?

frogstomp

miss notax wrote:

BTW - anyone else riding the epic route? My very fit neighbour did the standard route last year and - after I had just booked the epic yesterday - took great delight in telling me how hilly it was and that it almost killed him :?

Yup! Have a couple of less fit friends who are doing the shorter route... the longer route looks like it just has a couple of extra loops so I was going to maybe stick with them on the shared bits and then push on in the extra loops to try and catch them up.. this strategy may or may not work!

neilrosser

Have booked the standard route, but whats to stop me doing the epic if I choose to on the day? after all it's the same price.

miss notax

neilrosser - nothing stopping you but your timing will be recorded as 'standard', so (assuming the epic route WILL take you longer ) you'll be diddling yourself out of the proper timings.

If you don't give a stuff about your time then it makes no difference what-so-ever

Frogstomp - I like your logic and shall remind you of this by encouraging you to push on / laughing / wheezing at you if I see you on the epic route

scottfitz

Yup. I am hoping for no mud....

Just looked at the route, there will be mud. Unless there is a heat wave at the start of march

frogstomp

..and not to be confused with the Southern Trail Ride which is on the previous weekend!

I thought I was talking about (and booked!) the wrong one.. but it turns out I've booked both!

Fearn0

Epic all the way ,can't be any more mud than the hill a sauras !

neilrosser

Fearn0 wrote:

can't be any more mud than the hill a sauras !

God!! I hope not :?

frogstomp

The routes and profiles are now up on the UK Cycling Events website - almost 3000ft of climbing on the long route, with a monster down and up in the middle!

Fearn0

700 plus entered so far,going to be busy on the downs!!

Michael1308

Hi all. I'm a noob to the site and mountain biking. I fancy doing this event to get a proper feel for it. I'm quite fit so was thinking of doing the epic. Is it a bad idea for a noobie?!

miss notax

Hello :-)

I'm certain that if you enter the epic but wish to cut if short on the day, you can, so you have nothing to lose! It is quite a long way though - are you used to biking or fit from running etc? In my experience 'bike fit' is a whole different ball game!!

Good luck!

frogstomp

Michael1308 wrote:

Hi all. I'm a noob to the site and mountain biking. I fancy doing this event to get a proper feel for it. I'm quite fit so was thinking of doing the epic. Is it a bad idea for a noobie?!

Hi, and welcome to the site.. the South Downs is a pretty tough ride - quite a big one for your first! Are you new to riding generally, or just mountain biking? If the latter and you have some decent road-bike fitness you may well be ok. If it's the former you may find you are not fit in the 'right way' (ie. the right muscle groups) and struggle..

Either way, you could always enter the long one and see how you get on - the routes usually share large sections so you can drop down onto a shorter route and tell them at the end.

Most of all, though - have fun!

frogstomp

Snap!

Michael1308

Thanks for your advice guys. Maybe I'll do the standard and see how I get on. I'm probably not bike fit mainly running is where I get my fitness from and I'm basically new to biking in general.
Being new my skills aren't great yet. Will this course be ok to through myself at albeit a bit slow?!

frogstomp

Yup, you'll be fine.. for the most part these sorts of XC events involve lots of bridleways/fireroads/tracks with the odd bit of wooded, rooty singletrack. With the conditions as they are at the moment the most technical part will probably be a) getting enough grip to grind your way through the mud on the climbs and b) staying upright as you slide around in the mud on the descents..

Michael1308

Thanks. Yeh I've had a bit of practice with that on the downs in Kent lately.
Thanks again for your help guys.

miss notax

Enjoy 8)

As an aside, any BikeRadar peeps fancy meeting beforehand? I have been unceremoniously stood-up by my mate who I was meant to be be riding it with :roll: !! I'm happy biking at my own pace (never works in a group anyway) but it's always nice to say Hi to someone first / cake afterwards as opposed to being a total billy-no-mates

frogstomp

Michael1308 wrote:

Thanks. Yeh I've had a bit of practice with that on the downs in Kent lately.
Thanks again for your help guys.

Oh, and don't underestimate being in the saddle for several hours! Padded shorts are definitely recommended if you don't already have some..

miss notax wrote:

As an aside, any BikeRadar peeps fancy meeting beforehand? I have been unceremoniously stood-up by my mate who I was meant to be be riding it with :roll: !! I'm happy biking at my own pace (never works in a group anyway) but it's always nice to say Hi to someone first / cake afterwards as opposed to being a total billy-no-mates

Yeah, that's cool.. usually aim to be there for the start time (8am) but this one looks like a bit of a trek to get to so we might be a bit later..

miss notax

Super - will send you a PM beforehand (as opposed to wandering around before asking everyone if they're frogstomp which might get me a few strange looks )

SimpleSimon123

Hi,

A total newbie here.... New to the forum, new to mtb and new to the idea of getting out and doing some exercise! This year I decided to set myself a challenge and take part in one of the wiggle series of mtb events, so I signed up for 25 miles later in the year. So to be able to complete this without the need for medical assistance how many road miles would I need to build up the required stamina?

Thanks in advance for any advice and all the best to those taking up the challenge on the 3rd.

miss notax

Hi Simple Simon - welcome to the forum!

Well done for setting yourself a great challenge! Which one have you entered? Regarding the road miles, i'm not sure to be honest.... I tend to think that the thing that will prepare you for 25 miles of mountain biking, is increasing amounts of mountain biking! I would perhaps find a little local loop and start building up the miles.

There are folk on here from all over the country so i'm sure you'll find some riding buddies for motivation!!

Good luck!

SimpleSimon123

Thanks for the encouragement. The event I have entered is the Purbecks Hill-a-Saurus, so plenty of time (I hope) to prepare and gain some resemblance of fitness. I hope to find a few routes/events around the Leicestershire area to tackle in the build-up.

Fearn0

Like miss notax said find a loop and get some fitness there. Once you feel like your getting fitter find some hills because as the name suggests there is plenty of them! And good Luck

miss notax

Hi guys!

I'm *hoping* i'm still ok for this on Sunday - have really hurt my knee but fingers crossed!

Anyway, am deciding which bike to use.... Does anyone know what the course is like first-hand? Technical at all or mostly fire road type stuff? Does it compare to either the New Forest or Purbeck ride? Also, how muddy do we reckon?

My Santa Cruz is a lighter bike so better for non-knee mashing, but it isn't great for mud-clearance hence my question

frogstomp

I guess it'll probably be mostly tracks/bridleways with maybe the odd bit of woody singletrack thrown in.. not overly technical - there's a video clip of a previous event on the website.

It's bound to be muddy but hopefully not too bad as we've had a relatively dry couple of weeks.. would've been nice too have it chilly and frozen like last weekend!

scottfitz

Its not muddy at the moment, dryest i have ever see the southdowns in Feb!

miss notax

Sadly I think i'm going to have to sit this one out

My knee still isn't right - just about managed an easy ride last night (only about 15 miles) but I could feel that it still wasn't right, don;t want to risk doing any more damage on Sunday. I did think about doing the shorter ride instead, but it's a 70 mile drive for me and i'm not sure I can justify 140 round trip for a 16 mile ride (or whatever it is!)! Gutted

Will contact the organisers later to see if I can transfer my entry to anyone else - if anyone's potentially interested let me know!! 8)