Battle of the Beach 2016.

tgotb

Unfortunately, I don't think there is an answer to the bottleneck; with a field size of 600+, that bottleneck is the only thing that will string out the field. At least there's 10k of course before that point, so the field should have sorted itself into some sort of reasonable order. The slower riders will be affected disproportionately, but hopefully riders of a similar standard will be affected similarly. As an individual competitor, the only thing you can do is ride it like a CX race, so do whatever it takes to arrive at that bottleneck as far up the field as you can, and then worry about getting round the rest of the course later.

As for getting out of people's way - obviously common sense applies, and there's no point in holding people back unnecessarily, but my view is that the rider behind me had every chance to ride faster and arrive at the narrow section before me. Since they didn't, their average speed round the course is obviously similar to mine, so they can wait until there's a reasonable passing opportunity. So let people past whenever you can, but not at significant cost to yourself; you've earned the right to be in their way! Obviously, if you're being lapped, it's a bit different.

bendertherobot

TGOTB wrote:

Unfortunately, I don't think there is an answer to the bottleneck; with a field size of 600+, that bottleneck is the only thing that will string out the field. At least there's 10k of course before that point, so the field should have sorted itself into some sort of reasonable order. The slower riders will be affected disproportionately, but hopefully riders of a similar standard will be affected similarly. As an individual competitor, the only thing you can do is ride it like a CX race, so do whatever it takes to arrive at that bottleneck as far up the field as you can, and then worry about getting round the rest of the course later.

As for getting out of people's way - obviously common sense applies, and there's no point in holding people back unnecessarily, but my view is that the rider behind me had every chance to ride faster and arrive at the narrow section before me. Since they didn't, their average speed round the course is obviously similar to mine, so they can wait until there's a reasonable passing opportunity. So let people past whenever you can, but not at significant cost to yourself; you've earned the right to be in their way! Obviously, if you're being lapped, it's a bit different.

Totally agree. As I say it's my mindset needs altering and I need to do a bit more racing going forward. I've dropped at least 1/2 stone this year and want to be down by 1 stone for holidays. If I can achieve 1 1/2 by CX season I reckon I could be a lot more competetive this year.

bendertherobot

LOL! I won the Assos on the beach competition. Rally Trekking Jersey S7 on the way!

Mach_6

Apart from Anthony Pease, does anyone know of any other photos available from BOTB? There we're loads of people around with decent SLRs but there never seems to be that many shots available publicly afterwards.

bendertherobot

Mach_6 wrote:

Apart from Anthony Pease, does anyone know of any other photos available from BOTB? There we're loads of people around with decent SLRs but there never seems to be that many shots available publicly afterwards.

Quite a few on facebook and on welsh cyclocross on facebook. What number were you?

Mach_6

I was number 739 :-)

MikeWW

Great event. Flatted a tub towards the end of lap 2 which was game over for me but really enjoyed it. Used a 29er hard tail last year and a CX bike this. I reckon the 29er, cut down bars, bar ends and Furious Freds is the way to go. Will be back for more next year

bendertherobot

MikeWW wrote:

Great event. Flatted a tub towards the end of lap 2 which was game over for me but really enjoyed it. Used a 29er hard tail last year and a CX bike this. I reckon the 29er, cut down bars, bar ends and Furious Freds is the way to go. Will be back for more next year

I'm researching. Some of me wants a monster cross, part of me wants a Koga beach racer. The latter is my preferred route and I'd swap in normal bars for CX. I can't see any huge disadvantage to not running 40c tyres in my local CX league (don't worry, I don't place!)

tgotb

bendertherobot wrote:

MikeWW wrote:

Great event. Flatted a tub towards the end of lap 2 which was game over for me but really enjoyed it. Used a 29er hard tail last year and a CX bike this. I reckon the 29er, cut down bars, bar ends and Furious Freds is the way to go. Will be back for more next year

I'm researching. Some of me wants a monster cross, part of me wants a Koga beach racer. The latter is my preferred route and I'd swap in normal bars for CX. I can't see any huge disadvantage to not running 40c tyres in my local CX league (don't worry, I don't place!)

I can! Quite often in wet conditions, narrow tyres seem to cut through the mud to reach something grippier below, whereas I can imagine fat tyres sliding around on a layer of lubricating mud. In sticky conditions, imagine how much extra mud's going to be glued to them. There again, easy enough to swap tyres over or just have a few wheelsets.

From a rules perspective, though, it's legal at league level (very sensible decision by BC) so go for it!

I can't help thinking that a 29er would be a bit easier on the upper body (after all, CX bikes are designed with a 1 hour race in mind). There again, there's so much scope to make up ground on the beach, maybe higher-volume tyres on the CX bike are all I need.

Quite tempted to pop over the Channel and try out a race or two there...

roger_merriman

TGOTB wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

MikeWW wrote:

Great event. Flatted a tub towards the end of lap 2 which was game over for me but really enjoyed it. Used a 29er hard tail last year and a CX bike this. I reckon the 29er, cut down bars, bar ends and Furious Freds is the way to go. Will be back for more next year

I'm researching. Some of me wants a monster cross, part of me wants a Koga beach racer. The latter is my preferred route and I'd swap in normal bars for CX. I can't see any huge disadvantage to not running 40c tyres in my local CX league (don't worry, I don't place!)

I can! Quite often in wet conditions, narrow tyres seem to cut through the mud to reach something grippier below, whereas I can imagine fat tyres sliding around on a layer of lubricating mud. In sticky conditions, imagine how much extra mud's going to be glued to them. There again, easy enough to swap tyres over or just have a few wheelsets.

From a rules perspective, though, it's legal at league level (very sensible decision by BC) so go for it!

I can't help thinking that a 29er would be a bit easier on the upper body (after all, CX bikes are designed with a 1 hour race in mind). There again, there's so much scope to make up ground on the beach, maybe higher-volume tyres on the CX bike are all I need.

Quite tempted to pop over the Channel and try out a race or two there...

My experance is the reverse on the whole the MTB copes better the deeper the mud, even massive and jack of all trades like Hans cope with remarkable amounts of mud, stuff like Bont X and Conti Mud King are fast/light and will cope with truely monumental amounts of slop.

Bare in mind I have never or likely to race, but I grew up in a wet part of the country!

devhads

roger merriman wrote:

TGOTB wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

MikeWW wrote:

Great event. Flatted a tub towards the end of lap 2 which was game over for me but really enjoyed it. Used a 29er hard tail last year and a CX bike this. I reckon the 29er, cut down bars, bar ends and Furious Freds is the way to go. Will be back for more next year

I'm researching. Some of me wants a monster cross, part of me wants a Koga beach racer. The latter is my preferred route and I'd swap in normal bars for CX. I can't see any huge disadvantage to not running 40c tyres in my local CX league (don't worry, I don't place!)

I can! Quite often in wet conditions, narrow tyres seem to cut through the mud to reach something grippier below, whereas I can imagine fat tyres sliding around on a layer of lubricating mud. In sticky conditions, imagine how much extra mud's going to be glued to them. There again, easy enough to swap tyres over or just have a few wheelsets.

From a rules perspective, though, it's legal at league level (very sensible decision by BC) so go for it!

I can't help thinking that a 29er would be a bit easier on the upper body (after all, CX bikes are designed with a 1 hour race in mind). There again, there's so much scope to make up ground on the beach, maybe higher-volume tyres on the CX bike are all I need.

Quite tempted to pop over the Channel and try out a race or two there...

My experance is the reverse on the whole the MTB copes better the deeper the mud, even massive and jack of all trades like Hans cope with remarkable amounts of mud, stuff like Bont X and Conti Mud King are fast/light and will cope with truely monumental amounts of slop.

Bare in mind I have never or likely to race, but I grew up in a wet part of the country!

The tyres may cope better in the mud in that they give you grip but TGOTB is right in that they collect huge amounts of mud compared to a thinner cross tyre. They may also work well in slop i.e wet mud but drying sticky mud is a different thing altogether.

The mud on the tyres in the picture must have weighed 4 kg, a huge disadvantage when racing. I don't know if I've not found the right tyre yet but MTB tyres don't seem designed to shed mud as well as good cross tyres, keeping you upright in mud yes, but shedding no.

devhads

roger merriman wrote:

TGOTB wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

MikeWW wrote:

Great event. Flatted a tub towards the end of lap 2 which was game over for me but really enjoyed it. Used a 29er hard tail last year and a CX bike this. I reckon the 29er, cut down bars, bar ends and Furious Freds is the way to go. Will be back for more next year

I'm researching. Some of me wants a monster cross, part of me wants a Koga beach racer. The latter is my preferred route and I'd swap in normal bars for CX. I can't see any huge disadvantage to not running 40c tyres in my local CX league (don't worry, I don't place!)

I can! Quite often in wet conditions, narrow tyres seem to cut through the mud to reach something grippier below, whereas I can imagine fat tyres sliding around on a layer of lubricating mud. In sticky conditions, imagine how much extra mud's going to be glued to them. There again, easy enough to swap tyres over or just have a few wheelsets.

From a rules perspective, though, it's legal at league level (very sensible decision by BC) so go for it!

I can't help thinking that a 29er would be a bit easier on the upper body (after all, CX bikes are designed with a 1 hour race in mind). There again, there's so much scope to make up ground on the beach, maybe higher-volume tyres on the CX bike are all I need.

Quite tempted to pop over the Channel and try out a race or two there...

My experance is the reverse on the whole the MTB copes better the deeper the mud, even massive and jack of all trades like Hans cope with remarkable amounts of mud, stuff like Bont X and Conti Mud King are fast/light and will cope with truely monumental amounts of slop.

Bare in mind I have never or likely to race, but I grew up in a wet part of the country!

The tyres may cope better in the mud in that they give you grip but TGOTB is right in that they collect huge amounts of mud compared to a thinner cross tyre. They may also work well in slop i.e wet mud but drying sticky mud is a different thing altogether.

The mud on the tyres after a race I did recently must have weighed 4 kg, a huge disadvantage when racing. I don't know if I've not found the right tyre yet but MTB tyres don't seem designed to shed mud as well as good cross tyres, keeping you upright in mud yes, but shedding no.

Moonbiker

Yeah cx & mtb bikes get muddy like this ^ in some of the the races iv'e done but the narrow tyres shed mud better than mtb ones, and even if they don't shed all the mud there is less weight of mud as they are narrower

roger_merriman

devhads wrote:

roger merriman wrote:

TGOTB wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

MikeWW wrote:

Great event. Flatted a tub towards the end of lap 2 which was game over for me but really enjoyed it. Used a 29er hard tail last year and a CX bike this. I reckon the 29er, cut down bars, bar ends and Furious Freds is the way to go. Will be back for more next year

I'm researching. Some of me wants a monster cross, part of me wants a Koga beach racer. The latter is my preferred route and I'd swap in normal bars for CX. I can't see any huge disadvantage to not running 40c tyres in my local CX league (don't worry, I don't place!)

I can! Quite often in wet conditions, narrow tyres seem to cut through the mud to reach something grippier below, whereas I can imagine fat tyres sliding around on a layer of lubricating mud. In sticky conditions, imagine how much extra mud's going to be glued to them. There again, easy enough to swap tyres over or just have a few wheelsets.

From a rules perspective, though, it's legal at league level (very sensible decision by BC) so go for it!

I can't help thinking that a 29er would be a bit easier on the upper body (after all, CX bikes are designed with a 1 hour race in mind). There again, there's so much scope to make up ground on the beach, maybe higher-volume tyres on the CX bike are all I need.

Quite tempted to pop over the Channel and try out a race or two there...

My experance is the reverse on the whole the MTB copes better the deeper the mud, even massive and jack of all trades like Hans cope with remarkable amounts of mud, stuff like Bont X and Conti Mud King are fast/light and will cope with truely monumental amounts of slop.

Bare in mind I have never or likely to race, but I grew up in a wet part of the country!

The tyres may cope better in the mud in that they give you grip but TGOTB is right in that they collect huge amounts of mud compared to a thinner cross tyre. They may also work well in slop i.e wet mud but drying sticky mud is a different thing altogether.

The mud on the tyres after a race I did recently must have weighed 4 kg, a huge disadvantage when racing. I don't know if I've not found the right tyre yet but MTB tyres don't seem designed to shed mud as well as good cross tyres, keeping you upright in mud yes, but shedding no.

that is true of a intermediate MTB tyre such as Rocket Rons/Nobbly Nic/Highrollers etc. try proper mud tyres such as Mud Kings/Bonty MudX and Dirty Dans and the like, all fairly full spike tread, all self clean very well.