I was thinking at lunchtime how awesome it would be to have a singletrack race – run like a downhill event but with the emphasis on twisty turn fast trails rather than gnar. It’d be a one-way course, 3-5 mins long and probably overall downhill but with flat sections, tight corners and some uphill bits so it’s a test of both sprint fitness and the kind of skills that most of us use in everyday biking.

Then I started thinking about all the other alternative race formats – short track, dirt oval, very short track pursuit, eliminator that kind of thing. I’m quite tempted to actually organise an event like this. A bit like BBB but with more racing 🙂

Sounds like my kind of riding!

I think I read about something vaguely like this (but without the singletrack race) but I forget where or what.

If you could make a course so that a really good rider with a dh bike could get roughly the same time as a really fit rider with an xc bike, it would be interesting.

That might be hard to achieve. DHers have loads of races, this would be for the middle ground between XC whippets and DHers but still be skill based and have the excitement of the timed format.

A series of races all over a region would be cool, I bet venues would be easier to find than for XC or enduros, cos you wouldn’t need a lot of land. AND you could probably use BWs cos it’d be a time trial not a race..?

Years ago I did a race series up near Hertford ,run by one of the local bike shops. The races were short ( 2 lap )heats through to a final (4laps )a bit like some Moto X events. They were great fun and you got a go in quite a few heats and repechages ,so ended up racing all day if you had the energy.

My favourite xc format still has to be ,the old Grundig world cup formula. A timed lap of the course to qualify so that you could mix it with the big boys and girls in the final. 😯

You can’t use bridleways for time trials. 🙁

You can’t use bridleways for time trials

You can if make sure you refer to it as an “Event” rather than a “Race” 😉

The Porlock Klunker seems pretty alternative to me, gutted I missed it 🙁

There have been a few ‘enduro’ events lately in the stylee of MX Enduros with timed downhill sections joined by uphill xc sections within a (penalty) time limit. Timed downhill sections, add any penalties collected on the connecting sections, lowest final time wins.

I reckon these events will catch on more and more in the next couple of years 8)

Yeah, not quite what I had in mind tho.

I think technical DH sections would be good, just ones that do not require 8″ of travel to get down! That would slow your XC whippits down who are never really that good DH.

Mr Sparkle’s singlespeed uphill challenge (not a race, obviously). Fastest to top of Winter Hill from the gate. That’d sort the men out from the other lot.

Sounds like you need the NQA single speed fight club race format for beers n glory, invite only secret venue “races” on a knock out duel style. Think fast n the furious with beards n booze. Next one is appearing in august. Email me for details

That would slow your XC whippits down who are never really that good DH

Sure about that? Ever watched Elite XCers descend?

Tazzy – singlespeed? What do you take me for?

Actually proper DH sounds much better than this sort of halfway house, ill-defined not a race but an “Event” format, you want a race against the clock, primarily downhill but with less scary bits? So basically timed trail centre descents?
Well they’ve already done this: Mashup, Enduro DH, etc…

Personally I quite like the idea of “GPS racing”, define a set course on a map and riders can rock up at any time (alone or in groups) and have a run on it, tracking themselves on their Smart-Phone/GPS device, could be any type of course, you could have as many runs as you like run it over the course of say 3-6 months, login and upload your best runs…
The technology is largely there and pretty much free already (Endomondeo/Sportstracker), it could well suceed where Freelap seems to have failed: ie a cost effective way for riders to compete/benchmark themselves against others with minimal infrastructure, cost and bother…

cookeaa, I like this idea of GPS racing. Is it something you’ve just come up with or is already established ?
I had a vaguely similar idea myself about a year ago. http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/timed-runsd-at-trail-centres

I think I posted in your other thread so it’s an idea that I suppose has been in the back of my head (and no doubt others) for a while… you can issue “Challenges” on Endomondeo, but they always seem to be “clock up X miles in the next 4 weeks” type affairs, I’m sure you could have something setup for a fixed course and a cut off date by which to tackle it…

So far as I know no bugger has tried to run it as a pukka form of competition yet… I suppose you’ need to find a group of people into MTBs and also containing quite a few IT profesionals…. But I can’t think of anywhere where you’d find such a mix… Can you?

Actually proper DH sounds much better than this sort of halfway house, ill-defined not a race but an “Event” format, you want a race against the clock, primarily downhill but with less scary bits? So basically timed trail centre descents?

No, it WOULD be a race. Full on. Proper all day event.

It’s just fast singletrack not the stuff on DH courses. That is, the stuff we mostly ride all the time. Don’t see why it’s a halfway house. Trail centre? Well I dunno, depends how you set the course dunnit?

Plus there’d be more events than just that. A bit like a track racing meet, but outside and with more venues 🙂

To me GPS racing seems very tame.

I was thinking about this once, It’s such a good idea. I was riding the section of follow the dog from tackeroo to birches valley. Loads of great singletrack, a sprint climb, a few switchback climbs, werewolf drop few little kickers, rollers and berms. It would be perfect and i’ve run it in 6 minutes. Perfect!

Don’t Sportident already provide a means for setting up permanent ‘challenges’ which could be incorporated into the type of events being suggested above? Having said that, I’m a bit ogf a Luddite and GPS, electonic gadgetry, etc., passes me by 😳

Those sportident dibber stations are about £100 each, I think.
They are used in orienteering where they can be put out in hidden locations on the morning of the event and collected in straight after. You wouldn’t want to leave them out unattended any longer than you had to.

Regarding the GPS racing, I know that’s not what this thread was originally about, but we’ve got to start somewhere.
For anyone who knows The Mile Climb in the Wyre Forest, there’s a Sustrans signpost at the bottom and another at the top.
My best time between them is 6:01.
Hill climbing is not my strong point, so take that as a base time to be beaten.
I can go back and do it again, logging it on my GPS.
Where do I upload it though if we’re going to have a challenge ?
Who else wants to pick a route with a clearly defined start and finish point to set their own challenge ?

It’s just fast singletrack not the stuff on DH courses.

How is this different to the Avalanche Enduros or the Gravity Enduro series?

molgrips – Member

It’s just fast singletrack not the stuff on DH courses. That is, the stuff we mostly ride all the time.

That’s pretty much what the 661 Gravity Enduro series has turned out to be… Well, the innerleithen round looks to be an exception Even the Ae round which had a stage which was a modified version of the Ae downhill line, was still 4/5ths red route.

But also IMO you’re making a distinction between “fast singletrack” and “dh courses” that doesn’t really exist, DH courses come in all flavours… There’s downhill routes at innerleithen that are far nicer and flowier to ride than the XC route’s final descent frinstance.

I was thinking of including stuff like the Swinley singletrack, which doesn’t have any elevation change to speak of.

How is this different to the Avalanche Enduros or the Gravity Enduro series?

Well in those you do a longer ride with timed bits. In this, you would do maybe two timed runs like in DH skiing. So 12 mins say of riding.

But that’s only one race on a day with loads of races – like a school sports day. You can choose which you enter. There’d be all sorts of things like track cycling events done on a short (say 300m) dirt course – pursuit, one lap sprints, eliminator, that kind of thing.

theres a race called the 1-2-1 at hamsterley forest later this year, its basically a weekend racing with a xc race on the saturday and a fairly easy dh on the sunday, but you have to use the the same bike for both races, makes it more interesting, dont know if this would appeal to you