Thinking of entering the 52km.
How hard is it? What’s the course like?
Bike options would be my tripster on 38c tyres or on a fs covert (overkill).

Bump for the morning racing types..

Yep, I’m entered and really looking forward to it.
I did the Wiggle Gold Rush 2 weeks ago an dloved it, even though it was 60% road, though did include the Hovis advert cobbled hill

I haven’t done the cross mountain before but looks like there’ll be as many MTBs as CX bikes, though any road gives more advantage the CX’ers

The organiser is Matt Page who has done a lot of racing and likes his technical stuff, so it could well have some challenging stuff for CX bikes which I’m looking forward to, the route has changed quite a bit from last year from what they say

Do it!

I just stumbled across this event when I was looking into the battle on the beach and it looked appealing to a Roadie like me who likes to get muddy.

I too was wondering about best bike etc. I am definitely a bit apprehensive as my offroad skills are pants, so I can see the advantage of a mtb making the lumpy stuff more fun. Plus my cx bike only takes 35mm tyres. However I much prefer cx type bike on the (very) tame mixed terrain that I usually do.

So I thought I would bump this for the weekend crowd.
Cheers

I did this last year on my cx bike – I would say that there were a lot more mtb than cx’ers. It was hard going on the cx and the mtb’ers had the advantage imo. I’m down to do it again this year and will do it on my cx again this year (conditions and health depending – I am on the cusp on a shitty cold). A great event last year and worth doing.

Thanks. It’s a bit far in the car so I’m wondering whether to ride from Bristol. Def on the cx bike with a change of tyres in the pannier if I do

It’s quite a tough outing on a cx and wouldn’t fancy biking it back to Bristol after. You can train it to Llandovery.

Bristol to Llandovery and back is about a 180 mile round trip. Nothing wrong with a bit of old-school hardman style, but that’s borderline insanity!

I would kip over. I have done worse, possibly not in my current state of fatness/fitness

Terrain wise, is it more likely to have significant mud or more forestry/ gravel type

Need to consider whether to change the rear WTB Nano to the K’nard or not

Road, mud, some forest track and boggy boggy moorland cropped grass. I did it last year on my Racing Ralphs 33mm which were fine but might step up to Rocket Rons in super 35mm this year.

So who did it?

I had entered the long route but it took me two hours to get to the first diversion at 22km so I cut it short. Great fun on the cross bike. I reckon that the only place a MTB would have been advantage were the steeper climbs that I had to push.

Yes I did it on my cross bike with 41mm tyres
My superlight Bontrager racelight wheels, I discovered on the saturday, had split 75% of the rear rim so I had an emergency purchase from my LBS of a pair of Mavic Aksium Elite, and then had to spend the day fitting tyres, moving brake pads and changing a chain!
I had decided to go for it and tried to stick with the front group through the town but then lost them on the hill but kept going. The bridleways were good fun and quite challenging in places, the open hills were saturated but the headwind was pretty brutal.
Some descents were too steep, soggy and headwindy for even the MTBs and some descents were too steepy and muddy for me on the CX bike with sh1t brakes and thin tyres but I was pleased to have it

I finished the long route in 3:33 and about 14th finisher which I was quite chuffed with. I was suprised how few CX bikes their were overall, definitely more Full Suspension bikes than CX bikes and I really dont know if I would have been quicker on MTB or not

Overall a really challenging route on a CX, which is why most people went MTB, but a tough and enjoyable day.