@ cloudnine I hit the beach on the night race last year and the soft sand and dropped my bike and me, chain side down in the sand, it crunched the rest of the way round 😳

I don’t think there is a one solution fits all, just wondering what other peoples experiences are 😀

Dry chain lube, Single Speed Fatbike….sorted

Weekend pass entry available – £40

email
dan1hurst at hotmail dot com

Whos ready for next weekend then?

Not me that is for sure, havent ridden more than once a week for a while and done 25miles as my longest ride.

Ill be the fat one on a red specialized looking like im about to die 😆

Although I have bought some dry wax lube, so will degrease my drivetrain and get it prepped and ready so im sure i will be fine…

I’ll be the red one on a fat specialized. I’ve got some waxy lube to put down my sumo suit too

Just ridden part of the way home on the SS. 36 miles in 5 hours. I won’t be going that way again.

Temporarily not a fan of cycling, so we’ll see about next weekend.

I’m looking forward to this now. Its a little familiy weekend away with Kryton Jnr racing on Saturday and LIttle Miss K wanting to build a sandcastle, then I’m off Sunday. I’m just hoping that with the kids bouncing-on-the-bed excitement of staying in a hotel and the lost hour I’ll get enough sleep so it won’t be too shabby for me on Sunday.

Incidentally, does anyone know if the kids races include any part of the Beach?

What a cracking weekend!

Face a bit crispy from the sun and the salt, brain a bit crispy from a long drive and an emergency double espresso not so long ago.

Bike was playing up so spent the morning faffing and queued up quite far back. pushed hard all the way, didn’t bonk massively like last year, had a ton of fun. 😀

Smile on my face from the racing, the weather and the people. Thanks to the organisers, and everyone who went along and made it what it was.

What Ned said ^^ without the faffing for me. Moving the arena area worked well, the kids loved the racing – theres and ours – the weather was awesome… and everyone here is tired, oddlh except me. Im pleased my numbers are higher all ro/und so ive raced harder and faster.

Anyone got a link to the results?

Here you go Kryton – just posted on the fb page

Does anyone want to put that into a pdf (preferably searchable), scribd is a right pain on mobile!

Drat, that link is off limits according to the IT “help desk”…..

67th Vet of 262! Faster than last years 75th on an MTB with the last bit of singletrack changed for the road section I feel thats a good placing.

(cross-posted as this seems to be the ‘master thread’)

Brilliant event, topped off by sunshine and a tailwind down the beach On the first lap I got into a decent group echelon and sat at 28mph both my heart rate and CX gearing were maxed out so I backed it off a bit for the next 2 runs. Given I’m only used to racing for ~40 minutes I seemed to do a decent job of managing my effort and fueling – didn’t blow up or bonk but still rode hard.

Took a bit of a battering on the CX bike and struggled in the soft sand, reckon as discussed above a ‘monstercross’ with 40mms or a light 29er HT would be ideal. Skinny tyres sink in the soft stuff, and increase the risk of pinchflats on roots and rocks (I pinchflatted out of the night lap so ran higher pressures on Sunday).

Based on ~850 entrants I had a top 100 in mind, ended up 81st overall and 32nd in Vets so happy with that.

The Dutch guys won again, and they’re currently getting a slating on the FB page by entrants and marshalls alike for being overly agressive and screaming at people. Given it’s a grass-roots event I can imagine them not being invited next year.

(and edit)

676 placed finishers so a lot of DNF and DNS from the ~850 entries. Reckon a few people didnt realise it was Mothers Day and/or were drunk when they entered on New Years Eve. Probably half the people we knew of who’d entered no-showed and I saw loads of snapped chains and punctures (and a Fast and Furious style high speed cartwheeling multi-bike crash on the beach, think one of the riders was taken to hospital). Wouldnt have wanted to wear a Sumo suit in that sun either!

Made the mistake of thinking the waiting lines at the start were going to be called down to the beach bowl area to start and only realising when people started moving along and there was a huge line going up the beach. Hey ho. I think there were about 80 people behind me so I was never going to have a good placing. Felt for the couple on the cannondale tandem who snapped a chain just getting onto the beach. Rode steadily and other than the rear qr failing and the back wheel coming out on a climb on lap 2 it was ok. Rode my cx bike, no running as my right ankle is still recovering from bad ligament tear 3 1/2 weeks ago. I’ll now spend a year pondering 29er hardtails again.

Fantastic weekend, one most enjoyable races for a long while. I was lucky enough to borrow a friends custom beach bike, as you’d expect it was near on perfect for the event and a hell of a lot of fun.

Those euro beach racing guys where dam quick of the line!!

Great weekend. I didn’t race, but did the battle in the dark timetrial – 34th/125, so happy with that. Kids and Mrs Yak raced, so all of us got a ride.

Compared to 2 years ago when we last did it, there were a lot more riders meaning half the field were starting up the path. Obviously if you are keen you’ll be on the line at 10am 😉 , but I saw a fair few fast riders caught out and stuck at the back with 2-4mins delay to get on the beach after the start. Would it not be better to start everyone on a wider part of the beach, then the race order will be properly sorted out by the end of the beach leg?

It would also be an awesome spectacle seeing 800-900 riders giving it the beans at the gun, instead seeing only half that able to get going.

Anyway – fantastic weekend.
Good to meet you, Kryton57 too.

I only managed two laps…

I was just too slow on the beach and ended up queing going into the first singletrack and then the fast boys starting catching up already!

Was fun to do and tick off the list but dont think i will be back. Either that or actually train for it next time 😆

I saw a fair few fast riders caught out and stuck at the back with 2-4mins delay to get on the beach after the start.

Hi! 😀

I’m not “fast” fast, but still went past a lot of slower, but much more punctual riders! On the bumpy stuff nearer the sea too, figured leeward side of the line would be quicker, but no, had to smash through a lot of ripples and a few dozen potholes down that side. Glad of the wider tyres at that point – Thunder Burts brushing the fork legs and stays in the Peregrine – worked very nicely aside from worrying the paintwork.

It would also be an awesome spectacle seeing 800-900 riders giving it the beans at the gun, instead seeing only half that able to get going.

probably a good thing safety wise to space 700 riders out before the high speeds on the hard sand. The soft sand puts the (fatbike) cats among the (cx) pigeons before there’s a big swing in the other direction. If you made the start area bigger, there’d be less sand to fight through.

kryton, you were 17 places ahead of me! Good work.

Interesting seeing 262 riders in vet – 40-49, and only 208 in Open male 16+

Old man’s game, this beach racing lark!

First time of doing it for me, what a cracking event !
Only h/tail I’ve got with gears is a Bfe, which was a tad hefty & undergeared for the beach run. Came 39th in the grand vets so happy enough with that… Next year, I’ll be on a 29er with a double ring 🙂

Interesting seeing 262 riders in vet – 40-49, and only 208 in Open male 16+

same thing in CX; V40 has the biggest field despite Senior covering a much larger age range.

Agree the soft sand works to spread the field out and make it safer.

On the bumpy stuff nearer the sea too, figured leeward side of the line would be quicker

we sussed that out in a recce 😉

Obviously if you are keen you’ll be on the line at 10am

we got there about 1130 and were in the funnel (roughly next to the mini play park for reference) and when they moved us all forward we managed to get onto about the third row.

Brilliant event, the weather was great and the tailwind helped. Saw lots of fat tyre riders puncture, also cross bikes seemed to suffer. Maybe they were all running tubes as there were some nasty bits of exposed rock on gravel areas.

Shame about the log jam on first bit of singletrack, second lap was clear.

they’re currently getting a slating on the FB page by entrants and marshalls alike for being overly agressive and screaming at people. Given it’s a grass-roots event I can imagine them not being invited next year.

I was one of the many who started on the road at the back of the field but I managed to make up a lot of time on the first two beach sections before puncturing in the dunes on the second lap. I took a relaxed view of sorting the puncture so was lapped by about thirty leasders just after I started again. The general lapping etiquette seemed to be “Rider!”. I got a bit stroppy about this when one rode into the back of my bike. He suggested I need to race more often. I can’t remember my reply (it wasn’t rude!) but I’ve been racing for over twenty years now. I might get the hang of it one day. 😆

There is only one appropriate response for bike to bike contact 😆

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6E2pq9MDyw&t=0s[/video]

Last year someone shouted “Outta ma way you roadie!” I nearly crashed into him laughing

The lapping element seemed very good-natured and accommodating (aside from the pros) and the different 3rd lap worked well to separate the traffic. There were plenty of people there ‘just riding for fun’ who seemed to move off the fastest line as soon as they heard someone behind. As part of a quickish close group we baulked each other more times than we were baulked by ‘slower’ riders.

Might try it on the fat bike next year for variety.

I was SS fat with fuelling issues last year. This year, I went 1×10 monstercross with enough food this year. I enjoyed this year’s much more!

Might get some black floyds for the fatbike next year and stick drops and gears on it. And food. Happy to stick with the “enough food” element!

I was one of the courteous slow people moving out the way, some riders were more polite than others but I wasn’t offended they were there to race and I was going very slow so didn’t mind getting out of the way.

It was a bit awkward at times as there were big groups coming through so I spent a good few minutes waiting for them to pass which wasn’t ideal with all the stop-start.

Plumz Richard – there are a few good ones of you in the AnthonyPease albums.

Either you, or someone riding an identical custom beach racer!

My review .. brutal beasting on the beach … 😛

I raced on a CX bike and OMG I am not going back unless I’m on some whippety hard tail MTB! I found it absolutely brutal on my arms, neck and shoulder. I’m guessing the conditions didn’t help, i.e. the ground was rock hard and no dampness or sodden soil to assist. I also wore some different shorts (Which are my favorite road riding shorts) and well OOOOWWEEEE by the end of the beach on lap 1 my I wason fire… don’t want to see the bike for the rest of this week!

I also completely cocked up eating I had just kept thinking “ah it’s only a CX race ..” yes tripled… so I woke up on Sunday starving, had a normal sized breakfast then nothing before 1200 .. .then nothing during the race. So come lap 3 I was fading. So I learnt a lot of the do’s and don’ts and now I’ve had time to reflect I will be back next year but on a different bike and with some better prep. Still got my top 15 I was aiming for with 9th so super stoked.