Well, it’s nearly upon us. I can’t wait. Mountain biking for a good cause. Can’t be bad.

Cheeky plug a couple of days before the event, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get…

http://www.justgiving.com/DominicDerbyshire

Many thanks and maybe see some STWers there.

All the best,

Dom

See you there, am one of the mechanics

I’m the hare again.

Catch me if you can.

GB

You’re not the only one looking forward to it 🙂

Enjoy the ride

Ken

good day out, enjoyed last year…back for more this Saturday.

I’m going too. Enjoy

I’ll be wearing a red carnation.

Run Gee, RUN !

I’m the tortoise then. Sort of looking forward to it, although was hoping the weather would hold for a couple of days longer! Wife not looking forward to driving me up at stupid o’clock, at least I’m riding towards home. Any tips for the first timer? I hear it can get pretty congested on route, so hoping to get away in the first couple of waves,
?

It’s a really strange feeling riding completely alone at 6am knowing there are about 3000 people following you.

Mental.

GB

Quick question George – why are you heading off at 6am? You part of the BHF team, or just bombing off alone for fun?

DrP

He’s on the fat bike bulldozing the trail open for everyone else?

Route checker and sign reinstater I believe!

He’s riding out front to check the signs haven’t been tampered with overnight. Hunt him down.

Yep – chief sign reinstater. Only a couple were missing and one turned round on the Thames path. Other than that all good.

It that didn’t go quite as smoothly as last year… Cut rear tyre on the downs link, put in spare tube, spare tube has hole in it, ride 7 miles off the route on flat tyre to bike shop in Horsham, shredded tyre, buy replacement tyre…

Still, the route was better on the Warbird, particularly the downs link.

GB

GB – thanks for your hard work. The signage was excellent and the event a real success. I even got up that big hill near the end (Sawyer’s Hill?) on a 1×10.

Yep thanks, signage was excellent. Im mullered though. I was amazed at how many people had signed up and had clearly never ridden offroad before. Coupled with the white van man approach to getting ahead taken by some riders im stunned there wasn’t more stacks.

Signs were spot on. The overnight rain combined with wrong tyres meant I found it harder going than last year. Southern Suspension at the Shere stop sorted my lack of sealant when I punctured, thanks guys. Great event.

Great event, organisation and signage was brilliant. Thank you to the mechanic at the last refreshment point for helping out with a simple tube change as I’d crashed pretty heavily in one of the wooded sections and it restricted use of my shoulder…

Also a big thank you to the two guys that stopped and checked that I was ok and also to all the people that asked after me on the rest of the route as miy right arm was na muddy, bloody mess.

Thoroughly enjoyed it and will be back (hopefully without stacking).

It was great fun, we were lucky with the weather. I did it on my crossbike and loved it…. until the final descent where the skinny tyre wasn’t enough and I punctured (hmm MonstercrossFTW :-)). Did the bloke on the BMX finish? Respect if he did!

How many people were riding this event?

3000 Riders in total.

Flip! That’s a lot. Did it feel crowded, or were you well spread out?

I started at around 7.15 and at times it was a bit crowded especially with some riders that weren’t used to riding offroad on the singletrack in the wood. Stopping for muddy puddles etc. But from the middle onwards it started to spread out.

Left Brighton around 20.00 and riders were still coming through.

Anyone know if there are pics anywhere?

The bmx’er made it! Respect.
Last riders came in just after 9pm (after being guided down off the hill as they had no lights).

I think I’ll ride around puddles forever more myself now after seeing one being made created totally by horse wee. Jeepers they have big bladders 😯

Yep the BMX’er finished, friend of mine, I thought he was mad enough doing the road one on it let alone this!