Anyone else signed up for this ride on Sunday 25th? I signed up for the 80km a few weeks ago and was really looking forward to it. However being ill this week has dampened my enthusiasm a little. I think it’s going to be a struggle and hurt quite a lot. However it does look like the sun may shine so it should be a decent ride around somewhere new for me.

Look out for a black Ridley X-Fire being ridden by a bearded man gasping for breath.

We’ll be trundling round. Not sure whether to ride CX or 29er at the moment.

Hi Mister P – I’ll be working on the start and finish, so say hello if you get a chance. If you’re not feeling so great, keep your options open about which distance you ride; the 60 and 40km options are both good rides, so do what feels right on the day. You can literally make your mind up when you get to the route divide points on the course, depending on how you feel. If you drop to a shorter distance, just let us know at the finish and we’ll update your listing.

Another thing to bear in mind, on this event because of the way the route is designed, even on the 80k course you’re never more than about 8km from the event centre as the crow flies. So if you did need to bail and take the quickest route back, it’s pretty easy to do.

Hi Martin. That’s good to know, thank you.

I’m doing it on my Curtis with a mate on a Talbot CX in a handmade English steel fest.

Heaps of road but what tracks there are will be pretty boggy.

Looking rather cold and icy for the first couple of hours :(. I commute on those roads and wouldn’t ride them at 1 or 2C

The first year it was run there were frozen puddles all day. Was rather hoping for warmer this time…

As it looks to be dry overnight hopefully not as icey as it was this morning. Me and my wife are entered in the 80m route, both on CX bikes.

We went out for the 80km as late as poss at 8.45. Still icy with one awful stretch in a dip that had caught out a rider who was waiting for an ambulance. Apart from that a great ride.

I really enjoyed the event, good work Martin. The cup of tea at the end was very welcome. My riding partner suffered 5 punctures in 50 miles but that didn’t dampen our spirits. Same again next year?

I enjoyed, it was a typical well run Trailbreak ride. The Wiggle tie in seemed to mean very generous feed stations – I thought the Wiggle energy bars were surprisingly good. We started at 9:20 and we rode past the ambulance by the dip, I could see how the ice on the section could catch you out, I hope the rider involved is okay. Apart from that bit I didn’t notice too much ice on the roads.

For me the ride seemed to involve me waiting for my wife on the downhill sections, and then me struggling to keep on her wheel on the uphills… I was riding a cheap Chinese carbon CX frame and it performed really well, it was the first time I have ridden it off road so wasn’t sure what to expect, but it made it round in one piece. Disc brakes were a big help too, looked to be lots of CX bikes on these now.

Saw a few broken rear mechs, I hope everyone made it back okay. Also lots of CX bikes with punctures, I don’t think I saw an mtb with a puncture.

Funnily myself and Crosshair from here ended up crisscrossing your route many times on Sunday and saw loads of you guys out there, even chased you up/down a few sections. Saw a few punctures at the top coming into Woodcote and a few people who were bailing with flats etc.