Been training hard in preparation for this years CLIC24, been looking forward to it so much, just hope the weatherman changes his mind soon else i need to buy some overshoes…….
Many other people from here entered?
I shall be there riding for http://www.bikecity.biz/ I will be the short, fat, bald, slow one, if you see me around the coarse say hello I would like to put some faces to yout forum names.
i remember utterly destroying a brand new middleburn hardcoat chainring during the 2007 event – to the point where you could literally spin the cranks freely in both directions with the chain on!
it was nice watching the lightening on the friday evening last year with a pint from the bar (mainly because the weather didn’t move onto the course…)
Dave – why not solo?
With the torrential rain both before and during the event, I don’t think I’ll have missed out on any interesting images over night. Last year I was out taking “arty” timed exposure shots ’til almost 02:00 near the bottom of the final descent off the hill and just back from there, the steep climb off the fire road onto the top ridge.
Your mud splattered faces will add a tough of glamour to the pictures, so grin like loons as you come slithering past me like this 😀 😯 😀
I’ll be soloing it on my sand coloured 853 inbred and hanging out between laps around the woodburner in the Biksetyle tepee. Wake me up and give me some encouragement if you find me asleep by the trailside! I don’t know the course so what tyres if the weathers bad? I was going to run big, chunky, fast-rolling Specialized Fasttraks if the course was dry but they are crap in the mud. See you there 🙂
MM and SITS 2008 tought us that 1.5 mud tyres are the only way to keep your bike moving forward.
However, the nature of the CLIC24 ground is not the same as the open fields and that horrible wood in SITS, so at a guess 1.5 might not be what you require.
Those Panaracer Trailrakers (?) deep mud tyres are pretty darn good if you ask me.
Or give me a spectacle to photograph, Furious Freds all the way!
Tim
Vid’ I did from last year. Ashamed to say I still haven’t got around to doing/uploading the 2nd and 3rd section!
I’ll be there on my Felt Virtue, doing a ‘relaxed’ solo effort. Put the Mud X’s back on in readiness for the anticipated deluge over the next couple of days.
In previous years I’ve always done OK early season races – from strathpuffer through to CLIC, then run out of steam in the summer, when all the ‘big’ races are. I’m taking everything a bit slower this year and hoping to be fit enough to properly race a bit later in the season (SITS, Relentless etc).
Didn’t want to miss out on a great event though, so when a mate offered a place on a team I leapt at it 🙂
I’m soloing for Las Vegas Institute of Sport as well. Hope the weather holds, or at least isn’t as terrible as 2007 …
Even if it rains hard beforehand I might try and get away with 1.9 summer tyres. Thin enough to bite a bit, over half the course is road or fireroad ascent anyway.
I’ve spent a considerable amount of time since my redundancy properly exploring the mendips. Clic is a good course, with some good sections, but its not the best riding on the ‘dips by some margin. Plus, I ride there all the time, so there doesn’t seem any point really.
Even if it rains hard beforehand I might try and get away with 1.9 summer tyres. Thin enough to bite a bit, over half the course is road or fireroad ascent anyway.
Semi Slicks for me! I’ll slide through the muddy sections!
I’m in the same team as Gary Lake. The Metcheck forecast doesn’t make happy reading – I’ll be taking the Trailrakers and winter boots along! My only hope is that because it’s been dry recently, the course will take a fair amount of rain before it starts to churn up. Probably wishful thinking though.
The flattish section from the gate after the transmitters down towards Ellick Farm doesn’t drain. It’ll just pool and go horrific like it did a couple of years ago.
Looking at Metcheck – they’ve completely changed their minds about the weather for Saturday 3 times in the last 2 days. So I don’t think we can have too much confidence in their forecast, whatever it happens to be.
You might be grateful for those sections if the weather gets really bad!
Meh, I’m a stubborn git when I want to be. It was atrocious weather in 2007 and I was happy as larry boshing through the filth. I’d still rather grovel through a bog than loop back on the road, but there isn’t much that can be done. I hope Neil’s talks with various landowners pans out for 2010.
