Any one signed up for this, also an ideas what tracks they are planning on using?

cheers

i am

no idea what trails, only ever done a day on the flyup uplift at FOD im not sure if they are being used?

was at the forest of dean monday, there was a poster saying about the race and that a part of the cork screw track was being used but that was all it said really. also on the website mentioned a skills section?

bit miffed to be honest

Yes and no. As it’s a race I’d expect them to keep the route quiet so the locals don’t embarrass the visitors any more than they already will!

yeah i’am presuming the locals will do a good job of that.

Race 1 info.

Forest Of Dean Course

ou have a 3-3.20 Hr, 25km course with 1683ft of climbing. We have four timed stages and two skill stages one of which is timed with a no dab start and here they are.

Stage 1. The Time Pedals stage; ‘Twist & Shout’ = 1.5km

Lovely twisty decent that will keep you on your toes all the way to the bottom.

Stage 2. The Lezyne stage; ‘Tricky Dicky’

Trials type skill stage with a feet up and no clinging to trees for support, short course, to show your balance, braking and gear selection skills. Remember, if your late for this stage you will not be allowed to start and will get the full 50sec time penalty added to your time!

Stage 3. The MBR stage & Team Chase; ‘Climax’ = 1km

This is the team chase stage with a gentle rolling start to warm you up which starts to build the tension before spitting you out on an awesome climatic finish…..you will have a smile on your face and sticky palms!

Stage 4. The Pivot Cycles stage; ‘Deep Breath’ = 1.2km

Once again a nice technical rolling start which unfolds into a series of challenging sections which can catch you out so be careful.….just remember to breath!

Stage 5. The Torrico stage; ‘Tanglefoot’ = 1km

Starts with a no dab 10sec penalty and then you’re off on a timed skill section negotiating undulating technical terrain. There is a little skill tester to start, with a 10sec penalty added to your time if you don’t clear it. Your time starts when you set off so if you fail to clear the section run as fast as you can to a spot you can get going again as you will be losing time as well as incurring the 10sec penalty.

Stage 6. The Schwalbe stage; ‘Bottle Opener’ = 1.3km

Dig deep you have nearly finished just this last run to conquer so relax, ride within your limits and enjoy……

As we mention the majority of the stages are red grade with elements of black. Don’t be put off as it is all rollable but do ride within your limits. If you are unsure of a section then get off and run across! Each race venue has its own unique feel and stages so if you struggle with sections don’t be put off, just practise and get better. This series is aimed at being an introduction to this style of racing but it is no good if we make all the stages easy as you won’t progress as a rider if you’re not challenged at some point.

Timings

Your race timings will be up approx 15th April on this page and we will send a newsletter out telling you when.

Parking & Registration.

The Forestry Commission has asked for us to use the car park at Beech Hurst Lodge which is just over the road from the bike park and can be accessed via the new wooden bridge please remember that they charge £3.50 parking for the day. Website details here.

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/website/recreation.nsf/LUWebDocsByKey/EnglandGloucestershireNoForestForestOfDeanBeechenhurstLodge

There are toilets and café there which you can use if the Pedal Your Bike Away one is full, there website is here;

http://www.gavellerscafe.co.uk/index.php

The excellent Pedal Your Bike Away café and bike shop is based at the trail centre. They will have the café and toilets open for 8.30am on the day of the race and their details are here;

Home

The start of the race is through the overflow car park at the trail centre and you can find all the details of parking and where the registration point is on this Google Earth map so please make your way over to the registration point when ready. Registration will be open from 8.00am;

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msid=216750927315542520101.0004bcc409540f660b301&msa=0&ll=51.808071,-2.5699&spn=0.01137,0.027874

I will doing a bit of marshalling at this event and I am local, the course is very challenging imo, I don’t think you will be disappointed, I doubt a local to put on a better course (without many weeks trail building), apart from the one mentioned all the rest of the tracks are unmarked.

oh my its going to be a bit muddy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2648404

I’m in a team with Chiefgrooveguru & we have already won the Team Sport category…………….by default 🙄

Any videos about of the trails we’ll be riding? Are the stage names (‘twist & shout’ etc) just the names they’ve been given for this event and if so what do the locals call these trails?

It’s going to be interesting riding unknown trails as quickly as possible – although everything may be rollable if you’re going fast then big air may be unavoidable…

I’m racing this tomorrow as well and as a newbie to FoD I’m looking forward to exploring and having a good relaxed ride with a bit of racing interspersed.

However, in my customary pre-race faff, I managed to snap off my damper rod bolt/thread on my Fox Floats on my Lapierre Zesty. Noooooooooo.

So I’ve had to quickly swap my tyres and have to use my Charge Duster, which in hindsight is likely to be a pretty good weapon if my previous experience of FoD is anything to go by…

Neil, what number are you??
I’ll look out for a duster and say hi!
I’m number 22, on an all white meta 5…

DrP

Hey DrP – I’m number 128 – I’ll be the guy kicking himself for breaking his Enduro’y bike and having to ride his commute bike as a result!

🙂

I’ll be on this:

No. 112, or maybe 111 due to missing teammates… You can call me Al(ex). Now how can I tell my satnav where the car park is?

im 132 ill be on the kona dawg with knackered forks

start time is 1211 so i wont be rushing over early like i was planning to!

I’ll be on this grotty monster…12 start off for me…

Fingers crossed, clear skies out the window…..

DrP

Ssssssh!

🙂
If you really want to rock the boat, go and stand in a&e at 2am on a calm shift, and say ‘it’s quiet isn’t it….’. Drives the nurses wild!
Safe drive, see you there!

DrP

Oh, and talking of pre race faffing, I managed to explode my headset on Wednesday, so big thanks to merlin fit a prompt replacement!

DrP

Well, that was a cracking few hours riding, with the competitive element on the ‘more fun’ bits!
Has a few slippy spills, but otherwise unscathed!

For those who rode it – how good was stage 3!!

Rally looking forward to the next few rounds!

DrP

that was ace
however I was crap on the skills section
and went down 3 times on the last stage just couldn’t convince myself to ease up it was just too much fun !

W00t! That was awesome. 🙂

Do I get a prize for getting from the start of stage 1 to the start of stage 2 in 32 minutes? When I passed the marshall at what I now know to be the end of the stage and shouted “is this the end?” he didn’t say anything so I carried on flat out until I got to the skills section, where I was put straight. Felt like one of those nasty XC races… But thereafter, most excellent and no unplanned dismounts despite a few near misses.

Excellent day. Well done & thanks to Enduro1 for organising an excellent, friendly, chilled out event. One spill for me on Stage 1 but otherwise just lots of slipping about and a little bit of mincing. Still can’t believe how lucky we were with the weather. Roll on next round…

(Raced as 110 BTW)

great event much more fun than xc racing, rode around with 6 mates great banter, stages 3 & 6 were awsome, doing the fretish gravity enduro next weekend in wales

+1 on a great day out, though a fair amount of mincing around by me (mental note, really most ride offroad more!)

Hope the evil hail storm I hit on the M4 on the way home didn’t make it all the way over for the last few riders!

Cracking day of riding. We were first competitive team out. I was chuffed at only two offs, both on stage one. First one was a full on over the bars full body dab, the second saw me ride into a tree with my left ring finger being used as the shock absorption material. It is now turning black nicely and becoming a good size 🙂
Kimbers, good to catch you again, and as I’m out of the country for the next one, I’m sure you’d be welcome to be 4th man if you fancy?
T

Did anyone get any measure of the results, or are we all having to wait?

Thursday, according to the nice old lady at the start!!!!

DrP

Hmm. I do completely understand that organising an event is a difficult thing to do, and I’m not about to get on my high horse when I’m not helping out in any way with any organisation, but I was a little surprised at the results taking so long.

I guess it’s down to the fact that it’s so many times and stages to add together that is taking the time, no?

Yes and that it’s a manual process with lots of clipboards to cross-reference. Doesn’t help when people don’t turn up and then it throws off the one minute intervalsm either, no names mentioned half of my ‘team’…

Yes, that did cross my mind – I’m very thankful for the event being run – and I was keen to make sure I was cheery and nice to all of the elderly gents taking their day out to do the timekeeping.

All in all, for a first event it was well organised; my only criticism would be the route marking was a little vague at times, but other than that super.

Also, I managed to capture the event on Strava, and as such now have a route map of all the trails that we rode.

Anybody know who was taking pictures officially? Not that my photo will be any good as I was busy posing and ending up sliding down the hill on my bottom!

Loved the format for the event though even with a puncture between stage 1 and 2 which meant I had to ride stage 2 with only about 15 psi in the tyre. As soon as I tried to turn the tyre rolled and I was off.

Loved the event. Just signed up for race 2 now. Very lucky with the weather. Would love to do stage 3 again knowing the track.

Pity the timings are so long in coming. I am also nervous that mine will be off a bit with me passing the guy in front of me on stage 1 and then him dropping out (I assume). Twice the end time keeper shouted after me referring to me as 129 when I was actually 130.

Neil – was good to meet you and chew the fat on all things biking 🙂

Taz, great to meet you too 🙂

Flippin’ knackered today. Still grinning though. 🙂

In few moments of extreme geekery I do believe I’ve worked out all my times – will see if they match up! In the process I found that I spent a total of 74 minutes waiting at the start of stages, riding in the sport class. The comp class gave you 26 minutes less to get around the course, so either I’m getting quicker or the organisers were feeling benevolent…

only just got round to posting. I really enjoyed it, seemed pretty chilled and the course mixed up the local stuff nicely. 2 crashes here,stages 1 & 4. amazing how quickly you’re back on the bike when the clock’s ticking! My only minor gripe was the marking in a couple of places, passing the start of stage 5 on the way to stage 3 (confusing) and the end of stage 5 (the pit) where there wasn’t any. However, overall superb and I’ll be strapping a race number on again 😀

We entered a team (Sketchy Scorchers) and it was a great day, loads of banter and good trail. we was numbers 90,91,92,93 and i was on a Black Orange Alpine so a bit over biked for this event. Stage 3 was awesome as was stage 6 but i nearly died on stage 5 when it started going uphill…..

Alright deadpool2e, you were just behind us; Team Stoned Fish (86-89) Good banter indeed at each stage. Which part was that horrendous hill that had to be pushed? I think between 3-4, or maybe 4-5?