Just got home from doing this event, cracking course with a perfect mix of singletrack , fireroad, climbing and descending.
Thoroughly enjoyed and will deffo do again.

Hopefully won't see some bloke chunder like I did today though!!

Had to give it a miss today as my ass decided to spring a leak and It still hasnt stopped running yet! Gutted I couldn't make it.

Beat me too it.

I don't do many events, but that was absolutely superb. A nice friendly low key event with superb 'natural' singletrack, intelligently designed and put together to avoid the dreaded 'climb-fireroad-descend-singletrack' boring old formula. I was particularly pleased with the climbing singletrack – really kept the mind engaged.

Well done the course designers and organisers, superb stuff, and thanks to the weather too – I'll be returning next year for sure.
8)

oh, and flatfish – too much information!
😳

Glad you both enjoyed it! Hopefully will be able to join you next time.

All you need now is a SS and you'll be allowed to ride there again at the SS Euro Champs next April 🙂

Have the Curtis SS, would that be niche enough?

Only if you put some rigid forks on it and get rid of that squishy nonsense 😀

says the man who wants some work done on his damper cartridge!
😆

Doesn't have to be niche, it just has to have no spheeeds 🙂 Oh and you've got to get an entry!
FOD is a great place to ride with a lot more to offer than just the area the Enduro is in albeit a littlle on the cheeky side at times.

Clink, your only jealous cos you didn't ride today!!!!!!!

What a great Day.
Well organised and excellant course.
Thanks to all.

I'd like to add my thanks- excellent event, very well organised and friendly plus I was really pleased that I completed as it was only third off road outing since getting back on the bike in mid September after the collarbone break in June and I was worried about fitness

Clink, your only jealous cos you didn't ride today!!!!!!!

Absolutely!!

Yes, that was superb. If next year is as dry as this year, it's going to be good and I will push harder.

Hopefully won't see some bloke chunder like I did today though!!

I believe there was some projectile vomitting going on at the marshalling point after mine. Not a nice picture.
Everyone passing me seemed to be enjoying themselves, maybe more on their first lap than subsequent laps though… 😀 There was certainly plenty of singletrack and the lead riders were averaging about 45 mins a lap which is pretty impressive even given the dry conditions. It was a pleasure to marshal on such a nice day.

Results and photos??

Echo everyones sentiments. Great event save for the start nonsense and the usual overly aggressive riders who seem to want to ruin others enjoyment.

I really struggled to get front end grip on the loose loamy soil though – what tyres for a very dry FoD?

Popped my race cherry yesterday and had a great time. Took the first lap way too fast, had total crisis of confidence about completing the second with burned out legs on the verge of cramp, but managed to limp round to finish with a big grin. A mad but very enjoyable day. The course was good fun too. Thanks to RFDCC, it must have been a lot of effort to clear the course and organise 400 riders!

Sheppie– used Michelin XC all terrain, good grip on both ends but still with a certain controlable drift

2nd year I've done the Enduro and thoroughly enjoyed it. Did feel like I was about to die once i'd finished my meager 2 laps tho! Looking forward to getting the results to see if I've improved on last year…

As for tyre choice I was back on my Panaracer Cinder's which are usually pretty good all round. Washed out a lot on the first lap, but I think that was mainly operator error to be fair 😉 Second lap much better (or maybe just a lot slower!?).

Got to credit the marshalls who were once again excellent… enthusiastic, helpful and encouraging – made it a much more enjoyable experience than some of the other xc races I've done 🙂

Sheppie – I found everyone that passed me was polite and safe about it, but even as a relative novice I had to do a lot of overtaking (catching up with the slower vets mainly), all that singletrack was excellent fun, but it did make passing a much tougher task.

All in all, it was an excellent event. Great course, great weather, loads of nice singletrack and really well marshalled. Big thanks to all involved and see you next year!

….But where are the results? 😉

There was certainly a great deal of 'enthusiasm-over-skill' amongst the sport and youth when the starter gun went. Still, after the first few bits of singletrack, those that blasted through blew up and it was fine after that.

Some pics. Link lifted from a forum posting on xcracer.com

http://www.alananna.co.uk/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=19&page=1

Looks like there'll be photos here soon too…

It was my first event so not sure what to expect, but the course was excellent, the organisation was good and the other riders I spoke to were a good bunch. Next time I'll have to remember to eat on the way round and have a decent breakfast; seriously conked out on the second lap….. Looking forward to see how slow I was compared to others.

First time doing the enduro for me too, Really enjoyed it!!

When visiting over the summer, Was told that after the event the course was going to be laid out marked for ever more?

Is this going to happen?

joolze pics up now too:

http://www.joolzedymond.com/joolzeD/FOD09.html

Results on website
http://www.rdfcc.org.uk/

When visiting over the summer, Was told that after the event the course was going to be laid out marked for ever more?

Is this going to happen?

i heard this about this nearly two weeks ago so hopefully yes

When visiting over the summer, Was told that after the event the course was going to be laid out marked for ever more?

Is this going to happen?
I'm hoping too actually. didn't realise it was this soon and a bit annoyed i missed it

Results on website
http://www.rdfcc.org.uk/

And looks like the 2 lap results are wrong.

I think they've failed to allow for the fact they sent the vets off 10 mins before the sport 😆

Definately agree with llamafarmer – times are off for the sport category

When visiting over the summer, Was told that after the event the course was going to be laid out marked for ever more?

Is this going to happen?

That is pretty much the plan as I understand it. There is some more felling in the area scheduled for early next year; when that is finished the plan is to inspect the route of this year's event, modify it as necessary to make it more hard-wearing and to waymark it. All being well this will happen next year. All being well…

anyone know if these are the 'correct' times? http://www.rdfcc.org.uk/gallery/2Lap09_amend.pdf

They're the amended and most recently released times. Certainly more accurate for me that the first ones were.