anyone know when the mixed results will be up?

Mmmm….being a more sedentary than I should be 40-something….with not a huge amount of bottle or bike handling skills….

Beer and curry the night before probably did not assist on top of basic lack of fitness.

However….

Good crack and some great folks.

Fantastic organisation and support all marshall comments – they certainly made me smile. Thanks!

Course?

Tougher than mentally prepared for (wishful thinking perhaps…), although worst bit of the climb up was the bit just after you came out of the field into the trees and turned left…the fireroad was just a literal drag once it started to get muddy…. Just a case of getting your head down and going with it whichever gear you were capable of turning.

More than a few moments on descents once the rain had got hold….but that kept the concentration sharp.

Most participants were well mannered and considerate. However, to that racing snake I pulled in to let past on the way up, a simple nod or grunt of thanks would have worked mate – all others managed it.

Overall – great fun.

Now hatching plans of weight loss, training and lighter bike….lordy!

@Dougal – good effort! Hope the thumbs ok.

Dougal – that was a great ride you put in! And to take the fastest lap solo (and not blow up!) was a great effort. When I put in a break on lap 3 (I think) I nearly blew! It was a great tight race – really enjoyed the fight! The course was flippin awesome too! One of the solo guys (from Bicycle Works I think) hit a tree really hard and had to pull out… don’t know if you know him or how he is? My race report is here http://www.richyroth.com if anyone interested. Really hope the race happens again next year.

Immense course – no let up – either up or down – loved it!

Organisation was excellent – got to be definite for next year.

The Growler was a bit tricky towards the end of the day 🙂

One of the solo guys (from Bicycle Works I think) hit a tree really hard and had to pull out… don’t know if you know him or how he is?

Martin Graham, was with him for most of the race. We had a discussion on lap three about whether you were solo when you opened the afterburners on the climb, I was gurning a lot having just fallen off.

Whole race for me was done at ‘I can still speak’ pace, even on the first lap I was holding back a lot.

HAHA, just read your blog. I’ll stick to stopping for natural breaks. Congratulations to your wife and yourself on the birth of your son.

EDIT: Martin went out for an eighth lap, was was feeling properly sick when I caught and spoke to him. Think he went straight back to base after that, lap numbers would support this. Shame, as he was flying.

Yes, he was flying. And the crash was at a crucial part of the race. We were both going hard and it would have been interesting to see the outcome if he hadn’t binned it… Well, at least he must have been ok to have got back out again. Respect for that.

Just had a message from Martin. He bailed after I saw him, ended up in an ambulance with shock and hypothermia. He’s OK today, just feeling pretty bashed up.

last year at kirroughtree was pretty hard going but Saturday felt a fair bit colder. i had three layers on by the end of the day.

The rain and the cold overwhelmed my enjoyment of the event quite a bit, sadly. Everything under the control of the event organisers seemed sorted and went well but they couldn’t control the weather.

I suppose I didn’t mind it so much when I was out riding but hanging around between my laps was pretty miserable and was sapping my will to go out and ride.

I suppose I didn’t mind it so much when I was out riding but hanging around between my laps was pretty miserable and was sapping my will to go out and ride.

I know the feeling. Did 10UTB as a pair and was struggling for motivation late on as I felt cold and wet when stopped, so thought I would feel similarly at Glentress. Not stopping for long on Saturday kept me going I think (stopping after a few hours to put on a fresh top and my jacket made a difference too, as did my waterproof shorts (the latter possibly would have been counter productive for Rich up there 😯 ))

Once you’re wet, you’re wet!

I agree that a shortish lap works well for teams and it also keeps the racing exciting.

Glad Martin is OK.

well done rich i was the bloke who congratulated you on way out of prize tent happy with my 7 laps till u said u done 10 awesome great blog
does anybody have any other photo links seemed to be a lot of freelancers
but no links on tweed site

Search for ‘tweedlove’ on Flickr.

I think http://ianlinton.com will have some up later in the week.

My word. I hope I don’t always look like I do in the RandR photos, might have to give up riding if I do.

Ha! Which one?!

This one’s the “best”

You look about 12 dude! 😀

If it makes you feel better Northwind, there is a photographer who must have a cracking shot of me munching on a cheese sandwich shortly after transition since he insisted that I grin for the camera. Grated cheddar goodness.

I found two pics on there, first one could be described as “flying” and the second one “dying”.

Diane

Hey guys – asked someone taking photos if he could put them up on Flicker under Tweedlove – and he did! Lots in there – leave him a ‘thankyou’ note

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That’ll have been me!

If I blitzed any of you as you came down through the trees and you want a copy image then get in touch through the Tweedlove FB page. BTW – I was only up for a couple of hours so didn’t get everyone!

Jamie Hunter

Some of the fairies, I’m the turncoat in the Ridelines top. We sent the less photogenic ones out on the first lap before we took this.

Get your best MBUK cover shot face on! He’s got the trees at an angle and everything, perfect.

Just in case you can’t tell, that’s a Ridelines top 😉 Trying to work out where that is, somewhere after the chute presumably.

Ridelines?

That’s a crackIng picture. Looking forward to seeing the rest of Ian lintons pics when they go up

Ridelines. Top coaches, guides and all round good guys, based in Innerleithen.

Ian’s pics are up now, including a cracking one of Keith, thats the Innerleithen MTB Racing face ! We have our new poster boy…. (sorry Dougie and Crawford and Pete)

Great pics there.

At these events there’s always a boring pic of me plugging across a field but when it comes to the interesting bits they miss me.

I did ride that chutey thing, and I fair flew down the descent, honest I did, several times each. 🙁

Hels – That pic from the inners champs was getting old.

Least I got on the BBC news website, shame for the punter in the next photo though.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-13776470

anybody going along to watch the cx and pump track racing tomorrow night?

Doing us proud Steve doing the 7 in Ridelines colours. 🙂
Would have been riding it ourselves if we didn’t have a soggy party to organise, clients to teach and 200 burgers to pick up from the butchers. Excuses all round!

If anyone interested in knowing more about what we do…

http://www.ridelines.co.uk

For anyone wanting to catch some photos from the whole of TweedLove weeks events you can check out the photo albums from local photographer Ian Linton:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ian_linton/

Great shots of before and after the p*shing rain came down during the 7 and especially great shots of the dual slalom evening and crosslove, the cyclo cross event. Amazing week riding and good times. Good job TweedLovers, roll on 2012 event.

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