Right having been HONC’ed out for the last week, time to reply.

More off road. 50% is a good compromise. In good weather , as we have had for the last couple of years more off road would be easy.. But what if the weather was bad? Cotswold mud and be bad how would you cope with more than 50km of this?

The Laverton loop, that came about due to a land owner asking us to divert the route due to live stoke, so the route would have been completely different. But may be used next time but reversed.

Written route over signage, yes well, no way.. Last year we had some many route changes, including a threat of ‘Prosecution’ from the County Council’, that a written would have been impossible. Plus I’m the poor sod that has to write those instructions. I then have to get some one to test the route using the instructions only. He/She then report back that I said ‘turn left’ when I meant ‘turn right’. Draft two, I then need to get a ‘Clean Skin’ to ride the new instructions to see if that works. Repeat until finalised. Signage is much simpler, and allows for last minute changes.

Already thinking of the 2012 route….

No need to make excuses Graham – it’s a brilliant event and spot on as is. Good point about bad conditions – my first in 98 was so bad you had to pedal to even roll down hill. First rider home took an age. Some people nearly got caught by the sunset!

Bad conditions up there would kill more than 70% of the riders so the mix of road off road is right in my optinion. From the parts of the official route I rode last week the majority of it would of held up ok if the weather had turned nasty. Grahamh if you want to put some more stuff in over Laverton end of the course let me know, I know loads of nice trails over this side 😉

SPAM Biking had a mud fest at the Winter Challenge a few years ago. Ever since then, people have been complaining that they use too much road.
Picking a route that’s suitable for 1000+ bikes in a day can’t be easy. Better to err on the side of caution and have everyone whizz round on sunny tarmac than have people still out carrying their bikes across fields in the rain after dark.

the bloke in the pic on the single speed left me trailing in his wake at about 20 miles

Thanks paramart. I put a lot of effort in to being awesome. It’s nice to get some recognition now and then.