Sounds like you've got wok envy to me.

you knows it 😳

Do the finishing times get published at all ?
I know it was a reliability trial, not a race. I just wondered how much more or less reliable I was than other people.

Excellent event this year – huge well done to the organisers and marshals!!!! The Signs were great – only one sketchy crossroads with no obvious sign on it. The field of rocks and the climb up the horseshoe trampled path were not pleasant though. Rode the event on a hardtail with racing ralphs so a good choice there – pumped them to 60psi to be sure 😉

Rode the event on a hardtail with racing ralphs so a good choice there – pumped them to 60psi to be sure

you must be mad!

I had racing ralphs front and back as well (around 40psi though) ideal tyre's for me in those conditions. Could have done with a suspension seatpost at 60k. My scandium frame was very unforgiving!. I'd forgetten how much harder it is riding a hardtail.. but real fun!

Great ride – managed to finish the 100k before 3pm for the first time – has only taken me 9 attempts though Loved every minute of it – even the back-breaking bouncy brown field of torture was rather entertaining – I don’t care what suspension set-up you had, only a hovercraft could deal with those tractor tyre prints 😯

The signs for HONC were long overdue and made a great event even better. Great atmosphere and I’m sure that everyone from the racing snakes to the weekend plodders got a lot out of the ride.

Looking forward to next year already 😀

A good day out with the weather perfect. The signs were a real help and the marshalls and cake stop were as good as ever.

Feeling a little tired today but not too bad after 100 km on a rigid ss with 15 year old tyres pumped up to 80psi (no problem with punctures but my bottle cage sheared off early on and the rocky edged field wasn't particularly pleasant).

All in all a really great event, unsurprisingly that it's pretty much a classic.

Spot the Wok competition…….

Was it just me… or did anyone else think for most of the ride the SO on the signs was 50…? Although my GPS was telling me I was on the 100km route – my eyes were telling me I was on the 50km route. Somewhere near the end… (maybe the secret timestamp station) – I stopped next to one and noticed the subtle difference between SO and 50…
Great day though – found the last 20km tough….

Yeah! Great day and great event! Finished at 3.30 in the end and my mate a few minutes behind. Did have a good break at tea stop and a snack break though! A big thanx to Jonh Parkin and pal for cancelling and offering the places for sale here!
Thanx Max

Whoop there i am 8)

A skinny bloke who you kept passing on the downhill bits? That were probably me mincing down the downs on me cx bike

Swede.

They're not woks they're pothole detection systems.

I must say they are fine pair

Stu, do you mean pot hole creators. Bit sore today. Salami anyone.

Uuuuuussssha

All I can see is a chin?

trickydisco – you have a very good point. I like the high pressure for the road sections and general predictability, but my kidneys were liquified on three sections of the route 😉

I put 45psi in my RRs – not allowed to put any more in with my Stans rims. Less than convinced that any more makes them roll much faster though, and even with that much I noticed the difference in handling on rough stuff compared to the ~35 I normally run nowadays for general riding.

I've got some salt for that mate. You want me to rub it in or you going to do it yourself? 😉

Hows the cheese grater fingers?

stu.
looks like you were breathing in there mate.
Is Amanda sniffing Dons cheese ?

chickenbyrianniandakeemanan – Member

I wander how you got your forumname . 😆

😛
the bloke in the curry house couldnt spell Matt

Pictures are up

where?

linky please

there's a few more to add

the hosting site made the gallery live before i'd finished sorting though the entire collection

my mistake

the set online is pretty much complete

FYI, there were A LOT of people who's number I could not read
these people will be searchable via 000
not for the faint hearted (or keen) 'cos there will be hundreds of you
a simple instruction really, stick the number to the front of the helmet
MTBers; we're not the brightest sun in the sky!

clicky here for gallery page

this is the direct link to the galley page, saves going via the homepage

oh, when finished there will be seven folders

there is currently 4 folders

it's been a long night!

Good Work fella

cheers

good to see you all enjoying yourself, and the change between top of waterhatch (my first spot) to top of cleeve hill (my last spot) was quite amusing

and if anyone complains about the photos being boring, then i have a challenge. 😉

the bloke in the curry house couldnt spell Matt

ROTFLMFAO

Got any tissues?

why have you s**t yourself ?

Nice pics – I might actually buy one, which is unusual for me. You should have positioned yourself 10m further back up the trail (or focussed further up there) at your last spot on Cleeve Hill – a little lip or root there which even I managed to get both wheels off the ground with (hence my big grin in that shot, which I'm presuming isn't the change you were expecting!)

Good pics those. Might have one as well. I certainly didn't look as knackered as I felt.

It wasn't till I wrote this that I realised how little I enjoyed it 😉

Is there anywhere I can get the route map?

Is this any help?

http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?lnk=http://www.thecorrective.com/multimedia/routes/HONC/090405_HONC.trl

http://blog.thecorrective.com/2010/04/xc-route-honc-2009.html

Crash at 27km/h on that last stony descent.

cheers fellas.

it was a "risk" taking the panning shots
technically demanding, with a high degree of failure
a reason many event photographers take head-on, or "distance" side-on shots is because they're "easy". a close-in panning shot is difficult, especially when one has to get it "right" for 1000 people.

having been on the seb rogers courses (both in the quantocks and the alps) I an fully aware of the set-up requirements, but more importantly the fact that photographer can have the rider go again and again until happy with the photo.

on event such as HONC I get on shot (no pun intended) at getting the photo right. on the whole i'm reasonably happy with the outcome.

hmmmm…..what can i do to better myself for next year?

Good pics those. Might have one as well. I certainly didn't look as knackered as I felt.

It wasn't till I wrote this that I realised how little I enjoyed it

what was your number?

nice write up, i'm impressed you can remember the entire ride with such clarity, you clearly weren't trying hard enough. 😉

to be fair I didn't demands some kind of cunning stunt. it's merely interesting to contrast the difference between the first climb (top of waterhatch where we couldn't get the gate open) and the last "proper" climb (onto cleeve common)

having lived and cycled in cheltenham for many years I know how evil those hills are! still they make a good warm to a sat morning ride!