I’ve been wanting to take a wee ride round the hallowed ground that is the Golfy for a little while now and we’d planned to head up there this weekend.

Then some mates said “oh, it’s King & Queen Of The Hill”. Bugger.

Fast forward 48 hrs and I seem to have ended up with a last minute entry.

…double bugger…

Now I’m a decent enough rider, but a pretty crap racer. Too much stress, too much “MUST WIN MUST WIN MUST WIN”, then crash on the first corner, followed by spending the rest of day beating myself up over the crash rather than enjoying the rest of the ride. I’ve ridden Inners a few times on uplift days, so I sort of know the kind of terrain, although its always been dry when I’ve been, and I can imagine its a VERY different beast in the damp.

So any tips and tricks?

I’ll be on my 26″ Rocket, thinking Shorty 3C front, Spesh Butcher Grid on the rear? I do have a full face, but its a proper DH one, not a nice vented modern one, so I’m figuring open lid, although I may go with goggles rather than shades for the look of it… Flat pedals for winning medals 😀

33km/1300m vert in 4 and a bit hours doesn’t sound too unreasonable, fitness wise.

I’m not expecting to do “well”, but I’ll be disappointed if I don’t think I’ve ridden my best (see – getting wound up already. ha!).

Probably, speed is youre friend?

You’ll be delighted to know that the race will only affect a few of the many trails up there, so you would have had a grand day out anyway. Also the Golfie terrain is completely different (and generally much steeper) than the uplift side.

Enjoy the race though 😉

Just have fun and relax on the stages.

Don’t crash 😀

Make sure to wear a fanny pack and bright contrasting colours and you’ll be fine.

Don’t worry about speed, keep it clean and keep the wheels rolling.

Enjoy.

Do your pedals match your goggles? Fung Shui that bike…

Do you know what trails you’re riding?

The big take home message from my riding at the Golfie and Inners off-piste is that there’s very few (almost none) features that you can’t roll or that I (a half decent rider but no means awesome) wouldn’t just ride on sight.

Also, you can’t get too carried away with riding particularly quickly on those trails. There’s a minimum speed below which you fall off and get stuck on roots, there’s a maximum speed at which you start crying and want to go home. The speed you’ll ride at is generally somewhere between the two 😆

^^^ Spot on JT.

Your tyre set up is very similar to what im on , also going open Face & goggles
I do have a lightweight FF, but find out too hot tbh

Don’t worry about racing, just enjoy the trails there are some excellent riding up there.

In more worried about the distance as I had norovirus & down Monday puking my guys up!

See you there !

I’ve done a couple now (including last years Ard Rock with the added incentive of trying to beat my brother). 2 Key points for me

1) Don’t EVER run a crossmark on the back, EVER
2) Don’t ride at 100%.

I found if I hit stuff at the maximum speed I felt I could, I’d end up either blowing a line out or puncturing. Rear tyre choice didn’t help, but some of the hits the rear wheel took would have killed any tyre regardless. I had much better stages riding at say, 90% and whilst I felt I could have gone quicker, the ones where I really pushed were the ones I punctured on and got a rubbish time.

90% and decent line choice rather than 100% (+) and just barrelling into stuff without thinking about it worked for me

Course is out

http://tweedlove.com/onthehillside/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/KQ17-Riders-MapsF2.pdf

Golfie stages are pretty tough, Boner particularly.

Inner’s side looks tame

Biggest challenge there looks like the long transitions for stages 1 and 2! Stage 4 is a bit odd

I’m entered too, my first enduro also. Reckon I’ll practice the golfie side tomorrow and not knacker myself too much for Sunday.

Yup, Golfie side sounds interesting. Only ridden there at an SES before, so most of that will be brand new for me.

I hate the climb out of Stage 2. Horrid fireroad slog but at least they’re only going as far as the top of Community Service

Edit: Aye 4 seems disproportionately easy compared to the rest

Have a few energy bars or gels to eat between stages as you want to keep your energy up rather than bonk. No rush to get to the top so save your energy.

Don’t carry the weight of a person in your back pack if you use one. Generally you just need a spare tube, a multi tool, a c02 and some water. If it swings by the car park or has feed stations use a bottle if you can so you refill it rather than carry loads of weight.

So how did it go?

I had a great time trails and weather were excellent, didn’t find my mojo until stage 3, 4 was fun flat out, but the last 1/4 of stage 5 I was very fatigued and got an pump big time!