And it was a brilliant day, one of the best days I’ve had on the bike for a long time
The only downer is that until the last descent I thought I was gonna get away without having to wash the bike down

I was slightly miffed by the last part of the final descent too. It means I’ve got the wifes bike to wash as well as my own.

Brilliant day – great weather, and great dry trails (so much nicer than last year)! Was thinking in the same vein about not having to wash the bike down and then got covered in mud on that last lovely descent – anyway just finished cleaning it (it was nice mud and came off very easily).

Very big thanks to the organisers, marshals and the wonderful ladies who do the tea and cakes at the half way point – had 2 lovely pieces of moist bread pudding and a nice cup of tea.

Now if only I had remembered to get nearer the front for the start, and not get stuck behind loads of slower riders on the first couple of hills.

Will definitely be doing it next year!

Hi All,
yep great day… Although just got home and realised I left my front wheel in the car park! Long shot I know to try and get it back, but does anyone have the organisers phone no’ so I can try?!

yours stupidly!

Dr UpGrade

Well,
Have fired off an email to the HONC secretary at least to see if anyone handed it in… Gawd, I feel sooo stuupid! Especially after such a cracking ride!

You lucky guys. Did it two? years back and I remember sheltering behind a dry stone wall with other riders keeping out of the snow storm.

It was an amazing day; I thoroughly enjoyed the scenery, the route, the friendly participants and the helpers. 😀

Snow? Sheesh! Had to scrape some frost off the car but that doesn’t really count does it?
As Philby said above, a great many thanks to the organisers, marshalls and other people who’ve given their time.

Great day out, took over an hour off my time from last year!! 😀

Big thanks to the organisers, especially for getting the weather right!!

Now where’s my beer & curry!! 😉

Top ride, had to stop as I got back to winchcombe with a puncture though!

Yeah top ride/social with good mates. First ride on a drop bar 29er SS too 🙂

Really proud of mrssheldona who had her 3rd ever ride on her cx bike and completed the 100k in a respectable time.

Thanks to everyone involved.

sheldon

Tell Mrs S well done from us two for finishing. 😀

A first today for us too.

Our first 100K on the tandem.

5 and 1/2 hours for a first attempt, not too bad.

Just to say big shout out to Pat and all the other HONC organisers… My wheel was found and is being shipped to me tomorrow!

Excellent service all round! Thanks!

Mark

Great day today…perfect weather, and brilliantly organised (as usual)! We felt we deserved the post ride pint(s) afterwards. Roll on next year.

Was a great ride apart from the slow and won’t keep left brigade on the first hill. Why do such plonkers rush to the front? I wasn’t actually that far back myself and there are these idiots, incl on cx bikes hyper ventilating up the first rise. V annoying.

I last did it two year ago when was v dry as well but 30 mins quicker today – it did seem easy today but is that just my imagination? Much of the route today seemed familiar albeit in reverse!

Oh dear..
The words toys and pram come to mind.
See told you Sheldon, you needed to put that toy pram at the start of
the first climb.. 😆

That was some pretty fine weather today, a bit of a shock to my system, but can’t complain. I wasn’t there to ride at the front. From experience, the best place to be at the start is on the bumper of the police car, does mean you get to the bottom of the first climb well into the red.

“Was a great ride apart from the slow and won’t keep left brigade on the first hill. Why do such plonkers rush to the front? I wasn’t actually that far back myself and there are these idiots, incl on cx bikes hyper ventilating up the first rise. V annoying. “

happens at all these kinda events ….

I know I should chill out. Everyone tells me to so it must be true. Its like slow drivers in the middle lane of a motorway when there is nothing in the left lane. They’re to$$ers too.

Great ride., and I finally I justified buying the CX bike which has spent 95% of the last year on the road. The last descent was certainly interesting and was much more enjoyable when I learnt to release my death grip from the brakes. And Philby got to the see the comedy of me bouncing all over the tractor tracks at the start of the last descent.
I think it would have been a bit boring on the Meta though!

Great Ride – I overtook a few and got overtaken by a few, not good enough or up my own proverbial enough to comment on where other paying riders should start, keep to a side or just be honoured in the presence of such greatness – Just get out and ride!!

and free bread pudding. I’ll put bouncy forks on next time though. (rigid, hardtail, ss).
Thanks to the organisers, my first time and a really superb day.

Did the 50 and picked up FIVE punctures. Was running tubeless, patched and glued the tyre twice then used my spare tube. Bought one from LL at lunch, put that in then a MASSIVE thank you to the guy on the Root Beer cloured Trek Remedy who was charitable enough to give me an inner tube when that one went before we reached Cleeve Hill (you are a star!!). Anyhow, 2hrs 49 riding time which is 25 mins quicker than last year and at 18.5 stone I am very pleased with that.

PS – I may be slower up hill but I did stick to the left!!

Graham I’ll bring the pram next year for the racer types that have to race through to get their 700th place in an event that’s not a race! LOL and they call the people in the way to$$ers.

Yep, top ride today. Big thanks to those who had gps or map holders who I shamelessly followed pretty much all the way round 🙂 Cheers!

love it Sheldon!!

Retro bike from today

GPS?

Rachel here went round with GPS
Graham Positioning System

Awesome day out.

Brilliantly organised.

Did it for the first time (50k) and really enjoyed it, especially liked the downhill offroad bits (and the bread pudding) and no mechanical problems or getting lost ! Great route, organisation (and weather).

I must have missed the sign that said ” can all slow to$$ers please keep to the left and let serious racers through” too! I just waited for small gaps to appear and overtook when i could.
Great day out once again!

I’ll second the big thanks to the organisers! What a great day! The weather made it all the better and some surprisingly good riding to be found near the end. Generally all good fun 🙂

Retro bike from today

That’s the former race bike of Adrian Timmis, absolutely stunning in the flesh

do they put the times up of all the riders on their website?
a couple of people i’ve spoken to have un-feasibly quick times or do i just have to beleive them?

Another big thanks to organisers, marshals, helpers, etc.. Great day out. Have to say though, even after a 2nd piece of the mouthwatering flapjack I couldn’t get anywhere near Mr & Mrs SSStu on the descent from Cleeve Hill, how do you fly so fast DH on a tandem!?! Sunshine, fine views, good company. Excellent.

Really enjoyed it, great organisation, brilliant weather (although chilly at the start :p ) and friendly people. Hopefully will be able to make it again next year 🙂

Big thanks to all the organisation. Really good day. Also thanks to to the 5 or 6 guys who I got together with after the tea stop – great company.

(Si on his Uncle John)

I couldn’t get anywhere near Mr & Mrs SSStu on the descent from Cleeve Hill, how do you fly so fast DH on a tandem!?!

It’s easy going that fast when the combined weight of tandem and riders is more than the brakes can cope with. 😯 😉

Lovely day guys! My first “big one” and very happy with 6 hours seeing as I was just happy to actually get round!

RE: slow people at the start… It’s a difficult one because I started about halfway down the pack and while I’m no xc whippet I had to fight through a lot of people and was probably on the tail of the top third by the 50km/100km split. I could have done with starting much nearer the front but its difficult to tell how far forward you should be – one man’s race pace is another’s pootle. Next time I’d try and start a third of the way back but stood in the car park it’s difficult to tell where that is!

Anyway, it was a gorgeous day with gorgeous friendly people and plenty social all the way round! Nice!

Second year HONCing for me and first on a CX bike. Conditions were so good that we decided it would be rude not to do the 100k and aside from the usual mechanicals (mostly skinny tyre-related – a mate even had one explode, catapulting him over the bars) we all really enjoyed it. I expected it to be a total pain-fest but apart from the last descent it wasn’t actually too bad.

One thing that stands out about the HONC for me is how well organised it is, and this year was no exception – good marshalling, good route and great cake!

Thoroughly enjoyed it as well. Great weather, great trails, quiet roads and a good atmosphere. Started steadily and had a real good enjoyable ride all the way round – so much easier and faster than last year. Got round in 5hrs 30mins, but riding time was 4:50, which is an hour faster than last year. Seemed like most people this year did the 100km, whereas last year only a small fraction seemed to do it.

And the cake at the rest stop was fantastic.