Kielder Forest AVALANCHE TROPHY
Anyone taking part this year? Did you take part last year?

Can anyone help they say i need a doctors note if i don’t have a racing licence. Has anyone done this yet/Before…..

not done the Kielder event but have raced in the MaxxiAvalanche cup. doctor’s note is easy to get hold of – just go and see your GP, tell him/her you want to race and you need a letter to say you’re healthy. He/she just needs to write a few lines to state that he/she knows you and you’re in good health, then sign it. it’s a formality.

Thanks, i’ll try and get it sorted…

Or just make one yourself….. they don’t check any of them…

i accept no responsibility for anyone doing this and it going wrong. but i know a number of people who’ve done it this way without problems.

I got a provisional license from british cycling for £13.50 – ordered online. Apparently this will do.

This will be my first race/event – quite excited really. Need to get in training though, not long to go now!

My first race to!! going up with a few friends who are also racing for the first time, but all of them are a lot fitter than me! I have no idea how many miles the race will cover, hope i can handle it….

The website says they strongly recommend a full face helmet, what do people reckon? I’ve got one but I don’t want to look a dick if everyone else is wearing normal xc helmets 😉

Also wondering about body armour – got elbow and knee/shin guards but I dunno whether to wear them or not.

i’m just wearing my XC lid think a full face is going to be overkill, i can’t imagine the DH runs being to extreme. think i might take my knee/shin pads just in case and see what other people wear on the day. Think you have to wear full finger gloves though or they won’t let you race..

Two more entrants here!

I’ve heard similar stories on the doctor’s note front – Stevie G how about you write mine and I’ll write yours?! 😆

My first race of this type too, and looking at the videos on youtube there seem to be a lot of euros! And a lot of pedalling to be up with the pace too!

Normal XC lid here, but with kyle strait knee pads for sure, possibly elbow too.

Any of you guys travelling up from the South?

I’ve done the black route at Kielder, and it has some reasonable drops on it – nothing ridiculous but enough to be interesting doing them at race speed I imagine! Think some pads will be in order.

How it worked LAST YEAR:
It is basically sections (of descending) that are timed. You have to be on the start line at your appointed time. At the end of the competitive section, you ride the fire road to the start of the next section. Timing was quite slack last year so it may be tightened up this time.
If you want to wear a fullface or an xc you make the choice, but I recall that you may have to be helmeted on the fire road too.

Yeah but not sure Dr Stevie G sounds official!!! 😆
We’re travelling from Lancashire it’s about a 3 hour drive. Are you further south? Any of you guys camping we haven’t sorted any thing out yet hope there’s a campsite left with room on it!!!

We’re coming from Lancashire too, Lancaster in fact. Hoping to camp but the site there isn’t open for the year yet so I dunno what the score is.

i did it last yr.
XC helmet only required.
Drs note not checked or even asked for.
I’d advise a you to practice the black section. if you struggle to be fast anywhere, it’ll be here.
recommend something like 661 veggie knee pads & some elbow pads.
the trails are all rock so get some DH tires. i used well worn 2.25 Cinders last yr.
Camping was bloody cold last yr too (and it was in may) – see if you can get in the YHA?
I think the total distance was 50K-ish
there is a bike shop on site but they carry minimal stock, so take some spares. Oh there ain’t no phone signal. you’ll either have to use the pay phone, ride to the top of the red route (RAF radar station?) or drive to newcastleton to make your calls.

DO NOT MISS THE QUALIFIER on sat pm.

HTH

Pah all you softies coming from Lancashire, you’ve got it made. Driving up from London on Friday afternoon and back on Sun da is where it’s at 🙄

Time wise, how long was the average section crotchrocket?

50K ish i think i’ve bitten off more than i can chew!!!
Do you get enough time to get between sections or is it fast pace all the time crotchrocket?
How hard are the downhills?

So just tried getting a doctors note but he said they don’t do private work at my surgery. Also he said i’m unlikely to get one because they wouldn’t want any comebacks if anything did happen to me…

So i’ve bought a bronze BCM licence hope this will work.
does anyone know if they send you a membership card out?

London? Pah! Try Southampton.

Shizzle, I assumed that my entry came with some sort of camping place included. Does it not?

How much was your bronze licence?

the license was £13.50 however this is only for a provisional one, but i have been told it should work for the entry. The silver one works out at £68!!!

Bronze gives you a little card which you slide your photo in and says provisional license on it. I have used it for four avalanche events in the past with no problem. Just means you wouldn’t get points accumulated if you entered a BC affiliated race (which this isn’t).

As for 50km – Not sure it was this far (unless you measured it?) Perhaps more like 30km? Basically, there was enough time to get to the top of the climbs and have a few minutes rest before your allocated start time. No real rushing.

I believe there was only one guy doing it in a proper full face last year. Most people were wearing knee pads but no body armour.

I got a note easily enough from the docs without a checkup, quick chat over the phone, he checked my records and said he saw no reason why I couldnt ride my bike for 3 or 4 hours at a time. £15 for the pleasure though!

Chunkychew, you’ll need to sort out your own accommodation. No camping included.

Traveling over from Verbier to do the race, looking forward to it. Im going to do it on a Scott Genius as i think it may involve a fair bit of flatish stuff.

There’s a gang of us travelling up from Yorkshire, we’re staying on the edge of Kielder Water in a wooden chalet.

So not long to go till the race anyone else bricking it!!!

Err, yeah a bit.

I’ve even bought a new bike to compensate for my lack of skill. 🙄

Like i’ve said before this is my first race, not sure if i’m gonna manage all the uphill without pushing!!!! Bring on the downs!!!

Don’t forget the Avon Skin-So-Soft for the midges!!

Might be worth upgrading to the Avon Skin-So-Soft Bug Guard.

Anyone got a contact number for the campsite? Ta 🙂

01434 250 291

I only managed to get through between 4 and 6 yesterday evening though, as the answer phone message suggests

I spoke to British Cycling just now who say the Bronze membership wont cover me for the race because its not a full UCI racing licence, so they want £68 for the privilege of silver membership!

Time to become Dr LCJ I think!

Can anyone add anything further on this?

I can supply you with a Mental Health NHS department letterhead template… Not sure if that’s what would be required 🙂

Should do the job nicely! cpt_slopestyle [AT] trackofdeath.com

ta! 😉

Hmm,

Bronze gives you a little card which you slide your photo in and says provisional license on it. I have used it for four avalanche events in the past with no problem. Just means you wouldn’t get points accumulated if you entered a BC affiliated race (which this isn’t).

British Cycling probably will tell you Bronze isn’t good enough – they want their £68! Thing is – aren’t the organisers French and therefore don’t really give a shit? 😉

Myself, Sim and Mats Gustav Lund will be racing. See you there!

Hmm… what tyres…? 😉

lcj’s Dr’s letter:

Dear Avalanche guys,
Mr L CJ is sufficiently sick and mental to take part.
Fanks
Dr I.M.A. Nuttah

I’ll be camping – coming in a Merc van with Yorkshire House pub on the side of it – come and say hello if you see us!

thanks jojoA1, I’ll print that and sign it with my crayon and some dribble

last year, the event was based on the redish/blackish-in-bits xc loop. which is around 20k. all of it standard trail centre stuff. mostly easy, a few rocky bits here and there, the odd jump, twisty bits with flat corners, fast bits with bermed corners. some v short sprinty climbs. all good fun.

4 stages were used, 3 of them twice. 7stages in total. somewhere around 30k in total, probably less. most if not all of the climbing done on fire-roads.

it gets tiring because each stage lasts about 4mins, and it’s a tricky pace to judge – you can’t sprint for 4 mins, certainly not 7 times in one day.
but trust me, you’ll sprint off into each stage, get about 30 seconds in, and wish you hadn’t.

take a hat/jacket to wear while you’re waiting at the starts, if there’s any cloud, it’ll be cold.

nameless friends of mine created their own ‘doctors’ note, i was in the queue behind a guy who just signed a standard race waiver.

as for crash-hats and body armour, i’m just treating this event as any other ride around a trail center.

tuppence well and truly thrown. bikes are ace.