So what to you guys like/dislike about what is on offer at the moment?

What would be your perfect/ideal/realistic MTB sportive?

For me it’s a question of timing more than anything. I’d like a summer series starting at 6pm running till 10-11pm. Something like that. Random Weds or something. Sundays and weekends with XC Racing is hard for me to manage at times, so an evening event would potentially be absolutely ideal for me.
I get that my actual needs are more specific than most/some.

The Scott Marathon series seems brilliant… but lots of conflicts for me.

One brilliant one was the Maxx Exposure event, from Eastbourne to QECP at night, a coach from QECP picked us up and dumped us there at about 5pm, we rode from Sundown to when we finished on the SDW, all night, was just absolutely BRILLIANT ! I get it wold take some organising though.

This is actually a very difficult one. I like events with lots of good single track, an absence of fire roads and not too many road sections.

Good marshalling and feed zones are nice too. The Selkirk event is quite good and even rolls through Innerleithen. An event covering Innerleithen and Glentress would be good. You probably could do something nice near / interacting with Coed-y-Brenin too.

So what to you guys like/dislike about what is on offer at the moment?

What would be your perfect/ideal/realistic MTB sportive?

I liked what is now the Scott series when CRC ran them as they also offered a road sportive on the same weekend. 2 days riding with free camping and pasta party made the long trip south worthwhile, can’t really justify it for 1 day.

Dislike that most of the events seem compressed into a very small corner of the SW of the UK.

I prefer a nice mix of terrain, but not too technical. I don’t think fire road is necessarily a bad thing on a marathon course, and certainly no need for anything harder than red grade trail centre – if I wanted that I’d enter an enduro.
Selkirk 2016 pretty much put me off riding it ever again, I don’t really want to ride steep, narrow, rooty, rutted singletrack on an XC hardtail – some sections were just a case of joining the queue of people carrying bikes down. Tells you a lot about a course when the most fun part was the climb up to Minch Moor.
It can be hard for organisers picking good routes, but given the UK weather they should make at least some attempt to pick trails that can handle some rain. I remember riding one in Wales back in 2011 that had a section nearly a mile long carrying through ankle deep muddy singletrack – serious humour failure that day.

For it to be an MTb event, not a cross event that needs to attract more entrants….

Waaaay less than 50% road…

For it to be an MTb event, not a cross event that needs to attract more entrants….

Waaaay less than 50% road… less that 10% Ideally!

I’ve done quite a few round the Peak – some random thoughts:
Colne valley, Holme valley, Pennine X are great because they’re popular and feel like an event. Quite big fields, mass start, the fast lads show up, good buzz / food around the start and finish. Personally like riding there as I don’t know the area that well, so the trails are new to me. The routes aren’t that good, though, if you were being critical. A lot of road. Probably on the short side [ca. 30 miles] of these events, but that is a good thing to get people involved, and you can ride it hard without needing any training in particular.
Pennine X had the best one (IMHO), but has now stopped – I heard because of prohibitive insurance costs.

In the Peak proper the Hope valley challenge is good – location makes it tough to beat. Decent-sized field, good event atmosphere, well organised, and the route is basically a stone classic of UK mountain biking. Lack of road makes it noticeably harder than the ones above, despite being a similar length. Only negative for me is that I’ve ridden those trails a hundred times, along with every other mountain biker in the area, so doesn’t feel that special. If you were coming from afar, though, it would be a different story.

Also done some of the D&W challenges – these are a completely different atmosphere – quieter and more low key, mainly the MBO crowd. Ridden with a dibber and a gpx – no marshaling, dib in at 12 or so checkpoints along the way. I like the solitude, and the routes are excellent. Bit longer than the others, at around 40 miles, and a good challenge to complete under 4 hrs.

I’ve done a few of my local Evans/Wiggle ones – I’m in Twickenham so have done the Reading, Woking, Gatwick, a couple from Dorking over the north downs.

They are a nice day out with cake you don’t have to carry all the way around and not too expensive if you get the 3for2 deals at the start of the year.

Things that I don’t like:
– routes that are a complete boggy mess. Not very responsible of the organisers to send 200+ riders down a route that is already fubar.
– conversely, too much road
– same route every year? I’ve repeated the Reading one with a buddy and it was exactly the same as 2 years previous.

Things I do like:
– not having to plan a half decent route round places I don’t know
– getting to see new places.

Garry if you like the huddersfield/Halifax area, this link below in a couple of week is good event

http://mbc.overgatehospice.org.uk/

Things that I don’t like:
– routes that are a complete boggy mess. Not very responsible of the organisers to send 200+ riders down a route that is already fubar.
– conversely, too much road
– same route every year? I’ve repeated the Reading one with a buddy and it was exactly the same as 2 years previous.

Things I do like:
– not having to plan a half decent route round places I don’t know
– getting to see new places.

Perfect thanks

I’ve not done many recently as running more.

However

Like – Grizedale MTB challenge, very little road, technical in places, proper MTB terrain.

Dislike – Colne Valley MTB challenge. Feels like the whole thing I see a road ride, very little single track/ fun off road sections

Be better if any of them were proper races. I know that’s not the organisers’ fault, it’s the law etc.

Compared to Marathon racing around the world the UK’s offer is pathetic in that respect.

Get the route laid by a local, somebody who knows the trails and the best way they run, most courses are just laid out on a computer and tweaked a bit on a recce. Where are you looking at Scott? Happy to help if it’s Milland, part of the world I know inside out.

I have done loads of these.
I like the fact they are usually waymarked so no scewring around with GPX. files if you dont want to.
There are feed stations every 15 miles or so.
Usually 2 or 3 distance options to choose from.
Large car parks and a generous start time ie 0730 – 0900.
There is never enough technical stuff, apart from the Dyfi , with the world cup decent , as its not sensible to throw newbies down DH type runs.
The timing aspect is nice, but not essential as just about everyone has a garmin / wahoo/ smartphone app now anyway.

There is sometimes camping , and sometimes a road event the day before. This appeals to people with more than say 60 miles to travel.

Wave starts.

Nothing worse than everyone going off at once, and then ending up walking within the first few miles because there are too many people to get up the first narrow technical section.

This list just about covers it. A bit short or too much pampering otherwise. 😉