Is looking very soggy. Anyone else thinking about it?

Still considering it, but its hammered down all day here on Exmoor and the next four days have rain in them as well.
Even Haldon was wet(well puddlely) yesterday
Will indeed be soggy!

Just entered, can’t be any wetter than by me. Be nice to see how unfit I am and how much I have to train before March!

I would, but the 1pm start puts me off.

10.30 start for sport?

ah – I just saw vet male at 1.30 and presumed I had to do that. 10.30 is definitely doable!

I was riding in Cann woods today, which are next to Nwnham. ‘Twas very wet, but all rideable still. It’ll be fun on Sunday.

I’m going to be racing sport as well, very unfit at the moment, but I’m firmly in the race yourself fit camp. Looks like you get nice big fields in sport compared to the dozen or so i normally race against, so will hopefully have a couple of good battle anyway. Relieved to see the stream crossing is off the menu, was imagining trying to cycle through a top tube deep torrent.

What tyres are people using? I’m going to be using rocket rons, the grippiest I have, been OK in the muddy stuff by me can’t be bothered to buy proper winter/mud tyres

I’ll be riding my deeply unfashionable 26″ bandit with 2.25 beavers on. Hoping the gains downhill will make up for the uphill…

I’ve never done a dry SB round so expecting it to be as wet as ever.

I’m going to try not to crash in the river this time round though.

Fortunately my brother in law is coming for lunch so I can’t make it. Newnham mud just doesn’t do it for me any more.

Hoping the gains downhill will make up for the uphill…

It never has for me..always get stuck behind slow descenders who then sprint away on the climbs!

Only one way to find out…signed up for Sunday despite the weather forecastZzz

Good luck.. Had a quick spin in cann today. Was wet as ever but plenty grippy and decent fun…
Go fast through the river and avoid the bridge for maximum fun!

There’s quite a few I know of from the Bridgwater, and Minehead areas going.
Without doubt V wet, but Newnham holds out quite well with that. Jay and Maddie will give us a challenging and fun course. Never failed yet. IME

Well that was unpleasant. 8)

That was brutal, more mud than a cx race and more mud related issues too, last two laps were deadly affected by clogging, my last lap was 7 minutes slower than the others as I kept dropping chain and having to stop and clear the bike. I enjoyed the course and was good to be racing again but didn’t have the race I wanted, someone barged into me overtaking at the bottom of the first climb, causing me to stall, I couldn’t get going and had to run/walk up pushing watching riders stream past me. Also realised my technical prowess had dropped after not riding the mtb properly in a long time. Wanted to get into top 15 (BC points) but was no where near.

Still enjoyed the day, good course, good venue and a good vibe, will aim to come down for the national in April.

Dont forget Round Two!! Cant be as muddy! The last lap cost me a rear mech and hanger (see other post!) Gutted as was on for my best ever position. Still finished all 6 laps tho!

Might have to order a new washing machine too when I get my kit out! Ooops.

Ah no! Bad luck about the mech, really was like a cx race then! It’s the mixture of leaves and mud that’s the killer! Think the next one is same weekend as start of Welsh series so will do that instead.

I had a very pleasant lunch with the family 🙂

Might do R2 though if the weather is better…

It was grim I’ll give you that! I spent most of lap 6 swearing at my drivetrain as it was skipping all over the place, only found out why after I cleaned the bike this afternoon, 1 missing chainring bolt and 3 loose ones, oops, slithered my way into 16th, not as fit as last year so placing a bit lower but gives me something to start from.

Bring on round 2!

had a slow puncture on lap 4, I manualed off the rock drop at the top and felt the rim clang off a rock in a the mud. was getting pretty soft by the car park so grabbed a pump from the van and got enough air to get to the top, and enough air up there to get to the bottom again when they’d cut the course. 5 laps was enough for me. 36/49 in sport, lost 3-4 places on the last lap due to pumping.

descents were fun, mud tyres and a dropper meant I made up loads of places every downhill only to lose them again on every climb

room for improvement…