Just back from taping the course and some general track maintenance.
After this mornings torrential downpour some sections of the course are rather slippery. Rocket Rons were really unsuitable for one of the fastest sections and would prove to be ‘ interesting ‘ at best .

Best to pack some proper nobbly tyres with you and make your own mind up after a recce lap.
It was a beautiful afternoon and the forecast is good for tomorrow so it might dry overnight and through the morning ( hopefully)

Its a cracking little course and the climbs are rewarded with long flowing singletrack sections which are for the most part dry. Should be great fun and a great way to finish the series in style.

Shame! Can’t make it, probably for the best as all I own are Rons!

Brilliant. Another slog.

But the slog is all downhill this time George! Uphill start, into uphill single track, dry and flowy downhill, long straight climb (3-4 mins) then the only flat bit of trail we could find, then very techy downhill (double arrow, triple arrow, double arrow, triple arrow in quick succession) then gentle climb back to finish. Elites might be six laps unless you can get the early races to go slow 😉 The techy downhill was where Ron’s were suffering, elsewhere they were fine.

It’ll be greasy on the exposed chalk tomorrow. The rain this morning on top of the dry chalk is always a nightmare. However, it dries real quick, fingers crossed. I’m marshalling tomorrow, so will be interesting to watch :-). I’m expecting Welly and Roki (four4th) to do well at this one, they know the area pretty well.

Amazing news…. I’ve just gone 27.5 and all I have is Race Kings

But the slog is all downhill this time George! Uphill start, into uphill single track, dry and flowy downhill, long straight climb (3-4 mins) then the only flat bit of trail we could find, then very techy downhill (double arrow, triple arrow, double arrow, triple arrow in quick succession) then gentle climb back to finish. Elites might be six laps unless you can get the early races to go slow The techy downhill was where Ron’s were suffering, elsewhere they were fine.

POSTED 45 MI

Double arrow,triple arrow? Whass all that then?

Its a grading on the severity of the drop. Unlike most xc courses some bike handling skills will be an advantage , no big mudfest slog like MM.

Gee . It will not be a slog , not in any way. The slippery sections are on steeper, off camber sections . You can roll through them , a NN or Mudx might make the difference between being a rider or just a passenger

As a super local, my advice would be something like a beaver or mudx for 26er and NN/RR combo for 29er work well. Might come along to take so pics on the technical DH sections. No walking down hill guys 😉

You said you’d be racing fun Scott! Wimp!

By the time we raced this afternoon it was totally dry. Fantastic 2nd descent – reminded me a lot of Stanmer. First descent was a bit, er, interesting…. All off camber left/right/left/right etc zigzag down a hillside. Not bad, and good practice on that type of corner, but I’ve always preferred ‘wheeeeeee’ descents like the second one!

Was very glad I wasn’t racing this morning as it would have been a very different story. Thanks to the sunshine it was really fun, and nice to have some decent hills, even if I did get dropped on one on the last lap.

And to cap it off – no punctures and a lovely picnic up on the SDW.