Just got back from it. Had a great time. Managed to get my mum to give me a lift up there, and didnt want to leave her hanging around for ages, so only did the 50km route, but still great.

Mustve been the only place in the south of england where it didnt rain (we had blue skies!) although it started up after I finished.

Really good trails, and pretty well sign posted (never had to get the map out) but the sign posting could have been better, there were one or two times when it wasnt so obvious.

Very good, long and hard climbs, almost melted on the first big one (so hot – bloody sun!) and nice quick, smooth descents.

Woods section was fantastic, even though it was quite muddy (not as bad as last year though) and really made up for the kinda long road sections. Shout out to the guy I met who had snapped his derailleur on his cove (I think). Hope he made it back ok.

Also hope the guy with race number 666 who fell off is alright. Just lucky us mountain bikers arent a superstitious bunch!

Did the 50km route in about 3 hours, which is a pretty good time for me.. Glad I got out and rode.

Forgot to mention, bloody good cheeseburger at the end

Good stuff. I didn’t do it this year for various lame reasons. I bailed after 25k last year when it was very wet: my brake pads disintegrated and foolishly I had no spares!

I could have spent all day re-riding the twisty singletrack in collingbourne woods!

What great weather for it. And the woods section wasn’t too bad – and nowhere near as gloopy as in previous.

I bumped into a guy I rode the ‘Cool’ one with last year. He’s an Andover local and had been riding the course yesterday – woods bone- and dusty yesterday apparently. Must have been a serious load of rain overnight.

Me did 50k too. I’d guess a bit over 3 hours
(Orange Prince Albert, Tunnel Hill Trolls shirt, covered in filth!)

I think I mightve gone past you on one of the hills, probably 2/3 of the way around.. I was on a black rockhopper, brown short sleeved jersey, red camelbak mule, black helmet.

Had fun on this as well. I also only did the 50k as i was feel a little worn out after a very busy week. The woods were great as normal and the end of the gully bit no longer has that 90 degree corner to it.
It really chucked it down here in southampton last night which would explain the woods being quite so sticky.

Glad to hear you all enjoyed the day.

I’ve just got back from taking down the woods tapes/arrows, was a tad wet at the end! When laying out the course on Sat. I decided not to do the 90 degree right hander after the gulley section as that caused lots of stalling, the straight on option is better I think.

Didn’t rain at all on Saturday and the woods were really dry! Hammered it down early Sunday morning though for about 3 hrs.

I’m already looking forward to the other events, I’m pretty sure were planning on doing all 4 of them this year.

Very unpromising forecast, but the weather on the day was great. Would have been nice to have really ripped around Collingbourne Woods on Saturday in the dry, but still rideable yesterday. Burgers were very good. Had planned 80k but the mud in the woods was quite sapping and one of my friends had front mech problems (that’s my excuse). Too much road (downhill!)in the earlier parts of the course and some of the better downhills previously used were excluded (Health and Safety?).Note for the organizers: £15 on the day entry is pushing it!

Times are up.

I did a 3:42. Happy with that – including the Spinal Tap-esque group detour (wrong turn at the junction just before the 30k route joined us – only place signage let us down)

If “Tortoise” on the grey Orange 5 is on here, how’d you do? Saw you whizz past as I paused at water stop 2 and didn’t catch you again. – “Hare” 🙂

http://www.testvalleytour.com/news0902.htm

Made it with seconds to spare.. 02:59:43

Very happy with that.

And yes, there were a few downhills missing, including the one my brakepads went on last year, and the only way to stop myself was by crashing into someones fence at the end of it.. Managed to just about stay on the whole way down.