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  • Thetford Winter XC race virgin – whats the crack?
  • thebaker
    Free Member

    Entered the Thetford XC series and it’s a first for me! Raced downhill and 4X before but never treaded rubber over the Thetford trails.
    Just wondered if any of the STW collective have raced them and what are they like??
    Entered the 2hr Solo Male by the way, any pointers or info much appreciated!

    Dave

    njee20
    Free Member

    They’re not XC races as such, they’re more like short marathons, time based with all comers together, not lap based. You’ll get some very fast riders, a lot of not so fast riders, and some very slow riders. Odds are you’ll be in the middle.

    The courses will probably all be muddy, and will trash your bike, but will be excellent fun.

    They can be difficult to pace oneself as until you’ve done a lap you don’t know how many you’re likely to do end up doing, depending on how quick you are, if you get in at 1:55 after two laps the 2 hour can easily become 3.

    cruzer
    Free Member

    Be prepared to pedal all the time, thetford is very flat. The single track is fast and flowly, which is annoying when it comes to racing there as your likely to get held up at somepoint.

    All in all it should be a good laugh, enjoy 🙂

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    oldnpastit
    Full Member

    1. Try not to wear too much.

    It usually rains, so you stand around on the start line dressed in some lovely warm raincoat, which you then have to stop and take off about five minutes in to the race. Better to be shivering a bit – you won’t be for long.

    2. Go like stink off the start. There’s usually a long fireroad bit after the start, and then some singletrack. If you’re slow at the start you’ll be sat in a giant queue of people slowly funneling into it, and can easily lose many minutes. Of course, everyone else will have had the same idea…

    3. Enjoy it. It’s good fun.

    hammerite
    Free Member

    I’m making my competitive debut on an MTB. Looking forward to it. Been raced cross, on the road and time trials before but never on the MTB.

    I don’t bother with a bottle cage on the bike usually, will I be laughed at for riding with a bag/bladder? 😆

    njee20
    Free Member

    Nope, plenty of people will be using hydration packs.

    hammerite
    Free Member

    Thanks. Probably be a bit OTT as I don’t tend to drink much when I ride, but I prefer it to sticking things on the bike.

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    Thetfrod winter series is ace! If this weather keeps up, the course will be great, I reckon.

    I didn’t realise the first one was this early, and now can’t make it. Bit gutted.

    As above don’t overdress on the line, you’ll soon wish you hadn’t once you get going. Especially as a lot of the singletrack will be well sheltered so any cold wind at the start won’t even be there when you are riding.

    Try and get into a representative position of your speed on the start line – i.e. if you are real slow, then hang towards the back, if you are lightening quick then get to the line early & get to the front. Don’t turn up 5 mins before the off and try to push through everyone to the front; it’s very annoying for those who get there with plenty of time.

    Probably is worth darting off the line before you get to the inevitable bottleneck. I don’t have the legs for it, so don’t bother, but prefer to gain ground once it evens out.

    If you haven’t ridden at Thetford before, don’t underestimate how tiring it is. It’s not hilly, but the constant humps/undulations make it pretty hard work. There is nowhere for your legs to recover.

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    hammerite – Member
    I’m making my competitive debut on an MTB. Looking forward to it. Been raced cross, on the road and time trials before but never on the MTB.

    I don’t bother with a bottle cage on the bike usually, will I be laughed at for riding with a bag/bladder?

    Please don’t do the annoying thing of using your roadie legs to zoom past someone just before the entrance to some singletrack and then mince along it like you’ve never ridden a bike before….. 😉
    I am pretty slow, but enjoy zooming through the singletrack and there’s nothing worse than a rider who obviously has the legs, comes past you on the fireroad and then can’t cope with a simple bit of swoopy singletrack and holds you up through the fun sections before zooming off again on the fire road…..this always happens to me at the Winter Series races……

    Oh and Camelbak & bladder will be fine…

    Hve fun! 🙂

    hammerite
    Free Member

    Thanks Stumpy. I’ve been racing in a short sleeve jersey and shorts the last few weeks, I’ll just stick on a base layer if it cools down a bit.

    As for the mincing through singletrack… I can’t guarantee that I won’t, depends how much better than me everyone else is. I do a fair amount of riding in the woods near me and do like to go for it, but don’t like getting close to the riders in front so that’ll be where I slow down if anywhere (perhaps it’s wishful thinking to be close to other riders!).

    hammerite
    Free Member

    So how does the start work? Seems like there’s nearly 400 people entered to ride and start the 2hr race.

    flange
    Free Member

    You all start at once! The first race of the series is always a bit mental as there’s no preferential treatment for the fast boys (is that a word?). So you get them all queuing up about 2 hours before the start, then the ones that didn’t flying past you on the first lap. To be fair, the women normally get set off a few minutes after and the juniors are sometimes set off after the bunch too. Which is nice when that 15 y/o kid on a Cannodale comes past you like you’re stood still.

    Its good fun though and as long as you’re not right at the front its all friendly and plenty of banter.

    lazybike
    Free Member

    At the start you are assembled in a holding area, you get a talk from the chief marshall, then a 10 sec warning then a whistle or airhorn, and away you go. Thetford’s great for the roadies, plenty of pedalling, and not to technical.

    richmars
    Full Member

    stumpy01 – Member

    I didn’t realise the first one was this early, and now can’t make it. Bit gutted.

    So that means it will be dry.

    letmetalktomark
    Full Member

    I was up there at the weekend ( I live about 15miles away) and the ground/course conditions were very nice.

    If its wet , I am sure others will vouch for this, the conditions do generate a coarse grinding paste as its fairly sandy underfoot.

    Its not unusual to wear out pads pretty quick if its wet.

    It was on my list to enter but have yet to get around to it 🙁

    mcboo
    Free Member

    We did the Thetford Enduro in the summer, different format but was a great day. Good outfit the Thetford MTB guys, great atmosphere. Will try and make at least one of the winter series.

    hammerite
    Free Member

    Thanks, so it becomes a bit of a free for all/carnage? Is the start area a big wide open field?

    Guess I won’t be bothering with a warm up if it’s a scrum down at the start.

    Quite looking forward to it.

    flange
    Free Member

    Its not as bad as you think, the first bit is normally on a fairly open bit of fireroad so you all start to thin out – first lap is normally a bit heavy going but it soon sorts itself out. I’m doing this one and from memory its on the Brandon side, which is the better of the two in my opinion. Some really nice fast singletrack and a killer climb depending on which way the course is being run. The first couple of miles are on fireroad so you can start pushing through to the front/back depending on how well you’re going.

    I’d still warm up if I were you, some do a lap of the course but I normally just head down the fireroad for a gentle spin

    hammerite
    Free Member

    Cool thanks Flange.

    hammerite
    Free Member

    Managed to race today without holding too many people up when I minced (I think!).

    Enjoyed it, but made the schoolboy error of doing the whole lap as a warm up, by the time we got back everyone was queued up and we were right near the back. Got stuck in bottlenecks for most of the first lap. Being a wimpy road rider really showed up, the little rollers were taking their toll on my lower back from the third lap on as I spent too much time sat in rather than being up and out the saddle and hard pedalling in bursts.

    There wasn’t anything technical in there that bothered me, although I did take a detour into the trees after hitting a small stump that turned me a bit. No fall though and managed to avoid a collision.

    Managed 4 laps in 2h 25, but I was probably one of the last 4 lap finishers overall.

    I’ll be back, will try and get 3 races in so I get an overall series result.

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