https://www.trans-lakes.co.uk/index.html

Looks good, tough, and expensive (but not soooooooo expensive if you have a wife who does ironman branded rip-off events……). More expensive than epic Cymru

Not seen much chat about this on here. Anyone up for it?

There’s expensive and there’s taking the p***!

Unfortunately it seems like this is the way things are going these days – there’s a fell race in Glen Nevis at £70, roughly £3/Km

Costs a lot to close FPs/arrange access to private land for racing over those kind of distances in the middle of June in the Lakes, I guess. 🙂

500 quid for full-board in your own tent with everything supplied and a race tacked on? Try getting a full-board hotel in the Lakes during the summer for three nights for that. I think it’s pretty good value actually.

Its a lot of cash but its not poor value.

Would love to do something like that but time & money is not on my side

It’s about 8p per metre climbing …..,.

Not sure I’d be seeing that as good value at metre 6987

How much should it be?

It’s about 8p per metre climbing …..,.

Not sure I’d be seeing that as good value at metre 6987

But you get a meter of decent for each 8p.

Doesn’t look that bad. Food, transport, accommodation, racing. Quicker ways to blow £500 with less to show for it.

The 8p bit was meant to be tongue in cheek!

I think I’ll enter……. I’m 51, might not be able to in a few years!!

An ironman is over £400!

If you’re not interested in the racing, you could just bikepack your way around for free…

^ That sounds more appealing. Or breaking it up into 3 separate rides.

Its a lot of cash but its not poor value.

Would love to do something like that but time & money is not on my side

+1

I get the bikepacking argument, but I don’t think the experience would be quite the same.

Presumably the special stages aren’t normally freely available to punters, as in the Ardrock? I’m interested to see how they’re getting off Skiddaw on day 3.

The OMM (two days) is £55 to £75 (if you leave it late)

If you’re not interested in the racing, you could just bikepack your way around for free

And probably be quicker than many 8)

The 8p bit was meant to be tongue in cheek!

LOL, didn’t clock you were the original OP 😳

Accomodation? It’s bloody camping, and it looks like you even need to supply your own tent!

Where are you getting that from? The website says ” individual tents with sleeping bags and inflatable mats provided…”

£500 buys a lots of b&b nights plus an evening meal, even in june. Plenty of none racing riding can be done on that budget. In answer to the abovd question, £300 would seem about right for me. Epic cymru seems better value, and 5 days riding instead of 3.

Then again depends on their business model, sell a few places for lots of £ per entrant or sells lots of places for a small £ per entrant. I guess its easier to manage an event with fewer people.

edit… just noticed its limited to 200 places. I think epic cymru sold about 150 places last year and I think that event is more attractive.

Other factors as well, e.g, are they paying marshals or relying on volunteers? If I could fit it in, I’d do it at that price. IIRC the first TransWales in 2006 was similar money and that was shit.

I’m just looking at the site. So it’s like a 3 day bikepacking ITT. Except they do the packing bit, set your tent up, and feed you?

love the acrronyms that you’re always meant to understand on here

OMM?

The on is a two day pairs based mountain running event. Carry all your kit for the weekend and navigate to various checkpoints etc.

OMM = Original Mountain Marathon. Used to be called the KIMM (Karrimor International Mountain Marathon) basically a two day fell running crossed with orienteering event.

Back in the day I did a couple of Polaris events, two days with a camp inbetween, think it cost in the ballpark of 20 quid in old money.

I also did the first transrockies, 8 days fully supported with mostly camping but a night or two indoors, through the middle of nowhere with motorbikes accompanying the race for safety/rescue, and I’m sure it wasn’t anything like £170 a night (though on checking, they seem to be cashing in now with an eye-wateringly expensive event).

It’s not *that* bad. Ballpark figure for those kind of fully catered events.
For comparison, I ride-lead on a fully supported LEJOG road ride; 9 days, tented accommodation, baggage transfer, on-route support and that’s £1600 (so £175 / day)

This is about £165 / day for the same sort of deal and I imagine the logistics of off-road route markings, marshalling etc are considerably more complex than on-road stuff.

There’s nothing there about the actual start/finish points or the route though, maybe that comes later? Also, is anyone else’s computer saying security certificate problems with that trans-lakes site?

is anyone else’s computer saying security certificate problems with that trans-lakes site?

Yeah same here.

Event’s not for me but will probably be decent VFM for some.

Are they having enduro-style stages or is it just an XC stage race?

The owner of http://www.trans-lakes.co.uk has configured their website improperly. To protect your information from being stolen, Firefox has not connected to this website.

Black mountain 3 day was under £200 I think (own tent, fully catered). No timed stages though – just 2 long days and an evening time trial

Trans Provence is > £1000 I think

Well…value…I agree you can justify why these events are expensive, if lots of people are running round doing things like carrying baggage or leading the group. What is harder to justify is why people would be interested in doing them, given how expensive they are. As others have noted, you can bikepack it for virtually nothing, or stay in decent accomodation and still save a packet. Is it really worth paying through the nose for the pleasure of being part of a horde of smelly bikers?

It’s an order of magnitude different when you talk about a one day race/event for maybe 20-30 quid, sure you could do a similar ride for free but the cost of the event is not much anyway, it seems quite reasonable to pay a small amount for the organisation/support/competitive element.

Of course, people are free to spend their money how they choose…

What is harder to justify is why people would be interested in doing them, given how expensive they are. As others have noted, you can bikepack it for virtually nothing, or stay in decent accommodation and still save a packet. Is it really worth paying through the nose for the pleasure of being part of a horde of smelly bikers?

And you can say exactly the same for the LEJOG event I mentioned ^^. Or for any Sportive.
Thing is, there are a lot of people who are cash rich/time poor or who don’t know the area and don’t want to spend 3 days dragging a bike round mud-filled trails when they could have 3 days excellent riding sorted by someone else.

I guess many of us on here learnt to ride “the hard way” – exploring, getting lost, spending an hour pushing up what would have been a great descent going the other way, poring over maps in an evening, trying to find accommodation, wondering if any of your mates would be up for it that weekend…

This solves all that and to some people – quite a lot of people in fact – that’s money well spent.
Some people have neither the time nor the expertise to plan a multi-day epic like that, should they be excluded from the outdoors experience because of it? That opens up a whole new can of worms because, at it’s most extreme end, it’s paying £50,000 to be pushed/carried up Everest by Sherpas when you have no experience of mountaineering.

Yeah, there’s some of that. But TBH I wonder if there are many people who have the fitness and technical expertise to enjoy 3 full-on days of long hard rides in the lakes, but don’t have the ability/time/interest to look up a route on the web and book a B&B. As part of their training for the former, they are almost certainly going to be doing a fair bit of the latter anyway!

I suppose they only want 200 people. And I’m sure it will be fun. I should stop being negative and let those who want to, get on with it.

So has anyone else noticed the cheeky riding trails in a couple of the pics they use? 😀

Fair play if they are heading down Ullock Pike! Shame that there is no actual route description on the site.

Re the cost. I suspect that there will be a fair cost for insurance involved. 200 mountain bikers rocking up onto the fells in one go could keep the MRT busy if the weather craps out and folk start injuring themselves or get disorientated in the cloud 😀 I wonder if the amount of climbing will mean that the organisers are hoping that the riders will be realistic about their abilities and that it will deter the less experienced? With events like the old KIMM, there is a built in requirement for proven hill craft e.g. Map reading skills, ability to deal with mishap, carrying survival gear and have the knowledge to use it. If it was me, I would be vetting entries to ensure that the level of risk is mitigated to a reasonable level.

Also, I’d be making damn sure nobody treats it as a race. The fells are for everyone to enjoy. Hopefully, it’s the kind of event that doesn’t attract Strava ****!

Sorry. Hope I’m not being grumpy here. I think it is a terrific idea. Just glad that I am not organising it! Heck, the a591 may be open by then…….or not!

Very interested in the route. Would never conisder paying £500 to ride there though.

The Lake District was made for Mountain Biking.
With a network of bridleways

So, no cheeky trails? right? I’ll be amazed if they’ve got permission from the NP to use cheeky paths. BUT if they have, then thats surely got be a good sign of things to come? Sponsored by Wheelbase, they ought to have some clout in local access.

Hope some of the profit will be going to local businesses.

Sanny – it sounds like it’s a race to me – why would they be using sportident timing chips if it wasn’t?

And to be honest, why not! Why can’t we have a world class event on world class trails that tries to stand up alongside the trans provences, trans savoies and trans nz’s?

Like the other locals, I’m very interested in how the access issues are going to work, I can’t see the Park letting a load of bikers come off Skiddaw the nice way on an organised event/race?? Unless they tape up some open moor, but those promo shots suggest otherwise!

Also, I’d be making damn sure nobody treats it as a race. The fells are for everyone to enjoy. Hopefully, it’s the kind of event that doesn’t attract Strava ****!

It’s a race, it’s not 3 days mincing round the fells, it’s not XC it a race…

Technical Climbs – Steep Rocky Descents – Natural Trails – Wild Backcountry Singletrack

The Trans Lakes is the Ultimate Endurance Killer Loop of The Lake District, taking riders on every type of trail imaginable from lowland forest singletrack, wide open moorland bridleways, high passes and mountain tops.

Not just another Pay & Play Enduro – This is The Lakes!!!

Fully Supported 3 Day Endurance Epic that will test you to your limits;

Clockwise 3 Day Endurance Killer Loop of The Lakes, timed sections, select timed climbs, select timed descents, times added together to determine overall standings. Trans Lakes is an All Mountain Endurance Epic is NOT an XC Race….

For some perspective the last 2 multi day events I did properly were over here in Oz.
Wildside 4 days 7 Stages, 200km racing abut 100km. Lunch provided and thats it also point to point so a lot of logistics was around 300 quid.
Hellfire 4 days 7 Stages 150km/140km raced Lunch provided and free camping about 200 quid but all based in one location so easier on logistics

The price seems fair and reasonable for what you get

I hate coming across as grumpy as I don’t have all the facts but I would love to see how the organisers can square timed downhill sections with riding on open access fells? I have absolutely no issue with such events but wonder how you deal with interactions with other user groups and how you ensure that those who ride have proper hill sense.

Once I see the route, things will no doubt become clearer. 😀

Cheers

Sanny

Also, I’d be making damn sure nobody treats it as a race. The fells are for everyone to enjoy.

So you’re going to take it upon yourself to illegally obstruct this event then?? Next thing you’ll be throwing carpet tacks on the road in front of sportive rides….
(I’m assuming that the organisers have ticked all the necessary boxes here…)

It’s not a race, it’s “selected timed sections”. Some Sportives have timed hill climbs. I suppose it’s getting into Enduro territory but it’s a pretty grey area.

I would assume that timed downhill sections will be in places like Whinlatter and Grizedale on the signposted MTB trails.