fergal – Member

What happened to the EWS, was it something to do with the trails not being world class, or something else?

Politics, nothing but politics.

BoardinBob – Member

I’m guessing the completely new section they’ve been building is after Plan B and they’re going down the new section rather than Fairy Liquid?

The big new section is in the Long Black- it cuts the top off Deliverance. I haven’t ridden it yet but I think people are going to like it.

What’s the consensus on tyre choice? I only did the Caberston trails today. 2.5 Minion up front and thought things were a tad slippy on stage 2. What were the GT trails like mud wise?

I’m really surprised that stage 4 is just b-side, we built it specifically to link into the trail below (inexplicably called Fairy Liquid now, we didn’t build it! Great name though, wish we’d thought of that for B Side) That adds a lot of variety and not even much more pushing/climbing back out.

Kind of surprised they didn’t fireroad sprint somewhere after flat white too, like the airmaiden enduro was going to. 3G is ace but I am nostalgic for the climb of nightmares up the fire road. It feels like not an awful lot of golfing, really, considering the extra embollocksment of racing over 2 hills and that bloody awful transition to GT… but hey, I’m not racing, so who cares 🙂

Full boundary is pretty cool, they ran it alone as a race stage in the original king and queen and it really works well. Pedally, sure, but still Proper Mountain Biking. And then piling that into Mild Peril and down deliverance, that’s one for the good tactical riders. It’s not like it becomes an XC race but nobody who can’t pedal is going to do well in this.

I had Minions on at GT today and they were OK but I’ve fitted the shorty for tomorrow. Did 4 and 5 twice today – loved 4 but 5 is very pedally and will be a tough end to the day I’m sure.

Going to do 3 tomorrow morning and then 1 and 2 in the afternoon,

Am suffering badly with my shoulder which is very annoying – went to see a local Chiro this morning who told me I shouldn’t be riding but after an 8 hour drive up I’ll listen to his advice after the weekend!! That’s the excuses done, now time to ride!!

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwddqZsXGzM&feature=youtu.be[/video]

New trail what we did for this race. Seems like it’s OK!

Mild Peril – what a trail! Did it first thing this morning and LOVED it! Unsure who ‘Grumpy Auld Git’ is from here on the Strava group, but I was only 1 second slower than him on my first run down – was flying this morning and confidence was high after a sluggish day yesterday and my shoulder is better now I’m dosed up on painkillers.

Good work Trail Fairies! Thanks

Lots of others involved too- Tweedlove did a lot of publicity for us to get more hands in and also some of their team came along, including mr tweedlove himself. And the FC rangers did shitloads outwith the fairies sessions, quote Mark who loves digging trails, “I’m fed up digging trails” 😆 First time for that after years of “I’m fed up pissing around in carparks and unblocking drains” Other volunteers too, I lose track. Great joint effort.

No skidding it or we’ll bury it again

Good effort by all involved, going to try and have a look later this week. Inspired to try and get down and lean on a mattock myself again.

Can I just say Mild Peril is a fantastic addition to the Glentress network. It’s great if this is the way new trailbuilding is going to go here.

So how was it?

Good! Tough, but definitely good!

Was just saying at the weekend, I need to stop going past GT to Inners and try all the off piste stuff there instead….

It was OK but not great. Couple of really good tracks, couple of stinkers, not enough gnar for me, especially given what is in the area.

Not happy that the first feed station ran out of cake, and the second out of water…

there was someone stopping people fro, using the first feed station after riding out from peebles to 1. can’t believe people would use it then

It was OK but not great. Couple of really good tracks, couple of stinkers, not enough gnar for me, especially given what is in the area.

Not happy that the first feed station ran out of cake, and the second out of water…
+1

It was a fun few days but tough. I thought the stages were a good mix of reasonable gnar (but much tamer than some of last year’s) and good fitness tests, which to me is what Enduro is all about – it shouldn’t just be mini DH.

We didn’t practice stage 1 as I rode it last year and remembered it being pretty tame – big mistake! I came off on the third corner and then again 20 seconds later! It was much looser than I remembered and I went off way too hot. Knocked my confidence a bit and I had a stinker on stage 2 too and came off again. Gave myself a good talking to on the looooonnnng transition to 3 and very much had a race of two halves. Looking at the stage times I was 112/121 on Stage 1, 42/121 on Stage 3 and 30/121 on Stage 5, so if there’d been 20 stages I might have been leading by the end!!!!

Slightly sore all over today but had a good time and am pretty sure I’ll be back for more next year, even if it’s just so I can ride Mild Peril again!

Feed stations running out of food is really poor, and has happened before. I’d say that this is a combination of greedy riders taking the mick, and Tweedlove – who know what happens and should have provided more for the later starters.

However, as someone who rides there most weekends, my main moan is that unless policy has changed, no responsibility whatsoever will be taken for the damage done to the trails during the event.

Don’t worry. We were pretty much the last riders through and the tracks weren’t trashed, just nicely worn in 🙂

It was a bit tongue in cheek – I’m sure the trails are fine from last weekend as conditions weren’t so bad for the race – but that’s not always how it goes. It’d just be nice to see organisers putting something back in if they could spare the money.

Whether they can or not I have no idea, I appreciate they have to make a profit. The fact that they have to is perhaps the real problem.

I’m pretty certain they get the permission of the trail builders.

Partly that and partly that most of the builders see it as all part of the complex unwritten non-arrangement that allows all that mad stuff to exist in the first place.

Frinstance, when the forestry work was happening at the bottom of Flat White, a lot of people assumed it’d be destroyed- but actually the contractors were told to give it the same consideration as they would an officially built trail, and that’s mostly because it’s been “adopted” by the FC due to being used in a race. It takes about a thousand races to do the same damage as a harvester driving down a trail. Pretty comfortable it’s a net-positive, seeing the trails ridden inspires people to dig and maintain too.

ehrob – Member

It’d just be nice to see organisers putting something back in if they could spare the money.

They do. Neil Dalgleish came out and stuck mattocks in the ground with us on Mild Peril and has done a lot to promote and encourage people to come out and help. After that you get into “tweedlove volunteers”, like Scott from Trail Perfection who did much for Ponduro and Zorro, or Ewan Sandison, who likewise worked with us on MP but was out doing stacks of other stuff, and no doubt loads more that I don’t know about. None of which is “tweedlove” but “tweedlove inspired” if you like, the lines get very blurred. (I’ve done tweedlove-specific digging for the GT7 route but I still think of it as trailfairy work rather than tweedlove volunteering, because I did it :lol:)

Also there’s the politics- Tweedlove events have been great defeaters of objections in the FC, a lot gets done and a lot of issues overcome because of it. It’s hard to say what really adds up to what but the legitimisation of unofficial building definitely owes a lot to it as does the growth of new off-piste and the general “five year plan” redirection of FC effort at GT that’s helped give us B Side, Five Year Plan, Mild Peril, the GT7 links, and aided the embracing of Ponduro, Mud and Roots and the Fort descents. It’s all very intermingled… But on balance, I’ve no doubt the valley trails and riding benefit from Tweedlove

(I cannot understate my own contribution, I just talk shite and lean on mattocks)