I rode my first 3 peaks last weekend. Below are my musings in no particular order…

It’s reet hard.
There are some properly impressive individuals there.
My kit worked fine. Ancient Cannondale, Smart Sams, 80psi, Camelback.
I need to stop fannying about when training. I did the right sort of miles but not hard enough.
I need to do some road work so that I can stay with a group next time.
You don’t need to eat much.
If you can ride or run downhill at a decent rate you can gain a lot of places but not a lot of time.
Unless something has gone wrong it seems that the position you start Simon Fell in is pretty much the position you top out in.
Running up hills is only a reality for the top guys.
A decent warm up helped me.
Busting yourself to stay in a group on the road is probably worthwhile.
It’s brilliant.

Well done, I’d like to have a go one year,what was the weather like?

The weather was great. Just a little windy on the first 2 peaks.

‘Little’ windy? 😉

I’d say about 60-70mph. Bikes were being blown out of people’s hands. You could see people with a bike on their back being twisted round by the wind. A lot of people were running down the hill over perfectly rideable ground because the wind made it impossible to ride.

Sounds good. Well done fella.

which peaks do you ride?

How much of this is ridable ?
I have walked the 3 peaks in the distant past and walked pennygent recently – the path up looks like a nice easy one to ride apart from the top. Not sure where to come down though – the way we went was a bit of a scramble.

wasn’t as windy as 2012 and there wasn’t the rain either.Still there were bits where I struggled to ride in the crosswinds.

The majority is rideable, the first two hills are not. The third one is nearly all rideable if you are very good or have a low enough gear. Still having 3h of racing in your legs means even the 4h people were walking up it.

My learnings are that:

1.5L of water is enough for 4h
pipe lagging does help
Get in a group on the road and work together and you’ll gain places (I worked with a handful and we maintained 20-25mph)
Fight your way to and up the first hill. Getting held up costs you time and places as the front stretches out and moves on faster.

If you are racing consider only what gets you to the finish faster.
Put effort in on the hard bits
No glory in riding when carrying is faster
No glory in riding when you face plant,puncture or break something
If you nail it down the hills you may gain a minute or so – it takes longer to mend a puncture.
Get back on whenever you can as pedalling is easier than carrying.

Brilliant, ridiculous event.

which hill do you do 3rd?

I’d say about 60-70mph.

I’d say 40mph was more like it. Having the bike on your back or trying to ride makes it feel much worse than it really is. At 70mph walking even without a bike is extremely difficult.

ndthornton – Pen y Gent is the final hill.

I’d say 40mph was more like it

way stronger than that, especially up on Whernside.

I find that winds are like slope angles. Folks tend to really overestimate them.

At 70mph walking even without a bike is extremely difficult

It was 😉

Totally agree on the get to the front before the hill business though. I pretty much rode the entire course with the people I climbed up that first hill with. I passed them on the climbs, they passed me on the flat.

I am fully hooked now!

Definitely going back next year.

which hill do you do 3rd?

PyG.
Route map of the race is here:
http://www.3peakscyclocross.org.uk/course_details.htm

It’s probably the hardest one-day event on the calendar (short of stupid ultra-marathon style things)
It’s utterly bonkers
It’s strangely addictive

What was your time?

I agree with the bit about the road but to me it just seems to be luck whether you get in a group or not.

Here is my write up on my 3 peaks.

Velo Club Moulin Blog

Hopefully get an entry again next year and try and get in under that magical 4 hour mark now that I know what I have to do!

The statement I was told when first got into fell running was march up the hills and recover/run on the flatter bits and descents. Only the top 10% can run a full fell race so dont bother trying.

I wonder if that probably translates in the peaks cross race too? Indeed there have been a few fell races where I have actually overtaken blokes by starting walking before I am completely on my arse running up the hill and maintained a good pace all the way up.

Gordymac – your mate Addy was just behind me. Thank him for not overtaking me, although I was prepared for a sprint!

Concur with a lot of the above. Spin – I had to laugh about your position theory. I was 163rd at top of Inglebugger and I finished 163rd! I had gone up and down places in the mean time though…
I was with one of the Velo Moulin guys at several points during the race. He had an ‘unusual’ tattoo on his leg.

My position was up and down like crazy. 247th at top of Ingleborough, 201st at Cold Cotes, 232nd at Great Whernside, 202nd at Ribblehead, 216th on Pen-y-gent, 196th at the finish.

It seems I descend better than I climb.

I’ve got to agree with your first like
‘There are some properly impressive individuals there.’
Well done to you for finishing. Seriously tempted to give it a go at some point.
Looked fantastic and made some impressive images n stuff.
If you didn’t see
http://www.flickr.com/photos/103764873@N04/
and to show others

The statement I was told when first got into fell running was march up the hills and recover/run on the flatter bits and descents. Only the top 10% can run a full fell race so dont bother trying.

Very true, I was 3rd this year and didn’t break into anything more than a pacey walk the whole event. I find the best training to do for the Peaks is a load of stretching and ride hills, lots. I spent 2 weeks in the Alps/Provence, riding up steep hills for an hour over geared. Riding up Mt Ventoux on 39/27 is exactly the same sort of effort as required to get up PYG after 2 hrs of riding.

How much harder is this than the Tour de Ben Nevis? The brutality of it really appeals, saying that I’ve neither ridden a CX bike or intend on ever owning one I just can’t help considering trying to lend one and enter!

Training? Aaah, that might explain me coming 336th.

😉

Good list. Last year the mountain rescue guys measured the wind gusting to 50mph – windier than this year I think. Mind you I wish I’d got a picture of the woman in front listing 20 degrees to starboard on top of Whernside.

I learnt it was a right giggle and that I can get round the course. I can do better and now know 4 1/2 hours is probably doable but would be a great time for me. I did 5hrs10 without any issues, nor with any real specific training apart form 2 weeks last minute cross riding and running and a bit of carrying.

Mainly though I learnt that my feelings were confirmed: It’s a great race.

looking forward to it next year…. guaranteed place as I was a marshall at the bottom of PyG

great spirt on the day, you could tell everyone was giving it their all, the guys that turned up 2 minutes before the cut off and set off up PyG maybe looked like a little tied by the time they came down!

Short Whernside video including said wind noise.

http://vimeo.com/76178940

I’m a bit late to reply to this, but here’s a couple of my thoughts

– I had a great first go, I can now see why it becomes an annual event for people!
– the number of people chucking bar/gel wrappers pissed me off
– I need some more road bunch practice
– the shouldered bike bits aren’t as bad as I feared

(Hopefully) see you there next year!

After an appalling failure of training I readjusted my aim to ‘surviving’ and got round in 5 hours.

I learned that:
– broken scaphoid and damaged knee in separate silly crashes result in lost confidence and motivation
– lost confidence at descending can cost ~30mins in total
– lost motivation in training for the climbs can cost ~60mins in total
– I was awesome on the road sections!
– Riding slowly and carefully isn’t entirely bad. The only mechanical I had was a broken powerlink at the bottom of PyG.

Can’t wait for next year now I have a time to smash!

It’s a nice long walk ruined by having to carry a bike?