News from Brizzle on a successful edition of the Oktoberfest at Ashton Court…
What a weekend and what a great ending to the Mountain Bike Season 2012. After a hugely popular Ritchey Bikefest in June this year, expectations were once again high for the 3rd outing of the Stan’s NoTubes Oktoberfest. Last year the event benefited from the opening of the popular all weather course in Ashton Court. But even with the course now successfully running for 12 months the Oktoberfest managed to attract an even bigger amount of riders to take part in the unofficial season finale.
As at so many events in 2012 the weather had its impact on the event but luckily not on the course or the atmosphere around the event village. The single track packed course held up beautifully and still enabled some fantastically fast times. And with the sun being out for most parts of the weekend things were once again on track for a great Oktoberfest.
Almost 1200 riders took part in the Stan’s NoTubes Oktoberfest powered by Mercedes-Benz Vito Sport showing how much love is out there for the relaxed atmosphere of the Bikefest events as well as for the Ashton Court course.
Bike Riders United powered by Mercedes-Benz Vito Sport
This year didn’t just have a further increase in riders but once again had the Bike Riders United Team with us mixing it up in the 4hour event.
No other than Steve Peat, Martyn Ashton and Blake Samson from Bike Riders United made an appearance in the 2nd 4hour race of the event and showed the riders that they are not just great in their individual discipline but also great all round riders. The guys took some great video footage which gets edited as we speak – more details on their little film soon.
Photos & Results
We had our event photographer Jon Brooke out on course who took almost 4,000 images throughout the day. Have a look on his site www.rightplacerighttime.co.uk to view and to purchase the images. The results from the weekend can be found on www.timelaps.co.uk.
We’ll be back next year…
With two great events in 2012 and a superb course on our side we will certainly be back with some more Bikefest fun in 2013. The challenging summer is going to force us to find new camping and parking facilities for the future but we have already started making enquiries and everything should be bigger and better for years to come. So far we only have provisional dates but as it looks we will return with the Bikefest on the 8-9th June 2013 and with the Oktoberfest on the 12th October 2013. Please keep an eye on www.bike-fest.com for updates.
Last year saw the introduction of the Bristol Run Rider (powered by VDO) Off Road Duathlon which saw more than 150 athletes tackling the two challenging courses on offer. Following in last year’s footsteps the 2012 Run Rider returned on the Sunday of the Oktoberfest weekend giving solo athletes and pairs the chance to tackle the almost 45km long Classic or the ‘tamer’ 28km long Standard Run Rider.
The days prior to the event weekend gave in particular the running course an element of slipperiness. However the day greeted the more than 200 athletes with near perfect racing conditions (sunny but not too warm). The race started off at in impressive pace and it would not take long before the 1st runners come back into the transition to change to the bike or to start their 2nd running lap.
It was interesting to watch from the sideline how much the order changed during the race when the duathletes changed from running to riding and back again. After just under 2hours the winner of the standard Run Rider (short course) came over the line with the last athlete on the classic (long course) completing after just over 4 hours on the trail.
You can find images of the Run Rider on www.rightplacerighttime.co.uk or on our Run Rider facebook page and the results can be found either on www.timelaps.co.uk.
We had a great time at the Run Rider and going by the feedback we have had so far most of the ‘Run Riders’ too. We will be back with the 3rd outing of the event in 2013 which might become a stand alone event next year. Please keep your eyes on Run Rider website for updates.
Finally we would like to send out a big thank you to everybody who came to our events in 2012 and to our sponsors – in particular Ritchey, Stan’s NoTubes, Mercedes-Benz Vito Sport, VDO, OMM and MOTI. Without their help we wouldn’t have been able to put the Bikefest show on the road.
Have a great break and hopefully see you all in 2013.
The Bikefest Team