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For the before, in between and after ride pint why not check out the beer festival on in town.
http://www.peeblesrfc.org/news/the-borders-beer-festival-1261082.html
Nearly time for the course announcement. 8pm tonight....
Weather looking perfect for race day, cooling with no wind. Not so much for practice tomorrow. 😉
Most of it is taped out now :-), still not sure if it's fear or excitement I feel, probably a bit of both.
Weather looking perfect for race day, cooling with no wind. Not so much for practice tomorrow
Weather looks grand to me (minus freezing myself in the middle of the night) http://www.yr.no/place/United_Kingdom/Scotland/Glentress_Forest/
[url= http://tweedlove.com/onthehillside/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Whyte_Alpine_ScottishOpen14_.pdf ]Course route[/url]
No surprises?
Aparently all is not as it seems up Cademuir......
"Tyres with grip an advantage on Stages One and Two in particular - enjoy!" 🙂
Cademuir is slippy t'is why..
Well obvs, just liked that it was the sole piece of info in the email
good long stages at gt! enjoy y'all
Really enjoyed today, I kinda reversed the order and found I had Glentress almost to myself, heading over to Cademuir later on after the tracks had seen a few wheels. The climb from stg1 to stg2 is nasty!
AND I was back in the house for 1pm, didn't miss any WC!
Good to see that trail etiquette is totally out of the window at this event! Folk pushing up the trail, folk standing in the trail, bikes left in the trail, groups of riders blocking the way onto fireroads - and none of them making a half decent effort to get out of the way. ****s. Definitely worse than I've seen at any other race
Course is ok. steep Tweed by numbers, and GT by numbers. Was mostly surprised by how bloomin dark it was on Brown Trout!
STAAAAAAVAAAA!
Should've done GT first, it was most chill.
Eh, not Strava when it's race practise. Just wanting to get a run in without having to stop to move ****s out of the way
GT was strangely quiet in the afternoon too. Hardly saw anyone
Big crash for me on stage two at the drop. Head first in to the big tree. Had to walk the final bit and also walked stage three due to the pain. Touch and go for tomorrow's race.
And thanks to the lady who helped me, whoever you were!
Stage 3 is my favourite, a bit of everything.
The start of stage 1 is a great wake up call. I'd stopped where it meets the fire road (well out the way before you ask), the comments I heard ranged from "it's nearly unrideable!" to "that's brilliant!". My impression probably sat in between those. I'd definitely like to see someone who's pretty fast doing it to see their technique.
I was coming down stg1 thinking it was much like 3g on the golf course but easier, the gritty top layer had tons of grip.
I thought stage 1 had loads of grip, surprised me and the mates I was with. Was great! Saying it's 'it's nearly unrideable!' seems a bit much though. Steep and twisty, yeah, but plenty grip.
Well that was an interesting day out! Stage 1, off the line, BANG as my two ride old chain decides it can't handle my huge torques! Made for an interesting combo of chainless riding, running and overtaking!
Grand day out otherwise 🙂
Argghh Legend - I tried to call you back but you'd gone down the trail - guessing you couldn't fix the chain then?
What an awesome day!
All stages were great fast and techy.
Big thank you to marshals and all those involved in the event! X
Was quite pleased with my 1 and 2 then 3 was going ok then i cramped up on broon trout and made a right mess of it ! loved 4 but that little climb in the middle was tougher than normal . All in all a great weekend although in hindsight I probably did to much on sat , and apologies to anyone who had to overtake me !
Absolutely wicked day, thanks to all those who organised it. Pleased I manages to ride the whole lot yesterday as a mechanical at the top of stage 1 put me out of the Cadmuir stages. Alpine Bikes were stars and sorted me out so I could slide my way down Broon Trout on 3 and blast out 4. Someone has to come last eh?! Met some very friendly riders too 😀
Diane - Member
Argghh Legend - I tried to call you back but you'd gone down the trail - guessing you couldn't fix the chain then?
Haha! Ah well! Reverted to DH mode and just thought about getting the bike rideable and smashing on! Finally got your message at the bottom, possibly a little late by then 🙂
Fixed it at the bottom of the stage, was interesting having to paddle through the flat sections, then get off and run up the hill and along the flat bit to the finish!
Like last year, an utterly brilliant day/event/trails. Had a blast, and the weather, wasn't expecting it to be so sunny!
Results are up [url= http://tweedlove.com/events/2014-events/king-queen-of-the-hill-2014-the-scottish-open-enduro ]here[/url]...
Utterly phenomenal weekend all round really. Would've liked to have been higher up the leaderboard, I reckon I was going faster than I ever have before at some points, but ultimately lost too much time on the brown trout and the similar stuff in cademuir, and the pedally bits in stages 3 & 4. Loved every minute of it tho...
Who were the official photographers?
Yep I enjoyed that though I did find getting caught behind folk quite frustrating. I was riding broon troot better than ever and ended up losing 10 sec or so behind someone but still got a big strava pr 🙂 The trails were straight forward, fast and flowy. Nothing I felt was steep or very technical but it was all good fun and pretty damn dry/grippy.
I'll probably enter again!
Yep I enjoyed that though I did find getting caught behind folk quite frustrating
Poor wee lamb, try getting stuck behind folk when you've got no chain on 😉
Why would I do that? 🙂 Had a guy in front of me riding stage 2 without a saddle... that could have been sore. I don't think he did the drop!
Great day out. Comedy falls on first half of Stage 1 (wake up, dummy) I thought might ruin any attempt at comparison with last years efforts, but quickly replaced by some real fun on the rest of Cademuir and GT was a blast.
Need to eat more carrots ... the transition to the dark of Betty Blue and Broon Troot was 'entertaining'.
Cracking event, well organised as ever, how they've booked the weather this year has been amazing too.
Thanks to all the marshals and organisers if they're on this forum.
That'd be the saddle that was handed over at stage 1 start I guess.
Which photographers have pictures by number does anyone know?
Had a great day, Stage 1&2 where interesting to say the least! But I really enjoyed the whole loop, as expected my fitness was the real setback, I'll be back next year though and firing on all cylinders!
I was down at Glentress yesterday & could have sworn I seen someone (with a race number) whose bike appeared to be held together by the shock linkage as the top tube & part of the seat tube appeared to have snapped clean off 😯 anyone any ideas?
I had stopped near the red route detour round spooky woods & saw someone cycling towards me with a seat post & saddle hanging out of their backpack, thought it was maybe a bent post but when they went past I could have sworn the top tube was flapping in the breeze... normally I would have put it down to hallucinations but my mate swore he seen it too - curious how long it was rideable like this & if any balls were torn off if/when it went.
Some photos on roots and rain but not many yet...
I wanna see some gopro footage too....!?
Has the finishing post 4h15m penalty been added to the results? E.g. #11 finisher Alan Blyth did the course in 4h35m but has a race time of 24m51s.
Finishing post was increased to 4h30mins
Looks like there are a few who will incur time penalties!
I was down at Glentress yesterday and could have sworn I seen someone (with a race number) whose bike appeared to be held together by the shock linkage as the top tube and part of the seat tube appeared to have snapped clean off anyone any ideas?
Yes I passed him on the transition between 3 and 4 - he had snapped the top tube cleanly about 4 inches back from the headset, I assume on Stage 3. He took the seat post and saddle off and continued on. He boosted up the climb pretty fast and I heard he wasn't hanging about on Stage 4 either! Much respect to him!
Started at 10.10 and had about 50mins of waiting at stage 1 & 2, so the total time should really be out the window (not sure what my total time was, think I was ok anyway)
We were off at 9am, queued behind about ten riders at top of stage one then didn't queue again! Still only got back with half hour to spare!
Penalties would be harsh. We had a minimum of a 10 minute queue at every stage
The guy with the broken frame was riding a 09 Meta 4x. I was marshalling at the bottom dib station of stage 4. I saw him go past on the climb up and was surprised to see one as I used to have the same frame and its not ideal for big days out in the saddle. Given my position on the track I could easliy tell the riders who were pinning it, by the way they tackled that last root/drop/corner section. Now fair play to that guy because he came down that section really fast I could not believe my eyes when I saw the frame, he should have got a prize for bravery/insanity in even attempting to ride that down stage 4
Had an absolute blast the whole weekend , loved it 🙂 ...although I did drop my oakley racing jackets at the bottom of stage 2 only for a car to drive over them, pleased with my overall finish time, great days riding 😀
Big queue at stage 1, 2 and 4 but only had three folk in front of me at stage 3 in the queue. Left at 10.40ish I think, got round in 3hr 32mins and 50sec's so my little slip told me. That'll do me, was aiming for 3hr 32mins and 52sec's. Smashed it!
I think the aim is to get fast stage times coogan! 😉
Hopefully he got round safe - I only noticed him at first as he was pretty much sprinting up the hill out of the saddle, good effort that man!
I treated as one big stage. Eye of the tiger etc. 😡
Awesome weekend slightly tarnished by competitors that were an absolute shower of shite on Saturday. Bikes left all over the trails, people pushing up trails with no thought for riders coming down and people standing in massive groups on the fireroad crossing between the tape. Disgusting behaviour, some of it in my eyes should have been a DQ. No thought for anyone but themselves. Idiots.
Awesome weekend slightly tarnished by competitors that were an absolute shower of shite on Saturday. Bikes left all over the trails, people pushing up trails with no thought for riders coming down and people standing in massive groups on the fireroad crossing between the tape. Disgusting behaviour, some of it in my eyes should have been a DQ. No thought for anyone but themselves. Idiots
My brother came up with me to spectate , one thing he did mention was at the bottom of first fire road crossing on stage 2, there were apparently quite a few "local" riders taking a short cut, the lady marshalling knew and turned a blind eye to it.
@monkeyfydger.
I had a big off on stage two by the drop, was just gathering my thoughts as I was dazed after hitting the rather large tree head on, a very nice lady was helping me recover as it was a big stack, next minute some numpty shouted 'rider' then flew past inches from me, needless to say myself and the lady helping me were pretty pissed.
"No thought for anyone but themselves. Idiots."
yeah that's a bit different endurokid. He's talking about the fannies wondering about the place 'checking their lines' and the like.
Also, with un-marshaled practice would the rider definitely have see you or have been warned on approach anyway?
In hindsight, he may not have seen me, but others did. He came flying past so I guess he didn't stop to check his line.
Either way it was a great weekend, but with so many riders on the trail congestion is too be expected.
but with so many riders on the trail congestion is too be expected
It really isn't. Go to a DH race, 300 riders on the same trail (not spread around 4) and you wont see behavior like that. If you're not actually riding down the trail you should be the hell out of the way.
My brother came up with me to spectate , one thing he did mention was at the bottom of first fire road crossing on stage 2, there were apparently quite a few "local" riders taking a short cut, the lady marshalling knew and turned a blind eye to it.
I saw some people doing this as well. It is fine to do in the practice, but on race day in most races not sticking to the course results in disqualification.
That said, the same thing happened the year before, so I am not sure if anything is going to change.
That was a bloody brilliant race weekend! Stage 2 has got to be the most fun race stage I've done anywhere. Slippy but it always catches you. Category win and 12th overall to top it off as well. 🙂
Legend - he's not smiling cos he was absolutely done in by that point on stage 4!!!!! 🙂
Anyone know who was taking all the pictures during the day? Know there is a link above, any others?
I'm not sure who but there's already about 1000 up on roots and rain, I'd imagine there'll be a lot more to come as well.
first ever enduro for me !
NO broken bones
no broken bike
lots of fun and sweat on the way with only a bruised ego after arse over tit moment on stage 2 before the dude with cow bell .
great fun and will probably do it again next year
not really competitive but was surprised that there were a hundred odd riders slower than moi !
Serious question, Having never watched an enduro, I would really like to know how you manage to race the top section of stage 1, I really can't see how you can ride fast, when it is that tight, damage limitation surely, educate me please.
you just go as fast as you dare! this was my first race too and that section was a right eye opener! had to lie down at the end, was ****ed!!
Not pushing your bike down would have netted you a better time than about 50% of the competitors by the look of it, not falling off another 20%. After that it's all about how good you are at making motorbike noises.
That's the thing isn't it, there was a quote from the EWS where a pro guy said on the really steep tight stuff, when you tried to go fast and race, you just ended up hugging a tree, it was better just to ride with a little in reserve, as if you were not racing, you ended up quicker.
Monkeyboy I guess you were one of the locals that had it totally wired!.
I just kind of bounced down stage 1 and just about managed to stay on the bike . It was the bottom of 3 i made a right mess of , it was really hard to get going again once you stalled . I must admit to being a bit of a regular on red trail center routes so these were a bit above my level but I loved the whole weekend and will be back next year .
I also have a total respect for those who did the EWS , with practice and 2 days of racing that must of been really tough
On things like the top of stage 1 it's just thinking about where you need to brake and where it's unnecessary and just comfort braking. So for lots of it, you could let off a bit on the straights, but then brake really hard for the switchbacks.
It was the bottom of stage 1 that I was having more problems with. I'm on 750mm bars and I clipped 3 different trees with my bar ends caps. I don't posses Joe Barnes' ninja skills.
Stage one it awesome. Loved it. Loved it last year too. It's the second section of Stage 1 that I love the most. Mucho fun!
I didn't race it that is why I asks, I rode yesterday, the top was a little bit of a shock to the system, by the time I got to that great bottom section, I was in the groove a little more.
Was this year's Stage 1 last year's stage 4?
Yep.
I really didn't think stage 1 was very technical, but I've done a lot of that type of riding this year. Got down just outside 5 mins and thoroughly enjoyed it. Lost time at a few places but can't worry about that. It was nice flowy fun riding. Every steep section had a grip point right after it so all you have to do is look as far ahead as you can, relax and brake less.
I also have a total respect for those who did the EWS , with practice and 2 days of racing that must of been really tough
I did 15 miles of practice and 20 miles of racing on the Sunday and I was way more burst than after 100 miles in 4 days of practice and racing at the EWS. The time limits on the Sunday were the tightest I've experienced. We had virtually no rests other than the queues at each stage and we were still at the time limit. 4,200ft of climbing in ~10 miles was horrific.
I did 15 miles of practice and 20 miles of racing on the Sunday and I was way more burst than after 100 miles in 4 days of practice and racing at the EWS. The time limits on the Sunday were the tightest I've experienced. We had virtually no rests other than the queues at each stage and we were still at the time limit. 4,200ft of climbing in ~10 miles was horrific.
Ive been feeling pretty burst since the weekend, only starting feel normal again 😕
Was I the only one that thought the EWS time limits were fairly relaxed then?
Really fancy doing the Scottish round of the EWS in 2015 but I'm worried it might be beyond my capabilities both in terms of technicality and fitness. To date the longest Enduro races I've done have been last year's King of the Hill and this year's 'Ard Rock, I really enjoyed both those events. How do they compare with the EWS?
@Simon
I did the EWS and K/QOTM. I couldn't get the time off work to do all the EWS practise days, so only rode Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The extra practise days would have really helped! In terms of fitness, I found the EWS (E2 category) was really relaxed on cut-off times. The days were long but I stopped both days for a leisurely lunch and was definitely treating it as a social event. I never struggled to make start/finish times. By contrast I felt a bit pushed for time in KOTM. In the end I finished with a good margin to spare but that was with just a few short breaks.
The big challenge of the EWS was the technicality of the stages. In my opinion there was nothing in KOTM that came close to the difficulty of the EWS stages at the golf course. I had no problems last weekend (apart from a great tumble over the stage 2 drop which I'd cleaned with ease the day before) but I don't mind admitting I really struggled on the EWS. Having said that, I can't wait to do both events again next year!
Cheers, that kind of confirms what other people have told me about the EWS 🙂
Think I could deal with the distance and riding 3 or 4 days in a row it's the steepness and technicality of the stages that worry me!