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singlespeedstu used to be such a nice chap.
must have been before i met him 😉
Now I'd have tried if I knew it was a race.
under 40 mins must be balls to the wall - i managed a 45min lap when I had a race bike - not exactly fun though! when we go it now tends to be over an hour with sessioning the freeride section and coming down the dh track, more of a laugh!
Agree that cwmcarn has been sanitized over the last couple of years so those times are all the more impressive.
does anyone know if the route has changed more fundamentally over the years? my memory isn't up to much but I'm sure the xc used to be a bit shorter? especially the last bit of downhill.
stravaiger, what garmin are you using i wouldnt mind getting one, im a glutten for stats and stuff like that. might even help me with my fitness logging rides. also nice to see my local loop on the yuysuddu and cwmfelinfach just done it today with a ride to machen mast.
what garmin are you using
I have sportstracker on the phone and can export a gpx file for a "manual upload" to the connect garmin site for the stats anorak type stuff tho the wris****ch garmin forerunners are now looking neat - but I don't feel so keen that I want to to fork out nearly £200 on one. I tend to browse the garmin site as it is handy for picking up ideas for routes and as I am now getting senile it also means I can keep track of where I have been 😉
The first lap of the BUSA xc race went up the road, only laps 2 and 3 were the traditional loop! So no one even went sub-45, slower than I remembered!
Makes a 37 even less likely frankly, although as I said I suspect there are literally a handful that could do it, it certainly won't be your average bloke who 'does a bit of xc racing'!
oboyle is an elite njee?
could it be done if you didnt have to think about the next two laps?
Makes a 37 even less likely frankly
i agree, to take a further 8 minutes of an xc lap time would be very very difficult, nigh on impossible, especially when you think half the lap they'll be going the same speed (roughly) on the downs, so taking 8 minutes out of climbing........... na, i dont think so
The conditions werent ideal, so there's maybe a couple of minutes there, and everyone had a lap in their legs with the road climb, which was mental, but I reckon anyones mate down the pub who claims to have done 37 is definitely talking crap!
no ones mate down the pub said that, i got told by people who ride cwmcarn so i wondered how others do against elite riders. i myself would not stand a chance
My 1st and so far only time at Cwmcarn:
http://www.sports-tracker.com/#/workout/Superfli/52cgsm0448thg6h5
GPS must have lost signal for the climb. 29mins without most of climb then.
Whites is 1:19 (have done it 4times now).
http://www.sports-tracker.com/#/workout/Superfli/7em74subdvu8qmji
Both are with my mate who does hold me up quite a bit, but then these times are w/e away times, not by any means racing.
nonk - Membersinglespeedstu used to be such a nice chap.
You've obviously never met me as i've always been a bit of an unaproachable elitist. 😉
no ones mate down the pub said that, i got told by people who ride cwmcarn so i wondered how others do against elite riders. i myself would not stand a chance
I was paraphrasing based on the comments that said about mental times from people who do a bit of XC racing. If Oli Holmes, Seb Batchelor, John Whittington, Ben Thomas, Euan and Ross Adams (all Elite XC racers) can't go sub-45 in race conditions then I just don't believe many people can do 37 minutes, certainly not 'normal' people. Unless the course has changed markedly from the course raced in 08.
when cwmcarn first opened - 2001 ? Im sure that some guy did do less than 30mins and for those that remember there was a very steep bit of climb which last time I went was replaced by a switchback. At the time I was pretty fit and used to do 40 something flat out (once!) as have never seen mountain biking as a competitive past-time ....
So it's obviously a lot slower than it was, which shifts the goal posts somewhat!
i have actually stu i met you during a merida once. you where nice back then 😆
You must have me mixed up with someone else.
I've never been nice. 8)
I think you right hitman and njee20, the course used to be a fair bit shorter that far back, I know my mates always had 45 minutes as a good time back then (for non-elite riders).
Actually talking crap about being shorter, but perhaps it was easier, more fire road? Anyway for a bit of nostalgia:
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[url= http://www.bikemagic.com/ride-features/cwmcarn-fly-with-me/2825.html ]An archive write up here.[/url]
Anthony O'Boyle did indeed record a 37.3 something. Riding with his brother Sion (sub 39 min) and a couple of other Mojo team racers on a training ride.
He beat an uplift that I was on during an Orange dealer day. We stopped to get off at the freeride section and he came flying down the wallride to the gate to meet us having left just after we'd loaded the bikes up.
The fastest loop of White's I know of was by Dan Croci at 47 mins from the shop door and back to the shop. This was before the Black Run and Energy were added, but it's still fast.
Fastest tme on Skyline is 2h 16min recorded in 2005 by a marathon runner training for the Trans Rockies race. He had lunch and completed a 2nd loop in just over 3.3hrs.
hahaha cheers Kev, i didnt think my mates would lie to me 😉
The course has changed a little over time. The bit just before the totem pole never used to be there, that adds a few minutes. Plus when you get to the top they've mucked that around, again adding a couple of mins maybe. Also when they felled all those trees many moons back about 2/3rds of the way round it did change a little, not for the better. Then the decent changed about 5 years back too i think, it used to be a more direct route down. I've been riding there since 1997, so it's change quite a bit over that time. You used to ride down what now is the the initial climb, and do a river crossing, before the course became official. Those were the days!
I've been riding there since 1997, so it's change quite a bit over that time. You used to ride down what now is the the initial climb, and do a river crossing, before the course became official. Those were the days!
Did you used to ride Sirhowy as well?
Anthony O'Boyle did indeed record a 37.3 something. Riding with his brother Sion (sub 39 min) and a couple of other Mojo team racers on a training ride.
Do we know when that was then? Presumably 08/09? The O'Boyles are certainly the obvious candidates for that sort of time, although Sion raced the BUSAs and only did a 48, fair play to shave 9 minutes off whilst not being in a race situation!
Ha ha missed this thread over the weekend, I think Anthony wouldn't have too much trouble getting round in a 37, quite a few of the quick locals manage a 40/45 and even I can get below an hour on a good day 😕
EDIT: Not at the moment though before anyone challenges me to a race! Baby and business have added a stone or two 😳
hitman - MemberI've been riding there since 1997, so it's change quite a bit over that time. You used to ride down what now is the the initial climb, and do a river crossing, before the course became official. Those were the days!
Did you used to ride Sirhowy as well?
No, never ridden there, not knowlingly anyway. I used to visit my mate in Cardiff and ride quite a bit round there thou. Very old skool, flask of coffee, some lunch, 8 hours in the saddle, carrying bikes up silly climbs. That's what you had to do back in the day *go's all misty eyed*
cubemeup... I guess you mean me... did I meet you at Cwmcarn once probably over a year ago now, summer 09 I think ?
Kev
not to sure keva, last summer i didnt ride that much as i had knee recon in july.
where are you from?
50-60mins is very do-able, even for a middle-aged guy carrying a stone or two of padding ...like myself.
The real fit & fast riders do the sub 45min laps.
Chris, what have i told you about your soundtracks....
Newbury
mooman, i love my soundtracks!! just not my riding!! lol
i do recall u doing a sub hour over cwmcarn
Ant did 37:35, and thats from the horses mouth. Not sure when that was though.
SSSTU havent said to much latley
all i wanted to see was how much difference there was between pros/am by the looks loads!
http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=15622857
is this Anthony O Boyle? 😆 he rites like a ri8t chav 😆 jesus he sounds like hes about 14 🙁
ELITE RACERS = CHAVS = FACT 😆