I'm lucky to ride the golfie almost every weekend, Given the EWS will probably be a hard 6 stage race. So guessing it could either be a peebles start with a wee spin up the downhill side then over to the golfie.
What trails would you pick.?
I tried guessing trails but gave up , i'd be astonished if we dont see Trailfiry (Gt) , Hush (Gt) Bigbaw (golfie) waterworld / boner (golfie) Gold run , Ixs , cresta (inners) , no social is definately ews worthy but leads into nothing.
Its a shame yair and thornie are so far away as they have so many techy steep trails.
Cant wait though.
Event village is by the bridge near the DH carpark in Innerleithen- Pro stage will be close to that so I'm guessing some sort of DH mashup.
Something top to bottom at the Golfie is a must, so Repeat Offender or 3G?
Jawbone/Walk or Burn or even Feed the Pony to drop into Walkerburn for a transition to Traquair side?
Add in something a bit steeper around the Liver Damage area for steepness...
Interested to see what the uphill stages for the ebikes will be too
Surprised the local trails association haven't built any new trails for it - I suppose there's that many great trails to pick from that it isn't neccessary. I'd maybe try and spot the ones that are getting tidied up/worked on as that could be a clue.
I think they'll use Gt for longer stages- think mast down via ho chi mihn and down zoom or bust to the fort and into peebles, or mast down to hush hush and down the black into bottom of redemption climb.
Bigbaw defo a good shout I reckon, think the organisers will mix it up, some fast flowy stuff combined with some of the stupidly steep stuff (like going down the minch moor climb at inners down into prospacker last time ews was in town).
I was thinking new skool and a short punchy fire road climb into either 2nd base or liver damage would make for a great stage at golfy.
Yair and thornielee would be amazing, but think the tranistions would be too long for it to work out.
I can't quite figure out the structure, the pros race saturday and sunday while EWS100 races saturday only, but does all the same stages... and the pros do the Pro stage twice while 100 does it just once... So the sunday's just the Pro stage but reseeded?
If so that puts a few constraints on the overall shape of the event, assuming it's still based in peebles and spread across peebles and innerleithen.
I think they’ll use Gt for longer stages- think mast down via ho chi mihn and down zoom or bust to the fort and into peebles, or mast down to hush hush and down the black into bottom of redemption climb.
Do you think they would still use the Ho Chi Min etc. run? It's an awesome ride but the technicality of EWS seems to have moved on significantly making it look a bit tame in comparison now..?
If they want long and techy then surely Snake Johnson would be a good choice.
Feed the Pony’s had some work done to it. One of the longest trails in the valley. A quick scoot along to Walkerburn then up the fire road through Old Caberston forest would be a good test for the first stage!
Edit - or No Social as it’s easier to get back up to the Golfie from the bottom of it.
I thought Feed the Pony seemed like a good choice purely for the brutal climb up and that it's so long. I can't see them using any GT stuff for it. GT will have been raced quite a lot this year already and only a couple of trails that feel like they're up the difficulty level and adds in an extra level of logistic complexity. I would expect closer to last SES which was an Inners/Golfie mashup. All total speculation though! Can't quite remember the trails for SES, but it included Boner, Quarry Enduro and Cresta.
Does anyone know how close to the event the trails they used were still open for?
I've got an EWS100 entry for this year, so I'd like to get a long weekend familiarising myself as best as I can (without knowing the exact trails) before the event. Obviously no point if everything is closed for prep work weeks in advance!
Monday before is the official "no riding the stages" rule, however it didn't seem to stop the pros last year. Everything else is officially open though in the week before
The trails didn't really get closed last year before the event.
Good to know, thanks. It'll be at least 2 weeks beforehand so the official no riding isn't an issue. I was more concerned by closures for work being done.
Now onto the more exciting bit... anyone care to speculate on the trails for 2022? Did they repeat any stages when it visited in previous years?
An Inners medley avoiding what was used last year?
A Golfie top to bottom using a different trail to last year's NYNY?
Is there an alternative to Feed the Pony?
Any other Golfie classics that weren't used last year?
How much was entry for ews100 this year?
It was 175 quid, but don't worry, you got a mug!