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Someone had to ask it... what tyres?
Thunder Burts if it's dry, Rocket Rons if wet. Combo if in the middle.
Please tell me it's not freshly cut single track with leaves and stems all over the floor - just std Gorrick trails?
*wonders if I need to bring a spare bike to negate*
Bit of fresh loam is never a bad thing, I'm sure there will be plenty of well ridden sections too.
What I'm more worried about is "It has remarkably little climbing this year" (from the FB page). Surely no climbing means no descending?
Don't worry there is the normal amount of climbing. From last nights lap I made it 152m per lap, last year was 174m.
For anyone who has ridden previous races at Minley you recognise lots of sections, although some of it is back to front. The new bits seems okay, maybe a bit spongey in places. Like any course if it is wet on the day it will cut up a bit, but I doubt it will be anywhere near how bad it was at last winter's Brass Monkey round, and that wasn't too bad considering the weather.
What are eating facilities like? As I'm not arriving until Sunday I'm not expecting to eat anything I haven't brought for the race until 12:00 and at breakfast Monday,
As long as their bacon and coffee available which I'd assume there is....?
Catering is normally by Quavers. They will do food at night and breakfast in the morning.
how can you find out the route - they claim they are not allowed to publish it before the event?
Wait until Sunday?
Well obviously some people don't have to wait until Sunday.......
You can pre-ride the route on Saturday 8)
I live "on-site" so I pre-ride it 3 or 4 times a week but if some sections are reversed I'd rather not meet people coming the other way 🙂
Went round the old course just now. Must have had a monumental amount of rain but still rides well apart from puddles. Could see the new stuff-looked good but precisely because I wasn't sure of the direction I stayed off.
Surrey
Yellow early warning of rain
From:
0015 on Sun 30 August
To:
2350 on Sun 30 August
Updated 1 hour ago
Heavy showers and possibly some more prolonged rain is expected to affect southeastern parts of England at times during Sunday. Rain could be heavy, with the risk of some torrential downpours whilst lightning may well be an additional hazard at times.
Very localised impacts from standing water or flooding from fast responding water courses may affect travel and some outdoor events and activities.
I'm not racing this, but did the wet Brass Monkeys race as Jason above. I thought the course held up well considering and I'd be happy racing here in bad weather again. No need for mud tyres.
4 hour Brass Monkey at Minley last winter?
[shudders]
OK, OK... The course held up reasonably given the conditions, but they did close some sections off in the last hour (to the organisers credit), that was only after 2-3 hours of racing... And there were some pretty boggy sections that weren't closed. The last lap was trending toward sole destroying, for me. I passed on a fifth lap...
Got the Beavers on...
anyone know what time sign on closes????
I am entered for the 6hr solo which I think is 3pm to 9pm . I hope Im right as am doing runtimes on my lights just now in prep .
Dont want ot arrive at 11am and hang around for hours till 3 if I dont have to .
Yes, I'd like to know this too please. Web page says sign on by 10:45am, rider briefing at 2pm. Doesn't mention a later sign-in for the 3pm starters.
And the early arrivers test-ride course summary is...?
Was on site earlier today and the signs up say there's a later sign-on for 6hr riders until 1.45pm.
Forecast is all over the place. Ive got an entire bag of kit to cover torrential to dry and warm....
how similar is the course to previous years?
From Gorrick:
For the 6 hour riders Registration is open from
9 to 10.45 and then from 1 to 1.45 with a compulsory rider briefing at 2pm
before you all start at 3pm.
Course is good, should hold up well if the weather is bad... Which it currently is. Less climbing than previous years but also feels like more single track.
And the early arrivers test-ride course summary is...?
Very nice course - different enough to be interesting. Seemed a bit more singletrack but also some fire road to dring/gel etc. I left before the rain.
Ouch.
well, I think Gorrick just got away with it. The amount of rain over the preevious week always meant it was going to twitchy , and it was . But the biblical 'months rain in a day' didnt appear.
Rode my first 6hr solo vet (46yo) On the basis that last year as a team the laps were quick and relatively painless. Not this year.
Had to constantly be on alert for wet roots , trees and the fast boys duking it out for a podium place.
Went off too fast and suffered toward the end abit , crashed at exactly the same place on 2 seperate laps but enjoyed the singletrack alot.
A few rude ' get off line and let me through ' guys , but the majority of passes were mutualy agreed and polite, given the amount of singletrack worked well,mostly.
Course was grippy and a few new sections cut up quite badly exposing even more roots although there appeared to be maintenance going on throughout the race .
I am never going to win or even podium , but am happy enough with my 6 laps and 22 /47 in cat . Came in a 8.58pm , but knew another lap would have been over the hour so binned it off . Stiff and sore this morning , lazy duvet day and making up for no lunch or dinner.
Weather gods were smiling, for sure. Couple of light showers, and the cloud cover meant it stayed warm into the night, so I wore a short sleeve jersey for all my laps.
Course was good fun, bit sketchy with 'hidden' roots and some washed-out corners at night, but overall a really fun, well run event.
Led Grand Vets for a lap - very unwise. Died 3hrs in, recovered, started to die again then got a stick in my mech at 8hrs while running second and that was that.
Personally I thought the course was a bit too hard for a 12hr.
I thought it was a very good course, you had to concentrate all the time as there were very few long straights. Yes it did cut up and became very rooty in the evening but given the weather that's not surprising. If it had been dry/dusty it would have been very interesting.
With one exception everyone was fine with overtaking etc.
Personally I thought the course was a bit too hard for a 12hr.
Tell me about it, there was little respite with peddling all the way, and i'm glad the rain held off and it stayed smooth and more flowing - just the ever shinier roots to worry about but other than that I thought the course and arrangements were excellent.
But Pairs though - Njee was right - with us doing double laps using a "conservative start / consistent laps" strategy we've basically done 5+ short form XC races in 12 hours, I feel battered 😕
However, myself and my buddy picked up 3rd in Male Vets pairs, despite a slashed tyre resulting in a 3 mile run to the handover, and some lap juggling as my partner lost 3 chainring bolts during his lap - we were on for second before those. Really glad to be on the podium which has reflected on an increasingly better year for me, and also a shout out to 2 of our club colleagues who picked up 3rd Male Pairs.
Was running 6th in pairs when rear mech went as well. That and a puncture meant an early finsih for a beer.
There were roots that 'appeared' as the race went on making previously safe lines and bit of a gamble so you had to be really careful. My lights weren't really up to it either so I some ways an early finish was probably wise,
Another great event
Passing wise, people were very courtesy, even to the point of pushing me a little too hard as people were so keen to move over meant you had to accelerate to get past when you could really do with a rest! Only had one person slow me up badly and only one guy barge me out of the way starting the discussion with "I don't want to be a tosser but....." Kind of shows you know it isn't a safe place to pass. Especially at night.
Wasn't the pedaling more the jarring. Must be my old bones even with full suss I'm a wreck. Also can't find my Garmin 😥
Oh and how did the driver of the Audi R8 fit their mountain bike in?
Also can't find my Garmin
Talk to Gorrick/Torq - one was handed in but they couldn't locate the owner.
Finished 17th in the male team of three category. Course was tougher than I thought it was going to be, with no real flowy single track descents. Great fun in the dark. Bike developed an awful creak on the second lap, which I think was the Bottom pivot bearings giving up.
Didn't hang around for all the prize giving, would have if there was an award for "best comedy bike dismount in the transition area", I would have won that hands down.
Dunno how I feel about this event. On the one hand it was a great riders course and kept you working all the way around. And on the other the event itself wa just meh! Kids race on the Saturday afternoon when most hadnt arrived yet ? Quite/solo camping area was full of teams and one genie running for hours into the night. One running water tap miles away from from most of the campsite. Just meh.... :/
To be fair, gorrick do say there's no mains water on site so you need to bring your own. There's only so much they can do.
Course was similar to the year before, it's always a hard course there, just because there is no decent descents to rest on, but it's the roughness that beats it out of you eventually, pleased with 4th fat bike, I had a shocking lap, which would have looked like I had forgotten how to ride, handlebar barged a hanging branch, on the floor, target fixated on a tree, rode completely upto it, slipped on a root and shoulder barged a tree, it got better after that, a stern talking to myself and bike and we cracked on. My silliest mistake was preriding the course, then altering my tyre pressures, adding extra pressure was not a good idea, 6 1/2 psi was great, 8 psi just made it harsh and jarring with less grip. Some good banter with other racers at points, which is what makes endurance racing all the more fun.
"One running water tap miles away from from most of the campsite"
Actually, there was one tap fixed to a tree, and several basin taps in the shower cubicles.................
Ah, sorry if i missed the water notes on the site/entry. Ill apologize 🙂
benji
I followed you round for most of the day . White Trek 29er FS , blue stw jersey . You had your amazing dismounts in front of me, at least you cracked on with it.
drafting a fat bike really does work on the fireroads .
What bike was Sam Underhill riding, someone past me on my flux and said nice bike, I thought why would someone say that out of the blue, then remembered Sam had one.
Going pretty slow at that point as my left knee, which has never given me any issues in my 51 years, was giving me loads of gip 🙁
I came up behind a guy on a salsa Fargo and asked 'salsa Fargo?', then had a bit off a conversation on my tripster and his tyre choice, and then he lost it on some roots. Later I came up behind him again and was about to say the same, thought it might be amusing in a groundhog day sort of way, but he lost it on the roots before I got to say anything..
Sam was on a blue flux. He was hoping to win the Turner category ;0)
No, not a Flux, the other one, a Czar