[Closed] mayhem, really like riding round muddy fields?

If it's dry,it's great...But if it rains a lot it gets a tad muddy & people fall off everywhere....

fields and a tarmac climb

atmosphere? hope you are with a big group of mates, it's a bit big for atmosphere, still good though, not knocking it

yeh, big group:-)

It used to be. In 2003(?) it moved to Eastnor which is very much like typical cotswold riding. A mixture of singletrack and cart tracks. Bloody hilly and turns into the somme when it rains.

SiTS is still pretty much riding around fields.

Oh yeah,forgot,it's got a great atmosphere

People who trot out the old 'riding around a field' cliché have never done it.

sorry jase - ive done it

its riding round fields comparitively to scottish racing 😉 you have been up here you know what i mean !

its a great atmosphere - if i was doing it again id do it in a team with some beer - thats the kinda terrain .... i did enjoy it - was one of my best results because it was so flat and im used to so much climbing.

did loose the feeling in both hands for a week - thought it was nerve damaged 😀

In the wet it's a waste of time, in the dry it's great.

We get our best results in the rain. Every body else goes home!

How could being used to climbing make you good on a flat course?

+1 Terrahawk.
There are typically three sections per lap which cross what would be described as fields. Probably c1/1.5 miles per lap (of c9 miles).
I personally think there's plenty to keep most riders well occupied!

because it was so flat and im used to so much climbing.

that's bollocks. (sorry)

People who trot out the old 'riding around a field' cliché have never done it.

I think the main reason people take the piss is because of the name - it does kind of imply a crazy Megavalanche type event or something 🙂

Although on this video at about 35s there is a guy who stacks it on a flat grassy section, that looks pretty gnarly. 😛

think it was 2008 i did it ...

i recall one climb to the tower then up the back to the off camber mud fest , then up through the field to the descent through the field to the arena field ....

up kenda climb to the red bull tent - down to the field - gentle gradiant up there - steep little climb at the end , gentle climb through the woods and decend and cross the field to the finish area.

id take that any day as a much easier course climbing wise than relentless

maybe its changed an it relentlessly goes up kenda climb adnauseum for 24 hrs.

looks like whoever filmed that didn't leave the comfort of the campsite 😕

Its not flat! I struggle with an 18 tooth sprocket on some of the climbs.

I think the course is great with a mix of open fields round the arena/campsite with plenty of spectating, singletrack in the woods and a few jeep tracks - up and down on each.

Its good and fast in the dry but even better in the wet with lots of slippery off-camber stuff which really tests skills judging by the number of people laying in the mud!

And there's less midgies than Scotland 🙂

i did love that off camber mud fest though. mainly because it was where i was riding passing folk in the night who had minutes earlier come past screaming " team rider " trying to get there bikes off them from down the bank still clipped in.

Bloody hell Terry, now you've let the cat out of the bag that MM is easy....!
😉

didnt say easy 😉 muddy grass is still bloody hard work which ever way you look at it 😀

midgies, can do without those:-)

......no its not really like riding round a muddy field. if you were fortunate enough to do the 1st lap (i did, while my mates laughed) it was actually running round a muddy field:-0 then it got better, i thought it was quite a good lap

I've done it and there were plenty of fields and fireroads involved. I went to re-live my yoof and fly out of the Bombhole, but instead of flying all the way down the hill in to it (to impending broken bones...) the run in was about 10ft and utterly gay. The atmosphere / mates etc was good but the racing / course totally sucked.

As Jase said, it's a long way off flat and there's a lot of people on here who slag it off with no first hand experience and based on a photos taken from the start/finish or campsite clearly haven't got a clue. It's a nightmare in the mud (2008 was probably the worst year ever - followed closely by the muddiest SITS ever) and fast in the dry. Very few fields too! (Sandwell was most fieldy, whilst Catton is deceptive).

I've done several solos there and 10 Under Ben (not Relentless) and I found singlespeeding easier at Fort William (as the climbs tended to be steady long climbs which suit me). Having said that Scottish courses are ace and more weather proof!

I think the course was a bit rubbish. Lots of graft for very little gain or fun. Great event though.

To be perfectly honest, having done it, I'd not choose to travel all that way and suffer the expense of doing it, although I did actually enjoy it in a strange sort of way.

Did it SS, 32:18 which meant proper grinding away on some of the climbs. Very satisfying to do all of them without stalling, bar the top of the Kenda climb, but that was just impossible on a SS tbh; just spun out on the mud.

Horrible in places, like Plasticine, as one feller I spoke to put it. Very apt description. Proper slog.

Might not be the toughest course to those who do these sort of events a lot, but it's tough enough for many of us. A challenge, something to be endured rather than enjoyed. I'm with Bully on this one. I'd rather do something like Swinley, which is quite 'flat', yet has some great swoopy singeletrack trails and is actually not too bad in the wet.

Lovely view from the top of the climbs, although I fear this aspect may possibly have been lost on some of the other riders who just looked at me funny when I mentioned this. 😕

Kenda climb, but that was just impossible on a SS tbh; just spun out on the mud.

I beg to differ, except for the time I snapped my SRAM powerlink just near the top 🙂 But I just couldn't get up past the obelisk after passing the campsite mid-lap, although my team-mates didn't struggle with that 🙁

I thought it was a great course. Harder than other events I've done. Legs still burning from the pain!!!

to me it seems just a money making exercise, charging people to ride round an 9 mile course,

i might be wrong but i read some where there was about 2500 people doing it at about 60 quid ago seems like a lot of money to me, i have to say like any event of this type that they do it for the money, as for the people that say you havent tried it, i havent and no intention

i have a great 10 mile loop right near my house i can ride for free

I clocked 1400ft of climbing in 10.4 miles, that's not exactly flat. It wasn't very rewarding though, what comparatively little descending there was wasn't very good I didn't think!

i have a great 10 mile loop right near my house i can ride for free

And where does that logic stop? Why bother road racing, there are roads everywhere? Why do the World Cup, there are some great trails around you can ride for free?

It's a profitable event, but that logic seems a little flawed!

A lot of the posts miss the point. It's not about riding the best trails in the country, it's about being at a large event, where you meet lots of interesting people. I could stay at home and listen to music or go to a gig. I could look at pictures of Rome online, or go to Rome. When there I'd be overcharged for food, jostled by crowds, but I'd have been in Rome. On the money making side, if you paid your entry, turned up and there was an empty field, then fair enough - but providing facilities costs money.

i've done 10 under the ben and 10@ kirroughtree and rate both courses higher than this one. as in more fun, more technical in parts but nicer flow too and less climbing (i think). however, all the negative comments i've read about mayhem course are not deserved, it has some good bits and its certainly tough enough.

i doubt it cost about £160,000 to put on, I would be very intrested in seeing the accounts and what the nett profit its,

I watched a program about the london marathon and they made a fortune even after they had paid every one, the program was made to high light just how much money was being made by events like this

I take nothing away from the people that rode and I hope every one had a good time, but this morning I wouldnt mind being a quid behind pat adams in the bank

to me it seems like clever marketing and a great money spinner, and there is nothing wrong with that, only wish i had thought of it 1st

It's a profitable event, but that logic seems a little flawed!

I can't even think it's especially profitable. Total income from the event will be no more than £200k (entry fees plus charging for trade pitches, and I'm estimating an amount that the headline sponsor will put in), and it could well be a good deal less.

Take from that the cost of the land rental, the marshals, medical teams, insurance, vehicles....there'll certainly be some profit, but you'd be surprised at how little there is left over. Basically, it provides a living for Pat Adams and a few others, and that's about it.

i've done 10 under the ben and 10@ kirroughtree and rate both courses higher than this one

Both of those events are tiny compared to Mayhem. Mayhem is the biggest, and there are concessions to that.

Personally I thought it was a bit less 'festival' like than in the past, it all seemed lower key, which is a shame. I remember the BBC Philharmonic playing in 2005, and the rave tent in the woods and other stuff, there didn't seem to be anything like that, it was just about the race.

Agree with iDave though, and to be honest if you are so tight as to object to paying for an event then you must lead an incredibly boring life. In fact, I recommend taking up crosswords, it's cheaper than cycling.

I didnd ask you to comment on my life, and I dont think I am tight I was only airing my point of view, if you rode it and had a great time thats what its all about,

if you think 67 quid to ride round and round and for 24 hours is good fun, might i suggest its you who has a boring life, and you buy your self a hamster wheel

Just check out how much it costs to camp with a few mates for a weekend at a normal campsite & the whole thing seems like very good value for money to me.

It wasn't £67, it was £51, considering an XC race is £30 for <2hrs it seems bloody good value to me.

I wouldnt mind being a quid behind pat adams in the bank

That's possible, all you need to do is do what Pat does then.

Or would you rather just bitch?

njee, yes its the biggest, thats why i went. i'm not slagging it off at all. i was pleasnatly surprised by the course and the organisation of an event this size was very good.

ENTRY FEE
NO SA E REQUIRED.
£215 teams of four & five
£291 teams of 10
£67 solo
All prices inclusive

did i read it wrong

Well I did it this year again (this was my 5th) and I think a lot of the comments are are well wide of the mark. Its not meant to be a technical course and test your skills lap after lap, the whole idea is that its a TEAM ENDURANCE event. It's what you and your team make it. Unless your solo but thats just mad and I have no idea what they do it for 😉

This year I managed to get the dawn and dusk lap. I'm sorry but there's nothing like cycling and watching the sun come up/go down no matter what your state you always feel better 🙂

The course this year did seem to have more climbing, but that didn't make it a bad course. We were blessed weather wise this year too! Looking at forecasts it was set for 'somme like' weather. Took far too much kit in the end.

I will be back next year, hopefully with two teams or a team of ten.

i have no problem with event organisers making a profit. why should they operate like some sort of charity?

For my first MM I thought the course was pretty good for it's intended purpose of racing on.

I was a bit disappointed by the lack of that festival feel (was expecting the rave tent in the woods but only got growled at by a tiger.) Also where were the beer tents? I saw some pumps in a SIS stand but that had packed up by the time I crossed the finish line in desperate need of refreshment (only 30 mins after the 24 was up.)

Didn't see any mountains and the only actual mayhem I saw was on the running bit. One chap in front of me turned back to pick up something that had fallen out of his back pocket only to take out three other runners.

ENTRY FEE
NO SA E REQUIRED.
£215 teams of four & five
£291 teams of 10
£67 solo
All prices inclusive

did i read it wrong

Ah, I was talking teams, which was still more than £50, so one of my team mates short changed me, bastard 🙂

I still don't think any of that's bad to be honest, you get 4 nights camping for that, plus all your entry bits, few freebies etc. As observed elsewhere, how much would camping cost, and you'd not have all the food choices on your doorstep!

I can understand that it's difficult providing something different each year, but I thought the course was far too much slog for very little reward or recovery.

Also why we had to go up and down the flat grass field so many times is beyond me. There was very rarely anyone standing by most of these parts cheering and it just feeds the trolls 😉

The other thing was that a course like that removed the likelihood of any surprises in the results. I have been in a couple of teams which have made top 10 in categories, but having so much climbing stretches the gaps out too much between the best and the more normal teams. (maybe I will be proved wrong).

To have alcohol for sale on site would probably require a costly license. Considering the events that stopped the Malverns Classic on that site many years ago (a murder, for those that don't remember) I wouldn't expect it to be very likely that a license would be granted.

Just remember to stock up well in advance next time.

Speaking of freebies... definitely need to be a bit careful washing with that mint shower gel, bit too minty for the delicate parts I reckon!

if you think 67 quid to ride round and round and for 24 hours is good fun, might i suggest its you who has a boring life, and you buy your self a hamster wheel

How do you know it isn't good fun if:

as for the people that say you havent tried it, i havent and no intention

I got my entry fee back in shampoo. 😉

Yes I seem to have come home with rather a lot of it! It was me who said hello just at the bottom of the long climb to the obelisk about 10:30 yesterday morning, sort of introduced myself in a choked fashion!

if you think 67 quid to ride round and round and for 24 hours is good fun

It wasn't good fun - so I gave up after 14hrs 🙁

There are some idiot comments coming out on here now, how difficult it is will always be subjective. Its meant to be difficult and has never been a technical riding based even, its an ENDURANCE event.

Its also about the experiance with your team, how you can support each other, encourage each other to get the best that you can archieve, now that might be a 50 minute lap like one of the guys on my team or a 1hr 20 minute lap for the girl but as long as they enjoy it I couldn't of cared a less! We all came away this year tired, but never the less we did the best we could and next year we'll try and do better 🙂

I did my first MM this year as part of a 4 man team.

It was great event, well organised with a friendly family type atmosphere. The riding was a great challenge and required a lot of skill and fitness to ride the course any significant speed. It's just a totally different type of riding to the spoon fed manufactured trail centre stuff.

In any case, If an event that size was held somewhere with miles of amazing singletrack by the end there would be miles of mangled doubletrack.

It's not for everyone, but I'd love to do it again.

It was my first MM. I read a few posts on here before saying it was a non-challenging course, could turn into the Somme if it rained and that I should go as part of a team if I wanted to enjoy it.

I turned up. It was a non-challenging course (apart for the amount of dull climbing that broke me). It started to turn into the Somme when it rained but fried out quite a bit. I was part of a team and enjoyed it but there wasn't much to do if you were on your own.

It did exactly what everyone described. Where is the problem?

If you want an event with loads of different stuff to do, a party atmosphere, a beer festival, live music and some racing then I think you know the event I promote. We do not promote the [url= http://www.BigBikeBash.co.uk ]BBB[/url] as an endurance bike race and would be surprised if it was criticised because of that.

Look at the event you are thinking of attending. Google it to see what people say. If it sounds like what you like then go to it. If it doesn't then don't go and then complain that you don't like it.

just before I go and ride my bike,

to they guy that suggesed im tight, apparentley they were short on marshalls, how much did you get paid for being a marshall, nowt

now if you can charge some one to ride round, why cant they pay a marshall,

because they are tight and they know some mug will do it for free because they love the sport, i say bollox if you want me to do it then put your hand in your pocket, seems fair to me or do you not think there is not enough money to go round

i say agin if you had a good time that is all that matters, im not trying to fall out with folk

and yes I would like to see it run as a charity,

Do it then, whinging online about it won't make it happen. I need to go shopping, but I truly resent the fact that I'm lining Mr Tesco's pocket, should be a charity dammit! 🙄

try your local market, and i do resent tescos, so i dont go, all the other shops suffer nearby,

They still make a profit though the buggers.

Whether or not it was run for profit is neither here nor there for me. It takes a lot of talent, work, imagination etc. to put on something like MM. If the organisers make a living from it then great, good on them.

tomd +1

Might not be the toughest course to those who do these sort of events a lot

It's tougher than the others I've done tbh, because of the climbing. In the dry I love it, it's my fave - fast, open and fun when done fast.

And they make hardly any profit. Yes the entry fees are a lot, but one year Pat Adams addressed this in the pre-race speech and said that they'd spend something daft like £5k on zip ties to hand out for attaching race numbers (I forget the exact figure but it was bonkers).

So it's a lot more expensive than you'd think. People have also complained about the venue, but there are apparently only half a dozen or so venues that are suitable for a national event like this, and most of them have races on already. It has to be private land, big enough to have a decent course in it; it needs trails on it but NOT public rights of way; it needs to be central so lots of people can get there and transport links need to be good so there aren't endless traffic jams on country lanes. And the owners need to be up for it.

I love the relentless negativity on here. If the Mayhem course consisted of super rocky technical singletrack with sections of north shore, gnarly downhill runs and had alpine views the same people would be moaning that it was dangerous and too hard for normal riders. If the whole thing were a charitable event supporting, say, Small Children With Narcolepsy Aid, you'd be slagging it off as a pious, skinflint, small-scale, under-organised mess. If the marshals were paid, they'd be 'mercenaries with no love or understanding of the sport'. If the place were lined with beer tents, you'd slag it as a 'pissed-up beer fest' etc.

What's so hard about just accepting that a lot of people enjoy Mayhem as it is?

It's a smaller event but I'm personally very glad I've focussed on doing Bristol Bikefest the past few years, sounds a better event than MM, most importantly the MM course round and up & down fields @ Eastnor can't even come close to the BBF Ashton Court trails...

4 nights camping for £50? That's cheap in itself. Even if you only stay the 2 nights that's still cheap.

Plus free riding and meeting up with all your mates and watching them suffer.

Loved it. As usual.

A lot of the posts miss the point. It's not about riding the best trails in the country, it's about being at a large event, where you meet lots of interesting people. I could stay at home and listen to music or go to a gig. I could look at pictures of Rome online, or go to Rome. When there I'd be overcharged for food, jostled by crowds, but I'd have been in Rome. On the money making side, if you paid your entry, turned up and there was an empty field, then fair enough - but providing facilities costs money.

Very well put.

Like WCA, this was also my first (and possibly only) MM. I did it not beccause I wanted to, particularly, as racing and stuff isn''t really my bayg, but because [url= http://www.justgiving.com/TeamBullheart ]Bullheart[/url] asked me to.

And I actually really enjoyed the whole weekend. I'm still buzzing from it.

At 6am, when you're cold and tired, it doesn't seem like such a great idea as you ride out of the main arena towards the first nasty little climb.

But when you're riding along, covered in sweat and mud, your legs burning from slogging uphill in the mud, and some random person shouts out your race number, your name, your forum name or your team tame, or just other general words of encouragement, then, it suddenly becomes worth it.

For me, grinding up a muddy hill, swearing and cursing, asking myself why the hell I was doing it, the answer was always 'because Bullheart won't give up, ever, and neither should I'.

We all have our own reasons for doing it, which is what makes it so good. I thought it was brilliant. I don't give a stuff about the negatives, cos they just really don't matter.

I have no idea where all this negativity comes from.

The event is called MOUNTAIN MAYHEM and this year it finally lived up to both words.

MOUNTAIN as it felt like you were climbing for hours and MAYHEM as the start was chaos and when the track got claggy saw people make some interesting lines.

The last 2 years people complained at the lack of hills and "the course is too flat" and now people are saying there was too much climbing MTFU!

As for people bitching on about entry fees. A local 2 hour XC race is £30, Chain Reaction Cycles Marathon is £30 so a 24 hour race where you can camping from Thursday to Monday with showers and toilets that get cleaned every 2 hours for just over £50 is a bargain.

If you didn't like it, don't bother next year but if you are reading these comments and it's putting you off then don't let it. I have done the last 3 years and will back next year as MY TEAM AND FRIENDS help make the event fun and enjoyable.

Barely any climbing this year I'm not even sure why they call it MOUNTAIN mayhem... 🙄
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I had a great weekend. Total of 5 solo and 4 team appearances.

No thanks however, to matey in the Honda CRV who refused to put even one wheel of his 4x4 onto the grass as I was heading in on the ridge road in the camper, and then called me a *** as I squeezed passed.

A bit late to the party here, sorry.
I've raced every single Mayhem (so that's 14) and I've done around 20 others around the UK and the world too. I've also helped Pat organise Mayhem on and off over the years.

Entry fees - I've not seen the figures, but I think that renting Eastnor Deer Park for the week is around £30K alone, then there are miles of barriers, hundreds of (regularly cleaned and serviced) loos, HOT showers that never run out of water (because a separate water tanker is driven to the top of the hill to feed the header tanks to make sure they never run dry) and not to mention around 20 acres(!) of camping.

As for the course - it's raced on by everyone from first time novices to multiple national champions. If it's too easy, then you're not going fast enough. Personally (having not had anything to do with this year's course or organising) I thought that the course was fun - I enjoyed all the singletrack bits and thought that the climbing was tough, but doable. While having a course that was nine miles of narrow singletrack would be fun to ride, it would be hell to race, given that the leaders are literally going twice the speed of the slowest and there needs to be sufficient width to overtake. Races like Dusk Til Dawn (and 24hrs in the Old Pueblo in Arizona) have huge bits of super narrow singletrack - which is great fun to ride, but if you come upon a slower rider, there's nowhere for either of you to go until you get to the next open section.

As for entry fees - I've just looked at the classic 24 Hours of Moab - seen by many to be one of the ultimate races - and entry fees are $155/£100 per person. You then have to pay to camp (even if you're a racer) and spectators/team helpers have to pay £20 or so a day to spectate. Oh, and the 13 mile course is half sandy, flat fire road. 🙂

If you're after a rugged race with rocks, then we'll see you at the Singletrack Weekender. If you want to join 2500 other like-minded racers for a fun weekend of camping, that happens to involve a bit of bike racing every now and again, then I'll see you next year...

As for people bitching on about entry fees. A local 2 hour XC race is [s]£30[/s] [b]£10[/b] with pre-entry

FIFY 😉

An Elite Southern XC is £27 pre-entry (£30 EOL), BC sanctioning and what not ups the cost, Midlands XCs etc are much the same.

There's economies of scale I guess - if you could get 2500 people at an XC race I imagine the entry fees would be cheaper! I certainly don't think Mayhem is bad value at all!

A 'cross race is £13 (if you're not a BC member) for 45 minutes of fun/pain... It's hard to compare different event prices really. A day time race will always be cheaper to put on than something involving an overnight. Everything suddenly costs more. Mayhem has a full time plumber guy there through the night to keep the showers running - whereas a day time event probably wouldn't have showers.

Anyway, I guess we're getting away from the original question of if it was like riding round muddy fields. I suppose it depends on which field 😉

£50 (and raising at least £150 in sponsorship) and you can 'enjoy' cycling from Bristol to Eastnor Castle AND camp with your mates AND get mashed at the Big Chill for 4 days, on their Tour De Chill.

Makes more sense to me.

Don't have an opinion on the race, never been, it's not really for me I think. But this:

milkman100 - Member

apparentley they were short on marshalls, how much did you get paid for being a marshall, nowt

Is pretty s**t tbh.

thread still going, thanks for your post chipps, some interesting info. well i rode it anyway so i can answer my own question with.....i'll probably do it again.