I had never done anything competitive on a bike before yesterday. And now I know why ha ha. That grass drag was horrible. I noticed in the end people were riding up the tarmac anyway. One of the officials said she didn't know what was going on at that point.
I'd given up by then. clanged into a tree with my hand on lap 1. And my lower back just didn't want to play ball either. And a full suspension bike with 2.4" tyres was not ideal in that mud. I had to keep stopping to clear it all out.
Think I may keep my hardtail and not sell it afterall for riding like that.
Got a few massive mozzie type bits, very itchy.
I agree, it reminded me why I'd not done any XC for a decade! the last one I did was at Leisure Lakes and the sand killed my bike. The Mountain Mayhems were similar quagmires to yesterday.
Haigh XC was well organised and the officials were all friendly, but the course, in those conditions, wasn't good. I would never normally choose to ride around the bushes in a muddy park!
For me, it was a good early season learning experience. My fitness was ok, if not quite used to the getting off and running bits, but my equipment was totally unsuited to it.
As above, I do think it worth having a narrow tyred, light bike with a short fork (possibly singlespeed) specifically for such riding. XC racing isn't really "mountain trail biking".
Loved it myself, but I like stuff like tha'.
Hard going, having to stay vigilant on just about every section, lines changing/developing, trying to carry momentum much as possible. Fun - in a sadistic way 🙂
Having said that, that short section by the road at the start bit was horrid, glad for last few laps you could use the road 🙂
Wish I had a scale to weigh my bike at the end, from 23ish lb to about 35+ i reckon! My bike did seem to have a lot more on than others mind.
another shout here with the itchy bite thingy's
How strange, none of them for me, perhaps the build up of mid after 4 laps kept them off
I knew I made the right choice going for biblongs and long sleeves.
Still no results on BC site. Anyone seen them elsewhere?
Does anyone know at any other photographers who were there, they seemed to be all over the place.
I have to say that was my first and last time there, no fault of the race organisers but the endless clag and slop made anything even halfway interesting a big slithering lottery.. the grass start was daft
my hub died at the end of lap two and I was not upset at having to stop
edhornby - MemberI have to say that was my first and last time there, no fault of the race organisers but the endless clag and slop made anything even halfway interesting a big slithering lottery.. the grass start was daft
my hub died at the end of lap two and I was not upset at having to stop
It was very much like a muddy cross-country running course, one that would have required spikes. It wasn't really what I would normally consider mountain biking.
I assumed that riding along the grass section was to allow the surfaced track to remain mostly open to the public (other than the U-turn part), although might it not have been better to cross the track sooner and ride straight to the 'singletrack'?
I was actually disappointed to have to stop, though.
It took a fair bit of brushing, 'Pound-shop [i]Muc-off[/i]' and hosing to get the mud out of the rear triangle, transmission, bash-ring and chain device yesterday.
On the plus side, I have already begun building what was a pile of old parts and my old singlespeed into a budget XC machine.
To be fair, a weeks worth of rain didn't help matters. It wasn't too far removed for a typical northern XC course from what I've raced.
Cannock wasn't quite as muddy on Sunday, but by the 3rd lap even the fastest guys were running up a couple of the wooded climb sections, it's the nature of the beast at this time of year I'm afraid.
I ride up there quite often and it can be really good and fast, I've never experienced conditions like that before. I found the sort of dry leafy mud was far worse than the wet squelchy stuff.
In summer the bit after the canal is really good normally you can get quite a bit of speed up down there. Like someone said earlier the weather can't be helped it dumped a couple of inches of snow down the Sunday before which melted within an hour that won't have helped.
I couldn't believe they'd used the bit along past the pond, that's always the worst section in the park for mud IME.
Wasn't as bad as usual on the day if you stayed in the main rut though.
It was the thin bit of grass/mud beside the main drive up to the hall that was the killer. Saw at least one guy shouldering the bike and running there.
The grass start was a good thing, as it cleared up the field prior to the climb, last year its was tarmac then climb. It dragged the field out instantly, thus no bottle neck... at least I was able to ride it this time with our getting due to others getting off in front of me.
The repeat laps of the grass was awful, it essentially meant every spin of the pedal was a challenge, glad they dropped it later on!
The next climb up through the trees in front the finish line was really difficult for me, despite clearing every time last year, the combo of "race" tyres (vs mud) and 1 x 10 and the slippery-ness meant pushing up.
Then the fun really happened, kept dropping my chain, must have been the mud/twigs/leafs etc. Dropping a chain over 10 times was not much fun, lost a lot of places but made it to the end 🙂
Enjoyed it in the end, but just took it for a ride, not a race after dropping the chain so many times.
I didn't see any CX bikes, and I wouldn't want a CX, there was a couple of ridged MTBs that made sense in the non rocky conditions.
http://www.whiteflyerphotography.com/events/Haigh%20Woodland%20XCO/Seniors/index.html
Some more pics. That's two photographers found, what about the others dotted around.
Thanks - there were a few taking shots not far from the start/finish after you had gone up and over the steep climb, there was a decent with a jumpy bit, should be some nice shots there if they get posted.
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I really enjoyed it tbh, although it was seriously hard!
My rigid single speed did seem to make lots of sense in the mud (I was the black surly) but i would have liked a lower gear for the continuous mud.
Has anyone seen any results yet?
Nope
They're still not on wlct have posted saying they will be on soon.
Some of the results are on now
Ayyyy, I came 2nd in my category! Not bad for a rigid singlespeed! 😀
Where's the overall results?
Is there a men's category missing aswell as the overall, I'm not on there
I have been given a position (via BC) but cant see the Snr results, so I am 22 out of something LOL!
Is it just me or have all the results disappeared
Weird, results have disappeared as my rankings have changed again.
Just realised I lost my saddle back in the race if anyone finds one please let me know, Cheers.
Must have been an issue as they released a few cat. results last night, missing out senior, but then given its ranked event that'd then need to be split into sport, expert, masters, etc, all a bit messy!
Hope they just release an overall results and then maybe a sub-category for the age/ability cat. as pretty sure I wasn't battling throughout with people from my cat..
I emailed the results inbox at BC this morning saying they were incomplete. They got back to me and said they were pulling all the results down until they'd resolved it.
So who exactly is to 'blame' for the results debacle?
Sen/Jun/Womens (at the bottom) has results now . . . except when you click to see them . . . There are no results once again!
Give me your name I might be able to help 8)
God knows what's going on, it's not very clever for a 'first' full on race at a venue
results are up now in basic form.
Not that I can see via the BC website, still says no results
Full results are now on BC website
It's always frustrating for competitors when results go wrong, but I've got a lot of sympathy with the organisers. Results rarely seem to go a little bit wrong, when something goes amiss it really cocks the lot up.
I remember one HTN when the results were so f***ed up we had to ask the audience who came second and third 😉
Funny now, utterly horrendous at the time.