Couldn't be better. Loved the course. All but a couple of muddy sections of climbs were ridable. The descents were a big grin. The short lap suited too.
Seriously? The descents were virtually all doubletrack, is that honestly the best riding you can think of!? I know there are restrictions on course design because of the volume of riders, but still, Eastnor managed singletrack.
Pat organised a great event, and I doth my cap to all involved, but I'd personally call the course nothing short of crap! Trouble is... not that sure the topography allows you to do much else with it, I don't particularly think it was a course design issue, although not having the last third of the lap as an incessant climb would help, or at least having at least one section to look forward to!
I and all of my team mates really enjoyed the course, granted it wasn't a single track fest but for the first go at a new venue I think the organisers did a sterling job.
Maybe, with more access to the woods as mentioned earlier some more interesting bits could be put in, but there was more than enough out there to keep you entertained / on your toes for the majority of the lap.
Personally I really like the last section through the trees before you climbed up to the arena, it reminded me a lot of where I ride normally - which is nice.
There were as always a lot of people walking sections that were more than rideable; but hey ho, if that's what they want to do.
The camping was good and IMHO the toilets and showers were more than adequate for the event, it is a race round a field / woods after all, not a WI tea party.
The bike wash was a joke, 6 bays was nowhere near enough for the event, thankfully I only had to use to once.
We'll be back for sure next year.
I couldn't help looking at all the forest to left & right when we rode through all that double track & in retrospect wonder if some sort of compromise was made between owners & organisers about where we could ride. Maybe if the event was deemed a success by those mentioned then it can progress one step forward. If not then I think mayhem could do a lot worse than look at what the guys do with HIt The North & the attitude to that event, they facilitate a really healthy sense of humour with mixture of flat out racing from the get go, something which I feel mayhem is losing sight of ?
I will add that a massive change of venue on top of last years mud hell & is gonna take time to rebuild back up to its previous heights.
I'm not that bothered by singletrack, to be honest. I get that on my local trails whenever I want. What I want at a race is to race, so the course needs to be fast and allow sustained hard effort, more speed than you can manage on public trails without worrying about crashing into walkers, and lots of passing places. It had that, or would have had it in the dry. A lot of passing places were full of mud - on the first doubletrack after the first descent I got stuck behind some kid in a football shirt and trainers.. I need to make up as much time as i can on descents so I tried passing him through the mud and went sprawling.. that was a frustrating bit of trail! The lakeside was easier as they'd mowed the undergrowth on the inside so you could pass through that.
The last mile or so after the last climb would have been lovely but the blutack was really demoralising there, at its worst. On possible disadvantage of that course is that most of it is wooded, which makes it a lot slower to dry I reckon. Eastnor got a lot of sun on that grass.
And for those saying 'just ride through the woods' - it'd cost millions to put proper man made trails in - if you just put the kind of cheeky trails through that you get in your local woods it'd be destroyed in a single lap at a Mayhem.
Anybody know when the Red Bull timed section results will be available as my team mate outpaced me on every lap and the Red Bull is my last chance to redeem myself!
Also, any ideas on what was the fastest lap? I'm guess-timating around 37 minutes when the course was at its driest mid afternoon?
I really wasn't looking forward to the course after pre riding it on Friday but found it far better once the race began and really enjoyed it although i agree with a lot of the comments regarding not a lot of reward for the climbs. I managed 6 laps in our (Vets) team and saved my cramp until 6 miles into my last lap - after all the big climbs (walks).
Camping was good but i too missed seeing all the lights zig zagging through the woods on the night laps and all the paople cheering you through the night from trackside camping.
[i]Hard to believe that it was impossible to buy a Shimano-compatible jockey wheel from any of the stands at Mayhem.[/i]
You're shitting me?!?
Mountain mayhem course have never in all the time I've done them, been inspiring, only Dusk 2 dawn has ever had a decent course that you'd actually want to ride ever again
What I want at a race is to race, so the course needs to be fast and allow sustained hard effort, more speed than you can manage on public trails without worrying about crashing into walkers, and lots of passing places.
I would agree with this. I was in it for the 24 hour racing and to be honest it ticked all the relevant boxes for me.
Seriously? The descents were virtually all doubletrack, is that honestly the best riding you can think of!? I know there are restrictions on course design because of the volume of riders, but still, Eastnor managed singletrack.
It was perfect for a 24. Fast and slippery is fun, and you can overtake.
The singletrack at eastnor was utterly tedious. Sitting behind people wobbling around on singletrack is dull.
Was this the lap - times look rather slow or is that just because of the conditions (and that most racers weren't carrying a GPS)?
http://app.strava.com/segments/4431428
only Dusk 2 dawn has ever had a decent course that you'd actually want to ride ever again
Really? Now I can't stand the D2D course,no ups,no downs just dull & flat,with a bit of turning of your h/bars now & again.....
Which just goes to show,you can't please all the people all of the time.
[quote=clubber]Was this the lap - times look rather slow or is that just because of the conditions (and that most racers weren't carrying a GPS)?
[url= http://app.strava.com/segments/4405954 ]This[/url] is probably more representative of the lap by the looks of it..
Are the lap times for individual riders on the internet somewhere? In my coffee / lack of sleep induced haze I thought I would torment myself with seeing how slow I was... 😆
Gee smashed that lap!
Think this segment is the "official" one so to speak. Was set up before the race I believe, and certainly has the most riders having ridden it.
http://app.strava.com/segments/4430084
That's more like it. I think the fastest during the race was 36minutes or there abouts
With regards to fastest lap and times for each rider I think STW usually do an Excel spreadsheet of all the results.
Think 36 was the fastest though. Very quick indeed.
42 mins was my fastest, and although I never did a flat out fastest lap attempt I tip my hat to those getting in the mid 30s! 2 or 3 mins I could make up for sure, but 7 or 8 would kill me!
It was a fast course,when it was dry or mostly dry.My last lap where I had to hang about for 5 minutes until 12 O'clock,was 50:01(according to that Strava link).Never went mad as there was no rush to get back,well that & I was pretty knackered by then.....
36 mins??! Blimey. No way I could do that - I couldn't even get below an hour (unless the lap times surprise me!). 1:01 was my 'fastest' lap. Hey ho!
What I want at a race is to race, so the course needs to be fast and allow sustained hard effort, more speed than you can manage on public trails without worrying about crashing into walkers, and lots of passing places.I would agree with this. I was in it for the 24 hour racing and to be honest it ticked all the relevant boxes for me.
A lot of people seem to forget that you can't have a singletrack-fest of a course, it becomes soul-destroyingly frustrating to be sitting behind a "less able rider" and prompts daft overtakes through the bracken, the result being that your pristine singletrack soon turns to muddy double/triple track anyway.
It's a race course that has to cope with the equivalent of thousands of miles of passage across it in a very short space of time. You want singletrack - go and ride some. You want a 24hr race, you have to put up with some of the course design limitations that such an event usually requires.
Bear in mind that Mayhem doesn't just cater for the ganrr-core STW reader, it attracts entrants from all over, osme of whom (from what I could see) barely knew one end of a bike from the other.
The time on the Strava segment up there for me was my first lap which was a little slower than my penultimate lap which was timed at 35.45 on the timing screen so would have been faster on the Garmin without the changeover. Sadly, the Garmin died after 2 laps and I couldn't charge it up again and so this one wasn't recorded. We started the lap 7 mins behind 2nd and ended up minute behind... Was a very exciting end to the race - we ended up overtaking the RAF and got 2nd 🙂
GB
Well done gee - great result.
Think this segment is the "official" one so to speak. Was set up before the race I believe, and certainly has the most riders having ridden it.
My phone only recorded about 4.5 miles but that's cos of the heavy tree cover and the zig-zagging around, it's always rubbish on stuff like that and I didn't have my Garmin. Also, on the only lap I rode (on Friday) we stopped quite a bit as well.
Uploaded it and found I had a KOM on the TF2 Dip section (being one of the first few dozen people to ride the course obviously has it's advantages!). About an hour later, my phone beeped again to tell me I'd just lost my KOM. 😉
Out of curiosity what ratio were singlespeeders running? Those singular guys flew past me.
Out of curiosity what ratio were singlespeeders running?
I ran 32-20 but i should have ran 18-19 which i normally do on the rear.
I was never getting up two grassy climbs and the one after the red bull section during the race so might have well made up a bit of time on the flatter sections where i was spinning out.
Out of curiosity what ratio were singlespeeders running? Those singular guys flew past me.
I was riding on the Singular team and had 32:18. Not sure what the other guys had - try not to talk too much about gear ratios otherwise you'll start thinking it would be nice to be able to change them on-the-fly and who knows where that would lead.
I had 32:20 on as well. I had brought an 18t cog but thought I may blow up lol. I had more dramas withy ignitors clogging.
Mayhem was my first 24hr race, agree with most of the points but after everything I'd heard I was left a little disappointed. Before the start I tried to buy something from the Top peak boys and was told all their stuff was display only and the Wiggle van was pretty poor too. I'd heard that SRAM and Shimano normally turn up to offer support?.
The course wasn't too bad but can't help thinking a bit more work beforehand would have helped and god knows what would've happened if it kept raining. Campsite was sound and showers etc.
Thought the marshals did a good job and did anyone else see those 2 girls fast asleep in their chairs still holding glow sticks! At the end of the day it was a weekend riding bikes with my mates 😀
Anyone found the Redbull times yet?
A lot of people seem to forget that you can't have a singletrack-fest of a course, it becomes soul-destroyingly frustrating to be sitting behind a "less able rider" and prompts daft overtakes through the bracken,
The few sections of singletrack on the course had really well planned/executed overtaking space - off the 'fast' line, but ideal for keeping your progress up past slower riders. The singletrack itself just needed more corners, gradient (up or down, whatever!) and armouring to ensure it could hold up to heavier rain than it was subject to this year.
Oh and more of it too!
Can somebody please explain the difference between sport & open category's.
I can't remember what it said when we entered, but looking at the results it seems there is no clear reason to be one and not the other.
Having said that I seem to remember that if you're Elite then you have to enter open?
Open - Anyone can enter - elite,pro's etc,& dodgy old buggers who enter the wrong one by mistake(or perhaps that was just us)
Sport - Mainly for your average joe's
Hard to believe that it was impossible to buy a Shimano-compatible jockey wheel from any of the stands at Mayhem.You're shitting me?!?
Wiggle had SRAM jockey wheels, Hope had their own ones up on display but not for sale... To be fair, it's my own fault for not properly checking my mech over before the race. I guess they're not things that fail often at races, but anyway, big thanks again to the Noah's Ark guys for service above and beyond.
We were running a mixed sport singlespeed team, and despite injury and an early home with the kids for one of the team, we all enjoyed it.
I appreciate the course has to cater for all and the difficulty in arranging purpose built stuff, so overall it did well enough. I reckon Gee has nailed it ^(a few pages). Maybe a few too-many pushing climbs for the majority of people and the first descent became off-putting for a few folk. Everyone on course imo, was polite and enthusiastic which definitely adds to the occasion.
The camping was great, well drained. The arena seemed close-ish despite us being near the far edge of field 2. Plenty of nice hot showers. All good.
Overall, we had a great w-e racing and caught up with plenty of mates.
I reckon this is a better venue than Eastnor. Possibly some course tweaks would be nice, but the reality is that some more firepower in my legs is probably whats needed.
Ps - 32:18 on a 29er which was fine really. I didn't start my laps until the late evening, so it would be interesting to go back and have a crack at the hills when they are dry/not cut up.
A lot of people seem to forget that you can't have a singletrack-fest of a course, it becomes soul-destroyingly frustrating to be sitting behind a "less able rider" and prompts daft overtakes through the bracken, the result being that your pristine singletrack soon turns to muddy double/triple track anyway.It's a race course that has to cope with the equivalent of thousands of miles of passage across it in a very short space of time. You want singletrack - go and ride some. You want a 24hr race, you have to put up with some of the course design limitations that such an event usually requires.
Bear in mind that Mayhem doesn't just cater for the ganrr-core STW reader, it attracts entrants from all over, osme of whom (from what I could see) barely knew one end of a bike from the other.
To me the best race courses, whether 24hr or otherwise, have a mixture of singletrack and more open sections where passing is easy. And as Dave said above, it's also possible to design the singletrack sections to have areas where you can still overtake. Another good option is alternate lines, with faster but more difficult routes - such as the tight corner on the Red Bull section.
Really disappointed with the course this year. It seemed that only the elite riders could ride the whole lap and i'd guess that around 90% of people were walking at least 3 out of the 4 climbs. Given it's a mtb event and intended for the masses I just think they got it wrong (surely we are there to ride not walk!?) - stick a couple of tough climbs in but not 4 that become unrideable when the drizzle starts. For the record, whilst we're not fast riders we all do in excess of 150km a week so i would expect to be able to ride the whole course.
I also had the unenviable 1:00pm lap just as it poured down and turned the course into mud soup. Had it carried on like that then there would have been rear mechs ripping off all over the place and I doubt whether we would have risked the bikes. I think the organisers were very lucky that the rain relented just enough to keep riding.
Here's hoping they get a mere mortal in to design the course next year. Let's have a couple of sloggy climbs with just one or two beasts and perhaps with some built in options in case the weather does turn dreadful.
On a positive, it was still a good weekend and I was loving the easy / hard options taking a leaf out of XC courses.
Another first-timer here. I thought the course would have been a lot of fun in the dry, you'd be able to really peg it down those double-tracks and that would have been pretty exciting. I thought the course kind of coped ok with the weather, I think the problem was I just wasn't that interested in slogging around in that gloop - as well as a handful of minor crashes, I couldn't count the number of mud-related half-arsed step-offs I did, where the front wheel caught a bit of camber or the edge of a rut and darted off somewhere it wasn't required. My two night laps were just horrible - I was one of the guys you might have seen walking through the gloop, I was just sick to death of stepping off it every few hundred yards.... It was a lot better by the end, I did two of our last three laps and they were by far the most fun of the weekend.
Organisation-wise, I thought it was spot on - all absolutely painless, perfectly acceptable toilets and cracking showers. I had a spatula, so didn't need a bike wash, but it wa a bit annoying not to be able to buy bits there.
I liked the course and with out willy waving rode most of it until I got into double figures, excluding the first sharp grassy climb and the slippy limestone one.
I guess the more skilled and fit will find it boring, and the less fit etc will find it epic. Hard (as ever) to find a happy balance for all riders.
Chatted with some great people whilst out on the course.
😀
The course didnt blow me away to be honest but it was ok,rode it friday and cleaned all the climbs but found them quite tough, after the rain came down all night friday this was a different story and i struggled to get up them(not helped not being able to use my lower chainring).the downhills were a little uninspiring to be honest and i thought the stalls/vendors were absolutely shocking,no shimano jockey wheels i read and no stans sealent at any of them,but wiggle had some wheels you could buy incase you forgot yours
I saw Back on Track were there riding, shame they couldn't have their tent there selling stuff, suspect the wiggle deal had something to do with that
I have to confess I didn't go into the Wiggle stand - mainly because I knew they wouldn't have anything remotely useful and I did take a lot of spares so I had what I was likely to need (rear mech), cassette, chain, pads etc.
Course was quite nice imo, maybe more tech would have been nice, only one part not rideable in all the conditions that appeared.
The light charging ppl have a lot to answer for imo, all in bed during the early hours for a 24hr race, what a bunch of clowns.
My first one, used to smashing around for an hour and half over XC or racing on the track and road so to race at these strange hours was a real soul searcher at time, but we loved it despite just missing the Open podium.
Pivot Boompods
Down by the lake an impatient cyclocross riding guy in a red shirt got caught up in a planned overtake by somoene else, not wanting to take his turn a bit of a clash, and few angry words before shoving the slower rider into the lake. Didnt get the No. and he could not be caught. Nice. I didnt witness it but my other solo mate was in the following group that saw it.
Nice course, i`d prefer some more bits to be like the kenda coffin and slow some of the roadie powerhouses down. It played into the hands of the 29" machines.
Thanks to Andy at geartech for getting out of bed to sort me a hanger late at night, so i could repair my bike (read take apart mangled mech and smash it into some sort of wobbly shape) and get back out there.
I can say the lap felt very long breaking a rear mech sub 2 miles in and walking/scooting the rest. So if anyone spotted the grumpy solo at about 10 PM sporting a stupid purple mohawk, that was me fuming from my mech failure.
cyclocross riding
Isn't that against the MM rules?
Pushing someone in the lake is just plain nasty, sure people held us up, but you have to be patient and then say thankyou, everyone is just doing their best, the encouragement I got from other riders was amazing and it def helped, the camaraderie between competitors is what made it for me.
My first Mayhem for a few years after break from competitive riding for kids. Joined hubbie's singlespeed team as late entry - one of the lads was carrying an injury and we decided 5 was better than 4 to share the load.
I ride 32:18 on a 29er. Pushed some of the ups and some of the downs (out on a lap as the rain came down at 1pm and didn't want to die on the first descent!)
Did another lap late afternoon in the plasticine mud. Made it round in just over the the hour. Not the fastest - but hey not the slowest either.
One moment of pride - appeared to have covered the "final sprint" quicker than hubbie.
Good spirit out on course - other riders, marshalls and spectators all offered great encouragement. Thanks
(Had to leave Sat eve with poorly child so only got 2 laps 😥 )
I found everyone polite, worst thing that happened to me was a team Jedi rider bombing past going 'RIDER UP!'
So what, we're not riders? We're just messing around? The correct thing to say is 'on your right/left' it's not hard.
Best thing I saw was a pair of riders in the same jersey (Team Fubar maybe?) doing laps together, looked like an experienced man and a novice woman. I saw them early on and thought that was pretty decent of the experienced rider to be looking after someone like that, and I saw them again near the end still working away. I'm guessing he must've either entered especially to help her or maybe he was doing his own laps then sneaking back onto course to help her as well.
On the subject of kids, our team doubled up overnight to allow longer stretches of sleep, so I went to bed at about 11, just as I was relaxing my 20 month old daughter was up with miserable coughing fits.. I think I got about 40 mins sleep before being woken for my lap.
24 hour racing is harder when you have to look after little kids as well as do laps 🙂
roadie powerhouses
uh?
my first 24 hour event and loved it
bad: the climbs! i cleared them all on the Friday recce but couldn't during the race, the course needs a tweek for more general abilities/enjoyment, i want to ride not push, walking up that climb after the redbull section on those rocks in cycling shoes was tricky!
bike wash: how hard would it have been to stick some pallets on the floor so you weren't washing your bike stood in 5 inches of water?
good:Everything else! camping was mega,toilets were plentiful and you could have a decent poo without feeling like you were in a sewer,showers were good,People out on the course shouting support every lap, god bless you!
Results up on the Mayhem website already - another big improvement!
Passing places and course width was a big part of the thinking this year. Vin did a great job esp factoring how very little time he had on the site, and the first time at a venue/royal estate. I'm not kidding the course was flipping bone dry all week before (you Cotswold riders know how it is when it's good, it was great). Goodness, my heart sank a bit after the rain on the first lap. It's a great bit of land and with free reign so much more could be put in.
I must say working with the team this week how well drilled pats guys are, really impressive.
Lets hope it can be built on and come back even better next year.
Still no complete solo men's results.
I presume that the results only include people who completed 24 hours looking at their finish times.
I did six in about 24:00:02
Will there be lap times posted? I'd like to know exactly how slow I was compared to solo singlespeed one-legged riders...
Double post
Molgrips, the two Fubar riders could have been my wife's cousin and his wife. I think they went out together c 5pm and I'm sure they were in different Fubar teams (I think they had 3 teams plus solo riders).
I didn't ride but enjoyed mooching around with my eldest son cheering on the Fubars and generally soaking it all up.
The bike wash queue was madness and the main arena was much quieter than in previous years. My son managed to win an Osprey bladder and co-incidentally I was looking to buy a new pack. I spent a good 10 mins looking at the options and when I asked "I'll have that one" was told that they were not allowed to sell direct. I felt very sorry for them especially as the Wiggle stand did not have any Osprey packs!
Thanks to Team Fubar for letting us mooch with them again
horrified about the guy being pushed into the lake, thats awfull!
i managed to get assaulted in the campsite by some fruitloop going round decking people! the brother of a solo rider apparently who'd slipped his meds the police said, even started laying into a guy being treated by a paramedic in the first aid area. police said he'd assaulted four people that they knew of, he got nicked and removed off site
not ideal preparation just as your about to go out for a lap at at 3am!!
horrified about the guy being pushed into the lake, thats awfull!
You could actually see evidence on the ground after as to where they'd gone in.
Some **** from Brotherton Cycles tried to force his way past me on the same section earlier. He knows who he is and I've already told him he's a ****.
Pathetic really because there were so many places to overtake on the course compared to the usual 24 hr courses.
Crikey, I did hear a guy say he almost ended up in the lake.
One of the Kenda riders almost got me on the hairpin corner over the tree stump towards the end. I over tool him on the descent towards it, cut in to take the corner tight to the tree and he appeared right up the inside I me, almost took me off. Absolutely no need at all, even less considering it was the last lap.
I just remembered one guys funny overtake, just after the koffin descent on sun morning I was in the clear channel on the right, I hear ob your right, ignore it, then again! He actually meant "please get off the nice stuff and ride in the crap for me" he did go past on my left eventually. Still loved it all.
I may as well chime in!
My first lap I was super disapointed by the course as I was expecting a course like Eastnor where yo cover pleanty of distance, with long twisty single track, views out over the arena and loads of spectators. As the laps tickted by I got into it and became reasonably happy. It may have been a dull course with nothing but trees, but at least it was short!
In the short time the course designers had, i think they did an excellent job. Hopefully now MM has a foot in the door and the estate managers understand the event better, more leeway will be given to the designers and organisers to be more adventureous and refine both the course and the layout of the venue.
The thing I'd most like to see is the campsite and event village/arena tied together by having the course running through it. The three all seemed to be very separate with little scope for people to go for a wander to take photos of the riders and give support.
Mr Pea
Having read alot of these posts, which seem to be full of people who could clear every climb with ease, I must have been at a different event! I consider myself a reasonably fit average rider and was lapping at around the hour mark. The reason I like these events are a chance to meet, ride and race with other people of all levels of experience and fitness. Why then did they design a course where most of the climbs were unrideable for the vast marvority of riders? What is the point of making then so steep that 75% of people have to walk them? During the whole event our team saw only one rider, from the RAF, complete the climb immediately after the Red Bull run, everybody else walked it. I for one can't see the point in paying to walk around Gatcombe Park, no matter how nice it is. Also, like many have said before, there was no atmosphere. Lets hope SITS makes it back next year, far better course and great atmosphere. I won't be going back to MAyhem next year unless the course is altered.
I'm pretty fit but not amazing. I was doing 50-55 minute laps on Sun morning.
I rode all the climbs on the first lap. After that the garlic walk short cut emerged (top of the 2nd main climb) where everyone was walking. That climb after the red bull was alright when it was dry but as soon as the slime appeared it became very difficult to clear.
A few minutes walking out of a 55 minute lap. I'm happy with that.
I definitely noticed that I was running a 32 tooth rear sprocket rather than 34.
Overall I had a great time at the event. I think the arena had a slightly down feeling to it and I heard various stories about Wiggle asking retailers for a lot of money to be able to sell anything.
Full write up here: [url= http://www.mbswindon.co.uk/race-report-mountain-mayhem-2013/ ]http://www.mbswindon.co.uk/race-report-mountain-mayhem-2013/[/url]
vinny666 - MemberHaving read alot of these posts, which seem to be full of people who could clear every climb with ease, I must have been at a different event! I consider myself a reasonably fit average rider and was lapping at around the hour mark. The reason I like these events are a chance to meet, ride and race with other people of all levels of experience and fitness. Why then did they design a course where most of the climbs were unrideable for the vast marvority of riders? What is the point of making then so steep that 75% of people have to walk them?
Exactly. its the average rider that makes these events financially viable, so you have to cater for the average rider. that was an elite course. id love to have a go solo next year but i really couldnt on that course
I was doing 42 mins wet and 39 mins dry and cleared the post RB climb almost everytime, only had to jump off and trot/run when I slipped, only other section that was impossible was the off camber bit about 1/4 into the lap, never seen anyone do that, I just hopped off and cried/laughed as I trotted up.
We managed 4th in the open and were running close to podium until we mechanicals, hope we were polite to everyone on overtakes, I know I always said right or left well in advance and thanked everyone.
Pivot Boompods
For me as the average joe doing solo those climbs represented so much effort it just wasn't worth attempting and spending all that energy.
I`d like to see some more technical bits, and the chicken run/route to be a lot longer to reward the more technically based rider.
My fastest lap at the end was an hour, nursing a wobbly rear mech that had been hammered into some form of shape and had optional, random gearchanges.
My comment on the rodie powerhouses is that you could see [i]some[/i] people dont ride trails. They were blisteringly quick on the flat and climbs- and then there were people who were just ace at everything.
I was happy as a solo to break the 2 min barrier on the red bull section, but people doing sub 1:30! I reckon i could scrub 20 seconds off that on a full out attack but not 30.
I enjoyed the course far more than eastnor, maybe just because i am a lot fitter than i was in previous mayhems.
Why then did they design a course where most of the climbs were unrideable for the vast marvority of riders?
You do realise they don't create all those trails from scratch, don't you? They have to use what's there. It's a steep site, so it had steep climbs in it.
There's an awful lot of bellyaching about the climbs!
Yes they were steep and yes I walked them (my laps were all between 55 and 1hr 5mins)
All the climbs were double track, the only way to have made them less steep would be to have zig zagged up through the woods, had they been on single track with no overtaking there would have been uproar. Also I suspect that the estate management didn't give free range to the course designers to go where they liked and so they had to use as many existing footpaths and tracks as possible. I think in the dry all the climbs would have been doable but damn hard and a challenge but when wet the were either slippery and slimey or they were on watt sapping plastersene, valuable watts needed to get to the top.
Lighten up guys, if it'd been dry you have ridden them and not be complaining! Show me a piece of woodland anywhere in the UK which doesn't turn into a swamp when you mix several thousand tyres and lots of water. Perhaps the only solution is for Pat to rent a trail centre for a weekend then there'd be complaints that the place wasn't open to the general public to ride.
Mr Pea
and my 2p.
I think on balance Gatcombe is better than Eastnor.
The camping being tighter meant we were a lot closer to the arena. There was enough space and it was flat and nicer to camp on.
The course will always be never good enough for some people but it has to have something for everyone. Mayhem is a very inclusive event and so it has to compromise. Apart from one climb early on there better/fitter riders cleaning the climbs on every lap I rode.
I liked the slightly shorter course as is makes it easier for the more novice riders and provides more laps for those that can get round faster.
We had novice riders camping with us who found it challenging and more experienced riders who found it technically OK so had a fitness challenge.
I liked the Redbull timed section being downhill for a change and recording all through the event.
The easy/hard options were fine.
Thank goodness transition was covered.
Toilets/showers were fine from my experience
It would have been nice to have the course go through the campsite but it wasn't possible - fair enough.
Things that need to be fixed IMO
- you can't ban washing your own bike (which I understand) and only have 6 bays
- Not letting some stalls sell direct isn't on if Wiggle don't bring enough stuff to sell (But Pat needs them as a sponsor)
Overall Pat and his team need congratulating. It's a very well run event and they need support to make sure this event stays as a regular while others cancel or take years off. It's not an easy thing to put together and I do wish some people would quit the moaning and critisism. This is an endurance event - it's not meant to be easy.
So were the Red Bull timings only available at the course (i never saw them) or will they be made available at some stage?
I'm surprised that they have not shown up anywhere yet?
Nice to see al the photos up! Good work STW.
That last one too 😆
Although not a single one of me 🙁
is sir referring to this?
[img] 
[/img]
Yeah 😆 Caption competition right there!
Lets have it then.
Free ST Organic Cotton T-shirt for the best...
🙂
Nice Schlong mate,
Why thank you.................
Have you seen my SPD racing wellies?
Er - that is not what I was looking at.
I've started a new thread here just for the captions 🙂
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/caption-this-mayhem-content-prize
P.S. RE - The course, I still remember all the moaning & groaning the first time it was at Eastner,back in 2004.It was far far worse than the amount we've had this time,there were dummies bouncing all over the floor,big time !
FFS, i can't believe the moaning about climbing, mind you i keep forgetting how unfit the average mtber actually is. Some actually take a perverse pride in being unable to ride up hill!!!!
If you can't ride up a hill, it is your fault, get fitter!