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I gather there was prize money in Expert men this year at SITS.
Adderstone field at Dalby is nowhere near big enough and also Dalby was always the most expensive venue in the Nationals, I heard once.
Matt - I'm not sure which Eastnor you've been to over the past 7 years... That said you know how much I hate pushing.
GB
I really enjoyed SITS this year - my first lap was ace, apart from the torrential downpour towards the end of it. I got absolutely drenched, and the off-camber section turned to mush almost instantly. I was supposed to go out at 10.30pm, but my teammate was late back, two of our chaps knackered their bikes (one mech ripped clean off), and after ending up in physio after my 5 hour + lap at Mayhem, I just thought, "Nah", and went out this morning instead.
Some sections near the start and the very end were still riding really nicely, but the middle section was trifle claggy. Not as bad as Mayhem though! 😀
Nice to see you hang around and give Tim a hand packing away!
i needed to get some food mate..honest
So you enjoyed the event having spent the majority of the night in bed. Says it all, really. Surely a fun 24hr race is one where you don't spend half the race asleep?
i needed to get some food mate..honest
The septic said he had loads.... 😆
So you enjoyed the event having spent the majority of the night in bed. Says it all, really. Surely a fun 24hr race is one where you don't spend half the race asleep?
Last year, I did night laps, and I really enjoyed them, and if the course had been solid I would have been out like a greased whippet. However, as we were already two riders down because of broken bikes and my legs haven't really worked properly for 15 years (and the condition was made worse after trudging around Mayhem), I felt that yes, not going out in those conditions would be better for both myself and the bike. I don't mind riding in the rain, and I don't mind getting muddy, but pushing my bike around for hours on end - less fun. I'm not going to hurt myself or wreck my bike just for bragging rights (well, I did that at Mayhem this year, didn't turn out too well...)
First mtb event of any kind that I've done and it was ace fun in the sun, obviously it was a little bit muddy at night.
Also thanks to the guy who gave me 15mins of vitriolic abuse for 'cheating' when I stupidly started to take the wrong turn just after leaving the start/finish area. That was pleasant. I really had just got them mixed up 😥
there was a guy screaming at my mrs saying report rider 774(not sure if that number s correct) he's a cheat he's a cheat 😆
there was a guy screaming at my mrs saying report rider 774(not sure if that number s correct) he's a cheat he's a cheat
Heard someone shouting cheat in one of the woodland sections where the trails crosses quite closely, and when I passed the marshalls they were repairing some tape. Looked less like someone trying to cheat and more like someone had Benny Hilled off the side of the course...
Yeah that sounds like the one 🙁
I dumbly made a wrong turn shortly after leaving the start/finish area and stopped when I saw a water tanker at the top of the track, just after I had turned. He thought I was taking a short cut though and just wouldn't believe that I had got mixed up no matter what I said.
To be fair I think he was 12 laps in at this point but it was a bit much and not very pleasant. He was telling anyone who would listen I was a cheat etc, I kept expecting a bunch of marshalls to come and rugby tackle me off the trail any minute 😕
unfortunately some people don't forget to pack their shitty attitudes 🙁
Wow, there seems to be a lot of STW heros at SITS his year! If you choose to sleep then so be it. You do get a choice you know. Shame the weather made the course unpleasant at times. We (I) jacked at 12pm. To me, it seemed little point in pushing my bike around the course. Started again in the morning. Crazy to think times went from sub 45mins to over 1:30hrs. Still enjoyed ourselves esp my last two laps. Remember kids, we do this for fun!
i wouldn't be surprised to see this event retire gracefully.
Back home now and we've got a LOT of muddy things to clean.
Two members of our team packed after a mech breakage and a nightmare lap just after the rain hit. I managed to not break my bike by donning my walking boots and carrying it over any thick mud, which made for some really slow and frustrating night laps.
I can't fault the organisation of the event but so much of the course just turned into chod. A couple of short sections appeared to have had some building work put into them (like the singletrack through the woods at the end) and surely this is the way to go if these type of events are going to keep running through what passes for summer these days.
I was there in 2008 and Pat came round the camping area the following afternoon for a chat/feedback. He told us how it was all going to be improved for the following year, with a proper track put in.
I'm guessing he says the same every year.....
Mrs Toast - not a dig at you at all, it was meant to be a dig at the event... At least you turned up and raced - we decided we couldn't face another 24hrs of pushing and wimped out entirely.
The section in the Bluebell woods was armoured years ago, shame the rest of the lap was never done but it must be massively expensive and wouldn't help with the miles off grassy slog round the fields.
In terms of all weather venues, that can handle large events, there's obviously the Olympic venue at hadleigh farm?Presumably someone has plans for this and the potentially huge south eastern audience/entry it would appeal to?
The Olympic course is about 3km long (if that). For a 24hr race, you need a course that's at least 12km, ideally 16km. Even once it's redeveloped and the more hardcore lines and trail features taken out of it, there's no way you can get that length of course into it. I'd guess it's also too hilly to be a really fun 24hr venue that would appeal to the masses.
24hr race venues aren't easy to come by - if they were, there'd be more events. You need a massive area of private land with easy access and that will cater for thousands of cars, water tankers, toilets, showers, trucks etc, still have space for camping, be able to knock up a course that can be ridden by tired people in the dark but still provides enough of a challenge for the Elite teams.
I've always quite like the course at SITS, raced there many times both at SITS and when they used to use it as an NPS venue. In the dry it's blindingly fast; you're right about the rain though, in the wet it is soul-destroyingly awful.
...in the wet it is soul-destroyingly awful.
Does anyone know a sports shrink? I let a few people down this weekend... ... not helped by a 2hr walk around Derbyshire at 2am in the morning :-/
Managed to get my team up to 4 strong with 3days to go. Is year will go down as the year of mud racing. I built up a giant anthem for the race. Did first 2 laps on it and loved it, then on the 3rd it turned into an immovable object! Switch to my single speed with mud tires and never looked back. People that don't have mud tires only have themselves to blame. Single speed spare bike is a perk if u can afford it.
Unloaded my car this morning, seem to have brought back a few tons of Catton mud with me.
The course, atmosphere and fellow riders were all awesome.
Amazed me how much the course changed when the rain came. The event then became a challenge of the mind for me.
Big thanks to the kind rider who gave me a magic link out on course. Without your help I'd still be out there sobbing in the woods.
Since I've had some sleep I now feel a bit more human and able to elaborate further on my experience.
Firstly, the event was fantastically organised. Having done D2D the last few years, the facilities were really good - showers, clean toilets and a fantastic food tent made everything much more enjoyable. The camp site was 'moist' after the rain but I had no issues getting out of it and even my brother who came to watch in his silly Datsun with track-tyres and no ground clearance could get out.
As for the track - I'm not sure of many places that would take that volume of traffic for 24 hours and not start breaking up, once the rain came it was only going to go one way. It got to a point early on where it became apparent that even if it didn't rain any more, it still wouldn't really recover. That's when the well prepared people broke out the super skinny tyres on the single-speeds. I really liked the venue and thought the course was pretty good for an enduro event. You don't really want massive drops and jumps when you're knackered at 4am and from that point of view it was challenging enough without being dangerous.
I also found that it was just hilly enough so that at the point where you were just about to blow, it pointed back down again and you could recover.
I think it comes down to preparation - those that wanted to continue riding after the rain brought the correct bike with the correct tyres. Even then there would have been a fair bit of pushing, but this would have helped no end. Unfortunately I think most people don't want to have a specific 'mud bike' (I don't) and therefore it'll put a lot of people off.
I'll be back next year, better prepared and aiming for a decent finish. Its inspired me to give the next national a miss (that I've paid for) and enter Torq 12:12 instead. And I'm building up a 'mud bike'...
Mrs Toast - not a dig at you at all, it was meant to be a dig at the event... At least you turned up and raced - we decided we couldn't face another 24hrs of pushing and wimped out entirely.
Sorry, got a bit surly and defensive! 😛 Just a bit annoyed with the mud, I was hoping to do more laps than last year, not less. I wish the courses were a bit more weatherproofed, but I'm guessing the venues don't want too much permanent stuff there, and there might be an element that it's all part of the fun...
Overall I still really enjoyed SITS, atmosphere was great and everything else seemed to go smoothly - showers worked, toilets were always clean, and the central arena wasn't a mud pit. Plus there was a really nice poodle called Clover, which made everything better.
I quite enjoyed it. But then I loved Mayhem and soloing at 24/12 as well. I feel guilty saying this, but there was a cosy familiarity to the whole mud thing that I'm starting, unaccountably, to enjoy... I like the way different bits of the course become unridable between stints, so it's always different and the variety of muds and the different skills you need to keep going.
I like the pantomime anguish of people who've spat their dummy big time - not in a nasty way, but it seems so futile - and the oddness of it all. Why do folk feel the need to render their bike spotless between laps when it's going to be a 40lb mud leviathan within minutes? And how is it that people can arrive at changeover simultaneously with completely different takes on how the course is riding?
I'm not saying I'd choose those conditions. Or that a dry, dusty weekend wouldn't have been better, but it is what it is, so you may as well make the most of it and ride in the moment.
And finally, the guys I was racing with were quietly brilliant in a calm, efficient, unassuming sort of way. No chimp behaviour even when we lost a mech and a lap in the trenches in the small hours of the morning.
And whatever you think of the course conditions, the bogs were as brilliant as ever 🙂
We managed to complete the full 24 hours as a team of 4. I must admit that, apart from the first lap each, we really didn't enjoy any of it.
When it all turned to clag, it was soul destroying.
The main grumbles are;
- Rubbish timing system caused lots of confusion and in some cases arguments. Timelaps are the best
- Boring course that got even more boring when the rain came
- Stupidly cutting the grass before the event meant that the mud stuck to the bikes was like wattle and daub. It just stuck to everything and the bikes weighed about 50lbs.
- No beer tent
- Lack of trade stalls for decent spare parts
- There weren't prizes for all the sub categories (we were 3rd in the Vets category and not even the winners got a prize). Surely we should be recognized - isnt it supposed to be harder as you get older?!
None of us will be doing it again, which I guess speaks volumes for what we think...
Kryton57 - MemberDoes anyone know a sports shrink? I let a few people down this weekend... ... not helped by a 2hr walk around Derbyshire at 2am in the morning :-/
No you bloody well didn't! Stop beating yourself up, man.
I quite enjoyed my [i]walk[/i], in the early hours, tbh. Removing the grass reinforced mud afterwards, however............ 😐
I quite enjoyed my walk, in the early hours, tbh. Removing the grass reinforced mud afterwards, however............
On my second lap, there were two people running their lap, without their bikes.
I saw those, assumed you couldn't do that, but guess they were just seeing how quick it would be to run. Whilst some sections were un-rideable that probably only accounted for 1/1.5 miles at most!
Rock based race courses rather than wonderfully fertile farmers fields, please!
I remember walking onto the podium of the solo class there back in 2008 when, surprisingly for England, it rained. The course became unrideable in parts very quickly and, with a lack of speed, the singletrack in the trees became dull shortly afterwards, but I carried on walking just so I could say I'd done it.
This year I turned up, raced in a pair with Terrahawk while it was fun, then it rained - as it does in England - the course became unrideable in parts very quickly and, with a lack of speed, the singletrack in the trees became dull shortly afterwards.
We packed up, went home and got a decent ride in on the Sunday. Riding time is precious and I'm not spending it truding round feeling like I'm wasting an opportunity any more.
Sorry. I love the laid back atmosphere, the organisation is, as we're all well aware after many years, brilliant, but I'm not going back there.
The thing is - like it or not, mud is highly likely to feature in a UK 24 hour race. Those who didn't fit some skinny mud tyres shouldn't be complaining - learn for next time. We all know what tthe weather has been like!
I had a spare single speed, but the full sus was fine so long as the jockey wheels were cleared each lap.
The support to the solo riders was fantastic. Child hecklers - you did your families proud. And as for the two girls at the top of the climb - thanks for all the encouragement. Great organization, great to see the course change for the really bad section, great atmosphere.
It really was a case of hare-and-tortoise. I rode all night, stopping regularly to fuel up and de-clag the gears and managed 8th - well pleased. Suppose I should clean the bike now.
Anyway - are there any photos around yet?
Pit bikes, portable jet washers and 35mm tyres... It's sounding a bit like a 24 hour CX race. Ironic considering that CX bikes are firmly banned.
I managed to get to drink two bottles of beer after my first lap and then was handed a bottle of corona (with lime!) at the end of my last, followed by an amazing cupcake at the singletrack lurker's bar.
On these points alone the event was a resounding success.
The thing is - like it or not, mud is highly likely to feature in a UK 24 hour race.
RAIN is likely to feature in a UK24 hour race. Therefore a course that is going to become unrideable for large sections if/when it does rain isn't an appropriate venue. There's plenty of other 24 hour races in this country that aren't badly affected by the weather (Relentless 24, Strathpuffer, UK24...).
We're pretty experienced, nothing we need to 'learn for next time' and we had a full compliment of mud tyres and even cyclocross tyres. We're just not willing to use them for 18 hours of (mostly) walking any more.
😆It's sounding a bit like a 24 hour CX race. Ironic considering that CX bikes are firmly banned.
Any idea when the results will be out?
will - Member
Any idea when the results will be out?
you will have to be a premier member to see them 😉
Just had a quick flick through this thread and I'm incredibly thankful I didn't shell out a considerable chunk of cash for this. Sounds utterly horrible.
I'll stick to Relentless 24...
The only criticism I have is the cut grass, I'm still pulling it out of the gears.
Our 2 teams did well, in fact had the A team entered in the Expert Mens they would have claimed 2nd place on the podium.
Everyone had personal achievements from the race, which is what its all about.
Me at coming up 58 I'm not going to win but passing Expert Males up hill is for me an achievment 🙂
A 50lb Hardtail.
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Coming up midday, not many left, the grass was faster 🙂
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I managed to get to drink two bottles of beer after my first lap and then was handed a bottle of corona (with lime!) at the end of my last, followed by an amazing cupcake at the singletrack lurker's bar.On these points alone the event was a resounding success.
Given the proximity of the trail to the Chase Trails camp, I'm surprised there wasn't more beer and cake [i]during [/i]the lap...
At the end of the event Pat was congratulated by countless racers who took the time to come up to him and thank him for an excellent event. Of course all the people who left and failed to endure the endurance event that it was wouldn't have seen that.
The Vets category didn't receive prizes. That was made clear at the start of the presentation by Pat who explained that they weren't an official category but he wanted them to be recognised on the podium and be applauded. Had a VET team won in the category they were in they would have obviously been awarded prizes for winning the category they were in - as happened with the other un-prized category, the Armed Forces. Their team won in their Sport category for which they received prizes and then they were asked to step up to the top spot so the crowd could applaud them for being the top Forces category too.
If it's all a bit too much of a hassle to be invited to stand on the podium I'm sure Pat can be persuaded to drop that next year and just stick the main categories for prizes and ignore the Vets and Forces riders. If the point is that if you are asked to stand on the podium and be recognised then that's of no value unless it's accompanied with a bag of freebies then point taken. I'll pass that on to Pat.
It was 24hr Endurance event held at a long standing 24hr endurance venue that in many previous years has been lauded as a great venue but has always had a reputation for getting tough in the wet. This weekend it was wet and it was tough and it was a real test of endurance.
Congratulations to all those many hundreds of riders and their teams who succeeded in enduring the whole event. Judging by the smiles on Sunday there were lots of you and you enjoyed the event 🙂
Strangely I seem to have come back more crippled and injured than any of the riders in the three teams we had racing and I wasn't racing. I'm sat here with a hot wheat bag on my neck 🙂
Results will be available as soon as we have them from the timing guys as will our gallery of pics from the event.
There's plenty of other 24 hour races in this country that aren't badly affected by the weather (Relentless 24, Strathpuffer, UK24...).
True but all in Scotland or close to.
A 24 hour race some where in the peaks(preferably southwards)/wales/or Bristol area would be great.
Even the Malverns would be good if they could do it at the northern end rather than the Southern end.
I would even prefer if it if they could do a 24 hour race on heathland ie Surrey/Berkshire/Swinely/Cannock. Although this poses its own problems as although the sandstone grit is always ridable it can really destroy drivechains in the wet.
Didnt they do a 24 at Trentham near Stoke one year ? Surely the ground must at least drain a bit better there. Would be perfect it you ask me right near the motorway too.
yeah the first Mountain Mayhem was at trentham what is wrong with this venue?
Didnt they do a 24 at Trentham near Stoke one year ? Surely the ground must at least drain a bit better there. Would be perfect it you ask me right near the motorway too.
There were 24h events there for many years. Sadly it's overrun with monkeys now.
Trentham Gardens isn't available as a venue any more - it was redeveloped and monkeys moved in. As anyone that was at the first Mountain Mayhem (or the last Sleepless there) will tell you, it was pretty brutal when wet too.
There aren't that many venues around that are weather-proof, accessible and have camping for the numbers that these events bring in.