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Hmmm sounds like it may be about as good as it gets for me from a layout perspective. Only downside is a 2hr 30 minute drive. So we'll have to see what the weather looks like a bit closer as currently i can barely see my car for the snow, let alone drive anywhere
Yesterday's MSG course at Henham was really good; up, down, twisty, loose it had it all. Bit cold and bit windy but not wet! Definitely worth the 4hour round trip to get there.
However, something that came up for me was tire pressure. I'm 75kg and usually run ~21/22psi F/R for comfort and grip. Yesterday I ran 23/24 as the course had lots of fire road track sections and I thought lower rolling resistance would be worthwhile. At the finish I chatted with another rider who runs 28/30 (finished about a minute ahead of me). I'd had the front tire wash out from under me on the practise lap and put it down to my higher than usual tire pressure and so was pretty cautions round corners in the race. BUT seeing as others may run theirs much higher than me it reinforces my thought that my technique, not tire pressure or tire choice (Rocket Ron/Racing Ralph), is the limiter.
What are your thoughts and experiences with tire pressure with regards to the trade off between speed and grip (especially on flat or loose corners)?
General rule of thumb for me is to go as low as you can get away with without pinch flatting or rolling the tyre off the rim! I weigh 72 kg and go 18 / 22 Ron and Ralph.
Despite the cold it was a great course at Henham, I had Thunderburts on F/R and pressures 23/24 I am 64kgs, i did the practice with slightly higher pressure and was washing out and felt skittish on the fire road gravel. Normally I would be 18-21.
Thanks jimbob. Glad to hear its nothing to fear, first race of the season is the one I love and hate the most. Any idea how they grid the first race?
Info on gridding etc here. Basically first round is based on last years performance.
Just done my first race of the season @ henham , was a good course but that cold air has left me with a stinking cold. Hopefully il shake it off before sherwood next weekend.
Does anyone know if they do a proper race for the under 9s at sherwood ? As last year at a couple of the rounds they just done a time trial.
Wow, the number of entrants at the first round of the nationals is huge!
For my sins I've been gridded 38th / 48 in Expert. Really looking forward to getting my head kicked in.... There's over 70 racing in Sport! I read somewhere there's over 500 entrants across all races.
Weather forecast looks reasonable too. Hoping for a fast and dry course.
Somehow I've been gridded 12th in sport despite only doing 1 national year and coming 20th. The real question is whether I'll be flying and beat my number or if I'll get my head kicked in and come mid pack somewhere?
There’s over 70 racing in Sport!
That is really good news, hopefully the numbers will continue to be large! Wish I was racing now! By the time i get to do a national it will probably be back down to about 25!
@everyone, pretty sure first national is gridded based on last years overall national ranking
Gridded 64th out of 70 in the vets.. first year racing with a licence as normally just done a few regional ones or open, people I normally place with are gridded top 20 so will struggle to get to them. Takes the pressure off, excuses prepared already.
Just looking forward to a good day out as wife is racing in the afternoon and be good to watch and support as normally have same start times.
Be our first race since Sept as made it to the Elan Valley event the day before only for the snow to hit, nice walk out in the lakes instead.
Good luck to all racing at the weekend.
Ferrals, I only raced 3 times and the national was the only one I scored any points (a whole 28!). I'd guess then that it's juniors moving up or people brand new to racing
Haha - i know I just went on BC to look at your ranking! Just as well I'm not racing I'd be on the front row at that rate (ranked 40-something last year) and this weekend weighted myself and realised I am currently a stone overweight 🙂
Top 15 from last year go to expert so I guess a fair few from last year aren't racing or are now vets.
I'm going to have some fun! Gridded right at the back of vets since I've not raced xc for years yet there's a guy I comfortably beat the other week gridded top 10.
Looking forward to the challenge.
Rollindoughnut, I might try and hang on to you then as sounds like we are in a similar position. I'm on a bright orange top fuel on the back row. However I did dislocate and fracture shoulder last year so may be a bit cautious re overtaking..
Big vets field, excellent!
I gather it's a flat course - likely to be much in the way of technical features?
Just depressed myself that little bit more by looking at the gridding. Gridded 69/70 in the vets. Now I understand that I didn't do any Nationals last year, but I finished 11th in the national rankings and 10th in the champs, how that netts me 69th I've no idea.
Gridded 16th in Expert, that should be a fun race. Hopefully the weather will be nice.
I've only raced Sherwood as part of the midlands series and there weren't really any technical features, perhaps a log to ride over but nothing particularly difficult. I'd imagine there will be a reasonable time penalty for taking a B line which is the norm at National race though.
Oh I read somewhere that if you challenge your grid position you will be sent to the back and fined 100 swiss francs in line with UCI regs! Haha!
Similar issues here - I'll be 41st or piling in on the back of the grid at MSG as I didn't race last week, and my usual positional adversaries are lined up 14th-20th.
Best practise my starting sprint 🙂
Ernie and rsvktm. We can form a Top Fuel attack squadron on the back row as that's what I ride as well.
Penultimate row is in for a surprise.
Hehe. That makes it sound even more fun! Unfortunately my initial point of depression is the man flu that currently leaves me a hot/cold sweating shivering mess. The green card for racing has been revoked by the fun police. I won' even get my favourite number board '69'.
Gridded 47th in vets, my first Nationals, I expect to be going pretty much backwards from that position 🙂
No way windyg. Number board challenge for all! Aim to finish equal to or higher than the number on the board. Mostly just smash it and enjoy it though
@ernie I quite like that challenge it's a fair target. I am just doing it for the experience/challenge and yes to enjoy it, really looking forward to the race.
Well I'm not racing this year. No longer office based and with no SSP I can't take the risk of injury atm.
I've kept ticking over with a couple of hard interval sessions each week so power is up even if fitness is down.
I'm about to uninstall training peaks and may sell my Epic s works.... On the plus side I'm still enjoying riding and may well do some longer events single speed.
Quick spin around the local woods for me tonight then off to Sherwood first thing tomorrow. Hoping to get some practice in at 12 oclock and then hang around to spectate the sport race. I've sourced a cheap Airbnb for Saturday night close by so I won't be rushing around on Sunday morning.
Can't believe race season is here! Kind of feel guilty for making several raids over to the donuts that someone has kindly brought into the office today...
Fortunately I live close enough that I'll get to sleep in my own bed!
How's that cold Ernie? Definitely not going to make it?
Gridded 9th in grand vet, listening to the rain falling on the caravan roof at Sherwoood. I've had enough of rain after the the continuous torrential day in, day out soaking at the Andalucia Bike Race a few weeks ago.
it does look like huge fields this year, hope its dry!
Good luck!
just seen a very curious picture on Facebook of some wooden structure that looks like a kids obstacle course, will be interested to hear what that is all about!
Haven't seen that yet, only in picture, one of my friends lad's rode it and said it was okay. We'll see! I'm sure I can make a mess of it!
Did my first race in Expert Category since moving up from Sport at Sherwood Pines today. Somehow managed to scrap my way up to 20th / 43. I’m really happy with that, and even more so given I was gridded 38th and got caught up in both crashes at the start. No idea how I managed to stay upright. My buddy Sam got the brunt of the second crash and snapped his carbon bars in half! Wheel Pringled and possibly bent forks too but glad he’s alright.
Course was super fast and I made good progress but started to fade half way through the 4th lap and we won’t talk about the 5th lap....
My gears were playing up big time towards the end. Turned out that my rear axle had come loose and my wheel was all over the show, luckily it didn’t come out.
Got lapped towards the end of the last lap by the 3 Elite Dutch fellas followed by Grant Fergusson. They were going at a blistering rate. Boggles the mind really.
Next stop will be Midlands Round 1 at Swynnerton in 3 weeks time.
Surprised myself a bit today with 16th, my best elite national result yet, nearly halved my gridding position of 31st. 6 laps was a long old race, as I was out there for more than 1:50, suits me though as a marathonist. Also very nearly crashed on the infamous plank of death, somewhat embarrassingly.
A few big marathons on the way now, Roc Laissagais in two weeks and the european championships in 4.
Well done fella that’s awesome. How on earth do you do those kind of lap times! Good look in the Marathons
Well that could have gone better! Bloody choppers in the mix at the start line sprint in the Experts meant I got taken out twice by idiots changing lines at 25mph. Hit the deck twice hard onto my left shoulder meaning I'm in a sling today.
Still managed to finish 29th though, should be stronger for Dalby! Enjoyed the course, had a lot of fun on it too.
Sounds like an interesting race there guys ! Well done to all ! Nice work.
Sherwood Pines was my first Nationals and in vets it was always going to be tough, so for me it was enjoy it and make the most of the experience in the full knowledge I would be near the back. Saturday practice all good, great course fast and flat just a bit slippy in places.
We decided to give the first part of the course a quick ride Sun morning to check if the conditions had changed, i went at it silly hard binned it very heavy, ended up a with a groin strain. Made a great start managed to avoid all the loons crashing around me for the first half of the lap, pace was was killing me and the pain getting worse and worse, i got passed on my 4th lap by the leader on the finish straight, the moment i saw his arms go up I felt so relieved, came in 55/70.
I doubt i could have done much better. Just have to recover now, pain has died down a lot overnight. I really enjoyed it, was a total eyeopener just how fast it was compared to regional races.
Nice reports guys. Unlucky Schmiken, sounds a bit chaotic! I was wishing I'd made the effort and entered this weeekend even though I know it was never going to be feasible. Was rabidly checking the BC twitter account for updates but not one result or picture was tweeted which I thought was pretty rubbish.
Still I did do a good training ride on sunday, 3hrs in glorious sunshine which is an hour longer than I've ridden for months so feel as knackered today as if i had done a race.
Still a month till the first Welsh XC, got to build up my top end. I have a training question which may as well be put here as anywhere. I've noticed I can't seem to get out of just above threshold (hr 166-170ish), admittedly I've not been doing loads of super-threshold efforts but when on occaision I have tried to push it I'm not going anywhere. Not sure if its just because I've been trying to put in lots of hours so I'm fatigued or If I need to start focussing on doing harder intervals to remind my body what to do - I guess the answer is both!
Just failed on the grid/finish challenge - gridded 30th in vets, finished... 30th. Guess the gridding worked there. As a Scottish rider though, I feel I have shamed my nation when everyone else from north of the border did so well.
Loved the course, it was fast, swoopy and fun if entirely non-technical. The box/plank obstacle thing was a bit bizarre, but worked well as an A/B option. I should have been more aggressive off the line (although that's hard on a long flat start when you ride a singlespeed!) as lap 1 ended up slow and the front of the race went too far away. Pleased to have got faster as the race went on, with lap 5 my fastest. Cracking wee battle with a small group on the last half lap, managed to hold the group off to the line, minor victories and all that.
Roll on round 2.
Where do I find the results for Sherwood?
Thanks.
26th Vet from grid position 67.
Loved it!
Nice one, wonder where you passed me!