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Richpips posted a pic on Instagram about 5hrs ago saying 30km to go to the finish so I presume they both did the full thing.
He's just posted a pic of them both with their finishers' patches, so yeah, they did it..
No stopping young Tom!
I'd run wider tyres. My frame takes 38c, so 38c.
I'm all honesty a mountain bike (hardtail, front sus) would have been faster but that would defeat the point of the event, wouldn't it?
Very pleased with being the first back in 7hrs 58mins in the inaugural Dirty Reiver 200km notarace.
The course contained some really rough and rocky fireroads, mental 35mph+ fireroad descents and 3000m of climbing. A hardtail on semislicks would probably have been faster, but then that defeats the point of the event which is to ride an inappropriate bike a very long way as fast as possible. Oh how envious I was of those with 40c tyres...
Standard me, I went off like a rocket; partly as it was so bloody cold but also because I like having a gap in case something bad happens. One puncture made it interesting and close for a bit but I ended up 10mins ahead by the end. Good to ride with Jo for a fair bit of the event. Great event - Paul and co did a fantastic job - it felt like a seasoned event with all the little touches (free beer! Free soup! Free finishers badge!). Hard to believe nearly 500 people entered - these sorts of "a bit different" events really are a growth area at the moment.
I am in disbelief & awe that Tom (minipips) finished at 11 years old.
I think I was capable of riding 5km back then.
Super tough day in the saddle, some very low moments. Pleased to finish in 8hrs 42.
George Budd fastest finisher 7hrs 58.
I had 40c tyres and was still battered, but then I'm a wuss. The smoother descents did feel like tarmac though. I was incredibly envious of the guys riding Open UP's and the like with 2.1 tyres.
Well done everyone. The weather was great for adding atmosphere, but catching snow squalls in the wrong place must have felt harsh. Glad the 'less smooth' bits were appreciated. Huge thank you to all the marshals who were out for longer than planned - paul4stones and maybe others off here? The determination shown by tired folks at 130Km was really impressive. Hope the memories are mainly positive.
I wobbled and rattled around in 10 hours 46. Quite happy with that, I was aiming for 10 but thought 11-12 was probably more realistic.
I loved most of the course, some of the linger rougher sections were quite a mental challenge, I can't believe the state of the national cycle route to Newcastleton! However, as mentioned above, whizzing along the fire roads looking at the snow capped hills was quite something.
Well done gee, well done tom. Thanks to all the Marshall's, that must have been as tough as the ride, it was pretty chilly out there.
any one got a strava link to this would be good to see route. one above no longer woreks
Hope the memories are mainly positive.
Absolutely. One of those events to be talked about for a while, great t-shirt too 🙂 just hoping the timing guys remembered to sort my time out after I stupidly missed the second timing point. Will definetly be back next year.
I dragged myself home in 13:39, that was a hell of a day in the saddle!
Route was great and luckily is the sort of thing we ride most Sundays anyway.
The dibers for timing were a bit annoying but other than that top marks. The weather was typically mad borders weather for this time of year and I think it threw some of the more Southern entrants a bit 🙂
I'm feel broken today
11:52 for me, but at 62 years young I'm reasonably proud of my achievement. IF there is a next time I would carry more stuff on my bike and not bother with the camelback. A lovely event with varied scenery and trail surfaces. I didn't enjoy the cobbly descent much as vision was impaired and my cantilever brakes are next to useless.What a lot of planning and organisation it must have taken to put the event on, many thanks to the organisers.
A great event and big thanks to all those involved in making it happen. I thought the timing chips were a great idea. So much better leaving in waves than having a mass start bun fight into a single lane road (i'm looking at you Scott Marathon). The entry fee seemed very fair considering the entire route was very clearly way marked, there was hoardes of cheery marshalls and the feed stations were excellent. Other event organisers should take note.
The route was much better than 200k of fire roads sounds on paper, as mentioned above there were some lovely "big views" of the snow covered hills in the distance. The weather was an odd one. Just as I felt I was starting to get too cold then the sun would come out and just as I was overheating on a climb a nice big descent would appear and I'd cool down. The stinging hail into the face for the last couple of K on the road can FRO however. 😆
What a lot of planning and organisation it must have taken to put the event on, many thanks to the organisers.
Seconded - the course marking and marshalling was so good I turned off my GPS navigation after about 10km. Loads of marshals, the feed stations were excellent and the Alpkit fire pit and tepee - oh wow! 🙂
Everyone on course was really friendly, was a nice laid back atmosphere. I guess with a long event like that it weeds out all the Stravassholes shouting "elite rider coming through!" 😉
I'll be back next year to take on that final 70km loop...
Glad everyone seemed to have fun!
Thanks to boxelder for suggesting I help with the marshalling - I really enjoyed it and I suspect I had one of the more entertaining spots at the ford. Kudos to anyone who cleared it and condolences to those who were dunked, especially the sweeper rider who lost his radio in the river too!
I hope the bloke who's chain I bodged got out ok as well.
Roll on next year.
+1 on the atmosphere. Probably the friendliest ride I've ever done, and there was a huge amount of camaraderie with everyone helping to keep each others spirits up. And a very special thanks from me to the lad who picked me up at the reservoir and invited me to ride on his wheel. We spent the last 20km taking turns at the front in an a rush to make it in before the 10 hour mark and made it with 6 mins to spare.
I had a bit of an interesting start to the DR200.
On the way home from work on Thursday I was assaulted on the canal. Front wheel kicked out, punched, repeatedly kicked in the head and face. Suffice to say, I was not 100% certain I was going to make the start. But with Jeff the editor from Grit.cx from Belgium flying in, and me having committed to driving him and Giles up - I felt like we should make this work. Plus, I was there to photograph the event and then write about it for the magazine.
The answer was drugs. Lots of drugs. And gels - 23 gels in total. I couldn't chew solids- still can't - only swallow gels and just about water and my own spittle. Go Team Greg.
Either way, we got up, I did a test ride figured loads of drugs may do it - if not, I'd ride the first 60km taking lots of photos and then bail back. 194km later I appear to have forgotten to stop riding.
Ace route, Paul has made a classic. Route is remote and a perfect example of that area. I loved it - despite having spent the day repeatedly overheating and cooling down taking photos (over an hour of stopped time just for that). I'll be back next year as a lead, hopefully, into the DK200.
Only worry is that I may have a fractured jaw - which would put an end to the Divide this year 😐
[url= https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1708/26480349915_4f60a9ce97_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1708/26480349915_4f60a9ce97_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/GkYHta ]Dirty Reiver 200[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/13995637@N08/ ]Greg.May[/url], on Flickr
Well, that was blinding.
Brilliant to be riding the 'cross bike again and really pleased that I took it over the hardtail. There was a fantastic section of rocky green lane between two walls which was a bit of a giggle at speed and then the descent to the final feed station was entertainingly fast and swoopy enough that I didn't have to brake for miles (apparently I was going 57km/h which isn't too shabby off road) - I could ride that forever! I was riding with a guy on a hardtail and the cx tyres were definitely faster on those sections.
Sadly I've lost quite a lot of fitness so I was slow on the climbs but very happy to have finished. Massive thanks to the guy on the hardtail - John - for keeping my spirits up on the river side section of great and claggy doom and then the final 25km which I could have sworn was at least a hundred miles.
Bloody hell Greg, I read that you'd been pushed off the bike but that sounds properly nasty. Heal fast.
You're all mad...
But in a good way 😆
well done to everyone. Fantastic effort.
Anyone compare this ride to the SDWIAD ? GB?.- your times are similar and the elevation is less , but distance slightly more.
Well I rode the SDW on a mountain bike... So much easier. Also the hills don't go on for as long on the SDW but there are more of them and they are more regular and steeper in places. Bits of this were properly rough - the bit alongside the wall to feed 2 is an example. SDW is a slower average speed due to being hillier.
I'd second that. I ride the SDW a lot and it's short and sharp, not many full on hack sections. This is a much faster flowing event where you hunker down and climb then let rip. Some sections were similar, where broken rutted lumpy walking pace was needed, but that's about the only similarity...
bikebouy - how did that "s****y hotel in Hexham" work for you?
😉
Great day out and really well organised. I'd only planned to do the 130k as this is the start of training but even that was a bit hard on the legs with 2600m of climbing by the time i clambered off. As said before, not sure what the best tool for the job was, on various DH sections (I'm looking at you DH to the rooad taking us into the 100k feed) it was a joy to be on on a 29er fullly, on the smoother rolling bits I would have preferred my cx bike. Point for me was first >100k MTB ride for a while so that was achieved. Nice touch was being comprehensively snowed on before I dropped into Kielder in about 7h45. And that headwind, how can you have a constant headwind on a circular course ! And for those that completed the whole loop, chapeau.
boxelder - Member
bikebouy - how did that "s****y hotel in Hexham" work for you?
Hello mate,
It's blooming lovely, its got all the facilities I want and more therefore the Mrs was able to make a holiday of it too, which is what I wanted out of the whole extended weekend.
It way too far from Kielder though, in hindsight an hour and a half drive to the event was a bit silly for me to factor in TBH. But hey, it's my choice to stay here.
From all the reports so far it's a resounding success.
Well done to all, thanks for putting on a show.
an hour and a half drive
Yeah, I heard you cut it fine 😀
Respect to Matteo the Italian dude who had to ride from Hexham on Friday, with all his kit, when the bus wouldn't let him get on with his bike!
This may be a good place to point out that with the DR200 firmly established as a great long distance challenge, the Kielder 101 (brought to you on Sep 3rd by the same team...) wil [u][b]NOT BE[/u][/b] 101 miles. That would mean lots of fire road.
It will be 101 Km, with the shorter 60 Km Border Challenge alongside it.
We've got lots more singletrack to replace the lengthy early fire road and there's no doubt that for the K101, an MTB with some squish is the right beast to ride.
fANTASTIC event. a Proper one. Thanks for all the smiles out on course, great event. Didn't need to take anywhere near as much food as I did, Shout out to all the nice people on Kinesis bikes! I found 37mm Clement's were great set up tubeless (only one puncture) but my single 40t ring was too small for some of the long descents!
Bring on the next one.
I'll keep an eye out for the K101 then, I'd like to return..
Date saved.
I enjoyed that a lot more than i thought i would, the longest ride I've ever done off road is 60mile and 90mile on road. It was all so well organised and everyone was so friendly and helpful.
Everything went well for me except due to my lack of knowledge about road type bikes i bought a bike with Tub's and i only had one spare with me.
My second puncture happened just as i dropped down to the reservoir leaving me with a 5 mile ride on a rear flat to the dam where i met the mobile mechanic but as he had no spares he offered me his MTB and i finished the last 8 miles on that.
Awesomely well organised event and terrifically well marked and easy to follow. I completely underestimated the elevation and consequent pace that that forced. Some of those climbs seemed everlasting. Fell off on that super steep blip on the slate not long before the 135km bail point. The snow hit peak flurry at the get out - knees and hands were frozen so I bailed.
More time on the bike needed and core/back exercises to strengthen up - lower back ache is the only physical memory but whenever I stop to think I'm replaying the ride like a film in my head.
The Fargo was faultless and the fatter tyres were slow and comfortable mostly and allowed for silly smashfest descents which was the only time I went past people (who all caught me on the next climb on the CXers).
Longest off-road effort for me so chuffed and chapeau to all the finishers - brave.
As others have said, awesome event, really well organized and signed - Amazing marshals throughout, and a free beer to finish.
Just need to get faster on the climbs 😉
My shoulders today though... ouch...
Fell off on that super steep blip on the slate not long before the 135km bail point.
That was quite spectacular!
Richpips - I hope it raised a smile for you and Tom after that slog that was just before! Mega well done for finishing.
I just tried to go for a ride. Failed. Back home again 30mins later. Ruined.
Which s****y hotel bikebuoy? An hour and a half away must have been Matfen or Slaley?
Plenty of reports/coverage on [url= http://grit.cx/race-report/2016/04/dishing-the-dirt-on-the-dirty-reiver-episode-1 ]grit.cx[/url]
I was just about to post that we've been dumping loads there 🙂
Beat me to it.