Anyone else doing the King & Queen of the Hill (Scottish Open) Enduro

Think its only certain trails that will be open for practice on the saturday

you are right, “unmarshalled practice: selected trail sections only” could be a few suprises on sunday then!!?

red bull website says coverage of the WC doesnt start till about 5pm anyway! result

edit; thats on the friday actually…

1:15pm
should be fairy do-able if we’re not able to ride all the tracks

yeah but dont really wanna be on the King Lear by 2pm the day before a race!

ski78 – Member

I just tried to focus on learning the lay of the land; how steep, how pedally, and it seemed to work for me.

That’s what I do too- if there’s an obviously critical bit or sections where you might gain or lose a sack of time I put more effort into practicing/remembering it (quite a few of those at Laggan) but mostly I just want to be able to pace the stages and know roughly where they go.

(it’s amazing how much difference even the most halfassed practice run makes- doing stages blind you lose speed all over the place, every fire road exit’s a lottery whether you turn the right way, every sprint turns out to be too long to sprint, every choice of lines is the worst choice…)

cant make it. anyone want an entry? email in profile.

I might have a taker, I’ll let you know asap. Are the organisers ok with entry swapping? Says on the website you may not use another riders number?!

Anyone who did this last year able to comment on when we can expect the final confirmation email with the registration/practice times etc? Really need to be able to plan the weekend asap!

Sour mix…..

The pack came out a week before last year but the website says there will be 1 day of open practice so It makes me think this year will be late in the week, maybe Friday for route maps etc.

Schedule from the website

Location and dates

Tweed Green, Peebles
Saturday 23 August
Race Registration Saturday – times TBC
Unmarshalled practice: selected trail sections only

Sunday 24 August
Race Registration (7.30am-9.30am)
Race Day (start times between 9am and 11am)

do this event attract anyone relatively shit, or are they all super keen speed demons + me.

There will be plenty of mincers, it’s at Glentress after all!

tenacious_doug – Member

Are the organisers ok with entry swapping? Says on the website you may not use another riders number?!

No they are not keen on entry swapping at all. That’s why there’s a big reserve/waiting list

My mate gave me his entry, we cleared it with the Tweedlove organisers and they swapped over the entry details so just drop them an email with all the details.

And will there be mincers? Yes, I will be there 😆

jaffejoffer – Member

do this event attract anyone relatively shit

Last year certainly had some people who’d never seen a bike before.

I was watching the SDA on sunday and saw a guy on a rental orange alpine have a full-on kick-the-bike hissy-fit when he had some kind of issue. Racing attracts all sorts…

Check your emails, all the info is now out (Bar the courses themselves)

race notes http://tweedlove.com/onthehillside/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/WhyteScottishOpenEnduro_AlpineBikes.pdf

Check your emails, all the info is now out (Bar the courses themselves)

So none of the info anybody REALLY wants 😉
Though it does state Cademuir & GT, and 4 stages, so the previously suggested 2 Cademuir from last year, Spooky>Broon Troot then the Fort seem reasonable?

Where does it state ‘Cademuir & GT, and 4 stages’? I can’t see that. Website says at least 5 stages, which like last year, would be 5 stages.

it says 4 stages with some transition on tarmac road so very much points towards Cademuir

well i dont know about any of that, only ever been to GT the once… it does say full course open for practice on the saturday tho!

Where does it state ‘Cademuir & GT, and 4 stages’? I can’t see that. Website says at least 5 stages, which like last year, would be 5 stages.

Under the timing/dib stations section it lists 4 stages. In the intro section it also states “The race uses a big variety of great trails – man-made and natural. It features four timed stages, with untimed linking stages between them, taking riders on a tour of some great mountain bike riding in this part of the valley”

Then under the “Withdrawal” section at the end, it states “The event will take place on the Forestry Commission Scotland’s Glentress and Cademuir Forest trails.”

****’ hell. I was looking at the website. Not the Riders Notes PDF. Aw, dang, was hoping for 5 stages again, that’s a shame. Still, no idea what the route is yet, they might be longer sections.

And a lot less climbing than last year

Hopefully, being a wee bit shorter will mean folk aren’t totally done in come race day and can feel good enough to ride their best on the timed stages. A lot of events have been getting seriously long, so with any luck it’ll be fun and a right good charge down the hills.

I agree, it needs to be a challenge but shouldn’t be so long/tough that by race day you’re too goosed to give it the beans!

I like a big brutal enduro tbh, I can ride mediocrely all day, a lot of faster riders seem to fall apart after about 30km, generally the later in the race it is the better my stage results are. It’s good to test more aspects of riding- fitness is a legit part of the competition, so’s racecraft- judging how much effort you can put in etc.

But, it’s still sad to see people unable to complete, it’s one thing to do badly and another to dnf. And if they’re finishing up at cademuir that is an absolute bollocks of a climb/push. Obviously I don’t have a side in this one but I think there’s an argument for both, it just depends on what sort of race you want to have. Just the same as any other difficulty aspect.

(and that’s my one criticism of the king/queen- it’s never really clear who it’s for. First year was relatively all-abilities, second year raised the bar and caught a lot of people out… A problem lots of enduros have, to be honest.)

Last year’s King of the Hill was the longest, hardest “gravity” Enduro I’ve raced – and the most enjoyable.
It was a great test of bike set up and component choice, endurance and technical riding ability.
Riding a 30km+ course like that two days in a row (if you do a day’s practice) without breaking yourself or bits of your bike really is a challenge.

I did feel sorry for the people doubled up with cramp on the push up to stage 4th Cademuir though.

Really wish I was taking part again this year.

Was last year the only 2nd time of the event? First time doing it last year and had a blast. I never enter races, but enjoyed it so much, hence why doing it again this year. Hoped for 5 stages again, but we shall see what the 4 consist of this year!

How long was last year? This year it looks like 2 at GT and 2 at Cademuir with a pedal up Janet’s Brae to start with…… so the only big change appears to be that we’re not racing up Janet’s Brae

How long was last year? This year it looks like 2 at GT and 2 at Cademuir with a pedal up Janet’s Brae to start with…… so the only big change appears to be that we’re not racing up Janet’s Brae

Last year was 3 stages at GT (Berm Baby Berm>Electric Blue, Boundary Trail, Ho Chi Min>Zoom or Bust>Fort), there was no racing up Janets Brae.

My race day Strava tells me it was 39.7km

there was no racing up Janets Brae.

huh, I thought there was an uphill stage last year. Am I thinking of the year before, or was there never an uphill?

2 uphill stages in the first year- though the slowest stage of the day dropped and I think a lot of people just decided that’d be one of the climbs in advance 😆

I’m maybe getting the years mixed but I think 2012 was

Janet’s Brae climb timed to top of skills area
Berm Baby Berm into Electric Blue
Timed climb up Anderson Road to start of boundary trail
Wee offpiste descent to spooky woods to hitsquad hill
Broon Troot
Ho Chi Minh/ZORB/Fort descent

Sound right? Have to say, I really liked the blue route stage, it sounded like a terrible idea but I loved how much the experience of riding easy fast trails changed under the clock. I think I overcooked just about every corner on electric blue…

yes 2 climbs the first year, I think there should be a good chunk of climbing in any enduro, takes the bike out of the equation a bit and puts a bit more on rider fitness, I was passing people pushing or hauling huge rigs up, my positions on the two climbs were twice has high as on the descents.

Have to say, I really liked the blue route stage, it sounded like a terrible idea but I loved how much the experience of riding easy fast trails changed under the clock. I think I overcooked just about every corner on electric blue…

Same, Berm Baby Berm>Electric Blue was great fun last year and made for very close racing, didn’t help that I’d forgotten I had my tyres at 60psi to try and get the tubeless to seat 😆
You wouldn’t want a whole race like that but great for variety, I have to say the variety of last years event was spot on for me- Flat out smooth trails, a few punchy climbs on some stages, steep off the back stuff and a challenging overall length.

For all who wanted to watch the WC at Peebles, from Tweedlove on Facebook:

Great news for enduro-riding MTB World Cup DH fans – two pubs in Peebles have agreed to show the World Cup from Meribel on Saturday afternoon. Head along to the Crown (on the High Street) or the Bridge Inn (near the, er, bridge). So you can get out and shred all the stages in the morning and relax watching the DH after. Perfect.

Cademuir was quite busy yesterday evening with the locals….

Oooh – I like that idea – might pop in for a pint after I reccie stage 3 – its the only one I don’t really know 100%.

Sadly can’t get drunk as helping to wrangle marshals on the sunday, but we should definitely encourage This Kind Of Thing in Peebles.

Trails to pub to trails. What could possibly go wrong?