I got round in about 40 minutes and I’ve never been overtaken so much at a race.

It would be amusing if the fight is visible on Strava flyby in absence of actual footage

I got round in about 40 minutes and I’ve never been overtaken so much at a race.

Really? That’s a bit weird. On my second lap only 2 people passed me the entire time, both on the down hill bits at the end. Had same experience last time I rode it. Passed numerous more folk than passed me but still well down overall when it came to lap times. That said those that did pass me were going significantly faster!

I reckon I could have taken 2 or 3 min off my times if I could descend better. But the only place I actually felt comfortable the entire time was on the fire roads, and there wasn’t that much of that.

Lol an actual fight??

I got sideswiped by some dude coming across the exit bridge from the start who had clearly decided to a) try and overtake on the inside where there was just about room for one cyclist at the time, b) not shout or not shout loud enough to be heard and then c) throw an absolute rage after I asked him what on earth he was doing when he could have just waited another 5 seconds or so and passed safely! He had the look of someone who didn’t almost seem able to recognise there were other riders on the course instead of him. Actual fisticuffs is taking things way too far though 😀

Munrobiker – it was on the wide, rooty left-hander that you had to slow right down for on zoom or bust. Thought it was an interesting place to pass. Think the guy must have assumed because he was inside he was going to be quicker but not only did he almost take me out, he also come to a complete stop!

I was passed lots on the climbs but most of the time I wasn’t really aware of it. One guy passed me before magic mushroom but then told me to go first because he was a roadie and didn’t want to hold me up. I hope I didn’t pass anybody to close on the descents, pretty sure I gave a clear shout but in the heat of battle…. I’ll happily wait, I’m not going to be bothering the podium but sometimes when you’ve got the momentum it’s hard not to try and pass in a hurry. There was one occasion after the bomb hole when I was closing on somebody pretty quickly but I just had to haul on the anchors as there wasn’t room, the roots after were a real pain if you had to drop your speed.

Speedstar- I thought it would be there. It isn’t a safe place to pass, unless you had told him to and stopped.

It all seems terribly frantic racing for 30th place 😉

Just at the end of the pits area before the turn up to the lodges I passed two guys who looked to be at the end of a massive argument at the very least. Plenty of shouting and swearing and the one whose bike was on the floor shouting “221B you’re (swear)ing disqualified” as the other one cycled away past a confused looking marshall. That’s probably the wrong number so don’t go looking it up on roots and rain!

Was a bit of a shock considering how chilled it’s all supposed to be. Lord knows what the actual incident that caused it was.

Depends how slow they are and how fast you are, there’s plenty room.

Meikle_partans – yeah that was the one. I was just cruising across the bridge and went to turn up the slight left off it when out of nowhere someone just came mashing into me from my left. I got knocked right off my bike then the other rider started screaming at me to “get out of the f***** way.” I would have accepted an apology as a simple racing incident but he started screaming at me that I needed to respect faster riders and get out of their way.

If I was someone who had in some way tried to block him passing me in some kind of racing action then it would be handbags at dawn but this guy was clearly smashing past someone not going at his pace, in a place there was no room to pass and I had absolutely no warning before he rammed into me. His head might have been down or was tired but the tirade he let go at me when I was just mincing along at my own pace out of the start zone was insane. The marshal and the spectators were telling me to take a break and asking if I was ok but I was just a bit shocked at both the incident but more so his behaviour tbh. Took me a good while to stop shaking afterwards.

Daughter #1 (15) did it as a mixed pair with a pal and their team came 9th. I was quietly impressed as you can imagine.

Its her first real year as an MTBer (we’ve always done it for fun and giggles, but road was her ‘thing’) and she’s loving it. She didn’t get a practice lap in as we weren’t down in time, and had been slightly alarmed by other riders advising her to watch the scary downhill. After her first lap, she announced that it was obviously just an XC course and she was enjoying herself 🙂

She did their last lap and scraped in 30 secs before the close.

Speedstar – did you ask the marshalls if they did anything in the end? Like I said I didn’t see the actual incident but saw enough to infer that he had caused something and you had caught the brunt of it.

Nah didn’t want to continue things further. Actually just wanted to get back to the riding! Just wasn’t in the spirit of it all but maybe some folk when they get the racing head on…

Great event. Managed 6 laps. Second year I’ve done it. Be doing it again for sure.

Wtaf ^ I can’t believe there are such utter knob ends in existence. Who genuinely gives that much of a toss about a minor local race to act that way. Well done on keeping your cool..I’d have been trying to pick a fight if I experienced that.

Worst i experienced was a couple of faster riders firing up behind me on some very tight singletrack and just shouting ‘rider’ or the like. No idea where they expected me to go, if you want me to let you pass at least give me an indication of which side you are going to pass on. I’m not going to just pull over at the side of the trail and let you past. Other than that it was all very chilled, and a great atmosphere.

The couple of laps I managed before crashing out I noticed that the faster riders seemed much less polite than previous years. I did 4 laps as part of a duo last year and only had a moan at one rider on my last lap who mumbled ‘rider’ as he shouldered me out of the way. This year it seemed like every other of the fast folks were just barging past without shouting at all and with no regard for whether there was room. I’m just thankful no-one was in a position to overtake me on the descents (even after I tried to remodel the bomb hole with my head, #humblebrag) or it could have been messy.

4th time for me this year , I normally manage 6 but settled for 5 this year , felt a bit flat on the day but still enjoyed it .

I do 5 or 6 enduros a year and am not very good at it so get passed a fair few times and can honestly say no one has ever got wound up by having to get past me whereas on Saturday a few and it is only a few did kind of annoy me . I can appreciate if your really challenging for the top it is probably easy to get a red mist on but I seem to remember reading something by Jason miles along the lines of being decent to the back markers as without those guys paying entry fees there won’t be events to enter .

Still a great day and I will be back next year .