Hey, anyone competed in this before? Not sure wether to run spds or flats. Whats the majority of course? I much prefer flats on techy stuff and drops, but you can’t beat spd on climbs, which I believe there’s loads of. Any info?

Hi

Competed in it last year – Ian Winstanley. You are correct in that there are a lot of ascents, the total being around 1150 metres. I always use SPDs. There are a couple of technical sections, one very stony section descending down into Hebden Bridge and one coming off the moor into Luddenden Foot. I dismounted for a few dozen yards on both. It will cost you a handful of second whereas in my opinion you will lose all and more of that on say the big ascent from Hebden Bridge up Crimsworth Dean.

It was a good ride and I will be doing it this year.

Ian

Spd’s here and mud tyres on I think!

“Rules and Conditions of Entry
1. This event is NOT A RACE rather a personal challenge.”

Yeah, right.
Kinda surprised this event hasn’t been stopped yet.

Thanks for the info. Read a few reports from previous years and seems to suggest its a but of a mudfest too. Spds and mud x’s the way to go then. All the best, hope the weather behaves.
Jon

This might be of interest…

I’ve ridden this 6 or 7 times and it’s a great event. Depending on what your approach is I doubt you’ll need either spds or mud tyres – I’ll be on flats and skinny tyres again.

I much prefer flats to be honest, just thinking loads of climbs and gloopy stuff would better suit spds. Why u reckon flats are the way to go? What kinda skinnies you running?

I’ve only ever run flats on the MTB, regardless of what I’m doing. I’m not convinced that spuds would particularly offer me any benefit over flats as I prefer to be able to get my feet down instinctively as and when necessary and I’m a big ring masher when riding eyeballs out anyway.
There’s 4 stiff climbs on the route, 2 of which are Tarmac, 1 is up the hard-pack track through Hardcastle Crags and the other from Pecket Well to Midgley Moor I’ll probably be walking up anyway. The boggy field to the House of Shit and Midgley Moor are bloop-fests and will involve at least some walking unless the weather takes a dramatic turn for the warmer and drier this week. Spuds will make no difference to me across any of that.
I’ll be running 1.9 Black Jacks at 65psi to take advantage of all the hard pack and Tarmac, which makes up the vast majority of the route. Mud tyres will be an advantage for about 5% I reckon. I play the percentages, bust my nuts on hard ground and then live with my best attempt at the tricky bits. Just my approach and not everyone’s cup of tea I know.
I suppose it all comes down to whether your priority is chasing the clock or whether you’re happy to enjoy the ride in whatever time it takes you.

Good insight. Am definitely a flattie fan, clipping in on mtbs feels wrong, just wasn’t sure what to expect. I’m same , like the feet to be free to do what comes naturally, I.e overt stupid accidents!

So, how did you do today?
Bearing in mind that this is a personal challenge and not a race, I got round in 2h 32m. When I glanced at the sheet of paper that the timers were filling in, my name appeared to be the 24th one they’d written down.
My mate Kev’s name was the first one they’d written down and he managed 2h 6m.
Midgley Moor was a nightmare today, but I did at least manage to ride the whole of the descent despite my earlier misgivings.

2:45 45th. I did better last year at 2:41 and it absolutely killed my legs in the iliotibial area. Got really bad cramps at the end of Midgley Moor. Seems to have been the same for others.

2h 6m seems impossible! More endurance and aerobic training needed me thinks.