Had a great day out! Did the 130 in 7:26 which given the conditions and the training volume (ahem) I was pleased with.

My first attempt at tubeless (Nanos at ~35 PSI) held up spectacularly well. Although I did lose my biggest gear which made climbing somewhat challenging.

Really impressed at the organisation of the whole event. The Mrs and I thoroughly enjoyed lounging in the sun afterwards and cheering riders up the hill (complete with cowbell!) once I’d done.

Definitely keen to come back next year and possibly attempt the 200k.

A great day, did the 130 in 8 hours something(?)… not sure because I swapped my finisher ticket for a bowl of veggie chilli at the end!

Whatever the time was I could have shaved at least an hour off by not going into a jaffa cake frenzy at the feed stations and then standing around chatting and enjoying the vibe.

A group of three of us did it on hardtails with 2.1 tyres (maxxis crossmark and specialized fast-track), tubed, and zero punctures – and that’s including hooning down the rough descents. Rolled OK on the hardpack stuff too, but obviously not as well as the gravel tyres..

I carried too much – took the organiser’s word for essential kit, so I carried an (annoyingly waggly) seat pack around all day with extra clothes and waterproof that weren’t needed this time.

If I changed anything about my kit, I would have converted from single to double front chainring, with a log-cutter on there to get some speed up on the long descents – but coasting downhill at 30mph was also fine 🙂

Some great pictures here from the bottom of the rocky descent at 85km in

https://www.flickr.com/photos/viewsaremyown/albums/with/72157695275662884

Those are top notch! I vaguely look like I know what I’m doing.

Excellent shots, unfortunately he caught me on my bad side 😉