Signed up for this on November 3 for a laugh (will be my first organised race of any kind).

Never ridden at FoD before – what kind of terrain and trails should I expect (assuming the event will take in off-piste stuff)?

Also looking for place closer to me to ride for a bit of preparation. Being in the East Midlands means my closest proper riding is either the Peaks (including Wharnecliffe in there too) or Cannock – which of these is closer to what I’ll come across in the FoD? Anywhere else I should look at that’s closer to me than the FoD itself?

muddy and rooty, no long climbs but fun descents, lots of narrow singletrack, cannock is v sandy in comparison

oh and FoD has wild boar it’s best to avoid

Hopton and Bringewood would probably be good if youre after something comparable.

What dirk said, but also Eastridge as it’s closer for you.
Also you do see a lot of people Enduro training at Cannock, they’re easy to spot as they’re the only ones riding up to the top of Stile Cop.

Thanks. Might be flat round here, but we do have lots of muddy, rooty singletrack so I might feel at least partially at home.

Where abouts in the East Mids are you?

Peterborough, so really on the East Midlands/Western East Anglia border.

colournoise – thinking about doing this myself. I’m based in Norwich and Thetford is my normal fitness loop. Cannock isn’t a bad comparison to FoD, although as rocketdog says it’s sandy, where as FoD is probably more loamy like Thetford (so it’s a bit of a mixture).

If you can do the drive getting down to Aston for the day wouldn’t be a bad idea on learning how to ride the faster, downhill rooty stuff… plenty of that there!

This sounds like fun, are these enduro events based on DH trails like the ones in FOD or is it more XC type descents?

I’m thinking e final descent on he blue run versus the DH trails.

If its anything like the staged Enduro earlier in the year, it will be on the much more DH orientated stuff. Probably not the marked DH runs, but there are other un-marked DH-style steep rooty tracks that they use for these events

DH all the way i’m hoping. The bar was set high at caersws earlier this year.

As said above – I’m pretty sure they will be using the ‘off-piste’ tracks for this event.

I know of one off piste segment they previously used for the enduro, it’s not as hard as say GBU including the drops but is lots of fun and definitely harder than the blue run. More natural, muddy, rooty, and with some optional jumps.

And count yourself lucky if you see any wild boar 🙂

I’ve never done an event like this before btw and it sounds interesting but 45 quid is a lot! Does anyone know what you get for your money apart from a race time?

Yea, £45 put me off too

The cost has put me off, can’t justify to myself let alone Mrs J spending that sort of money on a “Bit of fun”, sorry, I know there are alot of costs involved, insurance, first aid too pay for etc – but it just seems to out-price itself.

I expect the tracks are probably going to be on a mix of the “older” DH tracks, that people rode when DH bikes had about 4 inches of travel and the easier going downhill runs, like Corkscrew.

Chris Roberts put a post on the Dirt website about the cost and his explanation was that he’s essentially running 3 DH events given that each stage has live timing.

Its the live timing that makes this look better to me that the Enduro1 races, where you don’t get the results for several days and you just get in the car to go home without knowing how you did!

£45 is a really fair price imo. When you take into account what the organiser has to do to log a time for each rider on three separate courses all in one day in the way that the naked racing guys do it you really can’t argue with it.

Specifically describes using “off piste” tracks on organisers site, having ridden there with locals am tempted despite the price, awesome trails.

I guess you pay more if you can’t overtake 😆

Little bit disappointed STW help promote this for-profit event, but when I was helping with promoting a local non-profit event for U18s racing XC, my attempts to get a video on Midweek Movies failed,

Yeah it’ll be off-piste, so no corkscrew etc. It’ll probably be the Worcester lodge DH that crosses the fireroad and goes off steep, also the track to the right of the Y2K with the steep left into the chute and maybe the run that leads into ‘the bowl’ in Wimberry Slade if that means anything to anyone. Some of those sections get a little hairy in the wet!

Now you’re all scaring me a tiny bit – I’m in the hardtail category and it all sounds a bit DH to me!

Assumed that an event aimed at first time racers would be a bit gentler?

Will there be a mincer’s wooden spoon award?

Have ridden Nevis Red on my BFe – cant be tougher than that surely?

Only been to fod once and never ridden any off piste stuff so looking forward to it for that reason. Also in hardtail category 🙂

If you’ve ridden the Nevis red (I assume you mean the red DH and not the red XC) then you’ll be fine. Just typical rootsy woodland DH stuff at FoD and hardly any rocks. And its not like the steep bits are prolonged and death-defying, there’s just a few sections that can get a bit hairy in the wet!

. It’ll probably be the Worcester lodge DH that crosses the fireroad and goes off steep, also the track to the right of the Y2K with the steep left into the chute and maybe the run that leads into ‘the bowl’ in Wimberry Slade if that means anything to anyone. Some of those sections get a little hairy in the wet!

I thought that was Y2K!? Either way, I love that track…

Yep – nothing too hairy, a hard tail would be fine on those.

As for profit (to answer amt), I think a good chunk goes to the Dean Trail Volunteers who do a great job of keeping the tracks maintained and have just finished the Freeminers extension, so you are giving back a bit too.

http://www.dtvfod.co.uk

The DH series from the summer was also to raise funds, so they’re quite enterprising.

wilko1999 – Member
If you’ve ridden the Nevis red (I assume you mean the red DH and not the red XC) then you’ll be fine. Just typical rootsy woodland DH stuff at FoD and hardly any rocks. And its not like the steep bits are prolonged and death-defying, there’s just a few sections that can get a bit hairy in the wet

Yeah, was talking about the ‘uplift’ red.

Am now imagining something more like Caddon Bank but with roots instead of rocks?

Time to see if I can find anything on YouTube…