That was pure awesome…. Apart from the climb up to the cake stop

Also had a fairly big crash from coming into that drop thing waaay too fast… And then went and finished the lap, got patched up did another lap. My shoulder hates me.

But TIL dropper posts are awesome

Yeah, there’s nothing on that lap I wouldn’t do without it but it just means you can have a bit more fun really, ride the descents like you want to not how you have to.

I enjoyed the final descent on the last lap due to the fact that most of the big guns will have finished by the time I did it meaning it was pretty quiet.

yeah it was a bit frustrating getting stuck in queues of endoing lycra on the descents, but they probably got frustrated getting stuck behind me on the climbs 🙂

managed 8 laps between our pair and ended up on the podium, which was a surprise!

Yeah, fact of endurance racing life tbh… I started from right at the back and I’m not quick enough up the hill to fix that completely so wasn’t surprised to be in a totally stationary line waiting for the first singletrack to clear… But by comparison with 10UTB it was a dream!

Mostly folks seemed considerate but the only drawback of the course IMO is some long descents with a lack of easy overtaking points. Even a really short doubletrack from time to time helps loads. I did have to laugh at the bellend on the mojo getting held up, his chat was “OUT OF MY WAY” and the response from absolutely everyone seemed to be “**** off”. Meanwhile I was gfollowin him down with a cheery hello and a please and thankyou and everyone let me straight through

If that was anyone on here- sorry chief, you’re a bellend, nothing I can do about it. But for whatever it’s worth, I’d be more sympathetic of you being held up, if it wasn’t for the fact you were actually pretty bloody slow.

and that’s all I have to say about that, really. But most other folks were considerate when passing or being passed, and even the folks who weren’t mostly looked like they had their hands full which is completely understandable.

He was on a mojo? Could you not narrow it down a wee bit?

who’s idea to put 2 big steep climbs in per lap? that was sadistic. Was a good day out, pretty warm, had 2 crashes, descents were fun, the people, sorry, the majority of people were nice and wasn’t really held up for too much time but as NW says, if your nice and friendly about it people do help out. Riding for 3 hours coverd head to foot in mud after my secong crash wasn’t fun, oh and did i mention those climbs. A bit less of them next year please

Did you by any chance bin it in the stream crossing and whack your bars round?

ha ha yeah!! wasn’t much fun that one

If it’s any consolation then one of your bystanders thought it was awesome, and didn’t understand how you got up and carried on- he liked it enough to be telling random strangers later in the race, so I think you made his day 😉

feel a heap lot better now :). how did you get on anyway, did you enjoy it?

Aye, excellent day out…I’m no endurance racer but I love this thing, just seems to strike a really good balance.

However next year, suspension.

Aye right good event again. Would have preferred to follow the next bit of singletrack (after the initial descent) through to the steep climb the other side of that hill (like previous years). But was good on the whole. As greig said, too much climbing! Or too much stupid steep climbing anyway… I’ll have a double fitted next year!

There wasn’t 450m of climbing in a lap. 10 laps = 3820m of climbing, although the first lap was a bit shorter, and just over 108km.

great fun, but the climbing was just brutal. The first 2 laps I felt like I was actually racing, the last 2 felt more like I was just surviving grinding up the hill in my granny gear.

We ended doing 8 as a pair, could have fitted in a 9th but by that point we were more or less completely broken. Any idea of the results?

I still struggle to comprehend how you can do 11 laps of that on your own, absolutely unbeleivable. Well done Greg for being an absolute machine, and everyone else for that matter for making it an ace day out on the bike.

Ha I saw someone completely caked in mud, might have been your raddogair, your skin must be lovely and soft today.

not exactly lovely n soft, more bruised, cut to shreds and broken. Still eating……………………

Any idea when the results are up?

Probably once the crew recover from their hangovers

(ok, actually, from their facebook:

TweedLove
Hello all…just to let you know that we still haven’t had the results from yesterday back from the timing people….as zoo as we get them, we will post them. Sorry for the delay!)

Amazing event again.

Second male pair, thank you to all the lovely people who let me past, especially those would hear me coming and pull over when there was no immediate need. As usually I got loads of great banter and chat out of folk by being super nice and patient. The rider Northwind describes above is what I absolutely hate, he’s obviously having a rough time of it, shame he’s trying to ruin everyone else’s day in the process.

Didn’t enjoy the course at first, but once the gravel cleared and the roots appeared I was loving it. “That one root” was a prime overtaking opportunity in later laps, as no-one I saw was riding it.

Greig – You were in some state as you went out for your last lap, hope you’re healing well.

haha, was indeed Doug. Pairs was some race, maybe of been a different result if you guys had stayed with friel on the first lap, but he’s a beast so understandable ( plus had to make an impression on the SC team). Good result for you guys, thought the graham/rothwell pairing would of kept you at bay.

That stream followed by berm is what got me, god did i suffer after that.

few bruises, alot of cuts but i’m ok. The body will do its job and heal me up sweet and proper

Saw one guy in the transition area with a lot of blood running down his leg, that wasn’t you was it? Having raced the last two years, or taken part, I was quite jealous. But a few laps of the pump track is all I’m capable of at the moment.

yeah , was me. Head to toe in mud??

If it was you, you looked quite clean. Blue lycra with a case of the shakes. Saw somebody later on that was being cleaned up by the medics using a garden sprayer.

8 laps in 7.15 ish for me, just about on my limit.
Full results are now up on the tweedlove site.

Tarnation, if my last lap had been 8 seconds faster, all my laps would have been faster than my teammate’s fastest. We’d still have been about 500th in pairs, mind 😆

Some very good performances from STW names there, well done folks!

Great day ,thought about an 8th lap ,but my knee said no to another grind up to the cake shop 🙄

Saw you go past on your rigid machine Northwind ( Ride Trails ,Eat Cake ).
Was going to shout some abuse,but I didn’t have the energy 😀

I got pelters on the horrible climbs, I think some folks clocked tje shirt and thought we built the fire-roads too We only build fun bits, honest!

@Northwind: From what I recall from the back of the shirt, it seemed that it mostly involved cake rather than trail building. Or maybe I just noticed the cake more. I assume that is how people get lured in…

I was really surprised by my results (or rather my results compared to other people). Probably the first and last time I am going to be on a podium for mountain biking.

Probably the first and last time I am going to be on a podium for mountain biking.

Me too, though I might continue to enter obscure classes just to keep up the award tally…!

yacoby – Member

it seemed that it mostly involved cake rather than trail building.

That’s what the sessions are like too 😆

Photies: http://www.flickr.com/photos/48666271@N00/sets/72157633873095555/

raddogair is first photo, I believe!

Photos up on RandR too but none of me by the looks of it

Really makes me realise how good Roots and Rain is for photo finding!