Hit the North – Provisional start list and course photos.

Start list here

Course looking very fast and dry and clear of weeds after several hours of machete work by myself and Terrahawk.

Cooksons Cycles trade stand finalised this afternoon. SIS coming to give away free Power-Pop™.

Still places left at http://www.hitthenorth.net.

Even the weather forecast is good!

I love riding in jeans and a tshirt. Makes me feel 13 again 😉

Looking forward to it and a top 62 place.

Now to choose which bike? SS or geared

there's no massive climbs John. If it was me I'd race ride with gears. Stick it in the big ring and give it some 😉

there's no massive climbs John

…apart from the ones that you have to carry up. 😀

SS+Endomorph FTW John

swoons @ racer john. 😉

I don't do winning/racing

Do you do carrying?

JohnClimber – Member

I don't do winning/racing

In fareness you have no idea how to finish 4th with style either. 😉

oh balls, you;ve got Mrs NBT all excited now, she;s seen the start list and worked out she'll either come first or second in mixed 3s – and naturally, it *has* to be first!
I see Trio has some competition for solo female though!

Oh gawd, Mrs NBT is racing Derek Starship & co for the mixed 3s title. It's gonna be carnage!

Derek (Neil), Lee & Jane have been training too.

Should probably book my train ticket and chase up the bike.

Lance prepares for le Tour in the same way.

Can you chase up our prizes while you are at it?

It's home turf for Short 'n ard, so they do have the advantage of knowing the racing line 😉

racing line? We only carved the racing line out of the earth with our scythes yesterday.

I love riding in jeans and a tshirt. Makes me feel 13 again

I know just what you mean. I'm pondering racing in a pair of 'cut off's' now, (with some padded shorts underneath).

That second picture in the OP. Is it junction 16 to 17 that is part of the course, or 17 to 18? Am I allowed to overtake in lane 3?

you can overtake where you like petal.

Well, Im hoping i can make it, some chump knocked me off my bike last weds, and im a bit sore……….

Trev, if you're not well enough to ride come over anyway and we'll give you a comfy chair and a cuppa.

how long do you expect a lap to take? (for a fat middle aged rigid ss'er)

been off work sick all week with a nasty virus, currently in a team of 3 and and have told the other two that they'll be riding on their own but i'll still be coming and i'm sure i'll want to do a lap even if i walk most of it.

Im not one of the "team" as it were but I've done a couple of the preview rides. I reckon the top lads will be lapping in 25 to 30 minutes, 45 to 50 for your more average MTber 🙂

Quite quick. 6.5 miles and over half of it is pretty much flat out. The rest is a lesson in zero margin of error terror. Imagine the speeder bike chase in Return Of The Jedi, but without the little furry fellas.

It was designed to get as many laps in as possible. No hanging around for ages in the pits waiting for a go. The pairs will have next to no time to do their thing between laps.

Im defo gonna be there eitherway Jase …….

Looking at those pics I can understand why you were struggling to sell tickets. Even the singletrack looks straight and boring. I do hope it's not all like that, I thought the riding was better up North…? 😕

cant wait to come to the race your organising PeterPoddy.

PeterPoddy – Member
Looking at those pics I can understand why you were struggling to sell tickets. Even the singletrack looks straight and boring. I do hope it's not all like that, I thought the riding was better up North…?

That's not the singletrack. I forgot that I had the camera and couldn't be arsed going back to take more pictures.

[edit]The last two are in the singletrack.

Thank god for that! If I was looking at those pics having entered, I'd be asking for a refund. My ride to work is tougher than I can see there. In fact, if I take a different route like I do on sunny evenings, it's remarkably similar to be fair, it looks very like the Blackwater Valley Path.

Looking at those pics I can understand why you were struggling to sell tickets.

We were wondering why it wasn't filling up as quick as we'd hoped (given the 3 previous races we organised were so well received) – good job you were here Poddy to share your wisdom.

I took them when I was out posting the footpath closure notices.

Actually, the camera doesn't do the gradient justice. You'd struggle to walk quickly down the bit that Terrahawk is riding.

From previous outings…

– good job you were here Poddy to share your wisdom

Believe me, I'm not the first or the only one to notice, just the only one to open his big gob. And it needed saying. Sorry.

As a mater of interest (I'd like to compare it to a local course) how much climbing per lap?

900ft

thank god your opinion amounts to **** all eh?

Mr Poddy, have you actually ridden the course?

Making snap judgements based on a few photos is easy – creating a genuinely exciting event which appeals to 'crossers, experienced racers and long term bimblers like myself is bloody difficult.

Doing it twice a year, for the love of it, then donating the profit to charity is above and beyond the call of duty.

I'd suggest you attend the event and ride the course before commenting further.
Sticking your oar in at this point, just to make negative comments, frankly stinks.

Attempting to justify it as helpful advice is disengenuous at best and does you no favours at all.

So am i 😉

[edit] your comment seems to have been deleted

Enough of this bitching.

This is the last HTN. If you turn up you'll like it. If you're not coming then to be honest I don't care.

Mr Poddy, have you actually ridden the course?

Making snap judgements based on a few photos is easy – creating a genuinely exciting event which appeals to 'crossers, experienced racers and long term bimblers like myself is bloody difficult.

Doing it twice a year, for the love of it, then donating the profit to charity is above and beyond the call of duty.

I'd suggest you attend the event and ride the course before commenting further.
Sticking your oar in at this point, just to make negative comments, frankly stinks.

Attempting to justify it as helpful advice is disengenuous at best and does you no favours at all.
Absolutely spot on. You voiced my sentiments so much more eloquently than I could have. I'd have just called him a cock. PP – you should be ashamed of that.

So you post pictures up of the course, which make it look flat and boring. Someone then points this out then gets called a "cock" for stating the obvious?
Would anyone have bothered entering at all if you hadn't have received preferential treatment in advertising your race in this forum (for free), when other promoters have had threads removed or received bans for doing the same thing?

6.5 miles, nearly all flat out? Would it be better to take a road bike?

As stated earlier. Enough of this bitching.

Pictures 2 and 3 are actualy quite steep climbs. Whatever… as I have said earlier this will be the last one for me.

Would it be better to take a road bike?

You can if you like. Two wheels one rider are the only rules.