I noticed that the Manchester Mountain Bikers posed for a team photo at the end. Can somebody post it on here so that we can steal it and put it on our website?

here you go chap!

Ta. Who is who on it?

left>right

back: Dan, Tim
Middle: Nick, Kev, Ron, George, Mike, Dean
Front: Simon, Peachey, Jen, Chris, Walc, Ste

Did Mike go round the course or under it?

An ace event again. Just got home – 52 hours for a 2 hour bike ride 🙂

Good to put some more faces to names, and see some old faces again.

And, despite appearances on the results sheet, I wasn't last (45 minute first lap?).

Andrew, if by any chance you photoshop the picture before putting it on the site, please can you open my eyes.

Thanks,

George 🙂

We're pretty sure that this one was our best yet. We certainly enjoyed organising and 'watching it all go off' anyway.

We were discussing plans for future races over several pints last night. It's going to be ace….

This guy looks like he had a lovely time.

Oh and I've got a couple of Mike somewhere.

That's me!
Hated Lap 1 – thoroughly enjoyed the other 6.
Cheers

More pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishcycling/tags/hitthenorth2010/

Great day. Thanks to the organisers and marshals, esp. at the bottom of the sharp muddy down hill – 5 times and on my *rse every time!

More pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishcycling/tags/hitthenorth2010/

Oh good. There's me in the first picture looking a twonk.

esp. at the bottom of the sharp muddy down hill – 5 times and on my *rse every time!

Snap.

On my fifth attempt I managed to land on some brambles and slide down the hill a little way. My left arse cheek is a little shredded.

No riding today given the weather so Mr Spanner took me to see the bit of the course I didn't know….what a romantic! Fantastic job clearing up lads..other than the muddy tyre tracks you couldn't tell there had ever been a big event. Had a long chat with the woman from 'cycle zone' and the proposed skills course on the old car park sounds an interesting proposition…could make parking difficult for future events??

The proposed "cycle zone" would kill us off.

Here's Miketually checking his brakes are working properly.

She didn't mention that Harry – are we talking about the same woman? Blonde lady whose office is in the building used for signing on yesterday – think she's the regional cycle training co-ordinator.
Seemed very supportive of the whole HTN thing when we talked to her today and said she was very impressed by how the event went and the attitude of all concerned.

She mentioned a proposed skills course & pump track on the car-park used by the competitors – and also the development of a red route in the area.

She also seemed very annoyed (as is everyone else we've spoken to) about the sacreligious destruction of some very nice singletrack by the muppets in the Forestry Commission, specifically the ruined climb up past the road-roller back up to the car park.
Apparently they had access to the guy who designed some of the 7 Stanes trails (can't remember his name) but turned down his offer of help 🙄

It will kill us because there is parking for 160 cars there. The other car park (not the one we have to use for race control) has spaces for 6 cars.

No parking. No event.

If that happens we will move it to Giant's Seat.

If they cock up the park with rubbish trails that will necessitate a move too.

Hmmmmn, success sows the seeds of it's own destruction?
How very British and thoroughly depressing.

On balance, I'd rather they just left the place alone.

Is there a way to find out who was on CX and who was on MTB's?

can anyone recommend any other races around the north in the near future?

dirk_pumpa
The kielder matathon series is always good, 50k. The next one is on saturday, but thats really up north… Or the old nembos series is starting again in april, but its got another name, which I can't remember…

Nezbo – Member
Is there a way to find out who was on CX and who was on MTB's?

In the men's it was a CX 1, 2 &3.

Cheers Harry_the_Spider, i was just wondering where i came within the Mountain bikers.

Still quite impressed with my 27th over all on a MTB 🙂

Bet you had more fun than the CXs though Nez

😉

What's that line in Batman?

Why so serious?

😀

Wonderful Oxymoron in the two posts above… Either you can be impressed with your performance or you can accept that performance isn't an issue for you 😆 Fun can come from all sorts of things, including – dare I say it – riding quickly. That's. erm. why. CX. bikes. can. also. be. fun.

But why do they never smile?

That's what i want to know – them CXers don't half look miserable considering they're having so much fun.

😉

Rusty Spanner said:

Nah, come back in the summer, it might be even muddier and even more fun!

I've done all three of the HTN races. Loathed the first one, liked the second (though undiagnosed asthma somewhat hampered my performance), and was flying at the start of this one, when disaster struck.

An addition to the North household is due in August, so I reckon I'll just about get away with it if there's another race in July.

What bike were you riding OMITN?

Black Cotic Soul with rigid forks and 26" CX tyres.

Black Cotic Soul with rigid forks and 26" CX tyres.

Apart from the punctures, how did the tyres work?
I'll give proper mud tyres a go next time, but not sure even they would work properly given the amount and consistency of the gloop.

Didn't notice any difference in the friendliness of crossers Vs mtb's. The vast majority were all very polite as they passed.

Hi Pook.

"But why do they never smile?
That's what i want to know – them CXers don't half look miserable considering they're having so much fun"

I rode on a cx and if you'd seen me on a flat section I was smiling/chatting ! The rest of the time I was either in pain or in fear !! But I class that as part of having fun!!!

I didn't say they weren't friendly; just ever so serious! I guess they were focussed….

I rode on a cx and if you'd seen me on a flat section I was smiling/chatting

alright then, I'll let you off

The guy on the CX bike who retired hurt by the way is a mate of mine. He had to go to A&E to have a stick removed from his lip. He did smile though 😉

Anyway,

Pan fire XCs were rubbish for the mud. Just sucked it up and plonked it around the claggy parts of my bike. I was scooping it out at one point near the raised wooden bits

Here's Miketually checking his brakes are working properly

🙂

Note to self: keep your arms bent!

My very limited experience of riding my cross bike round that course is of either terrifying speed or terrifying terror. No time to smile. Doesn’t stop me from doing it though.

Let’s not start a debate on who is the happiest breed of cyclist or I’ll let unicyclists in next time and we all know what a wacky bunch of beardy-weirdy bast***s they are with their funny woolly hats and all of that juggling nonsense.

We were discussing borrowing a tandem for the next one……

Did anyone blat down the trails on them four wheeled efforts?

Apart from the punctures, how did the tyres work?

Great. Perfect for the conditions, except I evidently ran them a little soft (no more than 40 psi – prob should have had 45 in them and ridden more smoothly). Schwalbe CX Pro 1.35".

Pook – Member
Did anyone blat down the trails on them four wheeled efforts?

I think that those "four wheeled efforts" would struggle to blat if you dropped one out of a plane.

First time doing this and came in 62nd!
Was 7th at the end of lap 1 and top 10 end of lap 2…then punctures
for the next 2 laps (Partly my fault for not getting a thorn out, then a pinch flat) Ran out of tubes and air so was running round the course-thanks to No 61 who gave me a tube and air after I'd run for about 1/2 mile(really pleased as I thought I was going to have to run for the best part of an hour). Managed to break the end of the valve off as I inflated it! enough to get going though and then found another tube back at the car-took me nearly an hour to do those 2 laps as a result! – plain sailing after that. Good fun on the CX bike although brakes didn't really work on the last lap…wasn't able to smile down the descents as I was trying not to crash!

Pics now mostly up.

http://qwertyphoto.com/2010/hit-the-north-winter-v2

I can be as miserable as **** on a CX and an MTB, so think yourselves lucky I was busy organising an' ting and not racing eh?