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And it was a brilliant day, one of the best days I've had on the bike for a long time
The only downer is that until the last descent I thought I was gonna get away without having to wash the bike down
I was slightly miffed by the last part of the final descent too. It means I've got the wifes bike to wash as well as my own.
Brilliant day - great weather, and great dry trails (so much nicer than last year)! Was thinking in the same vein about not having to wash the bike down and then got covered in mud on that last lovely descent - anyway just finished cleaning it (it was nice mud and came off very easily).
Very big thanks to the organisers, marshals and the wonderful ladies who do the tea and cakes at the half way point - had 2 lovely pieces of moist bread pudding and a nice cup of tea.
Now if only I had remembered to get nearer the front for the start, and not get stuck behind loads of slower riders on the first couple of hills.
Will definitely be doing it next year!
Hi All,
yep great day... Although just got home and realised I left my front wheel in the car park! Long shot I know to try and get it back, but does anyone have the organisers phone no' so I can try?!
yours stupidly!
Dr UpGrade
Well,
Have fired off an email to the HONC secretary at least to see if anyone handed it in... Gawd, I feel sooo stuupid! Especially after such a cracking ride!
You lucky guys. Did it two? years back and I remember sheltering behind a dry stone wall with other riders keeping out of the snow storm.
It was an amazing day; I thoroughly enjoyed the scenery, the route, the friendly participants and the helpers. 😀
Snow? Sheesh! Had to scrape some frost off the car but that doesn't really count does it?
As Philby said above, a great many thanks to the organisers, marshalls and other people who've given their time.
Great day out, took over an hour off my time from last year!! 😀
Big thanks to the organisers, especially for getting the weather right!!
Now where's my beer & curry!! 😉
Top ride, had to stop as I got back to winchcombe with a puncture though!
Yeah top ride/social with good mates. First ride on a drop bar 29er SS too 🙂
Really proud of mrssheldona who had her 3rd ever ride on her cx bike and completed the 100k in a respectable time.
Thanks to everyone involved.
sheldon
Tell Mrs S well done from us two for finishing. 😀
A first today for us too.
Our first 100K on the tandem.
5 and 1/2 hours for a first attempt, not too bad.
Just to say big shout out to Pat and all the other HONC organisers... My wheel was found and is being shipped to me tomorrow!
Excellent service all round! Thanks!
Mark
Great day today...perfect weather, and brilliantly organised (as usual)! We felt we deserved the post ride pint(s) afterwards. Roll on next year.
Was a great ride apart from the slow and won't keep left brigade on the first hill. Why do such plonkers rush to the front? I wasn't actually that far back myself and there are these idiots, incl on cx bikes hyper ventilating up the first rise. V annoying.
I last did it two year ago when was v dry as well but 30 mins quicker today - it did seem easy today but is that just my imagination? Much of the route today seemed familiar albeit in reverse!
Oh dear..
The words toys and pram come to mind.
See told you Sheldon, you needed to put that toy pram at the start of
the first climb.. 😆
That was some pretty fine weather today, a bit of a shock to my system, but can't complain. I wasn't there to ride at the front. From experience, the best place to be at the start is on the bumper of the police car, does mean you get to the bottom of the first climb well into the red.
"Was a great ride apart from the slow and won't keep left brigade on the first hill. Why do such plonkers rush to the front? I wasn't actually that far back myself and there are these idiots, incl on cx bikes hyper ventilating up the first rise. V annoying. "
happens at all these kinda events ....
I know I should chill out. Everyone tells me to so it must be true. Its like slow drivers in the middle lane of a motorway when there is nothing in the left lane. They're to$$ers too.
Great ride., and I finally I justified buying the CX bike which has spent 95% of the last year on the road. The last descent was certainly interesting and was much more enjoyable when I learnt to release my death grip from the brakes. And Philby got to the see the comedy of me bouncing all over the tractor tracks at the start of the last descent.
I think it would have been a bit boring on the Meta though!
Great Ride - I overtook a few and got overtaken by a few, not good enough or up my own proverbial enough to comment on where other paying riders should start, keep to a side or just be honoured in the presence of such greatness - Just get out and ride!!
and free bread pudding. I'll put bouncy forks on next time though. (rigid, hardtail, ss).
Thanks to the organisers, my first time and a really superb day.
Did the 50 and picked up FIVE punctures. Was running tubeless, patched and glued the tyre twice then used my spare tube. Bought one from LL at lunch, put that in then a MASSIVE thank you to the guy on the Root Beer cloured Trek Remedy who was charitable enough to give me an inner tube when that one went before we reached Cleeve Hill (you are a star!!). Anyhow, 2hrs 49 riding time which is 25 mins quicker than last year and at 18.5 stone I am very pleased with that.
PS - I may be slower up hill but I did stick to the left!!
Graham I'll bring the pram next year for the racer types that have to race through to get their 700th place in an event that's not a race! LOL and they call the people in the way to$$ers.
Yep, top ride today. Big thanks to those who had gps or map holders who I shamelessly followed pretty much all the way round 🙂 Cheers!
love it Sheldon!!
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Retro bike from today
GPS?
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Rachel here went round with GPS
Graham Positioning System
Awesome day out.
Brilliantly organised.
Did it for the first time (50k) and really enjoyed it, especially liked the downhill offroad bits (and the bread pudding) and no mechanical problems or getting lost ! Great route, organisation (and weather).
I must have missed the sign that said " can all slow to$$ers please keep to the left and let serious racers through" too! I just waited for small gaps to appear and overtook when i could.
Great day out once again!
I'll second the big thanks to the organisers! What a great day! The weather made it all the better and some surprisingly good riding to be found near the end. Generally all good fun 🙂
Retro bike from today
That's the former race bike of Adrian Timmis, absolutely stunning in the flesh
do they put the times up of all the riders on their website?
a couple of people i've spoken to have un-feasibly quick times or do i just have to beleive them?
Another big thanks to organisers, marshals, helpers, etc.. Great day out. Have to say though, even after a 2nd piece of the mouthwatering flapjack I couldn't get anywhere near Mr & Mrs SSStu on the descent from Cleeve Hill, how do you fly so fast DH on a tandem!?! Sunshine, fine views, good company. Excellent.
Really enjoyed it, great organisation, brilliant weather (although chilly at the start :p ) and friendly people. Hopefully will be able to make it again next year 🙂
Big thanks to all the organisation. Really good day. Also thanks to to the 5 or 6 guys who I got together with after the tea stop - great company.
(Si on his Uncle John)
I couldn't get anywhere near Mr & Mrs SSStu on the descent from Cleeve Hill, how do you fly so fast DH on a tandem!?!
It's easy going that fast when the combined weight of tandem and riders is more than the brakes can cope with. 😯 😉
Lovely day guys! My first "big one" and very happy with 6 hours seeing as I was just happy to actually get round!
RE: slow people at the start... It's a difficult one because I started about halfway down the pack and while I'm no xc whippet I had to fight through a lot of people and was probably on the tail of the top third by the 50km/100km split. I could have done with starting much nearer the front but its difficult to tell how far forward you should be - one man's race pace is another's pootle. Next time I'd try and start a third of the way back but stood in the car park it's difficult to tell where that is!
Anyway, it was a gorgeous day with gorgeous friendly people and plenty social all the way round! Nice!
Second year HONCing for me and first on a CX bike. Conditions were so good that we decided it would be rude not to do the 100k and aside from the usual mechanicals (mostly skinny tyre-related - a mate even had one explode, catapulting him over the bars) we all really enjoyed it. I expected it to be a total pain-fest but apart from the last descent it wasn't actually too bad.
One thing that stands out about the HONC for me is how well organised it is, and this year was no exception - good marshalling, good route and great cake!
Thoroughly enjoyed it as well. Great weather, great trails, quiet roads and a good atmosphere. Started steadily and had a real good enjoyable ride all the way round - so much easier and faster than last year. Got round in 5hrs 30mins, but riding time was 4:50, which is an hour faster than last year. Seemed like most people this year did the 100km, whereas last year only a small fraction seemed to do it.
And the cake at the rest stop was fantastic.
Perfect day...
Spent it accompanying Mrs B on her first HONC doing the 50km. I'm very proud of her as she did it without stopping except for tea and cakes and she really enjoyed herself. Came in almost dead on 4hrs which for her is really good.
Bring on next years!
My first HONC for over a decade and this time was much more fun. Only the second time I've ever done 100km, and proud I am too.
Not a great a time as many 6 1/2 hours, but I didn't drink enough towards the end and the choice of a cx bike didn't pay off at the end, as the descents over Cleeve hill were hell. Superlight next year I think, it'll make sense for the final descent which would have been amazing (instead of amazingly painful)
As for people complaining about competitiors on the climbs, next month at the Dyfi it'll be people mincing down the descents which will p155 people off. You can never win....
Really enjoyed the HONC the second bike event I have ever ridden. Found it was really well organized and the food was appreciated half way round! The single track descents were fun glad I was on a MTB! Managed to get a riding time of just under 3 hours in the 50k know it wasn't a race but I was the first woman back!
Fatfish, times aren't posted or recorded.
Well the exception being the first rider round the 50k and 100k routes
who get a mention in the local paper.
i heard that the fastest 100 arrived in at 1.30pm ish and the fastest 50 got back at 11.30.
alledgedly 2nd place 50 accused 1st place 50 of taking shortcuts!
to the lady in the grey shorts and white sleeveless top with long blonde hair you took my mind totally off my cramping legs on Cleeve Hill- thank you
Wow,
I got in 2.12pm! I knew I was doing 'well' as I was surrounded by 'crossers' and somewhat xc whippet guys in tight team lycra! (I was on a Cotic hemlock btw..)
Well it's a bit repetitive but it was a brilliant day and as ever, the organisation was top class. Despite my soreness today (due largely to baby related total lack of training/riding), I'm glad that I did stick to the 100k route - last year's blip (75k) being the only time that I havent't done the full course.
Riding a cross bike was perfect and to my mind definitely the right bike - fast on the road, fast on the grassy stuff and nothing on the course other than about 1 minute of the final descent (the first bit with the grassy potholes) was remotely beyond its capabilities (sorry, grahamh - I know you were hoping that the cx riders would suffer 🙂 ), though admittedly if you rode a cross bike gripping the bars hard then I imagine that you'd have suffered...
Oh and to hh45, I'd love to know your finish time - it always strikes me that it's the wannabes who have attitude, not the genuinely fast people who are almost always polite and can deal with being held up, accepting that it's part of an event like the HONC where there's a huge mix of abilities. If you don't like it, go and [b]race[/b] the NPS or similar XC events where being a grumpy git will allow you to fit right in...
a big thanks to all those involved in organising a great day in the saddle.
i spotted some people cheating and taking short cuts off road which was not in the spirit of the event and wish i had got there numbers so i could report them to the marshalls.
they must have gained no end of places the cheating scum bags
🙂
From the grins, I assumed they had been taking a cheeky, unofficially sanctioned offroad descent ...
I have no problems with people taking 'short cuts', after all it's a ride, not a race, and they are losing out (some inadvertedly short-cut, of course). I had a quiet giggle though at the finish, when a guy I knew said that he had 'beaten' me by 10 minutes, including a puncture stop, when the only time I actually saw him was as I rode past him panting away on the first climb.
🙄
Great day out - many thansk to all the organisers/stewards/village hall ladies.
Did the 100K - finished - and there were still cars in the car park when I left - so not bad all in!
Donated to the Air Ambulance [url= http://www.countyairambulancetrust.co.uk ][/url] by way of thanks.
Can't say people spread across the roads/tracks bothered me too much, as has been said it's not a race. However it would also be a bit of common courtesy (and safer) if people did stay on the left whenever possible. Although equally I wish some of the people who were a bit overly keen after the start didn't go barging through 10cm gaps forcing people to move to accommodate them :p
You're right and to be fair, most people did keep over when they could but the fact is that even some of the 'slow' people are overtaking other 'even slower' people so you end up with everyone spread across the trails - I didn't see anyone deliberately getting in the way.
Besides, anyone that bothered about getting held up has an easy solution - get to the start line early enough that you're right at the front...
We had no problems with anyone trying to barge past us on the two seater.
I wonder why..... 😉
Riding a cross bike was perfect and to my mind definitely the right bike - fast on the road,
Ohhh I don't know, as much as I'd like a cross bike I think a short travel XC / marathon full suss with pro pedal,lock out and fast tyres is also ideal for that course, my Rush was brilliant although I'd recommend having a bike with both brakes not just the front, ahem..
😐
The two of you on your tandem probably weigh about the same as me...
KingT - suspension is nice to have (said, having riden every other HONC before last year on full susser) but I reckon there's no actual advantage and I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have been able to make it round the course with you lot if I'd been on an mtb. The cross bike is markedly quicker on the road/smooth offroad sections and barely any slower on the more technical offroad stuff since almost none of it is actually very technical. Plus you always get stuck behind slow riders on their full sussers anyway 🙂
Full susser with disc brakes and tubeless is definitely the way to go, that way you'll have more excuses when things go wrong. 😉
I saw a lot of cross riders changing tubes... 😛
I think something like a HeiHei on small block 8s would be a good ride around there.
My Five with the SB8s was surprisingly pleasant and quick. Most of the cross bikes that went flying by looked to be ridden by people that were much fitter anyway and would have been going past me on an MTB equally as fast. I passed quite a few cross bikes ridden by not so fit looking people so I think rider fitness is still a bigger factor...
Full susser with disc brakes and tubeless is definitely the way to go, that way you'll have more excuses when things go wrong.
I think my Float 32s came close to packing up but they've been pissing oil out of the seals for a fortnight now :'(
@ mr agreeable are you targeting MikeT with those comments!!
@ mr agreeable are you targeting MikeT with those comments!!
Yes he is, he's a big cyber bully that Mr_A.
😉
I knew it. Where is MikeT to defend himself. Has he bled his rear brake and replaced that pad yet I wonder.
I knew it. Where is MikeT to defend himself. Has he bled his rear brake and replaced that pad yet I wonder.
I might leave it, 'single brake MTB riding' a new niche.
HA HA!!! He didn't look like he was enjoying the last 2 descents with only a front brake. I blame it on being a 'dale.
Hopster, you seen Hwe recently? 😉
My take on the "ideal HONC bike" is that there isn't one. A flat barred MTB with fat tyres isn't going to be as fast on the road, which what most of the route is. A CX bike is sketchy and fragile on the lumpy stuff. Those drop bar Singular things look like they could be really good, but then they go and muck them up by forgetting to fit gears. 😉
I know blokes who have done really fast times on everything from 6" travel "all mountain" bikes to road bikes. For most people it's just a fun sociable day out with hundreds of other cyclists.
Hopster, you seen Hwe recently? [:wink:]My take on the "ideal HONC bike" is that there isn't one. A flat barred MTB with fat tyres isn't going to be as fast on the road, which what most of the route is. A CX bike is sketchy and fragile on the lumpy stuff. Those drop bar Singular things look like they could be really good, but then they go and muck them up by forgetting to fit gears. [:wink:]
I know blokes who have done really fast times on everything from 6" travel "all mountain" bikes to road bikes. For most people it's just a fun sociable day out with hundreds of other cyclists.
Yep just a great reason to get out riding and have a social. Do you want me to drop the trailer round tonight?
Hwe, you da man! I've emailed you my address.
Cool I'll see you later.
A flat barred MTB with fat tyres isn't going to be as fast on the road, which what most of the route is.
Actually Mr A, you will find that for the last 2 years the on road/off road content has been 50/50. Its only because I revamped a old route that this year was biased towards the road content.
Watch out next year, I'm planning on upping the off road content a bit more 😀
Bring it on! 😆
grahamh - Member
A flat barred MTB with fat tyres isn't going to be as fast on the road, which what most of the route is.
Actually Mr A, you will find that for the last 2 years the on road/off road content has been 50/50. Its only because I revamped a old route that this year was biased towards the road content.
Watch out next year, I'm planning on upping the off road content a bit more
---------------------------------------------------------------
Which prob means it will pee it down eh Gra!
Thank you for an awesome day out in the sun.
Bu66er
Come to fettle the bike after yesterday and got a flippin puncture. Thought I'd got away with it
I saw a lot of cross riders changing tubes...
Not me, well not on the course anyway, I did pick one up riding from the school building to the car afterwards. Beforehand, punctures was what I was most worried about especially with 15st of me coming down the final descent. The wheels need a tweak mind 😐
Re bike choice: I only felt disadvantaged on a crosser on 2 or 3 descents and 2 steeper offroad climbs. Having said that if I wanted to treat it as a race instead of enjoying myself the biggest thing I could do to save time would be get GPS: I kept getting ahead of mtbers only for them to wizz past me at junctions as I looked at the directions 😕
PMSL @ Sofaking 😉
What was your number Sofaking?
118 118, got your number 😉
PMSL!!!
Actually we were sooo Niche we had imaginary numbers 🙂
A flat barred MTB with fat tyres isn't going to be as fast on the road, which what most of the route
Try 490g tyres with 90g tubes and a 1600g wheel set, I wheeled and climbed past many a CX bike rider and as I recall I wasn't struggling to keep up with you and the rest of LVIS peeps on CX bikes, I'm not willy waving but I think your statement is flawed.
Well I HONC'd but i had a bit of a mare of a day. Started the night before, trying to sort my tyres out. Managed to prise my front tubeless nobby nic from the rimstrip after 20 minutes or so (had it on the bike for a year) and p*ssing about trying to inflate a racing ralph at midnight..Gave up and put a chunder 1.90 on the front. Left the rear as it is as i've been tubeless/puncture free for well over a year (you can see where i'm going with this)
Decided to do the 100k as it was more of a challenge. The only downside is that i was on my own. Got about 10 miles in and felt the back end all over the place. Stopped and realised i had about 10psi in the rear. Pumped it up and then another few miles it was down again. Got to the top of the climb before the 50/100 split off point and found a hole in the side that wouldn't seal (****) Decided to patch the tyre from the outside as i wasn't going to try prising off the damn tyre for 20 minutes. got down the road and followed everyone else to realise the 100k route was left at the road (doh!)
After the food stop it all went to pot. Started following a group (but also looking at the map) then realised I'd been down the same road that morning (****!) Proceeded to tell this old boy on a cross with gps but he just carried on (along with 4 others) Luckily met up with some ppl from west drayton mtb club and we rode together.
Cut a long story short.. we got lost quite a few times. The back marker marshall caught up with us which totally demoralizing and even he ended up taking us the wrong way (and he was with a guy with gps!)
All in all it took us a marathon 8 hours. What was gutting is i still had loads left in the tank at the end. I took it easy as i'd only ever done 54k before.
I really didn't think how much emphasis was on navigation. Not doing the HONC before I honestly thought a lot of it would be marked (i realise now that's not the point)
If i did it again, i'd do it in a team. It's not much fun on your own 🙁
thanks to Emma, Arman and Rach from west drayton mtb club for the support