Kielder 101 – Who's in??

Very unlikely based on yesterday’s riding! By the time I got to any of the technical descents, I was so tired and sore that I was just pointing the bike and clinging on for dear life!

Haha, oh dear, I tried to hide it, but obviously it takes one to know one!

No problem, I needed the company too. I’m sure it was you dragging me along though. Definitely wouldn’t have kept that pace on my own.

Unlucky with the beer!

I haven’t started itching yet, but it will come. I only realised after the presentation that I was standing around wishing I had something to cover my face with, holding the free buff they gave me.

Re. the girl with the broken collarbone – what was the comment about at the presentation? Something along the lines of “thanks to the 3 riders who slowed down to ride around her” – was this a dig at some people not stopping? Or did I mishear/imagine things? I went past her and asked if they needed any help, and she thanked me for asking but already had two guys helping her. Shame if people didn’t stop, otherwise it was a great atmosphere.

Just had an email from the organisers – the results are at http://www.bowland-coms.co.uk/timing/2015/kielder101/results/

4hrs45 is just mental for that.

whitestone – Member
4hrs45 is just mental for that.

He IS a quick rider though. Holds a lot of the off-road KOMs round these parts (which are way less hilly than Kielder).

For some reason, the name seems familiar but don’t know why.

Anyway, my excuse is that I’m just about old enough to be his granddad 😳

That’s crazy pace. Even if it hadn’t stopped I wouldn’t have saved much time. I assume he didn’t stop for multiple cheese sandwiches at the 80km feed station!!

Even though there were times I wanted to throw my bike into a ditch and walk home I’m still glad I did it. Fantastic riding and scenery, can cannot imagine how fast the top riders were riding to do sub 5 hours. If I do it again I’m taking a full suss to save my ass from agony it suffered.

Good event that. Strangely though I actually enjoyed hooning down the endless fireroad descents more than the singletrack. I guess that’s what comes from spending an entire month riding a road bike. I’m not sure it’d be quite as enjoyable in the rain. Midges weren’t as bad as forecast either 🙂

Great event. Good to catch up with Myopic out on the course. I struggled badly on my cross bike, the last 15k took me 2hrs to finish and I double punctured coming down those steps about 1k from the finish. I was losing air from my tubeless setup all day and it finally gave up within sight of the finish. Well done to everyone who finished especially to the couple on the tandem, made me smile when they came roaring past me.

Great day out – chatted to so many nice folk on the way round, including Rob ^. Must’ve been tough on some stages on the CX! Glad you made it round after hearing about the tubeless woes at 50k 🙁

Finished faster than I’d hoped, wife and dog got to finish line 2 mins before I did despite me being over 1 hour earlier than my best estimate. And that was after they walked 28k themselves! 😯 The old girl was quite stiff today though 😉

youngrob, was it yourself on the red cube?? If so, i think we had a short chat after the secret valley section at Newcastleton. Respect for riding some of that stuff on a CX bik, it was properly rough at times

Yep that was me, cheers, my wrists are still sore. How did you get on?

The guy who won looked more comfortable at 85k than I do a few k into a Sunday bimble.

Seemed to be widely enjoyed by everyone I got to speak to on the way around, looking forward to doing it myself next year.

Well done to everyone who took part and thanks for making it enjoyable to be standing on the woods all day.

Fair play to you Rob. My wrists we’re hurting from that rough section over to Scotland so i hate to think how your’s must have felt.

Managed 7:25 in the end which i’m over the moon about as its the longest ride i’ve ever done. I could have gone faster but my friend was struggling massively so i kept him motivated for the last 35km.

Roll on next year. Can’t wait

Great event, thanks to all involved. I was aiming for sub 7 hours and managed 6h25 so I’m dead chuffed with that.

Toughest bits for me were the rough section just before the outward border crossing (murder on rigid forks, god knows what it was like for the cross bikes) and the very last climb with all the hairpins (was getting a spot of cramp in my quads by that stage). Also I could have done without the A1 being closed south of Scotch Corner on the way home, but I guess I can’t really hold the organisers responsible for that 😉

So the weather was nice, the midges weren’t too bad and you all want to go back next year to do the 100 mile version…like lambs to the slaughter !!!

Well done to all concerned, pleased to see this event back on the calender

Delayed ‘minority category’ results here:

BIKE CATEGORY RESULTS
Only a few brave souls chose to ride ‘enthusiast cycles’ at the Kielder 101 and their results are below (please feel free to add your result if you should be there):
SINGLE SPEED:
1st Saul Muldoon 05:26:30 (16th O/A)
2nd Andrew Howett 06:00:33 (41st O/A)
3rd Jim Tipp 06:04:26 (42nd O/A)
4th David Glover 06:13:29 (48th O/A)
5th Dave Winterbourne (?) 07:00:18 (89th O/A)
6th Jez Andrews 09:00:59 (188th O/A)
MONSTERCROSS/CX
1st David Glover 06:13:29 (48th O/A)
2nd Steven Deas 06:25:22 (60th O/A)
3rd Paul Myers 06:47:38 (77th O/A)
4th Saul Ayton 07:26:09 (115th O/A)
5th Rob Young 07:53:14 (137th)
FAT BIKE
1st Shaun Pallister 05:50:30 (35th)
2nd Mark Stephenson 09:07:50 (192nd O/A)
3rd Duncan Brown 09:55:29 (206th O/A)
Scott Matthews dnf
….all proving that bikes are great, as every one of them was smiling (even if the CX group were struggling to grip their bottles of Seismic Blonde)

Just noticed a couple of old roadies in the top 12 I ride with now and again, beasts! Really wish I had of been able to race now 🙁

Thanks for putting these up, I can now claim to be 5th, ha 8)

How many of you who rode it this year would welcome the distance going up to 101 miles? Or was it long enough??

I reckon putting it up to 101 miles would make it a totally different event. At 101km it’s challenging but do-able for most reasonably fit people but 101 miles would probably remove a lot of the “I’ll give it a crack” type riders and make it a more race orientated event.

Also, the weather was perfect this year but if it had been bad then even 101km would have seemed a very long way.

Personally I’d keep it as is.

Put it on on a Sunday!!!!!1!11! 😉

The email from the organiser had this:

DISTANCE NEXT YEAR

Many of you have fed back to us that the 101km felt just right as a distance and expressed concern at the possible 101miles next year. Please rest assured that the 101km will REMAIN regardless of the fact that we may be putting in a longer version as well. The 101miles is for those who are utterly hardcore, up for the challenge or just utterly mad.

As IvanDobski says if the weather hadn’t been nice at the weekend then it would have been a very different event.

One option (and I really don’t know if it is practical) would be to have both short and long courses do the same early part, say as far as this year’s final food stop, at that point there is a time cut off for the long course. If you have entered the long course and are before the cutoff you have the choice of dropping to the shorter event or continuing. If you are after the cutoff then you have to do the shorter course. hope that makes sense 😀

whitestone – that makes perfect sense and is what we are mulling over. The 101Km will stay as the main event, with a shorter version for those who want a go. The second thoughts are about the 101 miles we’ve planned – very, very few suggested that they would have welcomed it.

make it a more race orientated event

Feedback we’ve had, suggests that 101Km with the variety of trails is much better to race than a 101 miles, which would inevitably have more fire road.

My point was more that the people riding it would probably be more race focussed than the “I just want to finish and have a laugh” atmosphere which was there on the day.

The main problem (apart from being fit enough) with a 101 mile event is the amount of daylight – add 50%, maybe 60% to allow for tiring, to the times posted on Saturday and you’ll get an idea of whether it’s a goer. I’d come out with a projected time of 10hrs30 which with an 0730 start is 6pm and I was about a third of the way down the field on the 101. On a dull day it could be quite dark in the trees by that time.

A bit fitter/faster and I’d consider a 101 miler. 😳

I would consider the 101miles but I agree that the 101k had a great atmosphere and that might be lost with the additional distance. If both options were available next year, I’d probably do the 101k on my mtb to see how it was as I did really like the route and variety of trails.

That’s great feedback, thanks.
I only did the old 100 mile once, in the wet year (2011). I was lucky that my bike held up, but it took nearly 12 hours overall! I was far from last and more people DNF’d that year than even entered this year…..

I too did the 100 miler in 2011 (around 12 hours too) and I loved it, would definately go back for another crack but probably wouldn’t bother with the 6 hour drive for a 60 miler. There were around 500 riders that year so surely a fair few would want to do it again.

Yes! Podium monstercrosser 🙂

I would have been up for the 101 miles, but at this time of year if the trails were similar, then extrapolating times would lead to quite a few riders finishing in the dark as someone pointed out above. Alternatives would be:
an earlier start around dawn
an overall faster route which probably means more fireroads
a different time of year
So on balance, unless the last option is picked, I’d rather do the 101km again for the smiles per mile (or errr km)

Done the k100 a couple of years ago in about 11hours.
Didn’t maket the event his year but really glad it’s making a comeback.
Happy ?ith either/both distances for next year, but Sunday would be better for me too.
Any problem with making lights compulsory for the 100 miler for those who might finish in the dark?

Obviously you can’t guarantee the weather at any time of year, but I do think the idea of moving earlier in the year would be good, for both the extra daylight to fit in 100 miles and better odds weatherwise.

There is definitely a lot of interest out there for a 100 miler; the first question I got on Facebook/Strava when I posted about the 101 was whether the 100 mile version was coming back. I think the option to make your route choice on the day when you get to the split point would definitely be good, although I can see that the logistics might be complicated. I’d definitely fancy doing the longer version if the conditions were the same as this year, but having the fallback option of the 101km if it rained would be very welcome.

Oh, and if there’s a way of getting the other swoopy descent at Newcastleton (Swarf Hill?) onto the route then that’d be great – my one minor disappointment this year was not having the chance to ride that.

I done the 100 miles back in 2010, similar weather that we got for 101k , it would be good to see the big one back again would probably mean back to a 6.30 am start , however a think you have to look at the completion rate for the 101 compared to the 100 , think the 100 miles has only about a 50% pass rate . One thing I don’t think is a good idea is having on a Sunday , let’s suppose the 100 miles was back on how many people do you think would like to travel back home late Sunday so they could make work on a Monday morning ? Maybe bring the event forward to June when the day’s are longer.