King & Queen Of The Hill- Who's in? (nae tyre chat allowed!!)

So what do we reckon

Same as My comment above. Reckon it looks fun but would have liked 5 stages given the distance, as I said earlier a cheeky wee last stage down the final gt7 stage would have been a nice finish with minimal additional climbing from the pond.
I am looking forward to a big day on the bike though, certainly think it adds to the challenge compared to some others I’ve done in recent years as most of the local or non-series stuff tends to be easier going. So no real complaints

As for local advantage….separating the mid pack absolutely though given the trails are all fairly well used I reckon general local knowledge will be enough to make a difference even if you haven’t pre-ridden stuff. Aside from any cheeky random taping, most stages are pretty well worn

Sounds good to me , only ridden the golfie once before so will have to practice there but have ridden the glentress stuff so wondering if I should give glentres stuff a miss on Saturday to save the legs . What’s the big climb like from the golfie to the mast ?

I’m sticking to golfie only tomorrow, embarrassingly only ridden there once. Even without my chance riding of the GT stages last night I know both of them like back of my hand so little point busting a gut tomorrow to ride them, save the legs

I think it’s going to be a great day. There are 2 long and 2 short stages at each location with a big transition in between. The 5.15 total time might catch some folk out if there are queues for the stages. The rain forecast for Saturday night will make things interesting if it materialises.

I can understand some folk being hacked off with locals. like myself, figuring out what the trails are in advance but it must be the same for all enduros. So much planning has to go on that it’s inevitable that locals who are on the trails regularly will figure out what’s being used pretty easily.

Shame it’s not held on Tweed green in Pebbles again? And that Cademuir is omitted? Still looks pretty rad. Bricking it a bit now…

Loving the weather forecast tbh. Practice in the dust. Rain like **** all night. Race in the sun, in the mud. Chaos ensues but at least we don’t get wet 😆 If we’re really lucky it’ll start to dry up and go all sticky.

I’ve not been up Cademuir for absolutely ages but there was a lot of felling up there in the areas where the mtb trails are…

Some of the Cademuir trails are a total write off. Most of the DH trail is intact but the top of Stage4 (or Steep ‘n Nasty) is wrecked. There’s plans for some of us to go in and do some building/maintenance but not much has been done yet. It’s a shame as I live at the bottom of the descent and used to ride there every day.

Just ridden a few stages today as they are taped, not racing but will be fun if it gets proper wet 🙂

What’s the big climb like from the golfie to the mast ?

Long, open and you can pretty much see the top all the way…, bottom gear needed 🙂

I reckon that for us Mincers it’ll be S2 that decides our ‘placings’ ‘cos it’s hard work in the wet, but for the fast boys it’ll be S3 – as it’s the longest and the one where you can make/lose the most time with the little climbs and good/bad line choices.

Think I did s2 today, nice little run that, still dry…

I reckon that for us Mincers it’ll be S2 that decides our ‘placings’ ‘cos it’s hard work in the wet

Interesting, in what way? Only ridden in the dry and got the impression the surface might drain pretty well as its quite rocky top surface. Or have I ridden something entirely different?

Community Service in the wet can be proper horrible. It seems to be perma dry at the moment though so fingers crossed.

Anyone after a last minute entry, had a mate pull out and seems too late to hand it back through the official channels

If it’s wet, stage 1 will be the biggest decider, as it’ll most likely turn into a muddy hell, and even if it’s not that wet, it’ll be pretty slidey (was brilliant fun last weekend!)
Stage 2 won’t make that much difference in the grand scheme of things, provided you can handle wet tree roots.
Stage 3 will kill those without the stamina, as it’s a long fairly pedally stage, with a couple climbs just big/long enough to sap energy, and that’s not considering the Leithen Water transition to get there beforehand.
Stage 4 is just steep and fast. Again, wet tree roots will be the big decider.

Northwind, you’re chainstays and mech hangers are in the car. I’ll only be at registration briefly tomorrow, so provided you survive until Sunday, you can collect them then.

Oooh, mowicu CNC goodness… Cheers!

Looks like I’m start Marshall 1, so at least you’ll all be fresh and raring to go, right?! 🙂

Happy with how things are shaping up, just a case of how wet it’s going to get.

Would it be easy or worth spectating at this? My wee lad (6yr old) has just asked to go down to watch it.

If you head to GT you can get to the bottom of stage 4 very easily.

Hi jodafett, the glentress stages should be easier to spectate than the golfie ones. Go to registration at the old hub car park, glentress, and ask for a route map.

Thanks for the info. The wee lads not into walking far so Glentress sounds like best option! How long does the race last?

Great fun today… I’d kind of forgotten just how much riding there is in community service, it must have anti gravity in it somewhere. Also, is it in last blast where they’ve put the 3 Arrows Of Death halfway down a steep bit once you’re fully committed and might have a bit of bother making the corner 🙂 Ace stages. It’ll be nice to not feel completely hammered at the start of the day, too!

Also, if you take the inside line on the other side of the stump to avoid the wee hole with the roots in, then turn hard and stay tight, the awkward root that runs right down the trail, instead becomes an incredibly perfect catchberm and leaves you pointing directly into the best line through the next bit. No I’m not going to say where this is, l00serz.

Glad I’m not racing… Seriously £40 to ride about 5km of trail in a 40km loop with the rest linking fireroad (Not even singletrack!) Folk must be daft… And as for the organisers… They call it Tweedlove which suggests the whole of the Tweed Valley. So why not move the setup around and base this years King and Queen in Innerleithen so more stages on more trails and so less linking crap.

Official maximum time on track is 5hr15min, however most riders should be looking to finish it in around 3-4hrs I’d guess.
Last rider should leave somewhere around 10:35 (there may be later start times, but I was only briefly at registration today), so all being well, most riders should be back before 4, and hopefully nearer 3.

There may be a race whippet on stage 4 before 11, but I wouldn’t expect the masses to start until nearer 12.

My start time’s 10:50! Am I DQ’d?

Northwind, I have every faith in your ability to disqualify yourself!

Last start times could be nearer 11, but it’s not something I need to know. The only start time I’m interested in, is the one from when you leave the start area.

Excellent day, rode new wolf and community service a couple of times, cake and coffee in Inners and back in Edinburgh for a late lunch and hopefully fresher legs for tomorrow from not busting a gut today. Trails were running excellent, really looking forward to tomorrow when I’m obviously racing a different event to the guy above who has seen one with 5k of trails and loads of fire road 😉

Official maximum time on track is 5hr15min, however most riders should be looking to finish it in around 3-4hrs I’d guess.

Yer right.

Most will struggle to get from GT to the start of S1 in under an hour (it’s about 9 miles and 1500ft), and then add at least another hour to get from Golfie to the Mast (another 7 miles and 1500ft).

I reckon times will be tight for a lot of folk.

And, Si seems to be after 5 stages with next-to-no transitions – otherwise known as DH…

Doubt I’ll make it now. Crashed pretty hard at the very end of Stage 4 and thought I’d broke my thumb. One X-Ray later, no breakages, but very sprained and very fat looking. ****. Very difficult to change gears not to mention frickin’ painful. Damn and blast it all.

Aaaaaaand here’s the rain

Vast amount of rain is currently falling on Inners..

Just packing the shorty in case this keeps up…..

Forecast all night. Thunder and Lightning makes the trails frightening.

Gallileo!

tenacious_doug – Member

Just packing the shorty in case this keeps up…..

He did a tyre chat! Get him!

Obviously I meant shortbread, packs a high calorie punch in a small package, ideal pick me up when it’s cold and wet without taking much space in the camelback. What did you think I meant?

Well, that was quite the epic!

Truly a great weekend of racing and a topped off by bagging a decent result.

Great day, turned into a bigger one than expected having been told the time limit was pretty relaxed we only made it back with 10 minutes to spare. I’m guessing quite a few failed to make it as we passed quite a lot who started 10 minutes in front of us.
As for my result, the less said the better. Pretty miffed as I’ve felt really good on the bike all week but just wasn’t getting into the groove until late in the day today. Overnight rain didn’t help, and ironically having started a no tyre chat allowed thread I really should have bothered to swap the DHF out for a shorty this morning. Thoroughly enjoyable regardless.

I was slow but that’s as expected, had a nice clean race though… I like being up the back, I got to pass a stack of people and feel like a boss 😆 Offset by riding community service like an absolute fanny and not really getting my pedal on for deliverance.

I think possibly we should introduce a rule, no trails with “wolf” in the title I still quite enjoyed it tbh but I can see why others were fed up with it.

Great day out… Was just about ill by the end, not so much tired but baked. I’ve been generally a bit bummed on racing this year so that was good medicine.

I enjoyed the Wolf but buoyed with confidence tried the ride CS too fast and fell off three times, proper sprinting at trees jobs. S3 was good, One silly tired off near the end and then 2 stupid tired offs on a great S4. I need to get out of this habit I’m growing.

Had a good day , had an early start and stage 1 was a tester after all the rain ,2 had held up well and that climb , blimey Charlie it just went on and on . Was pretty done in after 3 and the climb out had me walking and just managed to hold on for 4 . I was pretty much spot on with the times on my sticker but had to push harder than I would of liked but that’s all part of the challange . not much waiting at stages which was good . All in all a top day out