82 was my mate Steve.

Could Steve confirm that he passed rider 284 just before the end 🙂

He filmed the race so it should be on his video. I’ll point him in the direction of this thread.

Top man Simon – thanks

Number 82 reporting in. Let me check the video tonight and I’ll post up when I have.

Great Mr Frostie. My mate will be delighted if you could prove him out

Many thanks

Bit geeky but using the quali results I had a look at the chances of qualifying for each race depending on your starting row. If you’re on the 4th row or back your odds are only about 1 in 10 of making the main race, but even the front row guys still have a 25% chance of ending up in Affinity

Google Doc Link

Wow, interesting stuff! I was very conscious being on the 4th row that being on the outside edge was key to clearing as many people as possible & avoiding the usual pile up on the inside corner of the start.

Interestingly I noticed my time that put me in 20th in the wave I was in, was the worst possible result I could have had, in most heats it would have put me in ~15th place right up to 12th in one.

Still, you can’t pick your race & do the best you can 🙂

That is very interesting. Another mate had a front row position and basically was affinity 2.

He had 8 chain offs (knackerd chain guide) but we tend to forget that when mocking him 😈

OK. I clattered into 284 at around 1.09 when I tried a shortcut round the berms and I ended up T-boning him. After that he seemed to get away from me a bit but I can’t find a bit where I got past him later.
I’ve edited the clip from 1.09 onwards but its taking an age to upload to Vimeo. Might be easier to just shove it on a memory stick and post it to him ?

Big thanks Steve

Apparently you past him right at the end of the fire road along by the river. It stuck in his mind as it was such a late pass 🙂

If easier you can send the memory stick to me as mate is still in France

I will drop you an e-mail

Cheers

Hmm how late ? Just watched the bit right after the bridge over the river and I got passed by 3 riders on that short towpath bit between the bridge and the left hander into the finish area. Don’t think I passed anyone on that section.

lol at the quali time graph:):)

Back to my first post, it’s all a bit random.

2 years running we stood round in town looking at the other qualis wondering why we ended up in the super fast one

Mate phoned the timing guys last night, apaprently, and they have confirmed they made an error so will be reposting his time

Big thanks for the help Steve. Maybe by the end he was hullucinating about a guy that T boned him earlier 🙂

Thinking about the qualification lines. Given the seeding it is probably a bit misleading how many row 1 & 2 guys make the cut. The seeded guys should by definition be more likley to get to the big race

Awsome thread… if only i were 50X more skilled than i am on a bike !!!

Thinking about the qualification lines. Given the seeding it is probably a bit misleading how many row 1 & 2 guys make the cut. The seeded guys should by definition be more likley to get to the big race

exactly. the front rows (in fact i *think* all the rows) are determined by that ‘previous results’ bit in the entry form.

so it’s not a 1 in 10 chance vs a 25% ‘chance’ more that the faster lads are already at the front…

Steve77 – Member

Bit geeky but using the quali results I had a look at the chances of qualifying for each race depending on your starting row. If you’re on the 4th row or back your odds are only about 1 in 10 of making the main race, but even the front row guys still have a 25% chance of ending up in Affinity

Bit misleading that – the qualifiers are seeded, Pros are put on the first row

Hob Nob – Member
They should do a similar system to the main race at the Vaujany lift station.

I was lucky as it was first wave, so the queues were ok, but nevertheless, there were people there with 1000+ numberboards at 9am (and a lot of them) all trying to get on the lift.

If people were given set times it wouldn’t be an issue. Even at 9am there was a lot of pushing past people.

last year despite being at the lift at my allotted time i didnt get up to the top for my main race was very annoyed as i basically had to just pile on at the back, it did mean i had the satisfaction of passing loads of people but still very frustrating

exactly. the front rows (in fact i *think* all the rows) are determined by that ‘previous results’ bit in the entry form.

See, they say that, but in reality it’s not.

Last year (my first Mega) I was a third row quali starter, despite me putting down nothing in the box apart from my race number. I qualified 18th in my heat & was about 220th in the main race.

This year I filled it out, national ranking, previous Mega quali result, key race results (DH wins & podiums) yet I was nearly 40 places down on 2011. There were people on the front row I know (and race against who I have regulary beaten).

I think, other than the top 5, or maybe 10 – it’s pot luck where you end up. One guy in my quali I know from racing Nationals, he entered the day it went live, is a Senior who consistently podiums at Nationals for the last few years, and came in the top 50 of the main Mega race last year – he was on the last row of our quali.

They don’t bother to seed all the rows, or even all of the front row – but they do put the very top guys up front.

Other than that, you can email and ask to be put in beside your mates and they’ll usually do it for you.

OK here’s my sobstory:

Started quali on middle of very back row 😥
My only real objective was to get into a mass start.
Battled through a good chunk of the field and managed a time of 33 mins but that put me 112th so it was AF1 for me 🙁

I started on the 7th row, had soo much fun barging through the masses and some of the passing on the singletrack was scary/amazing.

I gathered from a number of other riders the sooner you got your entry in the closer to row 2 you were. 2 of out group were on the trigger on the opening day and got row 2, i entered a month or so after.

Anyhow, made the final. I might even put my entry in late next year just to fight my way from the back again!

Dirt put a video out today of the final, the pile up at the first corner was just mayhem. http://mpora.com/videos/d85nnndv2i

Here’s my quali run, group 8….enjoy!
http://youtu.be/mz5oJw-JO7k