Merida Brass Monkeys

Was considering doing this at the weekend, but reading the course description doesn't fill me with excitement (fire road descents?!, no mention of singletrack?!)
Anyone doing it/done it/seen the course can persuade me it's worth a go?

Yeah I'm going to go and pootle round for 2 hours so I can hammer home how disgustingly unfit I am.

New course, so no one's done it, course sounds alright though:

some great Single-track through the local pine forests and some fast flowing and twisty trails throughout.

The course will have a good mix of Fire Roads and Single-track with some ups thrown in for good measure, just to get those legs burning before settling down on the fire roads to recover. We are lucky in this area that the ground drains well, due to its sandy content making it very ride-able in all conditions.

That doesn't sound like fireroad descents to me. They have changed the description since yesterday though, when I entered it said about being the most technical course with loads of climbing (apparently its 800ft/lap) and needing to check your brake pads were in good condition.

Edit: the old description is on the download

Expect longer climbs on good firm tracks and with the benefit of all that ascending there is great payback in the form of fun descents such as Bunker Buster, Staircase, Off the Brakes, Slash & Shake, plus lots more. The lap is presently approx 7 miles long and should remain so. In general the area drains well due to its sandy content but of course do expect standing water and some sloppy sections are always to be expected – it is winter after all.
We highly recommend you ensure your brake pads are in good order as they'll definitely be needed on some descents, and we know what happened to them at round 1!!

Riders who want to be in with a chance of a winning a series top 3 prize must have already scored points in rounds 1 and 2, and will also need to at round 3. This rewards the most consistent overall riders. Race prize presentations and the overall series presentations will be held as soon as possible after the main contenders have completed their races.

Ah cheers for that. My reading not up to scratch today. Couldn't imagine a Gorrick course lacking in singletrack.

I've ridden the course a couple of times, and there is plenty of singletrack and some fun descents, a few bridges, berms, some opportunities for air etc. As njee says there is also a lot of climbing!

And yes, it is quite sandy so if it rains your brake pads will take a beating, and unlike round 1 (which was basically flat) you won't manage without brakes 😮

definately got loads of singletrack but also some scope to relax on fire roads. it is a cracking course and should be good fun!

I'm going to do it instead of tooling around in the woods like I usually do. 2 hours, far too unfit for 4 but it's a start.

I will be doing the two hour, bit disturbed by all this talk of gruelling climbs though.

🙁

Anyone doing it/done it/seen the course can persuade me it's worth a go?

Dez, I can't remember, did you come to my BBQ ride last Summer? We did at a fair few of the trails on that ride…

It has to be said there is one fireroad descent. I noticed that when we rode it on Tuesday night. That said, there is one singletrack that's an absolute belter. It starts with 4 steps (Hit 'em fast!) and winds down a cracking bit of bermy single track. Watch for the bridges at the bottom.

There is a lot of climbing too….

The 'Off the brakes' drop into the arena is going to scare a few people too. I'll be there with the camera, waiting for crashes, on the first lap. Ohhhh yes. 😀 If it rains much that will be greasy as hell too.

Get a good one of me then PP as I faceplant into the arena!

I'm in for the 4h singlespeeding, any other fool doing it ss?

Hmmm reading this makes me think the 2hr option would have been a better idea! Oh well suspose I can always bail out after 2hrs10mins….

First Gorrick for me 🙂

Join me at the back of the whole pack! 4hr and thinking up excuses not to ride! 😉

Ti29er, it'll be fun! sounds like the singletrack will be awesome!

Hopefully because it's a long course it won't be so congested either, I imagine the traffic at the last one was awful.

JRTG – Member

I'm in for the 4h singlespeeding, any other fool doing it ss?

Yep. 2:1 (not my gearing – the odds on my legs exploding).

I imagine the traffic at the last one was awful.

First lap was pretty bad, but after that people were just overtaking me so I can't really say.

Hope there's a bit more singletrack this time though.

I would guess there will be, I think they cut the course down at the last one to the 'all weather' parts, so it ended up being a short fireroad-heavy course!

I have a No4 sticker that I'll attach to my seat bag.
Say "Hi" as you pass me for the umpteenth time!
It's only 4hrs – is it bad form to stop for a picnic if the sun comes out?

Ti29er, nope at the ssuk last year they had pretty girls giving out pims and cucumber sarnies, therefore a picnic is well within the rules….

I rode the course on Tuesday with the Tunnel Hill Trolls. Really nice course. Not that much fire road either – the northshore bridge over ditch at the bottom of one of steep bank should cause hilarity. Loads of singletrack and only a couple of really muddy bits.

hmm i might give the 2hr option a go, summer or winter tyres is my dilemma now.

Ok, thanks for the post PP. I'll do it. I actually had the pay screen on my pc earlier, but couldn't decide whether to do 2 or 4 hrs!
It's the same price, so riding for longer has to be the better option…. surely? I think I might die though.

WEATHER looks cold but dry. Think I'll stick with the winter tyres and save the RRalfs for another day.

Bloomin' feet are going to be like blocks of ice in the 4hr race / ride.

Dez its a good course some nice intresting decents, start should spread out the riders before 1st singletrack. Some good views to in couple places.

Good luck all who race.

Jay

PP – How big is that drop, I need to figure out if I should dig out the FS or not 😛

northshore bridge over ditch at the bottom of one of steep bank should cause hilarity

Oh indeed it will. I shall turn up there at some point with the camera too. 8)
Was it you that crashed in front of me (Who also crashed) on Tuesday night? 🙂

PP – How big is that drop, I need to figure out if I should dig out the FS or not

It's not a 'drop off' it's a big steep bank. (No FS required) But at the bottom is a ditch with a 2ft wide bridge which you MUST hit straight! The thing is, the approach is slightly to the left of the line for the bridge, so you need to correct your line as you swoop down. We rode this in the snow a couple of weeks ago and it was hilarious. You've gotta have the balls to get off the brakes (Hence the name) to correct your line, or you'll miss the bridge and faceplant in the ditch. It was dry on Tuesday night and pretty easy, but it's been chucking it down with rain all night, so it could still be greasy on Sunday…. 😀

Probably be about 4 laps before you get a proper shot at it anyway with 500 people trying to get across!

Well in that case I'm never getting a shot. My guess is 3 laps in 2 hours if that map is at all accurate.

What's the deal with it, as long as you cross the line before the time, you can finish your lap or is it you need to finish your lap by the time it runs out?

Just to say that wow… the payment site for this is awful. I've bought permits from them before so it's not a total surprise but each time I'm amazed at how crap it is. Anyone here have anything to do with it and can do something about it? 😛

If you cross the line at 1:59:59 you can go out and do a 4th (for example) lap. You don't have to, you will still be placed higher than everyone who did 3 laps, but took longer.

So if you come in just under 2 hours in 2nd, the leader is 20 minutes ahead, and you know 3rd place isn't going to come in before 2hrs, there's no real point in going out again!

I'm not racing for the win (top 50% would be far better than expect) so worrying about who is likely to overtake me is academic… more interested in whether I'd be wasting a lap of effort if it didn't count.

Aye, I was just giving a scenario when it could make a big difference.

Are there 500 riders entered into the 3 races?
And for 1hr everyone is out on the circuit and for 2hrs it's 2x categories that are racing out on the same circuit?

10:30, 10:45 and 11:00 am start times.
Meaning it's going to have to be a well thought out course with no bottle necks not to end up as a part walk, part wait for some of the time.

Maybe the 4hr was a better bet after all, at least from 12:45-ish we'll be out riding on our own with less congestion (if there is congestion) and get into a better rhythm.

I assume 50% (?) of the people then head home after their events whilst the 4hr riders are still out riding?

Entries are capped at 400 according to the website, so not quite as bad, dunno about the ratio of 2:4hr, but yes, you should have clear run of the track for the last couple of hours, personally I find it gets a bit depressing when everyone suddenly goes, but by the looks of it the 4 hour still gets some decent numbers.

Starting the 4 hour first is daft though, it means all the folk treating the 2hour more like an XC race will pile into the traffic really early on. Maybe I will get to say hello Tim 🙂

(No FS required)

ha! Much as I'd like to use my newly lightened Handjob, I'm not doing 4 hours on a hardtail!

See you there chaps. (I'll be on my trusty 575 with a blue Xen helmet)

I'll be on my shiny new eBay carbon hardtail. Black/yellow Beyond MTBs kit, black helmet, green Radars. Say hello!

Yes.
I simply have to approach this as I would Bonty Pairs 24hr, steady and as you rightly say, then it's going to be a race of 3 unequal parts.
23 minutes at the start where it'll be manageable, 2hrs+ when we become obstacles to 2/3rds of the entries, and the final 2 hrs when we're riding at a pace more manageable and more akin to Bonty again.

I assume we can put drinks bottles on the trail side for re-fueling on the go.

See you there, on a HT in my case.

Yep, can collect bottles wherever you fancy.

I'll be there – quite excited now.
Single speed, fixed, fully rigid, oh and just the one wheel. Say hi as you speed by…….

Please say you're not actually riding a unicycle…