New Mayhem venue/course, a mini review

Couldn’t be better. Loved the course. All but a couple of muddy sections of climbs were ridable. The descents were a big grin. The short lap suited too.

Seriously? The descents were virtually all doubletrack, is that honestly the best riding you can think of!? I know there are restrictions on course design because of the volume of riders, but still, Eastnor managed singletrack.

Pat organised a great event, and I doth my cap to all involved, but I’d personally call the course nothing short of crap! Trouble is… not that sure the topography allows you to do much else with it, I don’t particularly think it was a course design issue, although not having the last third of the lap as an incessant climb would help, or at least having at least one section to look forward to!

I and all of my team mates really enjoyed the course, granted it wasn’t a single track fest but for the first go at a new venue I think the organisers did a sterling job.

Maybe, with more access to the woods as mentioned earlier some more interesting bits could be put in, but there was more than enough out there to keep you entertained / on your toes for the majority of the lap.

Personally I really like the last section through the trees before you climbed up to the arena, it reminded me a lot of where I ride normally – which is nice.

There were as always a lot of people walking sections that were more than rideable; but hey ho, if that’s what they want to do.

The camping was good and IMHO the toilets and showers were more than adequate for the event, it is a race round a field / woods after all, not a WI tea party.

The bike wash was a joke, 6 bays was nowhere near enough for the event, thankfully I only had to use to once.

We’ll be back for sure next year.

I couldn’t help looking at all the forest to left & right when we rode through all that double track & in retrospect wonder if some sort of compromise was made between owners & organisers about where we could ride. Maybe if the event was deemed a success by those mentioned then it can progress one step forward. If not then I think mayhem could do a lot worse than look at what the guys do with HIt The North & the attitude to that event, they facilitate a really healthy sense of humour with mixture of flat out racing from the get go, something which I feel mayhem is losing sight of ?
I will add that a massive change of venue on top of last years mud hell & is gonna take time to rebuild back up to its previous heights.

I’m not that bothered by singletrack, to be honest. I get that on my local trails whenever I want. What I want at a race is to race, so the course needs to be fast and allow sustained hard effort, more speed than you can manage on public trails without worrying about crashing into walkers, and lots of passing places. It had that, or would have had it in the dry. A lot of passing places were full of mud – on the first doubletrack after the first descent I got stuck behind some kid in a football shirt and trainers.. I need to make up as much time as i can on descents so I tried passing him through the mud and went sprawling.. that was a frustrating bit of trail! The lakeside was easier as they’d mowed the undergrowth on the inside so you could pass through that.

The last mile or so after the last climb would have been lovely but the blutack was really demoralising there, at its worst. On possible disadvantage of that course is that most of it is wooded, which makes it a lot slower to dry I reckon. Eastnor got a lot of sun on that grass.

And for those saying ‘just ride through the woods’ – it’d cost millions to put proper man made trails in – if you just put the kind of cheeky trails through that you get in your local woods it’d be destroyed in a single lap at a Mayhem.

Anybody know when the Red Bull timed section results will be available as my team mate outpaced me on every lap and the Red Bull is my last chance to redeem myself!

Also, any ideas on what was the fastest lap? I’m guess-timating around 37 minutes when the course was at its driest mid afternoon?

I really wasn’t looking forward to the course after pre riding it on Friday but found it far better once the race began and really enjoyed it although i agree with a lot of the comments regarding not a lot of reward for the climbs. I managed 6 laps in our (Vets) team and saved my cramp until 6 miles into my last lap – after all the big climbs (walks).

Camping was good but i too missed seeing all the lights zig zagging through the woods on the night laps and all the paople cheering you through the night from trackside camping.

Hard to believe that it was impossible to buy a Shimano-compatible jockey wheel from any of the stands at Mayhem.

You’re shitting me?!?

Mountain mayhem course have never in all the time I’ve done them, been inspiring, only Dusk 2 dawn has ever had a decent course that you’d actually want to ride ever again

What I want at a race is to race, so the course needs to be fast and allow sustained hard effort, more speed than you can manage on public trails without worrying about crashing into walkers, and lots of passing places.

I would agree with this. I was in it for the 24 hour racing and to be honest it ticked all the relevant boxes for me.

Seriously? The descents were virtually all doubletrack, is that honestly the best riding you can think of!? I know there are restrictions on course design because of the volume of riders, but still, Eastnor managed singletrack.

It was perfect for a 24. Fast and slippery is fun, and you can overtake.

The singletrack at eastnor was utterly tedious. Sitting behind people wobbling around on singletrack is dull.

Was this the lap – times look rather slow or is that just because of the conditions (and that most racers weren’t carrying a GPS)?

http://app.strava.com/segments/4431428

only Dusk 2 dawn has ever had a decent course that you’d actually want to ride ever again

Really? Now I can’t stand the D2D course,no ups,no downs just dull & flat,with a bit of turning of your h/bars now & again…..
Which just goes to show,you can’t please all the people all of the time.

This is probably more representative of the lap by the looks of it..

Are the lap times for individual riders on the internet somewhere? In my coffee / lack of sleep induced haze I thought I would torment myself with seeing how slow I was… 😆

Gee smashed that lap!

Think this segment is the “official” one so to speak. Was set up before the race I believe, and certainly has the most riders having ridden it.

http://app.strava.com/segments/4430084

That’s more like it. I think the fastest during the race was 36minutes or there abouts

With regards to fastest lap and times for each rider I think STW usually do an Excel spreadsheet of all the results.

Think 36 was the fastest though. Very quick indeed.

42 mins was my fastest, and although I never did a flat out fastest lap attempt I tip my hat to those getting in the mid 30s! 2 or 3 mins I could make up for sure, but 7 or 8 would kill me!

It was a fast course,when it was dry or mostly dry.My last lap where I had to hang about for 5 minutes until 12 O’clock,was 50:01(according to that Strava link).Never went mad as there was no rush to get back,well that & I was pretty knackered by then…..

36 mins??! Blimey. No way I could do that – I couldn’t even get below an hour (unless the lap times surprise me!). 1:01 was my ‘fastest’ lap. Hey ho!

What I want at a race is to race, so the course needs to be fast and allow sustained hard effort, more speed than you can manage on public trails without worrying about crashing into walkers, and lots of passing places.

I would agree with this. I was in it for the 24 hour racing and to be honest it ticked all the relevant boxes for me.

A lot of people seem to forget that you can’t have a singletrack-fest of a course, it becomes soul-destroyingly frustrating to be sitting behind a “less able rider” and prompts daft overtakes through the bracken, the result being that your pristine singletrack soon turns to muddy double/triple track anyway.

It’s a race course that has to cope with the equivalent of thousands of miles of passage across it in a very short space of time. You want singletrack – go and ride some. You want a 24hr race, you have to put up with some of the course design limitations that such an event usually requires.

Bear in mind that Mayhem doesn’t just cater for the ganrr-core STW reader, it attracts entrants from all over, osme of whom (from what I could see) barely knew one end of a bike from the other.

The time on the Strava segment up there for me was my first lap which was a little slower than my penultimate lap which was timed at 35.45 on the timing screen so would have been faster on the Garmin without the changeover. Sadly, the Garmin died after 2 laps and I couldn’t charge it up again and so this one wasn’t recorded. We started the lap 7 mins behind 2nd and ended up minute behind… Was a very exciting end to the race – we ended up overtaking the RAF and got 2nd 🙂

GB

Well done gee – great result.

Think this segment is the “official” one so to speak. Was set up before the race I believe, and certainly has the most riders having ridden it.

http://app.strava.com/segments/4430084

My phone only recorded about 4.5 miles but that’s cos of the heavy tree cover and the zig-zagging around, it’s always rubbish on stuff like that and I didn’t have my Garmin. Also, on the only lap I rode (on Friday) we stopped quite a bit as well.

Uploaded it and found I had a KOM on the TF2 Dip section (being one of the first few dozen people to ride the course obviously has it’s advantages!). About an hour later, my phone beeped again to tell me I’d just lost my KOM. 😉

Out of curiosity what ratio were singlespeeders running? Those singular guys flew past me.

Out of curiosity what ratio were singlespeeders running?

I ran 32-20 but i should have ran 18-19 which i normally do on the rear.

I was never getting up two grassy climbs and the one after the red bull section during the race so might have well made up a bit of time on the flatter sections where i was spinning out.

Out of curiosity what ratio were singlespeeders running? Those singular guys flew past me.

I was riding on the Singular team and had 32:18. Not sure what the other guys had – try not to talk too much about gear ratios otherwise you’ll start thinking it would be nice to be able to change them on-the-fly and who knows where that would lead.

I had 32:20 on as well. I had brought an 18t cog but thought I may blow up lol. I had more dramas withy ignitors clogging.

Mayhem was my first 24hr race, agree with most of the points but after everything I’d heard I was left a little disappointed. Before the start I tried to buy something from the Top peak boys and was told all their stuff was display only and the Wiggle van was pretty poor too. I’d heard that SRAM and Shimano normally turn up to offer support?.

The course wasn’t too bad but can’t help thinking a bit more work beforehand would have helped and god knows what would’ve happened if it kept raining. Campsite was sound and showers etc.

Thought the marshals did a good job and did anyone else see those 2 girls fast asleep in their chairs still holding glow sticks! At the end of the day it was a weekend riding bikes with my mates 😀

Anyone found the Redbull times yet?

A lot of people seem to forget that you can’t have a singletrack-fest of a course, it becomes soul-destroyingly frustrating to be sitting behind a “less able rider” and prompts daft overtakes through the bracken,

The few sections of singletrack on the course had really well planned/executed overtaking space – off the ‘fast’ line, but ideal for keeping your progress up past slower riders. The singletrack itself just needed more corners, gradient (up or down, whatever!) and armouring to ensure it could hold up to heavier rain than it was subject to this year.
Oh and more of it too!

Can somebody please explain the difference between sport & open category’s.

I can’t remember what it said when we entered, but looking at the results it seems there is no clear reason to be one and not the other.

Having said that I seem to remember that if you’re Elite then you have to enter open?

Open – Anyone can enter – elite,pro’s etc,& dodgy old buggers who enter the wrong one by mistake(or perhaps that was just us)
Sport – Mainly for your average joe’s

Hard to believe that it was impossible to buy a Shimano-compatible jockey wheel from any of the stands at Mayhem.

You’re shitting me?!?

Wiggle had SRAM jockey wheels, Hope had their own ones up on display but not for sale… To be fair, it’s my own fault for not properly checking my mech over before the race. I guess they’re not things that fail often at races, but anyway, big thanks again to the Noah’s Ark guys for service above and beyond.

We were running a mixed sport singlespeed team, and despite injury and an early home with the kids for one of the team, we all enjoyed it.

I appreciate the course has to cater for all and the difficulty in arranging purpose built stuff, so overall it did well enough. I reckon Gee has nailed it ^(a few pages). Maybe a few too-many pushing climbs for the majority of people and the first descent became off-putting for a few folk. Everyone on course imo, was polite and enthusiastic which definitely adds to the occasion.

The camping was great, well drained. The arena seemed close-ish despite us being near the far edge of field 2. Plenty of nice hot showers. All good.

Overall, we had a great w-e racing and caught up with plenty of mates.
I reckon this is a better venue than Eastnor. Possibly some course tweaks would be nice, but the reality is that some more firepower in my legs is probably whats needed.

Ps – 32:18 on a 29er which was fine really. I didn’t start my laps until the late evening, so it would be interesting to go back and have a crack at the hills when they are dry/not cut up.

A lot of people seem to forget that you can’t have a singletrack-fest of a course, it becomes soul-destroyingly frustrating to be sitting behind a “less able rider” and prompts daft overtakes through the bracken, the result being that your pristine singletrack soon turns to muddy double/triple track anyway.

It’s a race course that has to cope with the equivalent of thousands of miles of passage across it in a very short space of time. You want singletrack – go and ride some. You want a 24hr race, you have to put up with some of the course design limitations that such an event usually requires.

Bear in mind that Mayhem doesn’t just cater for the ganrr-core STW reader, it attracts entrants from all over, osme of whom (from what I could see) barely knew one end of a bike from the other.

To me the best race courses, whether 24hr or otherwise, have a mixture of singletrack and more open sections where passing is easy. And as Dave said above, it’s also possible to design the singletrack sections to have areas where you can still overtake. Another good option is alternate lines, with faster but more difficult routes – such as the tight corner on the Red Bull section.

Really disappointed with the course this year. It seemed that only the elite riders could ride the whole lap and i’d guess that around 90% of people were walking at least 3 out of the 4 climbs. Given it’s a mtb event and intended for the masses I just think they got it wrong (surely we are there to ride not walk!?) – stick a couple of tough climbs in but not 4 that become unrideable when the drizzle starts. For the record, whilst we’re not fast riders we all do in excess of 150km a week so i would expect to be able to ride the whole course.

I also had the unenviable 1:00pm lap just as it poured down and turned the course into mud soup. Had it carried on like that then there would have been rear mechs ripping off all over the place and I doubt whether we would have risked the bikes. I think the organisers were very lucky that the rain relented just enough to keep riding.

Here’s hoping they get a mere mortal in to design the course next year. Let’s have a couple of sloggy climbs with just one or two beasts and perhaps with some built in options in case the weather does turn dreadful.

On a positive, it was still a good weekend and I was loving the easy / hard options taking a leaf out of XC courses.

Another first-timer here. I thought the course would have been a lot of fun in the dry, you’d be able to really peg it down those double-tracks and that would have been pretty exciting. I thought the course kind of coped ok with the weather, I think the problem was I just wasn’t that interested in slogging around in that gloop – as well as a handful of minor crashes, I couldn’t count the number of mud-related half-arsed step-offs I did, where the front wheel caught a bit of camber or the edge of a rut and darted off somewhere it wasn’t required. My two night laps were just horrible – I was one of the guys you might have seen walking through the gloop, I was just sick to death of stepping off it every few hundred yards…. It was a lot better by the end, I did two of our last three laps and they were by far the most fun of the weekend.

Organisation-wise, I thought it was spot on – all absolutely painless, perfectly acceptable toilets and cracking showers. I had a spatula, so didn’t need a bike wash, but it wa a bit annoying not to be able to buy bits there.

I liked the course and with out willy waving rode most of it until I got into double figures, excluding the first sharp grassy climb and the slippy limestone one.

I guess the more skilled and fit will find it boring, and the less fit etc will find it epic. Hard (as ever) to find a happy balance for all riders.

Chatted with some great people whilst out on the course.

😀

The course didnt blow me away to be honest but it was ok,rode it friday and cleaned all the climbs but found them quite tough, after the rain came down all night friday this was a different story and i struggled to get up them(not helped not being able to use my lower chainring).the downhills were a little uninspiring to be honest and i thought the stalls/vendors were absolutely shocking,no shimano jockey wheels i read and no stans sealent at any of them,but wiggle had some wheels you could buy incase you forgot yours

I saw Back on Track were there riding, shame they couldn’t have their tent there selling stuff, suspect the wiggle deal had something to do with that

I have to confess I didn’t go into the Wiggle stand – mainly because I knew they wouldn’t have anything remotely useful and I did take a lot of spares so I had what I was likely to need (rear mech), cassette, chain, pads etc.