New Mayhem venue/course, a mini review

Course was quite nice imo, maybe more tech would have been nice, only one part not rideable in all the conditions that appeared.

The light charging ppl have a lot to answer for imo, all in bed during the early hours for a 24hr race, what a bunch of clowns.

My first one, used to smashing around for an hour and half over XC or racing on the track and road so to race at these strange hours was a real soul searcher at time, but we loved it despite just missing the Open podium.

Pivot Boompods

Down by the lake an impatient cyclocross riding guy in a red shirt got caught up in a planned overtake by somoene else, not wanting to take his turn a bit of a clash, and few angry words before shoving the slower rider into the lake. Didnt get the No. and he could not be caught. Nice. I didnt witness it but my other solo mate was in the following group that saw it.

Nice course, i`d prefer some more bits to be like the kenda coffin and slow some of the roadie powerhouses down. It played into the hands of the 29″ machines.

Thanks to Andy at geartech for getting out of bed to sort me a hanger late at night, so i could repair my bike (read take apart mangled mech and smash it into some sort of wobbly shape) and get back out there.

I can say the lap felt very long breaking a rear mech sub 2 miles in and walking/scooting the rest. So if anyone spotted the grumpy solo at about 10 PM sporting a stupid purple mohawk, that was me fuming from my mech failure.

cyclocross riding

Isn’t that against the MM rules?

Pushing someone in the lake is just plain nasty, sure people held us up, but you have to be patient and then say thankyou, everyone is just doing their best, the encouragement I got from other riders was amazing and it def helped, the camaraderie between competitors is what made it for me.

My first Mayhem for a few years after break from competitive riding for kids. Joined hubbie’s singlespeed team as late entry – one of the lads was carrying an injury and we decided 5 was better than 4 to share the load.

I ride 32:18 on a 29er. Pushed some of the ups and some of the downs (out on a lap as the rain came down at 1pm and didn’t want to die on the first descent!)

Did another lap late afternoon in the plasticine mud. Made it round in just over the the hour. Not the fastest – but hey not the slowest either.

One moment of pride – appeared to have covered the “final sprint” quicker than hubbie.

Good spirit out on course – other riders, marshalls and spectators all offered great encouragement. Thanks

(Had to leave Sat eve with poorly child so only got 2 laps 😥 )

I found everyone polite, worst thing that happened to me was a team Jedi rider bombing past going ‘RIDER UP!’

So what, we’re not riders? We’re just messing around? The correct thing to say is ‘on your right/left’ it’s not hard.

Best thing I saw was a pair of riders in the same jersey (Team Fubar maybe?) doing laps together, looked like an experienced man and a novice woman. I saw them early on and thought that was pretty decent of the experienced rider to be looking after someone like that, and I saw them again near the end still working away. I’m guessing he must’ve either entered especially to help her or maybe he was doing his own laps then sneaking back onto course to help her as well.

On the subject of kids, our team doubled up overnight to allow longer stretches of sleep, so I went to bed at about 11, just as I was relaxing my 20 month old daughter was up with miserable coughing fits.. I think I got about 40 mins sleep before being woken for my lap.

24 hour racing is harder when you have to look after little kids as well as do laps 🙂

roadie powerhouses

uh?

my first 24 hour event and loved it

bad: the climbs! i cleared them all on the Friday recce but couldn’t during the race, the course needs a tweek for more general abilities/enjoyment, i want to ride not push, walking up that climb after the redbull section on those rocks in cycling shoes was tricky!
bike wash: how hard would it have been to stick some pallets on the floor so you weren’t washing your bike stood in 5 inches of water?

good:Everything else! camping was mega,toilets were plentiful and you could have a decent poo without feeling like you were in a sewer,showers were good,People out on the course shouting support every lap, god bless you!

Results up on the Mayhem website already – another big improvement!

Passing places and course width was a big part of the thinking this year. Vin did a great job esp factoring how very little time he had on the site, and the first time at a venue/royal estate. I’m not kidding the course was flipping bone dry all week before (you Cotswold riders know how it is when it’s good, it was great). Goodness, my heart sank a bit after the rain on the first lap. It’s a great bit of land and with free reign so much more could be put in.
I must say working with the team this week how well drilled pats guys are, really impressive.
Lets hope it can be built on and come back even better next year.

Still no complete solo men’s results.

I presume that the results only include people who completed 24 hours looking at their finish times.

I did six in about 24:00:02

Will there be lap times posted? I’d like to know exactly how slow I was compared to solo singlespeed one-legged riders…

Double post

Molgrips, the two Fubar riders could have been my wife’s cousin and his wife. I think they went out together c 5pm and I’m sure they were in different Fubar teams (I think they had 3 teams plus solo riders).

I didn’t ride but enjoyed mooching around with my eldest son cheering on the Fubars and generally soaking it all up.

The bike wash queue was madness and the main arena was much quieter than in previous years. My son managed to win an Osprey bladder and co-incidentally I was looking to buy a new pack. I spent a good 10 mins looking at the options and when I asked “I’ll have that one” was told that they were not allowed to sell direct. I felt very sorry for them especially as the Wiggle stand did not have any Osprey packs!

Thanks to Team Fubar for letting us mooch with them again

horrified about the guy being pushed into the lake, thats awfull!

i managed to get assaulted in the campsite by some fruitloop going round decking people! the brother of a solo rider apparently who’d slipped his meds the police said, even started laying into a guy being treated by a paramedic in the first aid area. police said he’d assaulted four people that they knew of, he got nicked and removed off site

not ideal preparation just as your about to go out for a lap at at 3am!!

horrified about the guy being pushed into the lake, thats awfull!

You could actually see evidence on the ground after as to where they’d gone in.

Some **** from Brotherton Cycles tried to force his way past me on the same section earlier. He knows who he is and I’ve already told him he’s a ****.

Pathetic really because there were so many places to overtake on the course compared to the usual 24 hr courses.

Crikey, I did hear a guy say he almost ended up in the lake.

One of the Kenda riders almost got me on the hairpin corner over the tree stump towards the end. I over tool him on the descent towards it, cut in to take the corner tight to the tree and he appeared right up the inside I me, almost took me off. Absolutely no need at all, even less considering it was the last lap.

I just remembered one guys funny overtake, just after the koffin descent on sun morning I was in the clear channel on the right, I hear ob your right, ignore it, then again! He actually meant “please get off the nice stuff and ride in the crap for me” he did go past on my left eventually. Still loved it all.

I may as well chime in!
My first lap I was super disapointed by the course as I was expecting a course like Eastnor where yo cover pleanty of distance, with long twisty single track, views out over the arena and loads of spectators. As the laps tickted by I got into it and became reasonably happy. It may have been a dull course with nothing but trees, but at least it was short!
In the short time the course designers had, i think they did an excellent job. Hopefully now MM has a foot in the door and the estate managers understand the event better, more leeway will be given to the designers and organisers to be more adventureous and refine both the course and the layout of the venue.
The thing I’d most like to see is the campsite and event village/arena tied together by having the course running through it. The three all seemed to be very separate with little scope for people to go for a wander to take photos of the riders and give support.

Mr Pea

Having read alot of these posts, which seem to be full of people who could clear every climb with ease, I must have been at a different event! I consider myself a reasonably fit average rider and was lapping at around the hour mark. The reason I like these events are a chance to meet, ride and race with other people of all levels of experience and fitness. Why then did they design a course where most of the climbs were unrideable for the vast marvority of riders? What is the point of making then so steep that 75% of people have to walk them? During the whole event our team saw only one rider, from the RAF, complete the climb immediately after the Red Bull run, everybody else walked it. I for one can’t see the point in paying to walk around Gatcombe Park, no matter how nice it is. Also, like many have said before, there was no atmosphere. Lets hope SITS makes it back next year, far better course and great atmosphere. I won’t be going back to MAyhem next year unless the course is altered.

I’m pretty fit but not amazing. I was doing 50-55 minute laps on Sun morning.

I rode all the climbs on the first lap. After that the garlic walk short cut emerged (top of the 2nd main climb) where everyone was walking. That climb after the red bull was alright when it was dry but as soon as the slime appeared it became very difficult to clear.
A few minutes walking out of a 55 minute lap. I’m happy with that.

I definitely noticed that I was running a 32 tooth rear sprocket rather than 34.

Overall I had a great time at the event. I think the arena had a slightly down feeling to it and I heard various stories about Wiggle asking retailers for a lot of money to be able to sell anything.

Full write up here: http://www.mbswindon.co.uk/race-report-mountain-mayhem-2013/%5B/url%5D

vinny666 – Member

Having read alot of these posts, which seem to be full of people who could clear every climb with ease, I must have been at a different event! I consider myself a reasonably fit average rider and was lapping at around the hour mark. The reason I like these events are a chance to meet, ride and race with other people of all levels of experience and fitness. Why then did they design a course where most of the climbs were unrideable for the vast marvority of riders? What is the point of making then so steep that 75% of people have to walk them?

Exactly. its the average rider that makes these events financially viable, so you have to cater for the average rider. that was an elite course. id love to have a go solo next year but i really couldnt on that course

I was doing 42 mins wet and 39 mins dry and cleared the post RB climb almost everytime, only had to jump off and trot/run when I slipped, only other section that was impossible was the off camber bit about 1/4 into the lap, never seen anyone do that, I just hopped off and cried/laughed as I trotted up.

We managed 4th in the open and were running close to podium until we mechanicals, hope we were polite to everyone on overtakes, I know I always said right or left well in advance and thanked everyone.

Pivot Boompods

For me as the average joe doing solo those climbs represented so much effort it just wasn’t worth attempting and spending all that energy.

I`d like to see some more technical bits, and the chicken run/route to be a lot longer to reward the more technically based rider.

My fastest lap at the end was an hour, nursing a wobbly rear mech that had been hammered into some form of shape and had optional, random gearchanges.

My comment on the rodie powerhouses is that you could see some people dont ride trails. They were blisteringly quick on the flat and climbs- and then there were people who were just ace at everything.

I was happy as a solo to break the 2 min barrier on the red bull section, but people doing sub 1:30! I reckon i could scrub 20 seconds off that on a full out attack but not 30.

I enjoyed the course far more than eastnor, maybe just because i am a lot fitter than i was in previous mayhems.

Why then did they design a course where most of the climbs were unrideable for the vast marvority of riders?

You do realise they don’t create all those trails from scratch, don’t you? They have to use what’s there. It’s a steep site, so it had steep climbs in it.

There’s an awful lot of bellyaching about the climbs!
Yes they were steep and yes I walked them (my laps were all between 55 and 1hr 5mins)
All the climbs were double track, the only way to have made them less steep would be to have zig zagged up through the woods, had they been on single track with no overtaking there would have been uproar. Also I suspect that the estate management didn’t give free range to the course designers to go where they liked and so they had to use as many existing footpaths and tracks as possible. I think in the dry all the climbs would have been doable but damn hard and a challenge but when wet the were either slippery and slimey or they were on watt sapping plastersene, valuable watts needed to get to the top.
Lighten up guys, if it’d been dry you have ridden them and not be complaining! Show me a piece of woodland anywhere in the UK which doesn’t turn into a swamp when you mix several thousand tyres and lots of water. Perhaps the only solution is for Pat to rent a trail centre for a weekend then there’d be complaints that the place wasn’t open to the general public to ride.
Mr Pea

and my 2p.

I think on balance Gatcombe is better than Eastnor.
The camping being tighter meant we were a lot closer to the arena. There was enough space and it was flat and nicer to camp on.

The course will always be never good enough for some people but it has to have something for everyone. Mayhem is a very inclusive event and so it has to compromise. Apart from one climb early on there better/fitter riders cleaning the climbs on every lap I rode.
I liked the slightly shorter course as is makes it easier for the more novice riders and provides more laps for those that can get round faster.
We had novice riders camping with us who found it challenging and more experienced riders who found it technically OK so had a fitness challenge.

I liked the Redbull timed section being downhill for a change and recording all through the event.

The easy/hard options were fine.

Thank goodness transition was covered.
Toilets/showers were fine from my experience

It would have been nice to have the course go through the campsite but it wasn’t possible – fair enough.

Things that need to be fixed IMO
– you can’t ban washing your own bike (which I understand) and only have 6 bays
– Not letting some stalls sell direct isn’t on if Wiggle don’t bring enough stuff to sell (But Pat needs them as a sponsor)

Overall Pat and his team need congratulating. It’s a very well run event and they need support to make sure this event stays as a regular while others cancel or take years off. It’s not an easy thing to put together and I do wish some people would quit the moaning and critisism. This is an endurance event – it’s not meant to be easy.

So were the Red Bull timings only available at the course (i never saw them) or will they be made available at some stage?

I’m surprised that they have not shown up anywhere yet?

Nice to see al the photos up! Good work STW.

That last one too 😆

Although not a single one of me 🙁

is sir referring to this?

Yeah 😆 Caption competition right there!

Lets have it then.

Free ST Organic Cotton T-shirt for the best…

🙂

Nice Schlong mate,
Why thank you……………..

Have you seen my SPD racing wellies?

Er – that is not what I was looking at.

I’ve started a new thread here just for the captions 🙂

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/caption-this-mayhem-content-prize

P.S. RE – The course, I still remember all the moaning & groaning the first time it was at Eastner,back in 2004.It was far far worse than the amount we’ve had this time,there were dummies bouncing all over the floor,big time !

FFS, i can’t believe the moaning about climbing, mind you i keep forgetting how unfit the average mtber actually is. Some actually take a perverse pride in being unable to ride up hill!!!!

If you can’t ride up a hill, it is your fault, get fitter!