[Closed] Oktoberfest

I think the new trails don't really help with the passing situation, there's no overrun just very loose earth/rocks at each side. I always asked people if i can get through and normally they let me, although there was one bloke who i'd been behind for a while who when i tried to overtake in one of the few places where there were two lines actually accelerated to cut me off before slowing down again. thanks for that.

Hope you heal soon Mike. Was quite a sight to see you come in covered in that much blood. Looked like you were doing really well too, glad i didn't do solo now as you would have put me to shame!

Great course, really nice & flowing, but there was very little room to overtake & IME the alternate lines were very rarely faster. Interesting to see that the start of the 2nd 4hr was moved to the bottom of the gravel climb - so many people cut the corner at the start of the 1st it made the 1st lap & a half really hard work.

Brilliant event though, with a fantastic atmosphere - thanks to Paul & Mike & the gang for putting it on.

Thanks Paddy, Jon R and Nouv took some pics of may face after the accident, I'm looking forward to seeing them...

Results are up on Timelaps.co.uk

Bad luck on the fall KINGTUT. There were a few bad ones with paramedics at one point.
I was running RoRon on the rear and SB8 on the front. Never leaned in to corners like it. Unlimited grip!

I did 12 Laps and came 12th on the 8 hour solo. Pretty chuffed with that but feel like I started racing the 4 hour. With a HR at 188 for the first 3.5 hours I burned out at 6 hours. I should of slowed down and grinded the laps out. - Oh and eat more.

Results: http://www.timelaps.co.uk/assets/uploads/EVENTREPORT.aspx?eventid=186AshtonCourt15/10/2011#Top

Now the negatives:

WASPS!! ****ers. Stung 3 times on my lower leg.

Slow riders that wouldn’t allow faster people to overtake. Worst excuse I heard was "Its a race - Overtake when you can!, Don’t ask to be in front!" LMAO you said what?

The course - 12 laps nearly made me sleep - got very bored. Berm,Roller,Berm,roller,Berm,Corner,corner,Berm,Corner,Finish,Start,Berm,Roller - you get the point.

But atleast it was a fun event and the first 4 hours the trail was great.

@KINGTUT hope you recover quick, I was the chap on the Niner 😉 and well done to Graham I didn't realise how close you was to catching me! the course was fun but overtaking was a struggle, i didn't like to stray to far off the course edge because of the hidden boulders under the leafs! but most people were very kind at letting people through

I throughly enjoyed it. Took me a a lap or 2 to get my eye in but after that the course felt increcibly quick. Been doing so much road miles recently it was great to ride the trail at race pace.

Came 9th in the pairs male (both riding singlespeed) with 8 laps each. Echo what everyone else said.. sometimes it just wasn't possible to pass. Especially with 6 riders in front of you on the swoopy sections

That big climb hurt on my last lap

Awesome day, that course was like a giant pump track, so unforgiving! IF I'd known it was like that I'd have taken the full sus, HT and my back is a bit achey/sore this morning, and to top it all off we came 2nd in the girlie pairs 8 hour!! Fantastic result, as my team mate gave birth 8 months ago so limited riding time, and she got a puncture so she discovered she had a 29er tube..without having a 29er bike! DOH wonder if that 3mins 45 seconds to 1st could've been done!? Who cares we came 2nd and got a giant pretzel for the pleasure!

I do agree with Becca there were some right knobs out there, one bloke even buzzed my rear tyre, if I could see it was straight and over taking space then I would should "overtake on my right" otherwise if you are good enough and quick enough, you'll let me know your there, tell me which side you are overtaking on and I'll do my best! Otherwise you'll get a handlebar in the ribs!!! Great day though.

I was fairly gutted at having to pull out with a mechanical failure on my third lap - and had driven all the way from Kent! In hindsight though it probably helped, as I've had treatment recently and am feeling it today. Had an amazing time on a course that worked well for both geared/SS. I agree to a certain extent about the overtaking issues, but the vast majority of folk were good mannered. By the gods the Vegan can fly! Great work by Paul and the rest of the workers; I'll definitely be back for other events at Ashton Court.

Wow that's a lot of categories 🙂

Well done to all!

This was my first solo event (8hr male finished 29th) and I really enjoyed it apart from being bumped off the course by two riders who tried to pass me on the rock garden. The other solo rider with me was punted off his bike into a tree and knackered his elbow. The rider then had the nerve to give me abuse telling me I was riding too slow and I should get out the way. I didn't even know he was there! Other than that thoroughly enjoyed it and my Anthem 29er really came into its own. Anyone know who was doing the photos ?

I agree the new course makes overtaking very difficult. The berms and corners make passing nigh on impossible for long sections. The 'perched' nature of the new trail means taking a wide line was much slower and risky as the sides were lined with rocks, loose mud and leaves. I was buzzed, and buzzed tyres, a few times, especially in early laps as the person at the front of a train would brake over enthusiastically for a corner leading to a motorway style compression behind. I guess 'that's racing' and I still thoroughly enjoyed the whole day.

That said I hope the few injuries I saw around the course were not serious. I saw you battered and bruised by the beer tent towards the end KINGTUT so I hope you'd been prescribed a good dose of liquid pain relief!?

Rightplacerighttime is the official photographer.

Ahh now I see why people were staring..

[img] [/img]

Rightplacerighttime took some good pics of the Howies Enduro at Coed-y-Brenin so hopefully they'll also be of a high standard from Oktobefest. Much better than the usual boring fireroad style dross you often see. They looked to be in some good spots around the course.

Thanks Kingtut, saw you not long after. Ouch looks like that hurt! Great respect for finishing!

Had a great time, and well chuffed as I got my best ever race result, 8th in category.

Found most faster riders pretty courteous to be fair, though mainly they were passing me on the climbs not the technical bits, but almost without fail everyone thanked me if I let them past, and everyone I passed I made a big thing out of shouting a hearty thanks back to them, it's only polite. One guy was not far off getting a thump though, not warning me he was trying to overtake, nearly taking me off my bike as he passed (on a flat bit of singletrack just before another swoopy section) determined to get past me as if he was racing for first position, then proceeded to hold me up for the entire next section of trail! Takes a lot to wind me up when I'm on my bike, but he wasn't far off me losing my temper...

Did a lap with ssjeff and it was fun pretty fast singletrack with enough space to get past if you looked for it and were clear in asking to get past.Not like the nob who was shouting to pass us on his geared full sus who we let past only to then get held up after his little burst of energy ran out then wouldn't move over for us! So just waited till the wide gravel climb and did him there instead 🙂

KoS> good to see you.. Looks like i missed ssjeff again. Must have been when I was out on my lap

Wunundred! 😀

I was fairly gutted at having to pull out with a mechanical failure on my third lap

'Mechanical failure'- yeah, right, ok, of course.... 🙄

You're just crap. And you'll always be crap. Admit it, and deal with it.

LoCo BM-Racing were there this weekend and we had a fantastic weekend.

Sun, dry trails and tip top riding.

I have to say I didn't like the first lap, because I didn't pre-ride the course, so didn't know where the tight overtaking places were. All my other laps were ace, there were good little cuttings to nip past if you put a bit of acceleration in, absolutely no need to clip bars.

Everyone was incredibly nice on course - probably the nicest I've raced. I would ask to pass, or let the rider in front know well in advance where I'd be passing, and always give a 'thanks very much buddy'. A little courtesy goes far with me - and the few that passed me were very courteous too, as they should be, team riders need to be ambassadors for their sponsors out on course.

My only altercation was with a chap who cheated, cutting out a descent - who didn't like being told so.

The catering was spot-on, Luffy's bus is as always an excellent addition to any event, nostalgic and incredibly tasty. As was the Field Kitchen, who's staff were so cheery - early morning and through the night.

We stayed for the Bristol Bike Rider dual-althon, as Mark from our team was racing, it was his first and he finished 9th of 29 in the male solos - absolutely brilliant, and he has a battered and bruised knee to show for it.

Matt Carr's commentary and un-erring enthusiasm and heckling summed up the whole atmosphere at Oktoberfest for me, fun, jovial and just a little bit bonkers.

We love you Brizzole, I will be seeing you next year.

Had a great time, was nice doing it int he dry after bikefest's wet 😀

Really enjoyed the course, didnt get bored on it..

That was a great race, and my best solo result to date – 10th was well above my expectations and surprised to only be 2 laps down on the winner. Although was later disappointed to find out I was only 9 minutes off of 7th!

The course was surprisingly brutal in the end – it's amazing how sapping some of the rollers can get when you're struggling to get enough speed up to just pump through them effortlessly like you did on the first lap!

In a fair bit of pain today though :-/

[img] [/img]

Thanks to Paul and Mike for another great event.

Didn't think the congestion on the course was too bad. I just treated it as an excuse to have a bit of a deserved rest during 8 solo hours.

Was a bit dissapointed to hear my placing when I finished until somebody told me that Time-Laps had missed out one of my laps. So thanks to them for sorting that out, and even better when they then told me I'd won 😀

I managed 14 laps - first 8 hour solo - 21st/60 overall so chuffed. I was only 5 mins off 10th @Gary!

I shouted every one through although some people were getting aerated if they had to sit behind me for 5 seconds! Some of us were doing a fair few more laps than others - a bit of understanding may have been in order!

13 laps Rich 😛

Although I reckon on your Edict you'd have been right up there!

Although pleased to see you did in fact get in on that final one!

Hmm - Oh I get it - so I made my last lap then?

Yep, they've got you in on 8:00:00 – nowt jammier than that!

Some good photos from Neil at www.iseepople.co.uk

http://www.iseepeople.co.uk/firemonkey/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=56305

[img] http://www.iseepeople.co.uk/firemonkey/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=56335&g2_serialNumber=1 [/img]

Yet again another superb event by Paul and team, thank you.

Amazing result for Loco BM racing Zoe and Scott 5th in mixed pairs with Mark getting 9th in the Classic Dual-athlon today.

Here's a clip from the weekend, will do somehting better put together when have sifted though all the footage from the weekend.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55204994@N03/6251074351/

Ah the Ariel, I thought that bit along the bottom of the campsite suddenly got deeper, more rutted and soggier.

This thread needs more photos!

[img] http://www.iseepeople.co.uk/firemonkey/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=56341&g2_serialNumber=1 [/img]

[img] http://www.iseepeople.co.uk/firemonkey/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=56409&g2_serialNumber=1 [/img]

[url= http://www.iseepeople.co.uk/firemonkey/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=56305 ]Cheers for beating me to my own link Mr Agreeable![/url]

Cheers to everyone who was patient during the extraction of an injured lady from upper New Barn. Also round of applause to lady on a gold Orange 5 for the ballsiest overtake in New Barn... bunnyhop over log and straightline into next berm.

Well done Team Emptybeers, I lost out our final lap dual by 2". Arses.

Had a really good day, and think that racing pairs SS was the right choice for us as, with enough recovery between stints, could really enjoy ragging the course wall the way through the race. Would have been tough to solo as once the pace dropped below a critical point the course became a lot harder to ride.

Well done everyone who raced, it was a great atmosphere and everyone was really polite. You solo's are my heroes.

Oh, did anyone work out where to pick up T-shirts from?

See you next time.

Got me too Neil, cheers!

[img] http://www.iseepeople.co.uk/firemonkey/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=56317&g2_serialNumber=1 [/img]

Would have been tough to solo as once the pace dropped below a critical point the course became a lot harder to ride.

Spot on there esp on a Hard tail !

Great photos. Here is me looking tanned LOL

http://www.iseepeople.co.uk/firemonkey/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=56389

Thoroughly enjoyed the event. Did it as a pair and I always find pairs harder than solo (I know that sounds bizarre but I just tend to find a rhythm as a soloist)

The overtaking was not nearly as big an issue as I thought it would be. A shout to the rider ahead and some patience and it was generally ok. One idiot in the Merida team barged past me at an inopportune moment but really no other issues either over taking or being overtook.

Still think Pual's luck with the weather is beyond comprehension 🙂

@Garylake that was Huw rding not me, he was a little puffed out when he got back 😀

Si, it was more a dig at the weight of the bike 😛

More footage to follow once it's better edited and yes it was a bit of a pig up the climbs 😀

I too was amazed at the number of nobs forcing their way past in innapropriate sections without as much as a shout to pre-warn.

I would say that on almost every single one of my 12 laps, someone almost had me off. I'm only too happy to let a faster rider through, but at least have the decency to let me know you want to overtake and/or wait until it is actually possible to do so.

Was happy with my 9 laps for my first solo event. But agree with everyone who has mentioned the blatent disregard for other riders from some idiots.

At one point a young lad had fallen off and a quick rider who hadn't seen the lad laying in the track tried to overtake 3 of us while we slowed down to avoid hitting the fallen rider on the quary section. The faster rider then had the nerve to shout some very foul language at the fallen lad to which we all gave him a barrel of abuse back and he wasn't happy about that. Thankfully the lad that fell was OK and continued.

If you are that person and you are reading this you should be ashamed of yourself and you are lucky someone didn't respond even more aggresively as the two guys infront of me were going to rip you a new one!!!!!

Course was ace, 99% of the people were fantastic, but think the number of entrants should be limited as there must have been 75% more than last year

Great course, good atmosphere.

However to echo many of the others I did get taken out by a speedy boy overtaking in an inappropriate place. I was also pretty appalled to be riding behind a bloke who was being cautious on a rocky section (as Is his right ) only for a speedy boy to buzz up behind us and exclaim 'oh come on guy's with no small measure of frustration.

Some advice for others: do as I do, treat 'on your left' as a question not an instruction. On several occasions I responded 'no, you can pass on the right on the next straight'. For the record when I overtook I did pose it as a polite question and said please!

In defence of some of the quicker riders I can only say it must get pretty frustrating being stuck behind slower folk, however it's never an excuse to forget your manners. You are after all an ambassador for your team & it's sponsors.

I personally didn't see any ag apart from one incident, which funnily enough was between two sponsored team riders! Proper handbags it was too..

No need girls, no need!

Anyone know where the rapha condor guys came?

http://bikemagic.com/events/pro-road-riders-trade-tarmac-for-trails-at-ritchey-oktoberfest.html

Don't see them listed on the results

I was just spectating on the Saturday and seemed most people gladly pulled over and let faster people through, there was one guy who seemed to have a train of 20 people on his wheel coming out of upper NBW but to be fair it's hard to let people past there without stopping completely yourself. I don't think the issue is with the slower/social riders or the very fast people, it's more the middle crowd who are taking it seriously but don't necessarily have the speed or skills to pass quickly/appropriately.
Seemed quite a lot of non-competitors on the track on Sunday (inc. a horse and a few families...) but I guess given the weather you couldn't expect them to stay off the trails the whole weekend. Glad I was riding Sunday instead though as on the whole it was much less crowded

trickydisco - Member
Anyone know where the rapha condor guys came?

They were racing as Barrow Gurney CC, so came second to the torq boys.

Some of the "slower" riders wern't just slow as at least 60 of them were doing 8 hours solo 😉

and some of them were still doing consistent 28 to 31 min laps too 😯

I dipped into that range a few times 🙂

Thanks to Tom from [url= http://www.mbswindon.co.uk/ ]MB Swindon[/url] for the picture, here I am midway through burning 8600Kcal in 8 hours.

[img] [/img]

I was one of the few riders who went up the track and round the marker at the start.
I got to the bottleneck at the start of the single track with no patience to sit in a queue behind a load of cheaters, so dragged my bike through the brambles to get back past them.
That's one thing that needs sorting out, either make it clear that it's a straight line across the field to the first right hander, or enforce the rule that it's up the track to the first left hander.

Apart from that, everything went well.
The course suited me, fast and not too steep.
Muddypuddle was riding in, and won, the women's pairs class and mixed up my drinks between her laps, so I always had a full bottle to come back to.

15 laps, 2nd single speed.
Out of a total of 98 solo riders (SS, vets and open), 89 got beaten by a chubby old bloke in a Vegan Cyclists jersey riding a single speed 29er.
[img] [/img]

c_klein87, I was told I was 2nd during the race, but I didn't know how close.
I rode the big hill on my first three laps, then walked it after that.
That must have cost me at least 30 seconds a lap. There's the six minutes.
I've got to train on hills more.

Training seems to have gone well since Bikefest MTG, you were visably alot quicker, Go VEGAN 😀

Graham, I saw you walking the big hill a few times. I didn't walk it once yet you still managed to lap me the one time, so fair bloody play! You must have been hoofing around the rest of the course. I assume you [i]are[/i] going to do the SDW double at some point with form like that?

You don't look all that chubby either!

Ah so it's YOU the commentator was shouting "eat meat you'll go quicker" love it!!! 😉

Well done Graham, you were storming around! I followed you through the brambles, I lost a good 10 minutes on my first lap - I went around the marker too, as I remembered Paul stating that if you rode along the grass you'd be disqualified - that cost us at least one place, disappointing and I'm sure it affected lots of people, not just me.

I'd recommend some taping off of the grass next year to make it a fully fair race.

But still hats off the you Graham, we all commented on how much stonger you look on the bike.

Graham you must have smashed the rest of the course then i rode the big hill every lap! training on hills helps, so does being 71kg 😉 thats a hell of alot of calories as well i did 3000 according to garmin!

If that 87 in your user name means what I think it means, you're 25 years younger than me too. 😛

ha yes it might mean that, even more respect then 🙂

Over taking should be done safely and respectfully, Ashton court is always going to be a struggle to over take due to its obviously huge amount of single track.

The race can be won and lost on the first lap as the top riders are only minutes apart at the finish even over 8-12hr plus races.
Starting before the 10 sec countdown was CHEATING, cutting the corner up the hill was CHEATING and seemed to put a huge amount of average riders quite far into the course in front of faster more competitive riders and therefore may of encouraged more aggressive passing moves? I think you could write a book on peoples complaints of bad passing moves at Ashton court and I'm sure we have all been a victim of one and i'm sure will have done them ourselves but after all it is a race and not a fun ride. JUST GET USED TO IT

Well done Team Emptybeers, I lost out our final lap dual by 2". Arses

Thank you! Yes my team mate put his fastest lap of the day in as the last one. His rather tall SS gearing just about paid off for the run in the finish.

Ref overtaking I found everyone very polite. the only issue I had was with a youngster who was pretty quick but just shouted 'rider' when he got near to people and then nearly pushed me into another rider when he overtook on the bit next to the park entrance.

Overall I agree with Lee Roy though 8)

I'm very new to not only racing (this was my first race) but also to bike riding in general(started riding xc this year).Going in to this race I was very aware of being a much slower and less technical rider. I made every effort to get out of peoples way and when I was aware of any riders not asking to get past I would shout back asking if they were wanting to get by.
Over all I found riders to be good at picking safe lines to pass and calling out before passing. I found this very helpful In making the race safer for me and In turn for them,who want's to scare the crap out of the rider in front and possible making both rider crash.
There will always be riders who don't callout and take a line in there eyes to be safe and that's part of racing I guess. over all I never found it as bad as I thought going into this race and can't wait to do it again next year!
As to that young rider who tried to pass me and 3 others through the last bit of single track/rock garden. Shouting rider when clearly having no room to get past was the only **** I encountered and I just put that down to his pre-pubescent hormones getting the better of him!

I fell on my first lap and found it good to have several riders shouting out if I was o.k.
Over all I loved this race so keep it up!

Oh I did have to give some sod a telling off after mowing down some 12 year old kid out on course. Shouting "watch out" while doing over 20mph in downhill singletrack is likely to make them panic and stop in the trail, not make them actually move. It was very poor form!

Well at best, maybe next year people will be more aware about the tight overtaking and maybe think a little more about their approach.

As I recall in the early days of bikefest there was lots of argy bargy about overtaking I remember one team sponsored by a very popular energy supplement company even had to be pulled to one side about their behaviour on the course, things improved over the years as people became more familiar with the course, hopefully the same will happen with the new layout.

MTG I struggled to get passed you on the big climb, this was on my second lap, when I put in a 29min lap. You were out of the saddle cranking it with 7 hours still to go - Massive Respect!

I've done endurance races before where the soloists get an "S" to hang under their saddle, so everyone knows instantly why they're going so slow and (hopefully) affords them a bit more respect instead of just forcing them off the track.

I think a lot of the aggro on the day was caused by people just not calling it when they overtook, or wanted to overtake. If you're quite new to XC racing (as a lot of Oktoberfest participants are) you probably don;t realise how important it is.

I've done endurance races before where the soloists get an "S" to hang under their saddle, so everyone knows instantly why they're going so slow and (hopefully) affords them a bit more respect instead of just forcing them off the track.

Me too 🙂

I've done endurance races before where the soloists get an "S" to hang under their saddle,

This should be the norm in all endurance races IMO.

've done endurance races before where the soloists get an "S" to hang under their saddle, so everyone knows instantly why they're going so slow and (hopefully) affords them a bit more respect instead of just forcing them off the track.

This is great at mountain mayhem. I always made sure I gave words of encouragement solo riders when passing

Talking of the start and the bottle necks. I've often wondered whether doing the run in the same place as the afternoon starters might help? It'll stop the corner cutting and going straight into a climb should think the pack out a bit. Hell, why not go down to the deer park and make everyone haul it up the road and round? Can still go straight into the event village and start a lap proper – someone then tapes the course off again before the first team riders get a chance to come round...

I'd like an 'R' to hang behind my saddle all the time. For Rubbish.

+1 Gary

A good climb would thin the pack out, I much prefer rolling starts for that, as it does settle people out better than a run.

I totally understand for Paul though, trying to get 1000 people off the line and into speed order is not going to be the easist thing to sort out.

Thing is the run is too short, despite most people (including me) absolutely hating the run, in SitS in 2003 the run was nearer 800metres. It strung the pack out hugely and works way better, it's now too short a start.

A longer run for sure - way too short...

But are the strong riders necessarily going to be strong runners?

Yes for the top athletes, but it could still leave a lot of fast bike riders with a load of fast runners but slow riders to get past?

Since this is a bike race I'd have thought a long uphill ride would be better to string out the fast from the slow. Perhaps starting right down by the exit from the first singletrack* and possibly even taking a long way round the field with a couple of hills?

*Is this where the 4hr pm race started from?

Yup I suppose a longer uphill could be the way Roger! the less running the better when I get spammed with it 😉 But remember we did cheat according to some on here.

All this talk of aggressive overtaking saddens me. These are my local trails and I ride them week in, week out, and I'd love to enter either Bikefest or Oktoberfest, but seriously - I worry so much about holding someone up that I just don't bother taking part.

Wallop - Don't not enter because some people are inconsiderate because of inexperience. Bikefest is a race, but it's also great fun - for all levels of the sport.

A 12 hour solo at Bikefest can be a real achievement, and you don't need to be jostling for first place for that to be the case.

Give it a go next year, 99% of riders are courteous, if they're any good they be able to get past you without you having to move anywhere, just a little word to say what they're doing and they'll be gone 🙂

wallop: tbh it's largely not that bad. I soloed and was subjected to only one really dire overtake. I also had a few that were ok just a little surprising – I shouted [i]'call it better next time'[/i] and got a pretty sincere sorry from each.