Have to say, of all the crap overtaking/holding up behaviour I’ve seen, probably 95% of it was in just 3 laps of 10 Under The Ben, just awful… punches thrown at one point! So agree with the comment up the page about endurance racing- I suppose there’s more mixing of standards, and also possibly more dicks and incompetents.

mtbmatt – Member

Tough luck for having a crap seeding, surely?

Mmm, not always. Like, innerleithen ukge race- seeding was on a stage made entirely of solid trailcentre and maintained downhill stuff, with an epic pedal, but 2 of the stages were proper inners enduro tech-swamps… I seeded pretty much as expected but caught a ton of people on the first of the muddy stages because the skillset was so different, the seeding wasn’t really representative of those stages.

Doesn’t everyone over take like this in DH?
http://dirt.mpora.com/news/how-to-overtake-like-chuck-norris.html

Taking the point about that article being from the Oz scene is the emphasis placed less on the overtaker having to do all the work over here? That seems to be one of the main points of his complaints.

The communication aspect is all I ask for and that no one coming past demands me to get out the way. I’m always polite to who ever is in front and ask if I can come past or ask them to let me past when ready depending on the situation.

I don’t remember hearing any talk of the etiquette though in riding briefings. Do you think more could be done by organisers to help the situation?

EDIT: Most frustrating thing about the Manx End to End was people walking on the climbs. If you have walk then just get out the way, dive in a bush whatever. That’s the one time I have no problem with being impatient.

I don’t remember hearing any talk of the etiquette though in riding briefings. Do you think more could be done by organisers to help the situation?

Rider briefing is the responsibility of the British Cycling Commissaire

the quality and quantity of commissaires is very variable

a sensible organiser will have a written rider briefing which he reads as part of his “protection” against claim (you didn’t tell me about the rabid sheep etc 😉 )

Would Ashton Court and Oktoberfest be a painful first introduction to racing?

No, it’s a pretty friendly race and was my first one. The singletrack is wider than you think and all the guys overtaking were pretty polite to me.

The only time it was painful was when I crashed into a tree on my last lap!

The simple answer is to add more wallrides, surely?

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnYVi7DXjtI[/video]

Have to say, of all the crap overtaking/holding up behaviour I’ve seen, probably 95% of it was in just 3 laps of 10 Under The Ben, just awful..

Ten Under the Ben seems to have its own rules:

Actually riding your bike anywhere is entirely optional.
When on foot feel free to ignore everyone else.
Better still hop off, shortcut the course and get back on in front of people who are actually riding the obstacles – then ride slow and wobbly down the remainder of the singletrack

richmtb – Member

Better still hop off, shortcut the course and get back on in front of people who are actually riding the obstacles

I mean to say, yes, I am aware of that phenomenon.

To be fair I was slow and unfit so I can hardly criticise, I did 3 laps, spat the dummy and went home. But I kept my crapness to myself!

Its the steps followed by the little rock slab near the start that always results in mincecore carnage especially on the first lap

It doesn’t matter that anyone remotely fit beats me up the fireroad climb that follows, having to stop because the trail ahead is blocked by people **** walking really pisses me off.

I won’t touch a Torq product thanks to a **** in their team in a Mayhem nearly 10 years ago

The man in charge of Torq is EXTREMELY keen on people being nice in races – he drills the riders on what to say and how to behave. If he found out any of his riders were being arses I’m sure they’d be kicked out immediately.

Overtook up to about 4th and the guy didnt want me to go past. He would sprint like hell on the wider bits then hold me up for the rest of the lap.

As above, if you’re battling within your own race, that’s fair game. The only thing that’s not, I reckon, is forcing people off their bikes by doing stuff like slowing right down at the crest of a steep bit to force the rider behind to dismount. Although I understand that’s a valid tactic in CX?