pictures from Mayhem

Really? – a couple of pics from 2007…

Both of which appear to show solid ground under the wheels – ie nothing like this year. It’s interesting that none of those commenting that it’s always like this seem to have been there this year…

Have the islabikes team done the whole thing on the little kiddies bike? That would be hella impressive.

Yes – I spent some time carrying up a climb alongside one of them, and he said they were all riding the same bike (I’m assuming he meant several of the same model), which was a Cnoc 16 – the same as what my 5yo rode in the kiddies race earlier! In a sense it was the best bike for the conditions, being rather easier to carry – he was making good time, disappearing into the distance once he got to a bit he could ride (I was on a uni, so there were rather less of those bits for me, but I was still going just as fast as most people on that section).

It’s interesting that none of those commenting that it’s always like this seem to have been there this year…

As said above, not saying this is not the worst ever – might well be, just that mayhem has a reputation of being muddy even in relatively dry weather so going there this year and not anticipating Somme like conditions would make you daft!

I’ve only done mayhem twice. Once in the dry and then this year. And now can safely say, NEVER AGAIN!!

As a team of 4 we managed one lap each in the relatively dry but sticky mud, averaging about 2 hours laps. Then the heavens opened, so no one fancied doing any more that night.
Woke up in the morning to people still going round in this!!

So we immediately packed up and left before we ended up getting stuck in the campsite.

Well done to anyone who finished the whole 24hours.

[/url]
Uploaded the first dozen, the rest will get uploaded over the next couple of days 8)

As said above, not saying this is not the worst ever – might well be, just that mayhem has a reputation of being muddy even in relatively dry weather so going there this year and not anticipating Somme like conditions would make you daft!

Which is fair enough – some on here do seem to be suggesting that other years were just as bad, when pictorial evidence suggests otherwise. Though I’d argue that Mayhem has very rarely had relatively dry weather. Also expecting conditions like this is no reason to slate people who did a lap and then stopped and went home when they found just how bad it really was (note I’m not accusing you of that either!) – not when they’d entered in the expectation of just getting a normal amount of mud. I should point out this is the first time I’ve ridden, so I don’t know what it was like other years, but being a local I have a fair idea of what the weather has been, and the Malverns are far muddier than I can ever remember in June.

I should point out that this is in no way an attempt to defend myself – I was only ever planning on doing 1 lap (I’ve got other things on – yesterday afternoon I also did 20 miles on the road to accompany a mate doing JoGLE and went to my son’s school fete). Just feel that it’s a bit unfair to have a go at people who found it tougher than they were expecting and opted for sanity.

Right just back. Happy to have a) finished b) managed more than a lap and c) got out of the field which was a bit hairy! Photos to come later, but this mornings’ lap was like nothing I’ve ever experienced. Ace that so many people remained cheerful. Two nice fellas fetched me out of a tree after an attempt to ride the off-camber woods near the Obelisk.

Sometimes it was plain horrid, often it was just funny, occasionally (like the rocky descent with the three arrows, it was bloody brilliant) but mainly it was flipping hard!

Here’s Sean from our team after his last lap. The photo doesn’t even begin to do justice of how brown he is!

Conditions look terrible for it! Is it actually fun when you’re riding it? It looks a bit boring.

The photographers are less likely to walk to the very top of the hill and take pics of the best bits. I bailed this morning. Half the team have wrecked their bikes so we said ENOUGH! and left. Just managed to get the car out at about 7am. Probably need help from the local land rover community by now!

As said above, not saying this is not the worst ever – might well be, just that mayhem has a reputation of being muddy even in relatively dry weather so going there this year and not anticipating Somme like conditions would make you daft!

have followed this with mild interest and now you’ve ruined it for me – because now you’ve made me look like an absolute pedant.

Because while the Somme was dreadful for many reasons, it was actually delayed for a couple of days due to unfeasibly wet weather making it too muddy to advance. Most of it was fought in the summer of 2016 in dusty conditions.

You’re thinking of Paschendale, which was horrifically muddy.

Early attempts at North Shore

Sorry, pedanting over.

Yes – I spent some time carrying up a climb alongside one of them, and he said they were all riding the same bike (I’m assuming he meant several of the same model), which was a Cnoc 16

No, the same bike! They appeared to have 2, they swapped over at one point, not sure if it was a logistics thing so they could get numbers swapped, but they were sharing bikes. It was to prove how resilient they were!

I did a lap and then gave up, came home this morning! Why? I’ve nothing to prove, I’ve done it before, I had no desire to trash my bike even more, it wasn’t fun and we weren’t going to win. Do I need more reasons? Nope!

Because while the Somme was dreadful for many reasons, it was actually delayed for a couple of days due to unfeasibly wet weather making it too muddy to advance. Most of it was fought in the summer of 2016 in dusty conditions.

You’re thinking of Paschendale, which was horrifically muddy.

Well he’s not ‘thinking’ of anything, but quoting the popular phrase, which is fully valid, as the Battle of Transloy, in the final phase of the Battle of the Somme was indeed horrifically muddy.

So… if you’re gonna be pedantic, be right, don’t just trott out the same (inaccurate) “actually the Somme was fought in summer” phrase.

The photographers are less likely to walk to the very top of the hill and take pics of the best bits

I wouldn’t be so sure about that 8)
Wait till I’ve uploaded my photos from Somme woods.
I ache more now than if I had ridden it.

njee20, don’t blame you at all – the thought of riding an XTR drive train through that would make me cry just thinking about the cost of replacing it all!

Wait till I’ve uploaded my photos from Somme woods.

🙄

^ It’s Paschendale woods you clutz – do you know nothing 🙂

Fully anticipating a correction to inform me there were no trees in Paschendale…

Mmm, yes it wasn’t ideal! The 1.5″ Black Sharks were good though, was nice being able to (almost) ride certain bits!

I dropped off my Mud Sharks with Andy Cockburn to give him a chance of getting round in one piece!

I did say ‘most’ of it. 😉

I think there were trees in Paschendale. When they started. Not many left by the end.

Bits of it were fun. In a strange way. If you could get a half decent line, you could carry some speed in the woods (not so much on the first half) and sail past people who were trying to find a line on the margins. 45 PSI in mud tyres did the job for traction, not always for steerage 😉

If it was dry, it would have been a good course. There has to be an argument for ‘built’ trails in the estate if MM is going to stay there. MM wasn’t full this year, Wiggle signed up for three years so I guess they’ll be looking for ways to persuade riders to sign on next year.

I’m not. I am officially retired 🙂

Princejohn
No worries didnt want to come back at you in arsey way either
As above i did 2007 too and defo worse this year we all managed 3 or 4 laps then without any mechanicals

Alex, attendance at all events seems down this year and quite a few have cancelled (eg 10 at Kirroughtree) due to lack of entries. I wonder if it’s recession related or at least cost of fuel?

I ache more now than if I had ridden it.

Yep, same here – my legs are stuffed after wading round the course yesterday!

I’m interested to see what ramifications it has for the future of Mayhem. Despite assertions on Thursday that they were ‘weatherproofing the course and taking out the worst bits’ it was yard for yard the same as last year, and not event remotely ‘weather proofed’ which I personally think is a bit of a piss take. Why not just say “the course is really rubbish, bring mud tyres”, or actually take out the worst bits! We could have climbed up out of the arena and then turned left before the obelisk where the course comes back at the end and dropped into the arena, in the conditions I don’t think the traffic would have been too bad and it would have missed out some of the worst bits.

Prize money for the sole elite category is now £3000, used be at least £4k, if not £5, entries took far longer to sell out (if they did at all?), I wonder if people will still come back next year!

I think the whole UK enduro* event scene is having a lull right now.

* and yes I know it’s not the same as European Enduros

@FF- that’s a fair point. Which means I guess that promoters are going to have to try harder to either bring back people who used to enter or widen the pool of people who would enter (like MM Kids Race, Sportif, etc)

Shops are selling road bikes rather than MTBs which is going to remove some possible riders.

Entry fees are silly in some cases,

Fuel is expensive

Wages for most people are static or falling.

Cost of living is going up.

How many youngsters do you see on bikes these days? when i started 20years ago there were a fair few of my age riding, but if i look around i don’t see them anymore? Is it a case of older riders, been there done that, nothing to prove, and with it there is no reason to go to events like Mayhem?

Oh, i would do Mayhem again, if they go somewhere that can stand wet weather, UK late June it does rain a lot, so make sure the course can take it.

Oh my god looks nasty, glad I gave it a miss this year, will prob go next year though as its bound to be dry 🙂 congratulations to all who got round this year, well done.

I like MM for the atmosphere – it has a really good vibe to it, although the mud did subdue it a bit. The whole camping with friends, beer, BBQ, catching up with loads of riders you know etc. Bumped into no end of random people I’ve ridden with or bought / sold bike bits too there yesterday. We just need a few good summers now to get things back on track!

I’ve done 11 Mayhems and this was by far the worst conditions. It’s also the only one I haven’t finished. It has never been terrible for the entire race. The arena and camping fields have never been that waterlogged and muddy. It was like riding in 6″ of wet porridge in places – and yes, places that before weren’t so bad. Before it rained overnight, the entire first half of the lap had a dry line developing apart from the sections in the camping fields which were a total swamp. This has not happened before. The second half of the lap was a swamp from the top of the obelisk climb – tbh it has been as bad up there before, just not for the entire race – max 12hrs or so of slog.

As Nick said, we decided that we’ve done enough to know the likely horrors that lay ahead – I couldn’t face a repeat of 2008 when it took me a full hour to stop shivering and regain the powers of speech after my night lap.

Last time we asked, Eastnor wouldn’t allow built trails – the course has to remain ‘natural’.

GB

No, the same bike! They appeared to have 2, they swapped over at one point, not sure if it was a logistics thing so they could get numbers swapped, but they were sharing bikes. It was to prove how resilient they were!

Oh – I did note his exact words, but the bike seemed far too clean at 9:30 last night to have been ridden continuously. Maybe that was just after the change (or did they change every lap?)

Is it actually fun when you’re riding it? It looks a bit boring.

With the right attitude, yes. I suppose a few things did help me:
– when you’re on a uni everybody cheers you on, even when you’re not riding it, and you get a really big cheer when you try and ride something seemingly impossible (I think my attempts on the bridge were appreciated, even if unlike some of my team-mates I didn’t actually manage to ride the whole thing)
– no drivetrain to destroy
– everybody is supposed to overtake you when you’re on a uni, so overtaking bikers (even in conditions where they can’t ride and it’s actually easier to push/carry a uni) seems like a small victory
– nothing is boring on a uni, especially not in those conditions

..but even without that, it’s just a case of making the best of it and not being miserable just because it’s a bit grim (and I know all about being miserable).

MM wasn’t full this year

😯 so no more hand delivering entries to Pat? Experience of other event formats which used to be over subscribed but then stopped being so popular (and in many cases no longer run) suggest the only way is down. People have/will move on to something else. Or is it actually time to try reviving some of the older things like Polaris (ACE Races kind of got a revival this year and seemed to do quite well).

It was pretty sloppy and sticky in equal measure the whole way round. The climbs where never ending and the off camber bit in the second half was ridiculous but the downhills were ok but to straight and short. The last downhill into the arena was awesome. I went down it around 9pm and although it was like a brown river I had great fun.

Its the little things that could help revive the event such as a covered changeover area that has been there previously no fun waiting in the rain for a team mate when the conditions were leading to mechanicals that could add 30 mins or more to a lap

I guess it’s several things like price of entry,fuel and generally people being more cautious what they are spending on.

I haven’t done a MM for a couple of years and it was hard work trying to get £45 quid out of people for a team entry of 4 never mind now its £200+ though there is interest of doing a future one.

Pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexleigh/sets/72157630239878880/

Dry line:

[/url]
Mountain Mayhem 2012 – Race Days[/url] by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Not Dry Line:
[/url]
Mountain Mayhem 2012 – Race Days[/url] by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Same corner, over the bridge as you come back into the camp site. One is 6pm, one is 10am the following day

Dry line / Sumo Jump. Those boys and girls are awesome.

[/url]
Mountain Mayhem 2012 – Race Days[/url] by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Cracking trousers!
[/url]
Mountain Mayhem 2012 – Race Days[/url] by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Start
[/url]
Mountain Mayhem 2012 – Race Days[/url] by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Cleaned Car inside and out (Mud on the roof from field exit!), bike, clothes and shoes in a bucket first before risking washing machine, tent cleaned and out to dry, kit unpacked. The next priority has to be beer!

I took over five hours to do my lap.

Let us never speak of this again…

Oh and before a lap
[/url]
Mountain Mayhem 2012 – Race Days[/url] by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

and after
[/url]
Mountain Mayhem 2012 – Race Days[/url] by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

There was a guy on the big old climb out of the campsite with cramp, walking one step and then swearing impressively. Then taking one more step. Then swearing. And repeat. He was going to have a long night. But 5 hours! What happened?

Mrs Toast – Member

I took over five hours to do my lap.

Let us never speak of this again

OMG 😯

sorry, spoke of it again

Did you get lost Mrs Toast? 😉

There was a guy on the big old climb out of the campsite with cramp, walking one step and then swearing impressively. Then taking one more step. Then swearing. And repeat. He was going to have a long night. But 5 hours! What happened?

I SAID WE WOULD NEVER SPEAK OF IT! But since you asked…

I’m actually fairly terrible at mountain biking. I’m cowardly, which makes me fairly bad at downhills. I’m missing half of the ligaments out of my left knee, which also makes long climbs difficult. I’m also fairly timid, so I’ll throw myself into the side to let others past, and will wait for everyone to pass until there’s a break in traffic. Unfortunately I’m also terrible at starting off in the mud, so by the time I get the bike moving again, I have to stop because there’s another pack of people approaching. Also, I had to do the last two miles in the dark with no lights, because I’d been out for so long. The first half wasn’t too bad, but after the climb back out of the arena…

I did Mayhem last year and hated the course (which only took 2hours 19 minutes that time), but for some reason thought it would be a good idea to do it again this. In hindsight, not a great plan. I did get a liquorice allsort from a friendly unicyclist though. And, fact fans, not only did I get overtaken by Team Sumo and a unicyclist, I was overtaken by Team Islabike on their 16″ wheel dandy pony.

Twice.

Still, Sleepless in six weeks! \o/

10/10 for perseverance!

Yesterday:

This morning:

Character building though Mrs toast

Your post are always funny but this time I cannot decide if I am laughing with you or at you 😕