Whinlatter Challenge Roll-Call

Yep that’ll be the infamous postie!!

Jeeze! what have I done now 🙂

pypdjl – Member
Thanks for that, I remember you overtaking me! Tried keeping up butto no avail…

How did you make the link between me going past you and my GPS track? Where abouts did I over take you? I was about 75th going up the last climb on lap one and finished 42nd, so the 2nd lap I went past a lot of people, what bike were you on, I’ll probably remember you better that way!

Not sure where it was, probably near the end of the first lap, I just remembered the manchester mountain bikers jersey. I was on a green scandal 29er.

It killed me off about half way through, throwing up the day before at Grizedale should have warned me off! I think i was right behind you for a bit HughJengin, what jersey did you have on?

I was in a long sleeve black northwave long jersey, and black shorts with red and yellow logo and black leg warmers, white MET lid

Hardtail epic or full sus?

I was on a red epic full suss

Yours truly

Maybe it Wasn’t you i was behind then. I was on a black FSR XC with pikes.

Came in at just under 3h 5m. I got to the back of the start at about 5 minutes before we went. I struggled to make my way forwards after that and got caught up at the singletrack. Eventually it thinned out but I was knackered/cramping by that point from attacking on every forest road trying to get forwards.

Nice course except it need to be open longer at the start to allow some spreading out so there is less queing at that first singletrack section.

Met radoggair as he was parked just in front of us and had the name on the bike, said hello.

jonb, you’d have been alongside me at the start then.
Went for it on the first lap, but stopped to chat to my missus and son who were waiting at the finish line. Cruised around the second lap with tactical pauses to allow a bit of breathing space on the singletrack.

me on my ti rohloff’d Voodoo:

rant:
If you can’t ride it (up or down), fine. If you have to get off and walk, that’s fine too. But FFS, let people who are riding past!!!
/rant.

I did 3.57 joint 195th (56 MV40)…whoo! Better than 4.30 ish last year and a miserable 5.37 the first time. I think I’m getting the hang of it. @steve_b77 guessing it was you I chatted too – shame you did puncture.
I gave away a split link on the second south loop climb, to help a rider with a broken chain only to get it back in the queue at the cafe afterwards, what are the chances of that 🙂

I thought the course was really good as it was, I didn’t think congestion was too bad if you were inside the top 100 at the top of the climb, but I realise that a lot of people weren’t and would have struggled more than me with the congestion.

I was thinking it would be better to use the long fire road climb at the end of lap 1 to spread the field by doing that straight from the start, but I guess the problem with that is that the track where we turned off the road would probably cause a bottle-neck because it was a bit technical in places and only double-track at best. The alternative is to run down the road to Spout Force, but that would be a long section of road that would need to be closed briefly. I suppose you wouldn’t want the field racing at 30mph bunched together either.

So I can’t think of a better alternative, other than running the start from the Swan Inn near Braithwaite and doubling the length of the first climb to get things spread out!

I like the course, i managed to avoid the bottle neck this year by going hard up to the 1st singletrack and although it was wheel to wheel there was not any real waiting to get on teh singletrack. I was passed by quite a few to get there as well. The only option i can see to avoid it is to add in a km at teh start by starting off by the 2 ponds that are passed later on in the lap just after the first section of the blue. in theory u could climb up from there and either back up past the start or along and up the same climb that is done on teh 2nd lap, don’t know if it would make much diference or not really, some would just moan about the long climb at the start!!

That’s similar to my thought about starting near the Swan Inn, it’s that section of fire road that you’re talking about that takes you down there. Question is how far down do you need to go to make it worth the hassle of moving the start and having people riding further (albeit downhill) to the start line?

I think the existing course is probably the best of the ideas I was able to come up with.

While we’re on the subject of that hill, does anyone else think that a Black/Orange descent through the trees from where the bottleneck was to near the Swan, then a climb back up to the red loop would be a fantastic addition? As it is, the red trails only take advantage of half the available altitude. Imagine how good that first climb would be if it was twice the length!

Paul do you mean turning right down through the trees instead of left onto the switchbacks? is there a footpath down that way?

I would prefer a longer first climb as I said but I was there to race. It’s mostly my own fault for turning up late and if I was actually starting near the front I don’t think I would have had any issues being in front of the crowd. At other events we have had road sections where there is a moderately fast lead out car.
One of the good things about the alternating fire road and singletrack was that you had to attack on the wider bits to make places. If it’s just a wide path for 30 miles then it might as well be a time trial.

jonb – the problem with the alternating fireroad-climb/singletrack descent is the more “roadie-esque” competitors stomp away up the fire-roads and cause the traffic jams on the techy bits.
I’m comparing it to Dyfi where most of the descents have a choice of lines, so you can get past the slower riders by riding the rougher line. Off course, you end up with a yo-yo effect, but that’s better than riders being held up on the climbs because they’re not as strong, but then being held up on the descents because the other riders aren’t as good.

I rode my general heavy duty trail bike so was slower on the climbs but then couldn’t make the time up on the descents as I invariably ended up behind a fitter but less confident rider on the descents.

From the conversations I have had it seems that the secret is to concentrate solely on the climbs as virtually all the climbs had enough room to pass people. I don’t know whether I will enter next year yet. If I do I will be certainly be riding the hard tail, camping at the front of the start line and being prepared to spend the first 10 minutes in the red to get a clearish run at the singletrack.

karnali, if you mean where I think you mean, then yes, and yes there is a footpath that drops you out right at the bottom, but I meant to stay on the fire road, which also takes you right to the bottom next to the A66.

When the original plans for the forest were being looked at they were knocked back because of the impact of traffic travelling through Braithwaite. When I heard the trail had been built I did wonder if there was going to be a carpark at the bottom with a trail leading up to the visitors centre, still not sure how they got around the traffic issues at the planning stage?

I didn’t find the ‘roadies’ too bad, though one chap sprinted past me on the second lap before we dived into a singletrack section and the next chap I’d been closing down took 200m out of me as a result, the swine!

I don’t think it’s a secret that you should concentrate on the climbs though, the difference between flowing down the descents and going maximum-attack isn’t much over the whole race, but saving your energy for the climbs will make a good difference. What I mean is that usually you don’t lose much time by just being smooth down the trails and if you pedal like a loon you’ll lose a lot of your smoothness. Besides, you’re climbing for I guess 75% of the race at a guess.