who's HONCing?

Going to be very muddy lots of hail stone showers today out there hopefully a bit warmer tomorrow than today.

Yes,
I will be there as usual.
100k with semi slick on rear,ha ha!
Mite regret that tomorrow!
Usual trick to make the road sections easier.
No worries though as used to being on foot a lot through the CX race’s!
Max

Crackin day on the Honc ,first time on the crosser and right bike for the event 🙂 weather was kind and course was good , Big thanks to the organizers for another top quality event

Apart from that wind…

Really good fun today, I rode it with my wife and we did the 50k in 4hrs 15 mins which, funnily enough was one minute faster than I managed to scramble round the 100k last year, and easier and more social.

Great event as always, every year it seems to get better – thanks Winchcombe CC, please keep running it!

And the mud getting up onto Cleeve Hill!! Great day out as ever!! Thanks to the organisers!

I wasn’t impressed by the guy behind me who gave me a dirty look when I questioned why he wasn’t shutting the gate! 👿

See you all again next year! 😀

The 100k was pretty brutal this year but all good fun!

Another great day out doing honc. Thanks for putting on a top event
Maybe I will push myself and try the 100 next time

Yeah,
Great day out.
The muddy bits on the 100k was a test for the legs!
Max

it was pretty brutal though….start at the front if you don’t want to wait to push up climbs. i didn’t this year and had 20km of walking up hills behind people. My walking later was purely me…Also saw lots of people with wide tyres spinning on top of the mud…Cotswolds in a damp April with loads of claggy mud; needs old school tyres or cx!

Yeah, the 60km to 90km section was a proper challenge today.

Those sections with the clagging mud had the weediest sticks for clearing the clags. Pretty much snapping in your hand.

Did anyone actually manage to ride the hill out of Laverton?

I never want to ride my bike ever again. Brilliant event.

The clag ate my mech hanger so had to finish ss.

I am very glad to be home!

The clag ate my mech hanger so had to finish ss.

But you did finish 😀

Great event, the grass sections sucked the life out of you with the soft mud underneath, none of the climbs were killers, wind was a pain at times. Well done to the organisers, will be back again next year.

Coming down the final decent there was a sign saying “Beware of children and walkers” some how this came to mind 😕

Any idea when the results are published?

Any idea when the results are published?

They aren’t its not a race.

Well that was brutal.. Mud was killer I was chuffed with how I was running till about 60k then that next 20k or so was horrific. I spent the whole of the last 40k wishing I was anywhere but there.. Brilliant! Back next year, maybe without a worn Race King on the rear!

Interested to know how the quick guys ran today in the mud – anyone on here from the front lot?

Did anyone actually manage to ride the hill out of Laverton?

My team mate mentioned he managed it without a foot down but reckoned it was close, he was first home in the 100k and I think his time was about 4 hrs 23 mins, about 2 mins clear of the next guy.

I thought it was pretty dull to be honest. A bit too much of the slow, muddy tracks around the edge of fields.

I thought they might publish a running order and the timings. The bloke I gave my card to wrote down my time but I do not know what it was.

Interested to know how the quick guys ran today in the mud – anyone on here from the front lot?

Saw Matt Page come in at about 2pm, so around the 5hr mark.

The muddy bits on the 100k was a test for the legs!

I can assure you that the 58k (somebody can’t count!) route was far tougher than I’ve done before, the sticky mud just wouldn’t let go of my tyres until I was the far side of 30mph, and at points both wheels were locked solid (on my disc braked CX bike!) due to mud build up.

Great route and great weather, shame that the ground was so soft but that’s the luck of the draw I guess! Mind you, last time I did it was bone dry and dusty and I got shaken to pieces on a CX bike, and that didn’t happen today!

Had a great time, really challenging but much preferred this years route to last years. Relatively happy with my time for 50k. Some of the open field runs into a head wind were killers but nothing to brutal hill wise.

Thank led to all the volunteers and organisers

awesome day out – hats of to the organisers for doing such a great job – again!

Proper epic on a fatbike in all the clag. At one point it must have weighed 40lbs

Cleared the climb up Laverton – tough as hell but real satisfying

Ah, thanks Iain missed that.

Hats off to anybody clearing that in 4.23, that’s not much off last years pace which was very different!

Second HONC for me – it makes always makes me thankful I live in Manchester with access to decent trails. Perfect ride for a CX bike pretty dull for a MTB. That mud was horrific it sucked the joy from the ride for me and my rear mech with it, good job I had a spare mech hanger. Great training though and very well organised.

https://youtu.be/eAYm0WalvLY

“Perfect ride for a CX bike pretty dull for a MTB”

Its not a MTB event.

I did it on my XC 29er and thought this years route was great! Claggy mud, lots of long rolling fields. Just what i want from this type of event. This years route was much, much better than last years in my opinion. Albeit I like the last bit of Cleeve hill last year. The organisers are pretty clear its not an MTB event, it just happens to of developed into something that works well on a MTB. There is a real cross section of people entered so anything too gnar would likely change the event and the entrant. I should of really fitted the pair of cross tyres i have hanging in my garage knowing what the route was goign to be like. But you live and you learn, a Highlight for me was seeing a chap on a Cross Bike overtake me on the final gravel descent like i was sat still he was barely touching the ground and testament to how to ride a cross bike. I was half expecting to have to pick him up in bits he was moving that quickly.

snapperdan – Member
Perfect ride for a CX bike pretty dull for a MTB. That mud was horrific it sucked the joy from the ride for me and my rear mech with it, good job I had a spare mech hanger

as said, it’s not an MTB ride, but congratulations on understanding the ‘reliability trial’ bit of the event 😉

Great event just the way it is.
Pity there was no photographer at the ford just after the food stop. He could have filmed me sliding in the mud and going backwards over the bridge and into the stream, followed by a very cold and wet 2nd half.

LoL!!

I remember the year I came down to the ford & decided to go through the water, only to find out that it was a lot deeper than I thought! The photographer got a great sequence of photos with the expression on my face changing from broad grin to ‘Oh sh!t this water’s a lot deeper than I thought!’ before being obscured by the bow-wave!! Great fun!! 😀

a Highlight for me was seeing a chap on a Cross Bike overtake me on the final gravel descent like i was sat still

If that was me, it was because my hands were too tired to brake properly at that point. Stupid cantis were packing up anyway.
I thought a CX bike might have been the quickest way, but it was grim on some of the muddy and bumpy bits and I was overgeared for most of the climbs – 42t ring may be fine for a 45 minute CX race but that’s the limit. Silly me.
A chap on a hardtail finished in under 4h20, proving that good legs trump bike selection.

100km for me on a cross bike. Brilliant day out. Love the event as well organised, lovely countryside and friendly riders. Really liked the course, with more off road this year and the mud gave it a challanging edge without being as horrendous as in prev years.

4h 20 mins in that mud…I need new legs!

Be thankful it wasnt today, its rained all day and the mud would be horrendous

managed the 100k – just! that wasn’t mud, that was bloody potters clay!

hats off to the two guys who did the 100k on the tandem. it looked scary coming down the muddy track through the woods just after the 75k checkpoint.

surprised by the no. of blokes on fat bikes – fair play. fatties – was it easier on the mud or did you get stuck down like everyone else seemed to?

really well organised day. well done organisers!

Does anyone know why the drone footage has been removed from YouTube?

http://www.ipernity.com/doc/dylbic/album/884482

Re the video, apparently the author had complaints about flying a drone over the crowd, so he took it down.