These routes seem to be highly rated by other people, and the ones I’ve ridden (Cadair Berwyn, Llyn Cowlyd) were pretty much what you describe: Edge Cycleworks NW routes[/url]

Same goes for these (I’ve done Grwyne Fawr, Pontsticill Crossover, Gap) : Brecon Beacons MTB routes

Hard to do I know, but just try not to worry about it and focus on getting some rest. Quite often I find that I get good results after I’ve been ill, because the enforced time off the bike means fresh legs.

Obviously if you are still ill when the race comes around, that’s a different matter. But you’ve got 10 days yet.

Endura Zyme trousers fit the bill for me, not too expensive either. Regularly wear them off the bike and no-one ever notices they are bike clothing.

I tend to avoid most Endura stuff as it wears out pretty quickly, but not these.

Otherwise how are farmers allowed to drive on unsurfaced roads and tracks that are classified on the map as footpaths?

If the farmer is the landowner, he can drive wherever he likes (although if he damages a ROW he might have to repair it).

ROWs give access rights to people other than the landowner, without needing the landowner’s permission.

Has the work in progress been finished then?

Must go and have a look.

I’m not sure it is a shame that Gorrick aren’t BC-affiliated, there are pros and cons. I suspect non-affiliation allows Gorrick to make their events more attractive to the casual rider, which is why attendances are high but a bit light at the top ability categories.

Although I wouldn’t presume to speak for Gorrick.

All this is a bit irrelevant to Southern XC though, as they are part of the regional BC structure. Unless Adam is considering de-affiliating?

I’d hope there is room for both affiliated and non-affiliated series to be healthy.

I may have spelled separate correctly, either in the form or here, but not both.

That was my choice too :)

why did/ do people attend the existing XC races

For me, I love the buzz of racing, a chance to push myself harder than I would just riding along, and at higher intensity than I would in a endurance race.

And as I’ve been racing a while, I’ve got to know enough of the other racers to make it pretty sociable too.

Also, entering an event is a good motivator for getting out and riding when you might otherwise decide not to bother – this particularly applies to races outside of summer when the weather isn’t great.

To some extent SXC races suffer a bit as they are largely in the good weather months (to the extent that exists in the UK!) – the temptation is just to go for an all-day ride instead. For the Gorrick Spring Series, if the weather is rubbish then I’ll be satisfied with blasting round for 90 minutes then getting back inside.

A loft/attic if you’ve got one, always warm up there and hopefully room to spread it out without it being in the way.

A big thing for me is travel time vs race time … driving 4 hrs to race 1.5 hours is the wrong ratio… as others have said if it was a 6hr / 12hr / 24hr the driving to riding ratio gets much better

This for me – I do pretty much all the Gorricks as they are on my doorstep, not so inclined to trek further for a short ride.

So that means I would tend to do the closer SXC rounds only, but then the problem of gridding arises – if you haven’t done previous rounds then you could have up to 40 riders gridded in front of you depending on category. I’m not going to threaten the podium or even the top 10 in my category (Vets), but last time I did an SXC round I ran out of race before I really got clear of slower riders.

I’m not saying it shouldn’t be like that or should be changed, it’s entirely fair to those who have raced previous rounds. But it does put me off doing occasional rounds that I might otherwise do. Not such a problem in the Gorricks, as they only grid the top 10.

Having said that, I’m hoping to make some rounds in 2016. Good luck and thanks for taking it on :)

Thanks chaps, that’s very helpful.

Enjoy, I’ve soloed it every year since it began but sadly probably won’t get to race this year :(

Love the event though, course is good fun and the atmosphere is great!

Not done pairs at this one but have elsewhere, as others have said it is pretty brutal – smash it hard, stop, try and stay warm, faff for a few minutes, eat something, time to get back to transition, all the time trying to stop the legs from seizing. You really won’t get much (any) downtime unless you switch to double laps, however these might be slower. As ever, a pit bitch can really help, as can a calm demeanour when off-course. Good luck!

Agree with nickjb – drove Dieppe to Frejus Tunnel (and into Italy) and back in July, barely any toll queueing. It totally depends on your journey.

That must be some kind of record for the earliest declaration when batting second – not even lunch on day 2?

Hey – a whole over without a wicket :)

FFS – at least try and tire their bowlers out for the follow-on.

And another :(

One of your gloves turns out to be a sock? (this happened to me once)

The stuff in the Weldtite kit is the stuff I linked to a couple of posts above.

As Scienceofficer pointed out, it isn’t vulcanising fluid.

We used Acton Field[/url] for Charlie’s Gravel Dash, its almost next door to Tom’s Field mentioned above.

On a ridge so stunning 270 degree views out to sea, over Swanage Bay towards the IOW, and inland.

Showers and toilets were fine, not much to do for kids on-site though so depends if you are looking to head out each day or not.

Weldtite rubber solution available here for example.

I just bought two tubes, expecting them to be the same size as the tiny ones in the kits – but they are much bigger!

I would love to do this, can’t afford it for next year though.

By the way, what insurance did you use? Something specifically covering racing?

Well done Mr S!

There certainly is no such thing as too much training ahead of a stage race…and even then it never feels like you’ve done enough…

See the vid on the ST front page from a few months ago for some tips on carrying if you haven’t already – well worth practicing that too if there’s a significant amount of it.

Froome in yellow means that Sky’s car will be first in line tomorrow – could be vital for the cobbles.

They can always let a break go later in the week so they don’t have to keep defending.

Now bollards in the middle of the course. Riders not happy at all.

o-t-b, sadly not, its more a case of one freak good result and not everyone having done all the rounds.

Fair enough, I’ve been in that situation too :)

You can’t make any major changes to your fitness levels in 10 days, other than making sure you’re well rested without laying off the bike completely.

Other than that, the only tactic I can recommend is hammering it from the gun in an attempt to put the other guy under pressure. There’s a chance he/she might crack and make a mistake. Of course it’s more likely you’ll blow up, so it’s a gamble. Depends whether you want to risk missing out completely for the chance of the top step!

You’ve obviously done pretty well in the previous rounds, so why not just follow the same routine that’s worked up until now? Not much you can do about the other guy, you need him/her to have a bad race.

For something different you could enter the Gorrick trailtrax (orienteering on a bike thing) on 20 September at Cheriton http://www.gorrick.com/trailtrax/

There’s one this Sunday too, from Hambledon just south of Godalming. See the Gorrick link natrix posted. Start/finish at a great countryside pub, as they all do!

I’ll be there, looking forward to it :)

Queen Elizabeth Country Park in Hampshire and Bedgebury Forest in Kent are also options for man-made.

For natural, try the Devil’s Punchbowl at Hindhead and Black Down south of Haslemere – still part of the Surrey Hills AONB although some distance west of Pitch Hill.

Indeed! But I’ve ordered anyway ;)

Good link stevied – doesn’t look like they have the 29er Ikons in EXO Tubeless Ready though – either EXO or TR but not both, unless I’m missing something :(

EDIT – my mistake, they have them in 2.35 – was hoping for 2.2 though.

I’ve got a pretty similar problem as also doing a very climby alpine stage race.

Was going to go for Maxxis Ikons with EXO protection, but there doesn’t appear to be any stock around thanks to a distributor dispute.

Currently trying to find some suitable snakeskin Racing Ralphs although they also seem to be in short supply in the right variety.

I’d recommend trying going in the opposite direction too, just to keep things fresh. You might find it a bit more motivating than ploughing through 60-70 miles of stuff you’ve done on two previous failed attempts before you get to a ‘new’ bit (I appreciate you’ve already done the whole lot before).

I’m very far from sharing the political views of my MP (Gerald Howarth) and wouldn’t dream of voting for him, but kudos to him for joining Trail Action Group on an MTB ride around the contentious MOD areas in his constituency.

That’s worth knowing, although I think I’d still take 2 bottles.

Did you weigh your bike after you’d ‘accessorised’ it? I know what you’re like!

I imagine Butser Hill would be horrible

Yes! Especially if you’ve carelessly discarded your front mech and granny ring ;)

But once you’re over that, it’s relatively plain sailing. Either that, or I’ve subconsciously blotted out the bad bits…

Well done Nick! Good recovery ride after Sunday’s race ;)

Which route did you take at Old Winchester Hill? The ‘old’ Warnford route (which isn’t signposted as SDW any more, but is what most of the South Downs Double record times are based on), or the ‘new’ Exton route which is signed but longer?

Did you get the tailwind you were hoping for? Must admit I prefer to start at Eastbourne to get the worst of the climbing out of the way while still reasonably fresh, but more chance of a headwind if you can’t pick and choose your day!

Excellent work, that looks ridiculous!

Hope you’ve got a backpack to carry some pies though?

Good luck Nick!

Going West to East, halfway distance is probably a bit less than halfway in terms of time/effort – the hills come thicker and faster in the second half.

It’s certainly hard to cultivate that mental toughness, one of the hardest parts of endurance racing!

When I started to struggle on lap 8 I began to try and work out whether I was really going to have to do 10 laps as originally thought, or whether I might be slowing down enough that I’d just miss the cut-off. I figured out that it would be close, and started thinking about not trying too hard on lap 9 – was a real battle inside my brain to convince myself to keep pushing to get in a 10th lap!

Then towards the end of lap 8 I remembered that we hadn’t actually started at 9am, but more like 9:07, so in fact I was clearly going to have to do a 10th! Lap 9 was a bit of a grim death march but as soon as I started lap 10 it was head down and empty the tank – often happens that the final lap is quite good fun as you don’t have to hold back any more.

Obviously 10 minutes later the tyre went bang and that was that, but hey…

njee – you were very consistent!