Rough Ride

XT Joined : 30 Oct 2006 Posts : 190

Aww ouch aw oooh me leg....

My arm....

Have I told anyone I have a bad back?

Subject: Re: Rough Ride Wed May 30, 2007 1:34 pm

Crikey a tough route but hey ho we'll pull each other round!!! affraid

Weather not looking too good so bring the waterproofs folks might even bring trousers!

Stu you should come down with Pete on sat he might have space?

Subject: Re: Rough Ride Wed May 30, 2007 2:08 pm

I can't wait bounce

Subject: Re: Rough Ride Wed May 30, 2007 2:10 pm

Pete would love to jump into you car, I'll save jumping into your tent another time. What time u thinking of leaving?

Subject: Re: Rough Ride Wed May 30, 2007 2:21 pm

Leaving mid afternoon on Saturday - send me an email and we can exchange details offline.

thebaggaleys at mac dot com

XT Joined : 30 Oct 2006 Posts : 190

Pete, are you able to save the .trl as .gpx or something generic. I can't convert it to MultiMap as there are too many waypoints for my free converter Sad

If you can any chance of emailing it to me? Very Happy

Subject: Re: Rough Ride Wed May 30, 2007 7:47 pm

No converter - but if tell me how many data points you can handle I can cut it up or reduce the resolution Wink

presto

XT Joined : 30 Oct 2006 Posts : 190

Pete no worries I downloaded GPSBabel and converted the .trl to a useable format for me.

www.gpsvisualizer.com is also pretty useful.

Cheers.

XT Joined : 30 Oct 2006 Posts : 190

Guys,

There’re not kidding when they say there’s 6500ft of climbing on the 75km route. I naively thought yeah yeah it won’t be that bad and expected to get around in 1.5x my HONC time which was 30 miles in 3.5 hrs so estimated about 5 hrs. BIG rethink! The climbs drag on and on. The moorland tracks are made up of the soft spongey grass/moss that saps any wheel speed and drains your legs. If that’s not bad enough the compacted dirt trails are 4x4 wheel tracks which can get so deep and narrow your pedals ground out on the top, then when you lose concentration for a second you roll up the side of a rut and nearly have an ‘off’ which if your corkscrewing around the side of the hill is treacherous as there’re quite steeply banked. Oh and did I mention the general amount of rutted trail which means getting any speed up is difficult. The descents are generally very quick and either loose earth, rock or grass and over too quick to gain any recovery before the next climb.

I had a rather embarrassing off on some wet grass in front of a family of spectators, another when grabbed the bars as my hands got flung around and accidentally got a handful of front brake and went straight over, and finally I over corrected my steering and slipped off the trail and down the side of the hill for a metre or so.

I was thankful for the water stops. I had 3 litres with me anyway but still took on an extra litre.

Will probably do it again next year. I did the 75km in about 7hrs 3mins but I am waiting the electronic timings.

Subject: Re: Rough Ride Mon Jun 04, 2007 9:45 am

I was having a good time then the cramp set in after about 40k and the last 20K was hard work it was jsut hill after hill.... the thing that got me was after the finish line you still had a mile or so to get back to the camp site. Anyway I got back just over 6 hours. I recorded the route so I'll post it tonight.

Steve

Subject: Re: Rough Ride Mon Jun 04, 2007 12:31 pm

Myself and Stuart paired up after the route split and posted times around the 7:40 mark - nicely paced to get back before 6 Wink

. And no - that wasn't me in the helicopter being airlifted to hospital, we rode past as they were landing, though I did back off on the descents (for a while).

I felt the riding certainly improved after the break with more gradual descending allowing you to engage the big ring and push the pace. The crowds disappeared at this point too. The most challenging section was around the western most, where the route took to the sheep tracks (skinnies) in big way with heather to the left and a steep drop to the right. Already looking forward to repeating the final descent with fresh legs/arms and when I can feel my hands! I echo Craigs comment about the ruts - I was scraping both feet on the edges at times.

Anyone found the results or photographer's site yet?

Subject: Re: Rough Ride Mon Jun 04, 2007 12:49 pm

The photo's will be on the following site tomorrow.

http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk/photoshop.php

Subject: Re: Rough Ride Mon Jun 04, 2007 5:34 pm

Ride details:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2926853

Subject: Re: Rough Ride Tue Jun 05, 2007 8:10 am

The results are on the web Neutral

XT Joined : 30 Oct 2006 Posts : 190

Well done everyone. cheers

Respect to Mr. T. for that posting that time.

Just waiting on the pics now.