Post by Dan B on Mar 28, 2012 9:50:05 GMT
Well I think I have just about recovered from the first round 
....Man it was intense 
We arrived on Friday and headed straight out to Inners to check out what was in store for us, there were to be 5 stages taking in most of the area. We decided to see if we can get a full loop in on the Friday afternoon but in the end did Stage 1,4,5 as we were trying to save our legs a bit. Friday night we hit the pub for some food, the first time ever I think I have been to a pub and drunk pure orange juice
After the food we headed back to watch some go pro action of the stages to see if we could pick out any better lines
Saturday morning we were up early to register and to ride the rest of the course, so trundled around stages 2,3 & 5 making sure we kept in the transition times between gates. The seeding times were posted around 1ish so after a quick bite to eat we headed back up again to above the road gap jump for the seeding run. We decided to take our time up to conserve as much energy as possible for the run, we got to the top with an hour to spare so sat and chilled out watching some of the Women and vets start their runs.
The seeding run was to use Stage 5 (Description lower down) Up first was Tim followed by Oggy, James, Myself & Barnsey, we took it in turns to yell "Pedal" at each other as we flew across the top section, thankfully everyone put on a good show for the crowd that had gathered there and MBNW pride was retained
Results for the seeding were as follows:-
Vets
Tim 32 out of 49 with a time of 7:06 www.rootsandrain.com/photos/256141
Masters
Oggy 35 out of 102 with a time of 6.20 www.rootsandrain.com/photos/256713
James 59 out of 102 with a time of 6:46
Dan B 82 out of 102 with a time of 7:21 www.rootsandrain.com/photos/256782
Senior
Paul 45 out of 75 with a time of 6:43 www.rootsandrain.com/photos/256845
So after a fun filled Saturday it was back to the house for a refuel with the help of Tim the chemist with his pills and powders, then early to bed for the main event in the morning. Sunday arrived far too quickly and for me the nerves started kicking in
once we got down the car park I started to feel better and by the time we had pushed up to the start of run 1 I was feeling pretty good.
The stages were set out with gates at the top where you got counted down from 10 then off as fast as you dare down some really gnarly tracks, we had ridden some before but there was a good amount of cheeky off-piste stuff which was really good fun.
Stage 1 = Was the middle and bottom sections of the Cresta Downhill Run, this was pretty loose due to the dry weather and had a tough 90deg turn at the bottom to the finish gate which caught a lot of people out
Stage 2 = Was off the top by the start of the Matador run and took us all the way down to the quarry on the Minch Moor Loop, this was my least favorite part and where I lost most of my time. The track was super slippy roots and rocks which I could ride but not at race speed, I did have a moment on this section and coasted for two meters with my jewels resting on my stem and the back wheel round my ears
The guy behind me also caught me on this stage and I started to think that was going to be the script for the rest of the day, however as we came round to the massive dip with the step up his back Tyre surrendered and that was the last I time saw him.
Stage 3 = Was most of the way up to Minch Moor just before you break out of the trees, to get up there in the time allocated was going to be tight as I hadn't appreciated that my run time was part of my transfer time. Thankfully the guys had said to write down my gate times so with them taped to my stem and garmin running I had 32 minutes to get up to Minch Moor. With 3 minutes to spare I arrived at the gate with about 5 other guys out of Masters, there should of been 20 people in front This is where the timings fell to pieces as instead of sending us off on our times and the other lazy feckers incurring penalties we were held until they arrived 
This wasn't on as we had bust a gut to get up there to make our gate and then caused problems for the rest of the day with the timings, thankfully because I wrote them down I knew where I had to be and at what time.
Any hoo this trail was awesome super fast start which lead to a pedally bit then hard left and literally straight down three 55deg open loamy drops with root and rocks everywhere, thankfully there were good catch berms at the bottom and the speed was starting to get silly. I managed to get within 5 seconds of the guy in front on this section which I was really chuffed with. This dropped out onto the Minch Moor fire road but about a mile past the turn off for the woods, the transfer was all the way back to the top by the Matador which seemed miles away epically with 40 minutes to do it, surprisingly it was one of the easier transfers and got to stage 4 with 10 minutes to spare. Quick bite to eat and a chat with Oggy and James and then it was on to.....
Stage 4 = Went from the woods above the fire road where the Minch moor track drops down in to the bowl and splits to a black section, the woods were similar to stage 2 but only a short section and surprisingly I managed to clean this section and carry some speed. Once across the road it was down the Minch Moor descent over the Rock step ups then into more off piste, this was the steepest section and reminded my of Elsi but with more grip. I made a proper cock up of this on Friday but manage to clean it on race day which again I was chuffed with, it funny what a ticking clock does for your riding ;D This dropped us out at the very bottom of the uplift road which meant we had to ride all the way to the top, the fire road is quite gradual but we had already climbed 3500ft and the thought of another 1000ft in 40 mins didn't sound appealing. However a big can of MTFU later I was spinning to the top and got the my gate 3 mins before I was due off.
Stage 5 & Seeding Run = This stage started just above the road gap jump and came round the back of the timing hut across the road then straight down the section after the road gap, it then turned left and into a technical section we were riding on the uplift last year. This was great but it cut straight through a berm that if I had never ridden the track would of ignored but because my stupid brain remembered the track I took the berm in practise and my seeding run dropping 10 seconds
After this section it was on to the top of Caddon Bank but instead of the drops we came through a tree run a little further on, this then put us to Caddon bank at the wooden gates after the big bomb holes. It was then hell for leather as we have all ridden Caddon that many times it was just on the gas all the way down to the finish just across the road ;D.
Overall placings
Oggy in 116 out of 254 with a time of 34.38
Barnsey 146 out of 254 with a time of 36.15
James 149 out of 254 with a time of 36.32
Tim 190 out of 254 with a time of 40.17
Dan B 206 out of 254 with a time of 41.14
Some Photos of the day
Oggy - www.rootsandrain.com/photos/255867
www.rootsandrain.com/photos/255432
www.rootsandrain.com/photos/255433
www.rootsandrain.com/photos/253821
Dan B - www.rootsandrain.com/photos/255384
www.rootsandrain.com/photos/253797
James - www.rootsandrain.com/photos/255402
www.rootsandrain.com/photos/253806
Tim - www.rootsandrain.com/photos/255677
www.rootsandrain.com/photos/255336
www.rootsandrain.com/photos/253764
Barnsey - www.rootsandrain.com/photos/255505
www.rootsandrain.com/photos/253647
This was a cracking event and a quality weekend
the only disappointment was the timings as people were given the opportunity to get to their gate without incurring penalty, whereas those who put the effort in to get to their gates on time were not rewarded with making up places.
Any hoo on with the training, Coedy is going to be more pedally and I think it will favor fitter riders rather than the pure downhill brigade (or that's what i keep telling myself) Cant wait.
....Man it was intense 
We arrived on Friday and headed straight out to Inners to check out what was in store for us, there were to be 5 stages taking in most of the area. We decided to see if we can get a full loop in on the Friday afternoon but in the end did Stage 1,4,5 as we were trying to save our legs a bit. Friday night we hit the pub for some food, the first time ever I think I have been to a pub and drunk pure orange juice
After the food we headed back to watch some go pro action of the stages to see if we could pick out any better lines Saturday morning we were up early to register and to ride the rest of the course, so trundled around stages 2,3 & 5 making sure we kept in the transition times between gates. The seeding times were posted around 1ish so after a quick bite to eat we headed back up again to above the road gap jump for the seeding run. We decided to take our time up to conserve as much energy as possible for the run, we got to the top with an hour to spare so sat and chilled out watching some of the Women and vets start their runs.
The seeding run was to use Stage 5 (Description lower down) Up first was Tim followed by Oggy, James, Myself & Barnsey, we took it in turns to yell "Pedal" at each other as we flew across the top section, thankfully everyone put on a good show for the crowd that had gathered there and MBNW pride was retained
Results for the seeding were as follows:-
Vets
Tim 32 out of 49 with a time of 7:06 www.rootsandrain.com/photos/256141
Masters
Oggy 35 out of 102 with a time of 6.20 www.rootsandrain.com/photos/256713
James 59 out of 102 with a time of 6:46
Dan B 82 out of 102 with a time of 7:21 www.rootsandrain.com/photos/256782
Senior
Paul 45 out of 75 with a time of 6:43 www.rootsandrain.com/photos/256845
So after a fun filled Saturday it was back to the house for a refuel with the help of Tim the chemist with his pills and powders, then early to bed for the main event in the morning. Sunday arrived far too quickly and for me the nerves started kicking in
once we got down the car park I started to feel better and by the time we had pushed up to the start of run 1 I was feeling pretty good. The stages were set out with gates at the top where you got counted down from 10 then off as fast as you dare down some really gnarly tracks, we had ridden some before but there was a good amount of cheeky off-piste stuff which was really good fun.
Stage 1 = Was the middle and bottom sections of the Cresta Downhill Run, this was pretty loose due to the dry weather and had a tough 90deg turn at the bottom to the finish gate which caught a lot of people out
Stage 2 = Was off the top by the start of the Matador run and took us all the way down to the quarry on the Minch Moor Loop, this was my least favorite part and where I lost most of my time. The track was super slippy roots and rocks which I could ride but not at race speed, I did have a moment on this section and coasted for two meters with my jewels resting on my stem and the back wheel round my ears
The guy behind me also caught me on this stage and I started to think that was going to be the script for the rest of the day, however as we came round to the massive dip with the step up his back Tyre surrendered and that was the last I time saw him.Stage 3 = Was most of the way up to Minch Moor just before you break out of the trees, to get up there in the time allocated was going to be tight as I hadn't appreciated that my run time was part of my transfer time. Thankfully the guys had said to write down my gate times so with them taped to my stem and garmin running I had 32 minutes to get up to Minch Moor. With 3 minutes to spare I arrived at the gate with about 5 other guys out of Masters, there should of been 20 people in front
This is where the timings fell to pieces as instead of sending us off on our times and the other lazy feckers incurring penalties we were held until they arrived 
This wasn't on as we had bust a gut to get up there to make our gate and then caused problems for the rest of the day with the timings, thankfully because I wrote them down I knew where I had to be and at what time.
Any hoo this trail was awesome super fast start which lead to a pedally bit then hard left and literally straight down three 55deg open loamy drops with root and rocks everywhere, thankfully there were good catch berms at the bottom and the speed was starting to get silly. I managed to get within 5 seconds of the guy in front on this section which I was really chuffed with. This dropped out onto the Minch Moor fire road but about a mile past the turn off for the woods, the transfer was all the way back to the top by the Matador which seemed miles away epically with 40 minutes to do it, surprisingly it was one of the easier transfers and got to stage 4 with 10 minutes to spare. Quick bite to eat and a chat with Oggy and James and then it was on to.....
Stage 4 = Went from the woods above the fire road where the Minch moor track drops down in to the bowl and splits to a black section, the woods were similar to stage 2 but only a short section and surprisingly I managed to clean this section and carry some speed. Once across the road it was down the Minch Moor descent over the Rock step ups then into more off piste, this was the steepest section and reminded my of Elsi but with more grip. I made a proper cock up of this on Friday but manage to clean it on race day which again I was chuffed with, it funny what a ticking clock does for your riding ;D This dropped us out at the very bottom of the uplift road which meant we had to ride all the way to the top, the fire road is quite gradual but we had already climbed 3500ft and the thought of another 1000ft in 40 mins didn't sound appealing. However a big can of MTFU later I was spinning to the top and got the my gate 3 mins before I was due off.
Stage 5 & Seeding Run = This stage started just above the road gap jump and came round the back of the timing hut across the road then straight down the section after the road gap, it then turned left and into a technical section we were riding on the uplift last year. This was great but it cut straight through a berm that if I had never ridden the track would of ignored but because my stupid brain remembered the track I took the berm in practise and my seeding run dropping 10 seconds
After this section it was on to the top of Caddon Bank but instead of the drops we came through a tree run a little further on, this then put us to Caddon bank at the wooden gates after the big bomb holes. It was then hell for leather as we have all ridden Caddon that many times it was just on the gas all the way down to the finish just across the road ;D.Overall placings
Oggy in 116 out of 254 with a time of 34.38
Barnsey 146 out of 254 with a time of 36.15
James 149 out of 254 with a time of 36.32
Tim 190 out of 254 with a time of 40.17
Dan B 206 out of 254 with a time of 41.14
Some Photos of the day
Oggy - www.rootsandrain.com/photos/255867
www.rootsandrain.com/photos/255432
www.rootsandrain.com/photos/255433
www.rootsandrain.com/photos/253821
Dan B - www.rootsandrain.com/photos/255384
www.rootsandrain.com/photos/253797
James - www.rootsandrain.com/photos/255402
www.rootsandrain.com/photos/253806
Tim - www.rootsandrain.com/photos/255677
www.rootsandrain.com/photos/255336
www.rootsandrain.com/photos/253764
Barnsey - www.rootsandrain.com/photos/255505
www.rootsandrain.com/photos/253647
This was a cracking event and a quality weekend
the only disappointment was the timings as people were given the opportunity to get to their gate without incurring penalty, whereas those who put the effort in to get to their gates on time were not rewarded with making up places.Any hoo on with the training, Coedy is going to be more pedally and I think it will favor fitter riders rather than the pure downhill brigade (or that's what i keep telling myself
) Cant wait.
