Glentress 7?

Is there? Not that I can see.
Searched my number and only be came up. Need to check untagged ones.
 
Morning after thoughts... It's all about the climbing, especially lap 1 where it's almost all fireroad on the way up. We were just over an hour a lap (except Jim who was flying up and down), and then between 16 and 19 minutes back down from the very top. Apart from the reverse part of Soor Plooms after Tunnel of Love, there aren't a lot of overtaking opportunities, so you're as fast as the person in front. The Bombhole and Tunnel of Love aren't sketchy at all. Hardtail for next time. Summer tyres if it's dry. The off camber rooty section that follows the contour of the hill before the final drop back down to the transition area would be carnage in the wet. I think I prefer it to 10UTB, the singletrack has a nice mix of stuff.

Cracking effort from Keith, and he crashed less than I did :) Jim was so knackered on his last lap he looked angry when he came in!

So my race was pretty rubbish, but I'll claim best crash of the day... First corner in the transition area, front end washes out on the gravel at walking speed, and I go down hard on my knee while grabbing at a random camp chair next to the tape. As I pick myself up, spectator says to me, 'don't worry, I'm sure nobody saw that' :oops: 2 minutes later, front tyre is almost completely flat - slow puncture (found the thorn when I got home), so at least that explained the wash out. Also had a big OTB after the bombhole on first lap, had to sit for a couple of minutes after that one, but no damage done, apart from my confidence.

If I do it again, need to properly train for the climbs.
 
Re:

It was a good course but due to bloody fatigue I did not enjoy it at all :(

I had 2 tactical dismounts at exactly the same place on both laps and then the full over the bars crunch 200 odd yards after the second dismount. The off camber rooty traverse of the hill as mentioned by Aaron was my nemesis. If I do it again and its a very big if, it will involve lots of practice at riding quicker on twisty rooty off camber single track. I became really aware that all I was on lap 2 was a barely moving traffic obstacle for everyone else :oops:

Need to work on a combination of low gears and fitness and mental focus to do the climbs and still have enough in reserve for technical descents.

Strangely though I preferred 10UTB to GT7 but I was a wee bit fitter then :roll:

Hero's of the event for me was some bloke on a very retro Trek carbon bonded rigid bike and another casually calm single speeder on a Spesh Hardrock FS that he'd replaced sus with rigid fork, he seemed unstoppable on climbs :shock:

If I dont get fit and I'm free I reckon I might join DaveDH and volunteer as Marshal for next year ;)
 
zigzag":36m4g3ru said:
Apart from the reverse part of Soor Plooms after Tunnel of Love, there aren't a lot of overtaking opportunities, so you're as fast as the person in front. The Bombhole and Tunnel of Love aren't sketchy at all.


In the dry at least, would have been a different story in the wet. There's an 4 shot amazing crash sequence in the untagged photo's of a guy going OTB right the way down the bombhole.

Have to agree about the overtaking. Because I'm so slow uphill, spent a lot of time moving over to let fast riders past, but because I can ride downhill pretty well was getting held up by people at my fitness level but who aren't confident going down. Last lap was catching a lot of xc boys through Tunnel of Love/Zoom or Bust section.

Forget training for next year, I just need to get a decent plan together now. Was struggling by start of third lap, never mind the end.

Have to say, performance of weekend was Shona running that in 1hr 30. Would have taken me longer than that to get top.
 
zigzag":1u54gz9r said:
Jim was so knackered on his last lap he looked angry when he came in!

Yeah, red faced, felt like I literally cooked on some of the climbs!


zigzag":1u54gz9r said:
If I do it again, need to properly train for the climbs.

How's about ya learn to ride a bike properly first! :LOL: ;)
Less crashin' would save you time too ;)

I'd love to know who the photographers were and if/where the photos they took can be found . One chap got a pic of me just as I laboured over a large boulder on one of the optional "harder" short cuts.... I must have been pulling my best gurning face at the time :LOL: he gave me a "nice!", still not sure if he was being sarcastic or not :? :D
 
Re:

If there are any photos of me it'll be a miracle. Most of the photographers I seen were day dreaming or checking the image of the last rider. Mind you if they were into photos of "still life" then the trees and vistas were better than me :LOL:
 
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