Back from SSEC - decided to bail last night after the prizegiving. The 6 hour drive and my warm bed at the end of it was more appealing than another sleepless night of frozen extremities and loud drunk folk
yeah yeah, MTFU you grumpy old git, etc.
Anyway, weather on the day was fantastic and the course was superb. Dry, dusty and Velo summed it up well afterwards as being similar to Drumlanrig (tight, twisty tree stuff, although not quite as rooty and definitely more hilly) and Glentress (fast sections that flowed really well, although mostly in amongst the trees and a bit more natural) - nothing too technical though. A couple of nasty climbs, one close to the end of the lap and one at the start - not particularly steep, but just unrelenting. A lap was apparently 7.5 miles, with the 'event' being 4 laps. I was all done in after 2, quads were really cramping up bad at the end - Jamie and Velo completed 2 as well. If you are ever down in the area, the Forest of Dean is well worth a ride - the place is huge, and there's all sorts of interestingly looking track leading off into the trees - wish there was something similar up here.
Single speed whackery included the mellifluous tones of a saxophonist sitting at the bottom of the first serious climb, the obligatory beer stop (and flapjacks, om-nom-nom) plus assorted 'motivational' signs dotted around the course. as well as cow-bell/front fork rattling.
Good to meet some more more RB bods (ededwards, grannygrinder and cab) as well as Heather (yay, somebody else that remembers Galaxy Counters). Velo bumped into Messiah on the ride out to the starting line, who after killing a rim on the Friday ride had to bodge his modern into a SS for the big day. Jamie won some nice Lezyne kit for being rider #1. Hugely impressed with the event and the effort that obviously went into it.
