Topic Title

Had my bike (hardtail) 3 weeks now and my first attempt last thursday, 3 painful hours....God alone knows how you all do it that fast

To keep this thread running - I did 2 hours and 20 minutes today - thats an improvement of 9 minutes over my last effort.

To keep this thread running - I did 2 hours and 20 minutes today - thats an improvement of 9 minutes over my last effort.

Ive completed it all in sections but not in one go yet dread to think what my time would be at a guess 5hours!! Will keep practising though! My husband has said I am getting better!!

OK guys, I'm immensely impressed by the times stated. But, just one or two questions.

1. When and where do you start?
2. Do you do the full red route?
3. The new red route or the old one?
4. Do you start at the gate near purple mountain and finish down at the bottom again?
5. Do you do all the gates in numbered sequential order?
6. Do you cut any bits out?

If you do the full route from car park to car park in that time then I immensely impressed and would like to know:

How the hell do you do it sub two hours? I've only just managed to dip under three hours for the full route.

How many efforts has it taken to get to those times?

Finally - how does the Castle Howard route you do compare - presume much easier?

Fatsprinter - getting the mtb bug.

To answer your questions, Mr Fatsprinter, the route starts at Low Dalby and you follow each section in sequential order (1 onwards) and finish at Low Dalby.
By the time you finish you should have clocked up between 21.5 and 22.5 miles - my gps registers a slighty different mileage each time for what reason I do not know ( maybe something to do with tree coverage in different seasons).
Do not take any short cuts and follow the route as per the maps available in the visitors centre.
As a rule of thumb, if I can make it from Low Dalby to Dixons Hollow in less than 40 minutes and then from dixons to crosscliffe in less than a further 18 minutes , then I know a sub 2 1/2 hour time is on.
The route has more of an uphill profile from the start to crosscliffe - and is reasonable flat from crosscliffe to Hawdale Rigg - this is where you have to keep the speed up. The last 8 miles or so from Hawdale to Low Dalby are pretty the same up and down and I think this is the most challenging bit as the energy levels are low but you still need to concentrate and push real hard.
I have heard of some pretty fast times and I know Simon W (of cliftoncc) does an amazing time in the wet and dark! No doubt Steph F is close or better than a 2hrs lap and I hope to hit 2hrs 10 mins later this year.

Keep trying and enjoy!!

Simon W was doing amazing times - his fitness has dipped guys - now is the time to paste him!!!

Yo-ho-ho..............

I'm going to have to try this.. Allan - I'm thinking it is going to be more like 3 hours than 2!

Have you all been on magic mushroooooms ? Do they make you go fast or make it difficult to read the gps when you have finished ?

Red route caned today and I still don't know how you do it. My average heart rate was 159 and max of 182 with 22 mins over 167bpm, so I was trying. First third felt good and second flowed well but wasted for the last part. Seemed to gate to gate 30 quickly and then it dragged. Clocked 22.5 miles on my polar and did it in 2hr 48 min. Felt really beat up part way round on my giant XTC2.5. Although the Panaracer Trailrakers felt good, grippy but faster than the nevegals I had on, even in 1.95 version (would have liked the 2.1 but they were only a tenner each from cycle republic). Maybe I need to lose a few psi. I take my hat off to anyone who does it in 2hours. Apparantly Col Hawxby has done it in 2hour 20mins fully rigid (his bike). I can see the advantage of dual suss. Dalby seems really rocky. I think it may take me a while to learn the red route and a while longer before I get bored with it. Excellent ride even in the wind and the rain today.

So I took some advice Magic mushrooms for lunch and went to Dalby to try and get a fast lap and my time was
2.05.26 from first post to the end of the steps !

A full suss is no quicker at Dalby. I have done it on a full suss in 1hr 50 and on a hardtail including most of the world cup circuit in 1hr 54. With 2 equallhy matched riders working together you could hammer the red route in under 1hr45. I usually clock 22.5 miles on my garmin from the start at the purple mountain to the bottom of the steps at the end. I have been racing xc all year though!

Had my first try today and my body is still hating me for it!

Found the 1st third really quite hard to keep a high enough average speed, and it wasn't until the 2nd third until I manage to get an average speed that would give me a fighting chance at a 2 hr time. loved the 2nd third but the last one almost broke me!

I'm sorry if this sounds pathetic but some entire sections (last 3rd) are so rocky its almost impossible to ride at the required speed. I'm not sure why but I simply couldn't put power down before the back-end bounced and I was kicked out of the saddle (tyres at 35ish psi). This went on for an entire 35 minutes! I had to bring the speed way down just to be able to sit! Frustrating to say the least I think I need to practice on the rough stuff...

Anyway my time was 2:04:41. 5 minutes... grrrrr.....

Dedicated to nickb:

http://www.pinkbike.com/video/92695/

I think Mikael and I did the Red in around two hours once. I thought he was caning it and I didn't want to slow him down and spoil his ride so I upped my pace to match. Turned out he was thinking the same thing about me! Boy did I sleep well that night. Have never been able to repeat it though. In fact the last time I did Dalby before we moved to the Lakes I did it in my WORST ever time.