even made it out of one of the bomb holes

Ah, the ropes and spikes from the pitstop helped then!

That was a barmy night, kinda fun in a ” omg, every pedal turn is either giving me chainsuck or destroying my brake pads a little more ” kinda way…

I did our pairs first lap and the course was really nice, by the time of my next lap, well, y’all know that one…

bonkers.

First time on SS 29er – came 5th solo. Very pleased and wasn’t expecting that. I learned a lot of lessons from 2008; you don’t need gears screwing up in the wet, wet tyres are a must, 3am is a low point so have some proper food ready, don’t stop for very long, don’t overdress, waterbottle of energy for food per lap.

Thanks to exposure who got my light working instantly when muck got into the smart port, survived for 1 lap on joystick.

Bike was excellent but ecentric BB was falling to bits just before the start!

It was almost fun but if you can get past 3am you will survive!

so it seems the organisers did me a favor in banning me from taking photos at this years’ event!

was the weather worse than 2008? now that was wet. surprised i didn’t break my camera.

I called it a day after 3 laps in the solo. I finished in 2008, but this time I really couldn’t face another 8+ hour of riding around in the filth, plus my brake pads had gone halfway round the 3rd lap and I knew I didn’t have enough spare pads to actually be able to complete the 12 hours, so would have had to quit at some stage during the night anyway. Very glad I was on the SS, I was using Nobby Nic tyres and found them really good in the conditions.

I think the difference in 2008 was the rain started later in the race, plus that year I seem to remember the trails were very dry at the start. This year as soon as the rain started the trails rapidly turned into a bog.

sounds lovely!

I was wondering what that really loud grinding noise was:

lack of brakes didnt seem to matter a great deal early on sunday morning, the mud seemed to act like the best set high end 6-pot DH brakes ever 😯

I sacked it after 5 hours and a whole 3 laps ! One gear left, no brakes (but wasn’t going fast enough to need them), no rear shifter. Started a 4th lap and then even that gear stopped turning, so it was a zero speed.

Went to sleep for 3 hours then woke up to find out about the total collapse of the already sparse womens field, and I was 2nd. Was leading when I quit, glad I didn’t know that would have had to find another excuse to pull, crash or something !

Ace prizes a nice Joystick light and tons of Torq booty, felt a bit of a fraud on the podium tho I have to say.

[img]

First attempt a photo posting.

Elveden Pit 1 thecrackfox 0

Rename to ‘TheCrackedFox’?

Ouch 🙁

Elveden Pit isn’t even that much fun in the dry from what I recall. Decent fun on the way in, 6 inches of sand on the way out. Last year almost nobody made it out the far side after the first couple of laps (and I never made it out).

I rode Ralphs for all three (ish) laps.

The third lap on my Swift was better than the 2 preceding on my Superlight.

I had to bale out before I finished the third lap as my lights shorted out and I had managed to leave my back up light behind in the tent :/

Thanks to the guy who shadowed me back to HL, hope your back recovered.

Yes well I was too midget sized to even climb out of one of the pits when it got wet – had to ask a bloke for help each time, and that was after er gently deriding some chaps earlier for putting their handbags down in the mud !

There was a girl ahead of me being given a hand out of one of the bombholes – a kind gentleman was lifting her bike out as she scrambled out.

I was hoping he was gonna offer to take my bike too – but he didn’t. 😉

I found overshoes have the massive disadvantage of completely covering any chunky tread on the bottom of your shoes, making scrambling out of bombholes a particularly slippy affair!

Agree with hels, there was a lot of handbags and flouncing off going on in the middle of the night.

that was after er gently deriding some chaps earlier for putting their handbags down in the mud !

You weren’t on a titus were you- girl in front of me at one of the holes gently derided the guys in front struggling to extricate themselves, then proceeded to block the line out herself. Provided me with the ideal excuse for not clearing it.

On my 4th lap I had to stop at the top of a bombhole to help a lady out of the bomhole. She could hardly get herself out nevermind her bike. When she got to the top she sweetly said.

“Thanks for that. I’m completly f*****d”. It made me laugh for most of the rest of the lap.

I did Howies pit in the glupe (Chicken run exit) but only able to do it as some kind bloke shone his light down there for me (My one remaining one was crap) 🙂

Oh btw Hels -respect for doing 3 in THAT

Respect to all that took part on Saturday. This is the second D2D I’ve missed in a row due to family commitments. TBH I was gutted until I was sitting at home (20 mins from venue) and the heavens opened! Then I was rather glad to be inside. I rode the event in 2008 and that was BAD, but by all accounts this was on another level. We’re due a dry one next year, when hopefully I’ll be back.

Which of the Bombholes is ‘Elveden Pit’? I’ve been riding at Thetford pretty much every week for the last 10 years but dont recognise the name. I assume from the comments it’s the one with the rooty drop in about half way round the lap?

slowjo – Member
I rode Ralphs for all three (ish) laps.

The third lap on my Swift was better than the 2 preceding on my Superlight.

I had to bale out before I finished the third lap as my lights shorted out and I had managed to leave my back up light behind in the tent :/

Thanks to the guy who shadowed me back to HL, hope your back recovered.

Did you managed to get your light sorted out? No worries on following you back, was in no state to rush back to the pits. we decided to call it a day after that. well done to everyone who rode it, dont think ill be doing it again after this year.

Last year Elveden Pit was about 2/3rds of the way around the course; basically the second to last bombhole (but the last one in the woods).

No I wasn’t on a Titus (bit overbiked shurely ?) but an Orange EV06 which will now be known as the Zero Speed.

I’ll def be back next year – the first lap was fun ! And better prepped for bad conditions…

S_J – Member

Which of the Bombholes is ‘Elveden Pit’? I’ve been riding at Thetford pretty much every week for the last 10 years but dont recognise the name. I assume from the comments it’s the one with the rooty drop in about half way round the lap?

Elveden Pit was the 1st this year. It was closed after ‘thecrackfox’s’ mishap. I saw him standing at the marshals tent with the classic dropped shoulder 😕 like the x-ray pic

“Elveden Pit” is adjacent to FR8.

cruzer…I had had enough by then. I have dried my lights out and they are on charge now, hopefully I’ll be testing them after lunch.

I think we’d have been better off running the whole thing CX style!

1st lap 55 mins, 2nd 1hr, 3rd 1hr 25mns, 4th 2hrs 5mns, tent/sleeping bag. 4th lap as hard a time pedaling as ive experienced lately. Had to throw sleeping bag and tent due to mud ingress. My Anthem X1 is looking decidedly shagged as well. But RRs rear and NNs front worked quite well! Dont think any tyre would work in those conditions. Well done all who took part, see you next year.

ps hope all who hurt themselves get well soon.

As I went through the timing gantry for my 3rd lap, I heard “There’s no.118, currently in 3rd place in Solo’s”. I thought “blimey, I must be fantastic, going better than I thought etc etc”. Only when I looked at the results did I realise what he actually said was “There’s no.118, currently in 23rd place….”

Oh, how my hopes were dashed (until I dropped out anyway)

Apparently the Cadets had asked for Elveden Pit to be shut, due to the number of prangs. I think it was the rut I hit in the bottom that chucked me off, but I’ll be back and sh1t happens.

cruzer – the lunch time test failed. The battery took the charge ok but I failed to spot that the switch was full of water! I attacked it with my wife’s hair dryer but I think it is due a spell in the airing cupboard now.

IMO the pits should have been closed well before they became that dangerous. If few could ride in and even fewer ride out because of the gloop, it begs the question – why were they kept open? Having said that, I saw so many people fall off apparently at random on fire road and singletrack, you could argue the pits were no worse than anywhere else! 😯 😉

Unfortunately missed it this year, but probably for the best by the sounds of things – anyone got any pics of the carnage?!

Well i suppose it was character building, did lap 2 and lap 5 for our team, the first of which was fun, but the 2nd was grim, some how i seemed to get into a nice flow and tried to give cheery words to anyone who i passed, i think i only had to walk one bit of the lap, and that was certainly faster than trying to ride it, but then the cold set in and i felt like poo.

Big thankyou to all involved, without you it would never happen, and get well soon to all those who took a knock.

My only moan is the cost of parking, the lovely wife came over to watch, and help with the team, now correct me if i am wrong, but £10 to park from 6.30pm until 10.30pm seems a bit steep to me, thats another pair of brake pads……………

An excellent event, shame about the weather…..

The new venue is superb.

Did our first lap, and that was fine, next lap was at 2am, OMG what a difference! My team mates warned me, but I wasn’t expecting that!

Had a great time as usual, roll on next year!

Many thanks to the two riders who on the first lap, at the first pit, pushed past the queue waiting to ride it shouting “fast riders”. 🙄 When they got to the front, they waited for the way out to be clear.. to shouts of “Get on with it” or similar. Then in they went, in line…got to the bottom, where the front rider went over the bars, and his mate ran him over. Sheer class! Mucho cheering!!!

Many thanks to the two riders who on the first lap, at the first pit, pushed past the queue waiting to ride it shouting “fast riders”. When they got to the front, they waited for the way out to be clear.. to shouts of “Get on with it” or similar. Then in they went, in line…got to the bottom, where the front rider went over the bars, and his mate ran him over. Sheer class! Mucho cheering!!!

I think D2D is generally very good for comeradery and people cutting each other a bit of slack, but there were some people taking it all just a bit too seriously on the first lap. I remember getting really irritated when I had to bale half way out of a pit because the bloke in front of me hadn’t made it, and someone a couple of riders back shouted at me to get out of his way. My only other option would have been to run him over. Quite how people can get quite so stressed out over a few seconds at the start of a 12 hour race I have no idea.

Far worse conditions that 2008, guess the ground was already saturated. How can the first lap be ridden in the big ring then the next in the granny ring. Never know a surface deteriorate so fast.

The sereal moment for me was waiting at the gazebo for the handover to do my second lap, shuffling my way in just to get a few minutes of dry and knowing the next few hours were going to hell, i looked up at the sponsers sign above the finish line and what does its say – Marin bikes CALIFORNIA. Kind of rubbed it in for me.

@thecrackfox. You’re break looks very similar to mine which I did back in May. Although I had a 40mm displacement and a plate fitted to re-align the two parts of my clavicle. Had surgery 7 days after accident and still have plate in. Looking like it will be removed in 4 weeks.

I’ve not been on the bike on the road/off road, except the turbo or a spin class at the local sports centre. Only given the all clear to start running again 2 weeks ago, due to the vibrations through the body running on/off-road.

Hope yours gets better quicker than mine. I was told it could be up to 9 months off the bike on the road. 5 months so far.

Well done to all the others who finished. I remember 2008 being bad, but 2010 sound a lot worse. Glad I couldn’t ride it!

Paul

Cheers ‘flatout’, 40mm of displacement, that has got to smart.

Trying to get a fracture clinic appointment sorted ASAP as I’m still out of county.

Talking of collarbones. Bust mine in 4 pieces had it plated and 9 weeks after the op I did the 2009 D2D. Not really the best decision ever but no lasting effects. Perhaps I did enjoy 2010 more in hindsight 🙂

Hope you better soon Crack(ed)Fox

What a race, enjoyed it in an odd muddy way! I’m amazed that all that needs replacing on my bike is brake pads…I was sure that it would be a lot more expensive.

I’m thinking I may have to go back next year as I would love to try riding it in the dry.