Dales Divide

[Escape Goat]

Hi there.

I couldn't find a thread for this, who's on it then?

[ton]

might have a tour round on the road. york yha, scarborough yha and grinton or hawes yha would be my bivi spots.............

[Escape Goat]

Good man. Anyone else signed up to it?

[In Reverse]

I've got BPW booked that weekend but am really in 2 minds. Hoping to do Italy Divide the week after and DD would be a nice last training effort.

[Escape Goat]

Tough choice for you eh.

[Meg Pugh]

I'm in for this... Probably the shorter route due to work on Monday night - compounded after now I've looked at the (long range) weather forecast on the met office site....

[Escape Goat]

Weather lake last week would be amazing.

[boxelder]

http://trackleaders.com/dalesdivide22f. ... fTD7n7nsX8

Did Escape Goat not escape the pier, or a non-functioning tracker?
Meg going well - midnight mass in the Minster??

[redefined_cycles]

What date is it on Allen please? Did you manage to get Jenn ride booked for time off (rejig the sentence... you know what I mean).

[ton]

over 400km in under 24 hours. amazing really.

[Johnallan]

There's some seriously quick riding going on at the pointy end

[Escape Goat]

Well, I was packed, cut 4kg of useless stuff off my bike, bags were small, it was lighter than ever and after a ride to the lakes, my knee basically stopped working. Going up some stairs hurt so much. I've now found a coach and I have a regime to strengthen my knee once and for all.

In 2017 i rode the NC500 - I completely overtrained and had an average speed to be Belach Na Ba from Inverness of 18,5mph....I smashed up the Bealach to some trance music and then it popped just after Applecross. Never been the same. I wait until it stops hurting, then carry on as normal, then guess what, it goes again. I spend zero time strengthening my tendons, zero time lengthening hamstrings and stretching and due to this, it puts more strain on my patella agitating it and upsetting it royally. There's no reason I shouldn't have strong knees, unless I don't train them.

I seen everyone off in the morning and it was wonderful to see so many people all in the same place for the same thing. Last-minute faffing with electronics and bags was the theme of the morning before Chris, Emily and of course, Pat Hall who all had keywords of wisdom to share with us. It was silent on the pier whilst they were talking.

My tracker wasn't ever turned on, rather expensive to not do it, but I had to let my body make the decision rather than my stubborn mind.

Shaf, my Jennride is going to be delayed by around 12 hours. I have to work, I just couldn't get the time off after asking for 4 or 5 months, so I'm working the Saturday and setting off from Wasdale back to Stavely, then have a bit of a tour / decent ride back to Wasdale via a camp somewhere, maybe doing some of 2019 Jennride or a different route I'm working on.

At least I'll see people at the end. I'll start asking for time off for next year 12 months in advance....

[Bearbonesnorm]

Was there many mountain bikes in attendance Allen? I wonder whether it's now seen as a 'gravel / adventure' type event. Generally if Emily's there, then R@pha won't be far behind

[Escape Goat]

Yep, many gravel bikes...a lot of people on hardtails, but maybe the gravel bike won as far as numbers.

[sean_iow]

Over half the route is on tarmac so it's suited to the 'adventure' bike, but as much as I'd have wanted one on what seemed like the endless miles* of back roads in the Vale of York I'd have missed out on all the fun in the Dales.

Looked like a big turnout from the pictures of the start.

* Obviously made worse as I was riding a singlespeed and flat tarmac is the worst terrain for it.

[whitestone]

There's 100 starters on TrackLeaders, not sure if that's everyone.

26km to go for the leader, possible (just) for him to get under 1 1/2 days but he should be back in Arnside before the pubs stop serving food

[Johnallan]

Angus Young looks to have indeed finished under 36 hours. That's seriously impressive. Under 48 is going some!

[boxelder]

Angus Young looks to have indeed finished under 36 hours. That's seriously impressive. Under 48 is going some!

Let's hope he shut all the gates........
Impressive

[Escape Goat]

Very impressive time indeed.

[boxelder]

Looks like Meg has the women's race (if it is a race) wrapped up pretty much. Great effort.

[whitestone]

Looks like ten riders finished in under two days!

[thenorthwind]

Brilliant Meg
Not sure if she stopped at all?

[boxelder]

Brilliant Meg
Not sure if she stopped at all?

Yeah - looks like around 4-5 hrs kip north of Pocklington, Yorkshire Wolds. Click on a name in the leaderboard and look for the green tent symbol. Just noticed it shows when messages are sent via SPOT too - blue envelope symbol.

[Meg Pugh]

It's a good route, but I think I would have bailed if it had been wet. A bit of bog (nothing compared to HT550/Scotland), but quite a bit of field which would have been too much in the rain/mud.
It was mostly dry and hard under tyre - I did it on a hardtail with 2.1 tyres, with that aesthetic abomination that is aero bars on a mtb (with 6cm risers). That combo was popular and made the downhill sections fast, and the roads a bit better. As said above lots of drop bar bike with similar tyres, Niel Copeland was riding a drop bar bike with front suspension (shocked face).
One guy did it on a Canondale Synapse.
I heard 2nd/3rd fastest finisher was in an aeroish helmet and def more of a roadie bike. He is a time triallist - but this is second hand info, I was not near him! A brief foray back to ultras for me, slept for 4 hours the first night, but then not again. I like sleep too much to do this too often, I loved the weekend @boxelder sorted out. A fast and light tour with good people.

Overall it was a well run event, many thanks to Chris Ellis and his team. He provides free food and water from his farm gate too.
A fascinating event for bike watching, the ability to ride in groups during a race made it a far more social 600km than most ultras.

(and whoever suggested, yes I had a kebab in York with the 'usual' crowd at 11pm on a Friday night... been a while)

[Johnallan]

Beltin' Meg nice one!!