Wicklow MTB Festival

prunudo

I see they are planning a festival of mountain biking on the May holiday weekend in Ballinastoe. Rather than having a round of Gravity Enduro it appears they've decided to make it a weekend event with different disciplines of racing on each day, Enduro, XC and Downhill.

https://wicklowmtbfestival.ie/

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02zQXLmsXWsQ7MDR5KWt23ov3zQBZHAUGNppUdBJ23w2Ve9uNyhyu4M5CfKgNTPHvKl&id=61553588939137&sfnsn=mo

prunudo

..

Wailin

It's a good concept imo. It might create a good atmosphere that has been lacking at the gravity enduros. But ravens as a DH trail?! 7 stages grassroots style sounds like a tough day in the saddle too!

prunudo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121372472#Comment_121372472

Yeah, will be tough going, 30km x 2 🥵, although appears the cut off is 7 hours, so plenty of time.

sparrowcar

Great idea, bring the community together under one banner as such.

CramCycle

Love it, fantastic idea

Tenzor07

I'm sure it will be a commercial success for the company running it...

I see that biking.ie are running the biking blitz in Ballinastoe on the 4th of Feb, and then running round 1 of the "XC Nps" a few months later .. So it I guess it will be like 2 rounds of the Blitz...

prunudo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121374483#Comment_121374483

I'm sure it will be a commercial success for the company running it...

So cynical 😂

Wonder will they introduce any new natural elements or will it literally be all the current trail centre stuff.

PJ_RS1800

From the website on the NPS round:

"There will be lots of natural hand built sections alongside forest road and trail centre sections. Course preview coming soon."

Tenzor07

Will probably re-open some of the blocked off old sections on the left as you enter the forest and use the lower trail centre stuff I'd say...

Also wonder if that will mean they are effectively closing the trail centre for the day to all users who may not have any interest in the races...

Ceepo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121373327#Comment_121373327

Woah wait, what's this 30k business

prunudo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121389485#Comment_121389485

https://wicklowmtbfestival.ie/enduro/

The Course

The course is approximately 30km long with 7 downhill timed stages. You can ride the stages in any order, any number of times within the notified time limit, estimated to be 7 hours. The liaison between stages is not timed so you can ride at your leisure and catch up with your pals. The stages are technical and steep. Please note this event is not suitable for beginners. Your fastest times on each of the stages are added together to form your overall time.

Ceepo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121389547#Comment_121389547

7 stages over 30k.

Think I'll only do 2 runs on each so. Don't want to make a long day out of it 😂

Totally unrelated. I better up my fitness levels 🤔😂

Am I right in thinking that you ride an ebike. What's your range normally, I appreciate it will vary a lot. Would you be comfortable doing that 30k?

prunudo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121390974#Comment_121390974

Have both, anyone who says e-bike doesn't effect fitness is either lying or doing gym, turbo or normal bike training aswell.

I would say, given my current fitness (or lack of) I'm getting max 50km and 1600m of climbing with e-bike in trail mode and eco for all but the steepest of transitions. Thats with a shimano motor and 700w (i think) battery.

I'm surprised he's going for a mash up format with so many stages. Anything more than 30km of enduro stages on a normal bike is pushing the majority of peoples fitness I would imagine

Ceepo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121391004#Comment_121391004

I've actually both myself and totally agree with you on the fitness thing. Although I nearly convinced myself differently, that was until I went back on the normal bike again.

I've the ilolder Specialized Levo 500wh battery, and theresnot a hope I'd get that type of distance on it. I'd say 30k max and that's if I baby it around. Of course conditions play a part.

Don't really use the ebike much anymore really. Prefer the suffering of the normal bike.. Kinda😂

prunudo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121391185#Comment_121391185

I should add, that 50km would be really nursing and watching the cadence and range. Would have included sections on the road too. If the weather improves this side of Christmas I'll have to try another test. Lately I haven't cared about range too much, just been a case of getting out and making the most of a weather window.

Plastik

As a matter of interest, are ye saying that the ebike positively or negatively impacts fitness?!

prunudo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121428634#Comment_121428634

It negatively effects cardio, but probably improves upper body and trail fitness as you're getting more trails in the same amount of times imo.

Tenzor07

I've heard of some eBikers who after a spin get together to see who has the highest % of battery left, whoever has the highest % left wins! :-D

Gerry

This lines up with what I reckoned about ebikes...

I think theres a few categories of ebikers

People who just will not be able to have or gain huge cardio fitness and really need the help otherwise mtb is going to be utterly pointless, painful, short etc. I get it.

People who just aren't bothered with the fitness side and get their cardio fitness in other ways, if they want to - fair enough. I guess they will have/build a certain amount/type of fitness from doing a lot of descents.

People who are reasonably fit, and ebikes give them a longer spin, more downhills/quick uplift, in the same time.

The last category is interesting, as a lot of people there claim that they are still putting in the same effort and getting the same training from it, but I suspect this is not true for most people, and what you guys have said appears to back that up.

That its quite possible to put in a bit less effort than you would on a normal bike, but do quite a lot more km. Probably more than anything, its being able to avoid digging deep so often on a spin?

Am I wrong?

Max Q

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121575637#Comment_121575637

Yeah I'd say you're right on your last point about digging deep. My experience is that you definitely won't get the same workout on an e-bike unless you're only using the lowest level of assistance and are intentionally pushing yourself hard. The big advantage for me is the quick uplift getting up to the start of trails quickly or getting another run in. I've also stopped bringing my car up to the trail head as I can get there almost as quick on the e-bike. So for me it's the time saving that's the big advantage. I can get up and down for a full loop of the trails in under 1:30. It would probably be double that on an acoustic bike. While the cardio workout is less, I think the upper body gets hit harder on the e-bike due to the weight and the higher braking forces and cornering moving a much heavier bike around on the trails. You're still getting some level of a cardio workout also.

mad turnip

Was up in Ballinastoe today and did 6 full runs of the harder tracks. Ravens, Junkers, Peaty, Pig Dog, Glitch and the extended version of expressway from the top of the mountain. That added up to 31km and 1200m climbing. So two runs is going to come in somewhere near 2000m climbing.

That its quite possible to put in a bit less effort than you would on a normal bike, but do quite a lot more km. Probably more than anything, its being able to avoid digging deep so often on a spin?

Yeah this is very true for me anyway. Probably one of the better aspects of the ebike. On a regular mtb I would finish a big day on the bike absolutely wrecked. And once your home you just can't stop eating and shoveling the calories back into you.

I certainly prefer a regular mtb over the ebike, but overall at the years end I will have spent more time mountain biking on the ebike and if that comes at the cost of a bit of fitness thats ok. I do some other activites to keep fit but I'm certainly not as mtb fit as I was when I was pedaling analogue bikes all weekend long.

prunudo

Did anyone take part in any element of the Festival? Haven't heard much about, except seeing their own stuff online.

Wailin

Took part in the enduro and a lot of club members took part in the xc race. I really enjoyed the day, 7 stages was tough but interesting. All coilte stuff of course, no natural trails, but i knew that going in to it. Good atmosphere about the place. Turned up to watch the XC race on the sunday and it was a huge success. The course looked very good with some tough technical bits and climbs. I didn't hear too much on the DH race on the Monday but I believe it had a decent turnout too. I'll definitely do it again next year and most likely enter both the enduro and the DH. There was a nice buzz about the place and the free wicklow wolf beer went down a treat after racing. They had bands playing then for the evening.

Ceepo

Sounds like a good weekend, (except the Coiltte only bit).

Great to see it supported.

I believe the cat winners got an entry to the Gravity in Clonmel (or were supposed to anyway).

Wailin

I never heard that but if true fair play to the organiser. I came 5th in my category (super vets) and a fellow club member won it but i don't recall him saying anything about the free entry.

Yeah, all coilte trails was a bit of a downer and with 7 stages, the pedally ones did take their toll. Stage 5 was Holts and that was my 6th stage and completely gassed me out, it's just pedal pedal pedal for nearly 5 min. Probably should have done that first in hindsight. Still, i enjoyed the event and took for what it was. Weather was decent too for the weekend which helped

Ceepo

Actually my bad. They gave them out to cat winners in Hush,

Not to disappointed to miss the trail centre stuff really. Clonmel will be totally different. Some great stages there. I believe one is 2k in length.

If you're planning on taking a trip down it will be well worth it.

Wailin

I was at the clonmel trails a few weeks back and stayed around the Canon Hill side. I was told to stay away from the Carey's castle side as a lot of those trails were destroyed by scramblers, is that true? Is the grassroots going to just use the Canon Hill trails this time around?

Ceepo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122140938#Comment_122140938

Oh really, were you. Good stuff. There's probably an element of truth that that. There is a new trail over on Russellstown side that linked into Cannonball run, full trail is called Da long Wan, it's only open since Xmas, and the mx bikes did cause damage on it, also Coiltte done cleaning on the road which meant there swa a small bit were they met blocked up, but it's open again now. I rode it last week and it's fine. Coiltte are also after clear felling a section of another trail called Full Trottle, this section is not back up and running yet as there were still hauling timer out of it until last week. I'm led to believe that the gravity will be on both sides of the hill and will include the Da long Wan, probably "2 cats" on that side of the hill. There's another new trail only just open on Cannon hill as well called "Flow job".

From what I know, which may be a lot or very little the Grassroots might be on Cannon hill this year with a mixture of trails. 😉