Welcome to KinesisUK Hell of the West 2013
Spike Sports and Kinesis UK are proud to announce the return of the Hell of the West to Dartmoor National Park in 2013. The 2012 event has already gone down in history as an epic ride, over 80km of tracks, trails, quiet country roads and rock strewn boulder paths to test any rider. It’s not a full on mountain bike ride, if Chuck Norris had been put in charge of creating a cycle sportive then this is what he’d have come up with.
For 2013 we’ve taken everything we test on the guinea pigs in 2012 and reworked it. The route remains fundamentally the same, but the format is changed. For some the full 89km route will be achievable, for others it’s just a distant dream – like Plymouth Argyle making the premiership (or even first division).
Here’s how it works.
Start time – 8am. All riders set off from National Trust’s Parke Estate.
Full ‘Gold’ Route – Riders must reach Princetown by 11am to be able to head out onto the full route.
Semi ‘Silver’ Route – Riders must reach Princetown by 12.30 to be able to continue on the Silver route.
Bronze Route – Riders reaching the Laughter House checkpoint after 12.15 will be directed onto the quick route home.
There is only one entry option and you can decide (or we’ll decide for you) on the day – or even when you hit the checkpoints as to which option you want to take.
Some important information (which we’ll add to so check back)…
Feed Zone – We’ll have a feed station with repairs etc at Princetown and Hexworthy but you’ll need food, drink and spares.
Entry Fee – £25 for the first 100 riders, £30 for the second 100 riders, £35 for the last 100 riders (and on the day). We have only 300 places at this time.
Prizes etc – It’s not a race but we do have an awesome prize raffle (last year’s had £2500 worth of prizes in it). There’s also the KinesisUK special prize draw for cross bike riders only – you can win a Kinesis Pro Six frame and some wheels (Worth £1000)
Venue – Check out the venue page – it’s at Parke Estate, Near Bovey on the edge of Dartmoor.
How to enter – click the link above (or the big arrow) entry is through British Cycling, you don’t need to be a BC member or have a racing licence to ride.
Timing – It is timed but we don’t use chips, we use a simple timing programme that gives you your time against your number. It’s not a race, getting as far as you can by the cut off’s is what’s important. That said we’ll have your time for you following the event. The money we save on expensive timing systems we’ll use to buy you a cup of tea and a piece of cake at the finish.
Marking etc – We used 200 arrows which took us 12 hours to put out last year, we work really hard to make sure no one gets lost and we’ll also make the GPX and Garmin route available for riders too.
Other things we get asked?
How hard is it? – It’s pretty hard, we’re not going to lie to you. Fastest time for the full route was around 5 hours. Slowest time was around 8 hours for someone on the semi route.
How technical is it? – It’s not really very technical on a mountain bike, most people should be able to tackle it no problem assuming they have ridden a bike off road before at some point. On a Cross Bike it’s much more challenging but that’s part of the fun.
What kind of bike? – A Mountain Bike if you want comfort, A Cross Bike if you want speed and also really want to get into the spirit of things. We’d call this a Cyclo-Cross sportive but there’s no point discriminating, plus a mountain bike is probably faster and more comfortable.
Will I be able to finish it? – Yes, in one way or another you can finish it if you ‘use the force’
Is it any good? – Oh yeah, check out the event page from last year here
Look forward to seeing you at the event!
