taking short cuts or riding a mtb bike in the race !

[trilathon]

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=lU82fF29gGA&vq=medium

at 5:55 into the clip... looks blatantly like a mtb with 26" wheels to me that rider 171 is astride

I also noticed that more and more competitors seem to think its fine not to follow the marked route but take line of sight short cuts, as if it's a fell race....surely this is wrong and cheating ?

or do the rules not matter ? cos i'd like to swap to my time trial bike for the road sections if thats the case.

[neil²]

rigid forks, cantis, narrow wheels that look like 700c to me. I doubt there are any 29ers that look like that!

[trilathon]

really ?

look at the short top tube ,,, how upright the rider is compared to any other

huge headstock on it

massive clearence between front wheel and down tube....

if that's a cx bike, I'll have no trouble with my time trial bike for the road sections

[Lowly Swale]

Apart from a few places there is no course marking. You just follow the best route you can find between the checkpoints, mostly this is the main path but there are places where there is a faster line and it is uncompetitive not to follow it. Why bust a gut climbing the hills and then not take the fastest route down? Legality? Errosion? Jeopardy to the race permission?
It would be good to get clarification on this, is there a rule? Could one be applied?

[yoda]

I know of one such short cut, just as you come through the gate after the viaduct on Whernside, turn left and ride the top of the banking then drop down the steep bit at the end, worth 5-10 places! it's where the leaders go, otherwise you'd be carrying and running.

[simon]

The 'short-cut' above is famous (as in I think most the field do it anyway?, I know I have for years - it's before the viaduct?).
I don't actually think there are any 'real' short-cuts, just 'different lines' I remember a couple of years back the leading vets went off course on the top of Ingleborough, whilst thinking they were taking one!
This year, just after the summit of Ingleborough, a lot of us took a line to the right to try to hit the path further down, whilst we were all scrambling down the slope those that had taken the 'traditional' route to the left, went past us.

[trilathon]

I'm aware of that short cut, but as you rightly point out, the course is not marked in that area

where I witnessed the chap taking a short cut was after Rawnsley's Leap

the path is rideable and marked with little flags, it curves round in a broad horse shoe shape below the summit of Ingleborough

the gent in question straighlined it

I'm not going to say whether it were quicker or slower though

[billy no mates]

That bit is definately faster, been doing it for years not really to gain just because it's easier, ask some of the top riders!!

[Dalesman]

The course marking is to make sure that in bad conditions of thick cloud competitors do not get lost. The route used is very easy to follow and this year in the superb conditions the course hardly needed to be marked but we never assume that it will be like this year and on the day before the race our helpers mark Ingleborough. In thick mist on Ingleborough the route off the summit would be very difficult to follow. After the first part of the descent we always have a group of marshals at the turn off the track to Cold Cotes. This group always includes Shirley Woodman aged 81 who has marshaled here every year since 1994 when the descent to Cold Cotes was first used.
JR

[lanterne rouge]

In many parts of the course there have always been alternative lines that could be seen as alternative routes / short cuts. In my first ever 3 Peaks in 1989 on the old descent of Ingleborough (Crina Bottom?) at a point where most riders followed the path I had just been overtaken by John Rawnsley. He struck off to the right, and knowing a good thing when I saw one I followed. It brought us out ahead of a group we were behind.

By chance, the following year we were there together again, and again gained several places.

But the new descent of Ingleborough is miles better in my opinion, and even though I had to abandon at Cold Cotes this year (my first failure to finish in 20 races) I normally find the downhill road section from Cold Cotes to Ingleton a really good opportunity to eat and drink before hitting the seemingly-inevitable head wind to Chapel-le-Dale.