Epic fail

That's what I've been hearing. I should have been there riding the 24hr as a mixed pair with my other half but I'm at home nursing a broken collar bone instead. She went down to compete anyway as her parents live around the corner but she didn't enjoy it and has been telling me about the number of injuries and loads of people walking the technical sections. She's ridden the last three years either solo or with me so she's pretty pissed off at the change in the course.
Bad luck with the chainring. Did you really ride fully rigid?

Well, I was for the 2 hours up until the chainring fail. I did last year's course rigid and the only problem I encountered was on the fast rooty descent into the hairpin at the Cottage Return section, my gloves weren't padded around the bit between your thumb and forefinger so after a few laps the skin started to come off. Not a nice feeling I must admit. I spotted 2 other guys running rigid SS, one on a gorgeous Niner and the other on an equally gorgeous Singular.

I'm hoping the organisers get some feedback from the riders and change it back to something along the lines of last years course. The chaps I was camping with were running a 4-man team, all geared and full-sus and were running second until one of them got injured and even those guys were saying how difficult it was.

Also, climbing just under a quarter of Mt. Ventoux every lap, off-road, is never going to be easy.