Oktoberfest 2014 Report

BY: Michael Wilkens

Published: 16th October, 2014

And that was the 2014 HALO Oktoberfest powered by Heritage Volkswagen. Another great racing weekend mixed in with some lovely October sun, a short autumn shower, lots of German beer and a bit of German baking tradition as a medal.

More than 1000 riders made it to the unofficial season finale on the edge of Bristol to battle out the fastest solo, pair or team on the 10km single track course. The 8 hour and the two 4 hour events saw another sell out and set the framework for a great racing weekend.
 HALO Oktoberfest powered by Heritage Volkswagen  The weather forecast for the week as well as for the weekend was a little bit unsettling but luckily the days leading up as well as the vast majority of Saturday was spoiled with lovely autumn sun.

Friday night saw the Oktoberfest night roller racing sprint. Some rather unorthodox sprinting techniques were demonstrated as well as some rather impressive times…it was a great start to the racing weekend!

The following day was all about the 8 and 4 hour endurance mountain biking. The first few hours saw almost perfect trail conditions but a short lunchtime shower mixed things up a bit and added a new level of challenge to the course. This made for some interesting racing but equally showed the all weather nature of the much loved Ashton Court course.

In usual fashion the last ten minutes got super lively in the arena with teams and solo riders trying to make the last lap count.

Following the racing action and the rather Bavarian prize presentation was the Oktoberfest finishing party which was embraced but the biggest number of ‘partiers’ we have ever had and made for a great finish to the day and to our season.   The results are on the www.bike-fest.com website and our event photographer Rob Barker has uploaded more than 2000 images to his website www.robbarkerimages.com.

We also had our video crew out on the course to capture the event on film (or rather on card actually). Here is their edit:

 The Bristol Bikefest and the Oktoberfest will be back in 2015. Our provisional dates are: RITCHEY Bikefest – 13rd June 2015 HALO Oktoberfest – 10th October 2015  Please keep your eyes on our event website www.bike-fest.com for updates. 

And finally a big thanks to our supporters HALO Wheels and Heritage Volkswagen but above all to the people who came to the event this year and made it another season to remember. Hope to see you all in 2015!

Click any of the images below for a larger view / slideshow