Race reports from the Sunday 14th March 2004 by Crankslave (aka James Hill if you want to check the results at www.timelaps.co.uk) and Pearl (Phil Earl) at the bottom.
Crowthorne by Crankslave
Its always nice to wake up to the sound of rain hitting the bedroom window, knowing that its probably the same rain that was hitting the front room window when I was finishing my last beer the night before and thinking, as its just gone two in the morning and I have sort of committed to a race in 12 hours I’d better get some sleep.
So after the usual pre race preparation of a couple jugs of coffee, Ready Break and some toast I was ready to leave half an hour later than planned and meet up with co-racers Henry and Emma, who had apparently been sitting in the car getting impatient for a while. It was Emma’s first race, so there was probably a bit of anxiety setting in; anyway we made it in time, just.
Emma decided to cut her teeth in the Novice Women’s cat race, two laps over an increasingly soggy woodland course. The Novice men and women were set off together, and as always it was lead off at a stunning pace by a number of not so novice looking men, but Emma was still in the thick of riders going into the first turn. After about half an hour of standing in lashing rain, Emma came round in first place looking pretty clean and smooth with the following ladies a fair way behind. After that Emma stayed comfortably ahead to win the race by 8 minutes, which isn’t too bad. So a move to Sport cat for next time maybe?
So on to the afternoon show down between myself and Henry, after getting soaked watching Emma and getting changed into race kit, I was quite glad to get on the bike to warm up. Incidentally, whilst getting changed I got chatting to the guys parked next door who had also seen sense and decided to ride one gear bikes. Both very nice chaps, one of whom managed to win the days sport race so well done him.
The first lap was the usual jostling, with a lot of people proving they hadn’t ever ridden wet roots or steep climbs before and needless to say there were the usual, elbows out, cucumber up the arse, stiff backed grumpy sods fighting hard for a position in the last third. I think the other fellas on the single speeds got a better start and managed to stay out of the usual carnage and get the power down at the front. I however was comfortable in my last-ish position and was glad there wasn’t anything on my bike other the brakes (which died on lap 2) to get chewed up in the increasingly muddy conditions.
The next two laps weren’t too bad, as the field was nicely broken up I could make my way past people in a nice steady fashion, until the running bits up the muddy slopes where they all ran past as I walked, (oh well, I’d just have to get them next time). During laps two and three, I was usually just close enough to Henry in places to call him a Gay Boy or be generally abusive, then it would get to the running bits again and he would run off, pah. At least by now all the whining fools where behind me and I could enjoy a few laps on a nice course without too many hassles.
Over the Fourth lap I was beginning to struggle on some of the stabby climbs, I even caught my self telling me I was a ‘tough guy’ and ‘that I should hang in there’ – out loud, oh dear. Henry slowed up a bit due to chain suck banning the use of the middle ring for much of the race, which allowed me to get past. After which, I stupidly rode over a stump without my feet on the pedals (I have no idea how or why) causing me to land on the saddle and worry for the rest of the race that I’d broken my bottom. After all that I was lapped by most of the Experts which was impressive, had a chat with a couple of people and got thoroughly annoyed by ‘What I go to school for’ by Busted playing in my head.
Over all, it was a fun but hard race won by a singlespeeder, who was friendly, I got some exercise, Henry needs a new drive train (as do a lot more I expect), Emma is victorious and will have to return to defend her position on the 4th of April, and my bottom isn’t broken. Just hope the next one is in glorious spring sunshine on fast dry trails.
“Baldrick, do you have any idea what the concept of irony is?” by PEarl
This would probably have been on the minds of most of the competitors in Sunday’s round 3 of the Gorrick spring series. After a chilly but dry round 2, everyone was probably hoping for a warmer day (it was sunny and warm this time last year); well, it was warmer, although with a gale blowing rain horizontally across the course, which deteriorated noticeably with every lap. For the lucky morning riders (as in me) the rain held off till 11 o’clock, giving us the best course conditions and least mud on the track leaving the race.
An unusually large 22 man field lined up for the super master race, which started late as the commisairs tried to move the mass (10) of spectators back. I wasn’t feeling too optimistic about my chances, having slept very poorly the previous night. Sure enough, I slipped gracefully towards the back of the field as the first short climb appeared. Deciding that the game was up I carried on, managing ¾ of a lap before being caught by the leading master category riders. I tagged along with them for a while surprised at how slowly they rode the single track, before being shot out the back on a fire road climb. The wind was now blowing very strongly, to the extent that I was being physically pushed up one of the drags.
I was looking forward to lap 3, as I usually start to feel better after an hour. However it was not to be and I felt worse. To amuse myself I decided to look for the most humorous crash as this seemed to be the fashion. One vet dived over the handlebars on a seemingly innocuous tyre track, while another managed to crash three times in the same technical section. The best one had to be one of the leading veterans, who managed to ride into my back wheel and fall off even though I was stationary at the edge of the track to let him pass; afterwards I realised he was the same plank who had knocked me off on the same course 12 months ago! Ha ha, happy landings loser!
Unfortunately, as irony goes, one momentary lapse of concentration later and I rode into a tree stump, landing heavily on a soft piece of bracken in between two huge logs. So much for conquering Crowthorne, which always sees me hit the dirt on at least one occasion.
The end result was 16th place in a time of 1hr 48 mins for the 4 laps (22 starters). Jason Emery (Pedalon.co.uk) won the race twenty minutes ahead of me. The afternoon mens expert race was won by Graham Warby (Aston Hill MTBC) who managed his 5 laps in 1 hr 55 mins. The womens race was won by Nicky Hughes (Team Walton) 1 hr 40 mins for 3 laps. Incidentally, the weather was a lot worse (as in really cr*p!) in the afternoon; in comparison, my time would have been 8th fastest in the 4 lap sport category.
By the way, Baldricks answer was “yeah, sort of like Goldie or Bronzie, only made of iron¦¦¦¦!”
PEarl
