Report for County Times

Southdowns Bikes RT.

Saturday 19th – Sunday 20th June 2010

Mountain Mayhem 2010. Eastnor Castle Deer Park, Ledbury, Herefordshire.


The weekend started early on Friday 18th June, as the advanced party from Team Southdowns Bikes, set off for Mountain Mayhem 2010 to set up the camp for the weekend.

There was an air of excitement for this year’s event, as 5 SDB teams were entered into various categories. During the day on Friday, as the team started arriving, the anticipation grew. Spirits were dampened briefly on Friday evening as the now customary rain began to fall on the camp and England managed only a dull draw at the World Cup, watched by an expectant crowd gathered around a big screen supplied by the organisers.

Saturday dawned grey but most importantly dry as the team set off on their practice lap to familiarise themselves with this year’s course. The early reports were that the course was tougher than last year, damp, but would soon dry and get faster as more riders circulated prior to the start.

By the time the 14:00 start came around, the sun had come out, the course had dried and spirits soared, as 500+ riders gathered for the Le Mans style start where they are subjected to a ½ mile run before mounting their bikes and riding the first 8.4 mile lap.

The race itself took 2 hours to sort itself out, and by the time the third SDB rider James D’Arcy started his first lap, Southdowns Bikes Chantry were leading the Sport mixed category from local Brighton based rivals,  Kinesis Morvelo Race team.

The next twenty two hours were spent defending that lead and, by the time Simon MacNamara started their 28th and last lap at approx 13:15 on Sunday afternoon, Southdowns Bikes held a commanding lead. That was how it finished as Simon crossed the line just after 14:00 on Sunday, approx 32 minutes ahead of 2nd place Morvelo, to rapturous applause from all his team mates and supporters gathered at the finish.

After the elation of the win all that was left after an exhilarating  24 hours racing  was the prize giving and, as Steve Calland, Emma Craddock, James D’Arcy, Roger Smith and Simon MacNamara mounted the winner’s rostrum, the exhaustion was clear to see on all their faces.

After the dust had settled and the full results had been published, the picture emerged as to what else the SDB teams had achieved.

The second mixed team finished a very creditable 13th, after running for ¾ of the race with only 4 riders, due to an early injury to Amanda D’Arcy put paid to her race.

The three men’s sport teams all finished the race, having circulated for the full 24 hours without taking any time out, which in itself is a considerable feat for riders that only ride for pleasure.

A big well done to all riders who took part in this year’s event and plans are already being hatched for next year’s event.


Tim Bishop

Mountain Mayhem 2010

Another Mountain Mayhem has come and gone and this year the Chantry team stepped two places higher on the podium coming in 1st place and completing 28 laps in the Mixed Sport category.
An incredible result, beating two well-supported teams, Kinesis Morvelo and Torq of the Devil.

This year the weather was kind on race days but heavy rain on the Friday left 2 of the early singletrack sections a little claggy, the rest of the course was dry and fast.




The order for the Chantry team was Roger Smith (left), Steve Calland, James D'Arcy, Simon McNamara and Emma Craddock. There is a Le Mans style start and Roger was in the mix in the run and came in to the transition area in the top 20. The next twenty three hours were spent defending that lead and, by the time Simon MacNamara started their 28th and last lap at approx 13:15 on Sunday afternoon, Southdown's Bikes held a commanding lead. That was how it finished as Simon crossed the line just after 14:00 on Sunday, approx. 32 minutes ahead of 2nd place Morvelo, to rapturous applause from all his team mates and supporters gathered at the finish.

In the same category Southdown's Kithurst consisting of Alex Davey, Ian Petherbridge, Andy Goodyer (right), Amanda D'Arcy and Billy Turrell had an outstanding weekend riding 25 laps and came in 13th place.

Some really impressive lap times by the guys after Amanda had a serious fall early into her 2nd lap but in true Mayhem spirit brushed herself down and road the next 7 miles to the pass on the baton.









Southdown's Chanctonbury was made up of Alex Taylor, John Davies and 2 guest riders due to all our unfortunate injuries this season, Alex Davey's brother Brian (left) and a good friend of Amanda and James, Steve Mead stepped up to the plate. They gelled into a good 4 man sport team riding 22 laps and finishing 58th no mean feat in a tough category.






Rich Brown came back for some more punishment bringing his unsuspecting mates to 24hrs of hell. They did great, really put their soul into the event and all finished with some great memories.

Toby Franklin, Ben Belassie, Steve Riglar and Ed Walters formed the North End team and rode some impressive times considering this was their first crack at the event cruising home in 119th place and finishing 19 laps. Excellent effort guys.

The Lunatic Asylum was Rich 's posse including Carl Haslam, Kris Aldridge and Tom Ouvry. They came in 157th riding 17 laps which is pretty impressive as most of these guys had never ridden through the night before. Next year guys???

Top l-r:- Roger Smith and Steve Calland,

Bottom l-r :- James D'Arcy,Simon MacNamara and Emma Craddock



Im sure all the above would like to thank Tim our manager who barely slept and clocked up a fair few miles keeping track of times and tactics and feeding vital info to the team and of course our fallen hero Marc who suffered the most being sidelined for the event and summer from a sport he so loves , all i can say is he will be back !


Thanks to Jayne for all her hard work keeping us well fed all the weekend and to Sharon for all her help and support.

Great support from Karen and Rich Dixon also and a pleasant surprise on the arrival of Martin, Megan and Duncan.

Southern XC Rd 3 – Crow Hill, 13th June

Six team members competed in the 3rd Round at Crow Hill in the New Forest last week. The course was mainly flat, with lots of flowing wood sections, the guys from the Southern Series have done another excellent job on a variation of the Crow Hill course. Despite it's seemingly ‘flat' nature this 4.5 mile course is in fact a wolf in sheep's clothing, offering as it does a classic assortment of fast flowing singletrack, weaving effortlessly through dense woods, with a range of undulating drags that leaving you begging for the finish, it hasn't gained the tag ‘the most gruelling course in the UK' for no reason! It's a real power course that takes no prisoners and requires an unrelenting surge of pedalling at all times!

 



Add to this a hot cloud free day, plus the sapping dusty nature of the course and you had a day of epic battles of which Emma with true grit and determination hammered the last mile to pass local girl Liz Gilmour - Primera within sight of the finish to pick up 3rd place on the podium.

Ian Petheridge our fast Grand Master Vet was having a good ride mixing it at the sharpe end and finished a creditable 5th just a minute off 3rd place.

 In the Male Masters Steve, Roger, Matt and Simon were putting up solid rides in a strong field of 40 riders and came 8th, 12th, 21st and 30th respectively.

Once again in the Sport Male cat Max Filleul led from start to finish to top the podium for the 2nd time this year.

Well done to all the riders as the standard in these races is very high






Video link below where there are some good airtime of them all.


http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/mtb/article/mtb20100615--Video--Southern-XC-Round-3-0

WXCRL QinetiQ Circuit Races

12/6/2010 Life after Goodwood....

There's a great closed circuit series for those of you for whom Goodwood is perhaps a bit well, flat! It's called Barnsfield and it's organised by the Wessex league and is now part of the BCF, unlike in previous years. Barnsfield is on the Edge of Hurn Airport, about 30 minutes past Southampton. What makes it interesting is that unlike Goodwood, this is a military proving ground. The circuit is much narrower, with some short climbs and sharp bends. The organisers have many circuit permutations available to them. I don't think I've ever raced the same route twice. They have regular 3/4/W and 1/2/3 races going at different times, so no handicaps like Goodwood. Definitely worth giving it a try if you like hills and corners in your races...

Result for 12/6/2010 3rd/4th cat race
1. Tim Wildschut, Sotonia CC
2. Justin Radford, Python RT
3. Andrew Boyd, CC Weymouth
4. James Darcy, Southdown Bikes
5. Eamonn Deane, Bournemouth Jubilee Wheelers.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishcyclingphotos/sets/72157624135295597/show/ Photos

http://www.entryweb.co.uk/ entry and race details on Wessex League site

http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/road/article/roa20100614-WXCRL-QinetiQ-Circuit-Races-0
British Cycling report of last Sturday's races

Mountain Mayhem - 19th/20th June

Southdowns Bike CC have entered 5 teams in this 24hr event, 2 mixed teams and 3 Sport Male teams we are short one person to ride in a sport team of 4 males anyone interested let the shop know.

Place has now been filled by Steve Mead.

Set2Rise - Erlestoke,Wilts 29th/30th May 2010

Another Bank Holiday another race and once again undesirable weather!

Andy and I  headed West to try my first 12-hour solo at Set2Rise, an event that I’d heard nothing but good things about from Andy who had rode it last year and one that lived up to its billing.

It didn’t look good when we arrived; forecast was for drizzle and riders were coming back off practice laps covered in mud and the skies were looking ominous, the odd shower acted as suitable forewarning. As usual we were in high spirits, everyone had great memories of last year and much umming and erring energy was going into both kit choices; to gillet or not to gillet, and tyre choices; mud, knobbly or semi-slick. We must have changed our minds three or four times just as everyone else did.

The pace on the first couple of laps started fast but gradually the course succumbed to the now frequent showers and for a few laps I’m sure I went as far sideways as I did forwards. Summer tyres proved to be an optimistic choice, I was running Sagauros and Andy his favoured mix of Mexcals and Barro race.

As darkness fell the course really began to dry out, corners that were tippy-toed around praying the front wheel would hold were now leant into with ever widening grins, turns and corners became swoops and whoops, with the odd wet patch just to keep us on our toes.

This course really was a lot of fun. Well, except for the gargantuan climb that someone put in the middle of the lap just to make sure that the riders really had to work for each and every lap, and into the final singletrack without any doubt in your legs that you’d been trying. Despite this everyone that I passed or who passed me  was having a great time with more than enough great trails to keep us all amused for the whole night and make the climb worthwhile.

The biggest surprise of the race for me was to see Andy's steed on top my car after 7 laps, he was having a very rare off day but encouraged me to carry on and helped me at my last 2 pit stops a true gent. We managed to position 7th and 19th and completed 11 laps and 7 respectively.

All that’s left is to say a special thank you to SPAMBiking and Charge for providing a great course and an event with an excellent atmosphere.

We will definitely be back.

Paddy Blake is riding from London to Paris for the charity Mind

Paddy Blake is riding from London to Paris for the charity Mind in September.  Those of you know Paddy may well  have already made a donation, if not click his name and you will go straight to his Just Giving account. We wish Paddy all the best he is without doubt one of the nicest guys around the local scene and is always available for advice on anything to do with 2 wheels(off and on- road).
We will be looking forward to a report of the ride Paddy.