Congratulations

 
          To Karen and Rich Dixon on the arrival of the newest club member Oliver.

                                 Best Wishes from all at the club.

Dusk 'til Dawn



The plan was to travel up to the 2010 Dusk 2 Dawn with brother Brian but with good family reasons he pulled out, leaving me with a solo drive to a solo event. Final training was a 300 mile road trip the weekend before so I was feeling good about some sort of result for the "southdownsbikes". Checking out the weather before I left confirmed I was going to get a soaking so mud tyres were packed along with all my winter riding gear, two Maxx-Ds, a Diablo with triple piggyback and a joystick. Journey to Norfork went well and soon arrived to a new side of the forest for 2010 including proper toilets, showers and cafe all seemed perfect including a blue sky. On the start line with 1000 other riders the first drops began to fall, its only rain how bad can it be?? First lap was a treat fast, flowing single track with only a few bits of fire road on the 11 mile route. Lap two and now the rain had really kicked in seeing me back to solo tent for waterproof coat and bottle change. Back out for no.3 saw a massive change in the race course as it was quite a challange to trudge round,bomb holes became unrideable and more and more rain, still I felt good and keep on plugging away. Lap four came round and the pits looked a right mess, thrown down bikes and long mud covered faces with the change over area thinning out. By now the rain had taken it's toll and the track was only part ridable, trying to plough on became impossible as chain suck struck every ten rev's in middle and granny ring and after what seemed like a lifetime lap no.4 was over and so was my race. Very disappointed, wet and cold I climbed into my sleeping bag at 0230.Home by 1300 on the Sunday, that was one to forget.

Cheers Alex.

Gorrick Brass Monkeys


                    Entries now open, enter all 3 by Nov 5th to get free event t-shirt.

Shop Ride - 6th October

Been a quiet September, there was a good night ride on the 25th Sept to support Martin at his checkpoint at Kithurst for the Maxx Exposure. After lots of ethusiasm we all decided against riding the event and did a sedate 20 mile ride with a pitstop at Kithurst for a beer and burger. Good night but we didn't hang around for long as we soon got cold, respect to Martin and co for stopping until gone 3am. Next up the October shop ride and then the Bike Show on the weekend.

Any thoughts on Contadors failed drug test, the plot thickens as plastifiers(masking agent) were evident in his sample the day before his positive test.

Also great result for Tracey Mosely gold in the Worlds downhill in Canada, Emma Pooley winning the TT in the Worlds at Melbourne and for Cav winning the points jersey in the Vuelta.