Are you Chicken?
The car temperature gauge read a chilly 3 degrees as I rolled up for the first Gorrick Autumn Classic. I set off for the warm-up lap wrapped up like it was winter. As usual for Gorrick there was lots of rooty singletrack, dry and dusty after the recent warm, sunny weather. There were a couple of steep little climbs and a bomb hole…
I stopped and looked into the bomb hole. The entrance was loose and almost vertical. I couldn’t even see the bottom and the other side looked like a ski jump. I decided to take the longer chicken run.
The sun was starting to warm the fingers as the race got underway. The front three soon disappeared but I grabbed the back wheel of the second group as we picked our way through the Super Vets on the first lap.
I realised that the rider in front looked familiar. It was a guy called Matt who had just piped me to the win at my last race. Battled resumed!!
I’d jumped ahead of Matt as we approached the bomb hole- two conflicting thoughts raged in my brain – “He who dares wins,” but, “Discretion is the better part of valour”. I’d lost my chance to beat Matt at the last race when I ended up laying on my back in the dirt, so I dived down the safety of the chicken run. As we streamed out of the singletrack on the other side Matt was about 10-15 meters ahead. Over the rest of the lap I pulled him back and passed him again on the same hill just before the dreaded bomb hole. Same dilemma but this time I had a slightly bigger lead on him. However, as I came out of the Chicken run he swept pass my front wheel and took the hard earned place back.
I passed him on the next hill but on every technical section I could hear the tell tale sound of chain slap and squealing disc brakes that let me know he wasn’t far behind.
Final lap and the course was so full on I still had a full water bottle; there was no time for drinking. We approached the bomb hole a final time and I glanced over my shoulder. There he was just 2 or 3 meters back, did I let him through and hope I could chase him down again? No way!
My stomach went weightless as I tried to get my weight as far back as possible. Tyres just skimming the surface as we plummeted. Then the G force as the bike reached the bottom and swept me up over the other side. I’d survived!
From then on, I pushed hard and managed to maintain a small gap, actually passing another rider just before the line to finish 6th.
A few other South Downs representatives today. Well done Fay for winning the ladies masters and Ian 6th in Grand Vets. Although I missed them Damien and Mark were also out representing the club.
Ben
Thanks for the report Ben, hope to see you at BM1
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