Gorrick Autumn Classic 2

Ian and his retro Kona!

It had to happen eventually – the sun shone and it was a beautiful crisp morning for Gorrick’s 20^th anniversary bash. Gorrick have been the staple diet of budding and experienced cross country racers since November 1992. In that time we have almost started to take for granted the efficient, organisation and superb courses. Gorrick have become the standard by which other events are judged. It is at these alternative races when your entry has been lost; you discover your timing chip didn’t work; or you got lost because there wasn’t enough course marking tape, that you appreciate what a slick operation Gorrick is.

After a quick count back this was coincidently my 50^th Gorrick race! (I was amazed by that stat!!) Ian must have cleared 100 because he was there at the inception and therefore got a special guest invite into the retro race. Retro bikes and kit were essential.

The course for Gorrick’s birthday was a flat, big ring blast with all the usual Gorrick twists and turns. In fact squeezing past with so many riders on track proved extremely difficult. 



In the Masters I fought hard to hang onto Gary as he lead the race away. I finally lost sight of him at the end of the first lap, rolling in two places behind him in 7^th. Alex was returning to racing after the summer break, and chased us home in 22nd.



Ian’s retro race clashed with the Grand Vets start so he showed the “youngsters” how to do it in Super Vets, finishing 11th. Including the warm-up and retro race that was 7 laps completed - great effort! He raced to 9^th in the retro race, his lap times only a minute slower on his fully rigid, old school Kona.                   



Will was up against the junior national champ Sam Stean in the Sport race, who cruised to victory. Will just missed the podium in 4th. 

Complete results:

Will Taylor                    4^th         Sport

Gary Brind                    5^th         Masters
Ben Connor                  7^th         Masters
Alex Taylor                   22^nd        Masters
Ian Petherbridge           9^th         20^th Anniversary Race
Ian Petherbridge          11^th        Super Vets
Ollie Fenton                 39^th        Open

Will

Gary

Ben



Alex

Ollie

Please let me know if I missed you on the day!



SuperTour 2012 - Oregon's Cascade Mountains

This summer I signed up for a 2 week road trip in Southern Oregon a loop starting and finishing in Ashland covering 1000 miles with around 70,000' of climbing and sunshine everyday.

Good roads, hardly any traffic, a little bit of dirt track and plenty of climbing is always a good recipe for a great time. For me the stand out days were day 3 Klamath Falls to Diamond Lake which included riding around Crater Lake(above) and day 7 Bend to Belknap Springs via McKenzie Pass(below).

The whole experience was brilliant, great food served up by cooks and plenty of local ale. On the rest day in Bend we saw the time trial for the Cascade Classic in the morning and a criterium in the evening.
If you don't like camping, you may find it a little uncomfortable but at most camp sites there were cabins you could hire.

Next year North Eastern California, probably starting from Lake Tahoe.