Brighton Big Dog - 2015

Everybodies favourite event of the year saw another great turnout of club and team members and another set of respectable results in most cats. Conditions were good, dry and warm with a slight breeze helping to dry the damp sections out on course which was the usual mix of lung bursting climbs, roots, drops and off camber sections that tested the skills of every rider on course.

The male team of Steve Calland, Will Taylor and Darren Rawlins(Strada Wheels) led from start to finish, winning by nearly 4 minutes and Will was just 2 seconds off the fastest lap of the day recorded by the legendary Jody Crawforth.

Harry and Hugo Underhill teamed up with a close friend and as last year stood on the podium in 4th place, great result guys.

Our Ladies Solo Champion from last year Emma Craddock tried valiantly to defend her title but was beaten into second place my arch rival Iwona Szmyd.

Endurance rider Ben Connor managed 10th in a loaded 6hr Male cat with  consistent lap times between 36 and 39 minutes followed home by Peter Wilsdon in 26th and Alex Palmer in 32nd.

John Reay rode an impressive 7 laps in Grand Vets 6hr to come 10th.

A new pairing of Olive O and Andy H  rode the mixed pairs and came a admirable 11th after an unfortunate 1st lap puncture for newbie Andy.

Two other podiums in the Vets team saw Ian Petherbridge and French Dave(Strada Wheels) battle for lead the whole race narrowly missing out finishing 2nd and Andy G and John D coming in 4th with an amazing effort by Andy to get in a 9th lap narrowly failing by 15 - 20 secs.

Riders statements:-

Well that was an awesome day!  Course was fantastic although it felt 90% uphill...

I've no idea who the woman at marshal point 4 was but she just didn't stop shouting encouragement and jumping a foot off the floor:-

Tough as usual, will we be back? Of course, we love the pain...

Big thanks to organisers and marshals - it is a truly unique event because of you...

Bike Park Wales - 29th July

Two car loads ventured to Bike Park Wales in Gethin Woods, Merthyr Tydfil late July to try our hand at some downhill riding. £30 for the uplift ticket meant no climbing today quite a strange feeling and we were hoping to get at least 8 runs in. Showers greeted us in the morning and we found the going a little tough but as the day wore on the sun came out and dried up the trails. No Expert trails for us today but we managed all the Intermediate and Advanced, only a run of tight hairpins forced off the bikes, we probably would have managed them in the dry. We all had a few moments though and had two OTB's but no serious injuries just leaving some skin and blood on the Welsh mountain side. A long but great day, it took  4 days for my upper body to recover from the pounding it took, would I go again, perhaps on a steed with more travel than my 100mm tallboy, many kudos to Ross Phillips who did most of the trails on his hardtail!!

2015 BRITISH CYCLING MTB XC NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS 18TH - 19TH JULY 2015

The National XC MTB champs are the pinnacle of domestic level cross country racing and Southdowns Bikes/Casco had 4  riders competing in this years event at the 2012 Olympic course at Hadleigh Farm all trying to take home the British Champs Jersey.
The course is brutal as it is either climbing hard or descending through technical, rocky sections. You have to concentrate the whole lap as any mistake could result in a dangerous crash, so it was some achievement for all competitors just to complete the race. Even the elite racers were caught out by certain sections with some nasty consequences.
In the non championships events on Day 1 Oli Fenton finished 15th in the sport male cat enjoying the dry dusty conditions.
Day 2 saw all of the championship events take place. Ben Connor finished 17th in the Masters race very happy with his performance especially after having a crash on the same course two years ago. Ian Petherbridge won silver in the 60+ race and to see all the riders in his age group racing such a technical course was amazing.
After a slow start Steve Calland moved up 4 places on the last lap to win Bronze in the 40-45 race finishing 4th in the 40-50 race.
Finally Will Taylor lined up in the U23 race (his first year in the age group) and really pushed hard to finish 5th ahead of some quality riders showing he has a lot more to come in that cat over the next few years.
The event was really well organised and a good sized crowd and sunshine made for a fantastic days racing.

CX Sportive 100

4th July my 25th wedding anniversary, how best to spend it with the wife, well get her to get up at 4am and drive John Reay and myself(John Davies) to Winchester for the 6.30 start of the inaugural CX Century Imperial and Metric.

150 riders signed up; 140 to take on the the full 100 miles, and 10 to ride the kilometre century. Nearly all had chosen to 'do it right'; on a full on CX, drop bars, skinny(ish) tyres, the works.

We had signed up for the 100km which finished on top of Truleigh Hill, JR took his Chas Roberts road bike with a few minor modifications(wide tyres) and I was on my cx specific Trek Crockett 5 Disc

The first few miles were a slow procession but once out of  Winchester the field thinned out and we ended sharing gate opening duties with 2 South Africans, a guy from Luton and Jo Burt who have we have met in events before. The first 20 were not to difficult and the descents smooth especially the 30mph drop down from the highest point of the SDW, Butser Hill to QE Park.

A quick stop to replenish our bottles and food and we were back on the trail with the first loose descent down to Buriton Car Park survived, we cracked on up the singletrack to Harting Down and on to Pen Hill. Photo shows the nasty drop before the short but steep climb up Pen Hill.

We had some nervous descents especially the drop to the A286 at Cocking but we were enjoying the climbs and grassland flats above Heyshott and Graffham which kept or average speed at a respectable 10mph.  Crossing the A285 and up to Bignor then over the A29. Local knowledge left us a little anxious of the next section the infamous dog leg down to the Arun which we descended with extra care and then everyone's favourite climb Amberley Mount which we managed rather slowly.  We were starting to tire now and were grateful of the relatively flat section to the A24 and then the up Chanctonbury, phew another one down just Truleigh to conquer and the finish. We were pretty relieved to finish at Truleigh we both agreed we wouldn't  have made it to Eastbourne. Respect to those 53 who did and the 19 who got to Truleigh, only 72 of the 150 managed to finish. Next year we will try the 100 mile.

Merida Summer Monkeys - Frith Hill 14th June

The course was excellent, given the very last minute change of venue and we had some amazing results. Here is Ben Connors take on the race:-

 After racing for 6 hours 41 minutes, completing 10 circuits of Frith Hill, I could probably ride the lap blindfold. Not that I could even consider contorting my aching limbs back onto a bike for at least a day or two!

The course was an absolute belter, 6 miles of constantly twisting and turning woodland trails. There was no rest bite and it was extremely challenging to find anywhere to take on a drink or a gel.

Off the start I tried to go with the front group, but became detached when the rider ahead of me went over the bars, blocking the path! Leading the chasing pack I took a wrong turn at the end of a fast decent, costing myself (and those silly enough to follow) 20-30 seconds. I crossed the line after 38 minutes in 8th place. Only 6 hours to go!

Apart from passing the backmarkers from the 2 hour race I spent much of the race riding alone. I crept up and slipped past 7th place at the end of lap 4 and moved into 6th on lap 7. The 4 hour leaders caught me later in the day, but despite my lap times dropping to 40 minutes I started re-passing them as the sun came out towards the finish.

I pushed hard to complete my 9th lap before the 6 hour cut-off, and then cruised round the final circuit knowing there was nobody chasing from behind, in the hope that I might gain a position.

It was nice to be racing again after a month off, and catch up with all the regulars. 60 miles of fun off-road riding and a top 10 result is always nice too!

Results:-

Ladies Vets 6hr  - 1st Emma Craddock, Male 6hr - 6th Ben Conner, Male 4hr - 4th Marc Clothier, Ladies 4hr - 4th Olive O,Leary  Male Grand Vets 3hrs - 2nd  James D'Arcy, 8th Ian Petherbridge, 12th Andy Goodyer, 13th John Davies, Male 2hr - 1st Will Taylor, 10th Ollie Fenton, 15th Alex Taylor, 26th Stewart Crooks, Male Vets 2hr - 10th Harry Underhill and Ladies 1hr F

un - 1st Amanda D'Arcy well done to all.

Dorset Gravel Dash 100 - 24th May

A one stage, one day, largely off-road 100 mile dash across the county and back, with stunning scenery, sapping climbs and tricky descents. Andy G,John R and John D were joined by Goring shop mechanic Rich and ex SDBikes manager Conrad.

The ‘race’
Firstly the ‘Dash’ was not a race ... lets make that clear, though it was however ridden as quickly as possible by all that rode it.  97 ish miles in distance , the course covered a lot of bridleway gravel, some road , some trail and the occasional push up some seriously steep climbs. There was a diverse selection of bikes lined up at the start … thin, fat, geared, singlespeed and  John R on his converted road bike.

No marshals, feed stations or directions on this ride so a Garmin and plenty of food were important, before we left we scoffed down a couple of bacon sarnies and a cup of coffee for good measure.

The first climb out of Swanage certainly spread the 70 starters out early and we were soon grouped loosely with 6 or 7  riders, passing each other on either the ups or downs. This continued for most of the ride and we quickly made new friends from as far a field as Cannock Chase and Plymouth. A short stop for lunch at Shillingstone Railway Project  50 miles in was welcome before a wicked climb up  to Hambledon Hill Fort which only George Budd was able to climb followed by some great gravel, railway, river and forest tracks for 20 miles. At the top of the final climb we came across Rich and Conrad , descending a pretty tricky trail into Swanage and back to the Red Lion. Job done and what a great day, time for a beer.

Wiggle Surrey Hills Gravel Cross - 12th April Cranleigh

John Reay and I took part in this relatively new format , promising punishing climbs,twisty singletrack,fireroads and fast back lanes of the Surrey Hills and we were not disappointed at all .

Leaving the Cranleigh showgrounds on my trusty Trek Crossrip and John on his classic Roberts road bike yes road bike ! The 1st hill was a killer and was followed by Strava rated 4 climbs between tracks,fireroads,rooty twisty sections and even a river bed thrown in. A great route created by the guys at Trailbreak under the Wiggle umbrella. I even ended up with a spot prize of a rather nice Lezyne rear light I think for being the 1st finisher in the 50+ CX category.

 

Southern XC Rd1-Black Pk

Some great rides this weekend at Black Park,West Drayton in the first round of Southern XC,

5 members rode with the stand out result being Will Taylor in the Expert Cat coming 3rd with Ollie Fenton 22nd, Ian Petherbridge had another win in the Super Vets Cat, Alex Taylor 25th in the Open Male and Elliot Philpott 11th moving up a division in the Juvenile Male.

Great results guys good luck next week in the Spring Series Rd3 at Porridgepot Hill.

Brass Monkeys - New Year Hangover

This was the 3rd and final round of the Merida Brass Monkeys which took place at Windmill Hill in Deepcut.  A very big thanks to the Gorrick team who organise these events for creating such amazingly fun courses out of the woodlands in this area.

Doing well in the Brass Monkeys winter series requires stamina and speed on the bike, but also a helping hand from lady luck. The bikes take some serious abuse from the rough trails and the onslaught of torrid winter conditions. So a big hand to Ben Connor, Peter Wilsdon and John Reay who finished each round.

Peter was off first in the 2hr Male and probably had the worst of the conditions with Ben out in the 4hr next then the old timers Andy G, John R and John D in the 3hr.

The first lap was a little slippy but after that a racing line appeared and sticking to it was important as any mistake put you in trouble riding through some deep mud. The course deteriorated on a few descents but the ever vigilant Gorrick crew soon detoured you around these on adjacent drops.

Everybody finished this round no mishaps or mechanicals results below:-

Peter Wilsdon - 32nd in 2hr Male

John Reay - 11th, Andy Goodyer - 14th and John Davies 21st in 3hr Grand Vets

Ben Connor - 8th 4hr Male

Series Results :-  Peter 11th, John Reay 6th and Ben 7th

Brass Monkeys - Christmas Cracker

After the mud bath that was the first round, Sunday produced a perfect winters day for round 2 of the Brass Monkeys. The course provided some awesome swoopy trails mixed with long taxing fireroad clmbs. After a frosty start the sun shone and bikes stayed relatively mud free.

Well done to everyone from the club who raced, it was great to see the club jerseys out on the course. (I'll admit I hid mine in preference to spreading some festive cheer!)