Endura Gorrick Autumn Classic1 - 21st October 2012

Fay on her way to winning Expert race.

James on his first outing coming 6th in the youths race.

Will a great 2nd in the Sport cat

Ollie Fenton

Richard White

Kevin Moore

XT MTB Enduro

Another race another quagmire! Swamp racing seems to be the theme for so many races in 2012. I have already had the mud syringed from my eyes by the St-Johns ambulance after one event this “summer” and I don’t think anyone who was there will ever forget the conditions at Black Park, where riders were being pulled from their bikes with hypothermia. So in hindsight maybe the  XT MTB Enduro at Hawley lake near Farnborough wasn’t that bad! At least the sun was shining! However, there were long stretches of deep standing water to be navigated and sections where progress through the gloop was almost impossible. Rear tyres slipped, gears skipped and chains sucked!

A frenzied fireroad dash got us underway, riders weaving from side to side as they hunted for grip. On the first climb my chain tied itself in a knot, coiling itself away tightly under the chainstay. It took an eternity to unravel, by which time I had lost touch with the lead group. I plunged on through the slop, brakes were worthless anyway but my brake pads had dissolved away before the 2^nd lap. As the laps progressed a racing line began to form, snaking between the worst of the puddles. Although churned by the passing of 100’s of tyres other sections became impassable. The section I named ‘comedy’ corner was the worst: as you approached steering had little impact on the bikes direction and once you were pointing the right way, the rear tyre spun and fish tailed hopelessly however carefully you turned the pedals.

Fay dominated the womens race coming home over a lap ahead –ripped shorts and all!  I caught up with Ian and we rode together to finish 4^th and 5^th from a field of 89 in the 4hour solo.

So some great results but now it’s time to count the cost. Sunday provided the opportunity to service wheel bearings, bottom brackets, chains, rear brake pads, and rebuild forks.....! Plus I’m still washing the mud from between my toes!

This will make you smile

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qmQrEM5rVA&feature=share

Brighton Big Dog 2012

Well as usual it rained most of the week and knowing what Stanmer is like in the wet we left home a little bit subdued as a hard 6hrs in the mud was envisaged. The club had a great turn out with riders in the solo, ladies pairs, mixed pairs and 3 man team cats. The first lap was a mare, slipping and sliding all over the place on the wet rooty sections and some of the climbs were a little bit of a challenge to stay on the bike and not push!  Luckily we didn't have any rain and with the high number of riders on the course it soon dried out and this led to faster and faster lap times. Steve,Mark and Roger in the 3 man team were only headed once and even a spectacular crash in the finishing area by Roger did nothing to cause concern for the guys in wrapping up victory by 4 minutes. In the ladies pairs Laura and Cliodhna came in 3rd a great ride on their first outing as a team, they looked as though they enjoyed the champers later.
Also the ever consistent Ian Petherbridge came a great 3rd in a high quality Vets category.


Another year and another successful event, Morvelo don't half know how to put on an event. More prizes than all Gorrick events put together and loads of happy faces at the presentation.
 

Isle of Wight 2 (the wrong way round)

The above photo was on our arrival at the ferry port car park in Portsmouth, we were not looking forward to our 70 mile road trip around the Island. We boarded the ferry and 30 minutes later we were bathed in glorious sunshine, funny old place England. We got lost straight off the ferry, but we finally got back on the right track after missing Ryde and Bembridge we picked up the route just before Sandown, after which it was plain sailing with temps averaging in the mid 70's everybody was happy apart from Martin who had too many sherbets the night before and struggled the whole trip but as usual finished. Some memorable parts of the day were a well deserved lunch at Freshwater with sarnies and a few beers and an early ferry back.A great day special thanks to Mike who drove the sag wagon and Sharon and Mark for another well organised day.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/207272124

Southdowns Bikes has a National Champion

Report from event website:-
As the women’s master’s race unfolded, it soon became clear that there was an almighty battle being played out with Jo Munden, Fay Cripps and defending champion Caroline Goward the main players. In a ding-dong battle the lead constantly changed hands with little to choose between the 3. By lap 3 it seemed that Munden had made her move opening up a 13 sec lead going into the last lap. However just 23 minutes later the title went to Cripps, with Goward just 19secs adrift, while Munden failed to finish, after falling victim to the hot humid temperatures, Munden had collapsed track side suffering from heatstroke.

Also a great 4th place by Steve Calland in the Masters(just 2secs behind 3rd) and Ian Petherbridge coming in 12th in the Grand Vets.

Are You Tough Enough - Porridgepot Hill

Some photo's from Porridgepot Hill July 15th, where Steve Calland came 1st in 2hr Male Vets, Matt Knight 5th in 4hr Solo, Andy G 7th in 4hr Vets and Faye and Ian 1st in the 6hr Mixed Pairs.

Ian P

Matt Knight

Postie

Faye

Ironman 70.3 California Triathlon

This year I decided not to do the usual Sprint and Olympic distance races when I spend time in USA over the summer for work, but opted to go up to Ironman 70.3 which is made of of a 1.2m swim, 56m bike and half marathon. I knew I had no chance to podium since there was 47 pros entering. 2500 signed up for the worlds most popular 70.3 event, which got sold out in 1 hour. (amazing when you think the event cost is a MASSIVE $250ea...). The event was held in Napa Valley area, California which is where a ton of wine is produced and as you would expect the scenery is fantastic.

The swim started well and luckily not all 2500 people were not starting at the same time, so they broke it down by age and set the groups off in 6 min intervals. It was a bit crazy when we started to swim past the slower groups which meant a lot of zig zagging with the usual kicks and punches to the face (cant see people that well when swimming..). 28mins went by quickly so happy with that as the average pro man did 22-29mins (29min seems a bit slow for a pro, not sure what happened there to him).

Next section was the bike and as the airline charges $400 round trip for each bike, I could only justify taking one bike for this trip and went with the road bike. I tried to make it as much like a TT bike as possible, so added the aero wheel, bars & helmet. Over the rolling hill 56m course the average was 22.8mph, so cant complain with that, cant see having my TT would have made a massive improvement, maybe another 1mph I guess ? (I was trying to keep telling myself don't push it too hard as you have a stupid ass long run after, so that was worrying me in the back of my dumb head). Completed it in 2hr 27min - pros did between 2hr 7min - 2hr 22min

The run was mainly on flatish roads, with a few annoying drags here & there, part of the run went through the vineyards, which was a nice change. The feed stations unfortunately were only giving out water & Gatorade (so no free wine samples). The goal I gave myself was to do a sub 5hr for the whole event,  and as the run went well (for me) I did a 1hr 42 half marathon (pros 1hr 11min - 1hr 25min) which gave a finishing time of 4hr 44mins.

Overall I came 116 out of 2300 which turned up, so taking out 47 pros, I was very happy with the final result. No prizes / no podium, but I feel it was my best result of the year.

Half Way There

The trail centre didn't know what hit them!

 

 

Kieron who had left Steyning at 2am and met us at Meon

Robin repairs a puncture he picked up descending Butser Hill

The Gruppetto

Well done to everyone who rode Saturday, I haven't heard of any crashes or of anyone who is still stuck out on the SDW. Many thanks to James for getting us from Winchester to QE Park definitely saved us time, as navigation on this section is a little tricky.

Really impressed with everyone's bulldog spirit to get them to the finish, we will have to re-visit the barbie next time.

Not to sure on final puncture count, I know Glyn and Will had 2, Kieron's friend and Robin had 1. I can't think of many mechanicals other than adjusting Mandy's brakes which considering the conditions is pretty good.

Eastbourne to Storrington next, looking forward to it.

A club organised event set off from  Bramley and Wonersh the start of the 36.7 mile Downs Link  to Shoreham.

The usual unreliable British weather forecasts was for heavy rain but luckily this didn't materialise and light drizzle was all we encountered for the first few hours and then sunshine with a strong headwind. The route is well sign posted and apart from a few punctures we  got into a steady pace and arrived at Southwater Country Park for lunch where we joined by another 11 riders.

 
After some well deserved food and a couple of brews we were on our way again heading along the trail towards Shoreham. Just after Henfield the path opens out onto the floodplain of the River Adur where the views of the South Downs are spectacular. From here we followed the river on it's relentless march to the coast to Shoreham and some well deserved burgers and a beer or 3.

Thanks to Sharon and Mark for their support and a well organised day.