Southern XC Championships

Having enjoyed the experience of dry dusty trails over the past few weeks, it was probably inevitable that while much of the UK basked in sunshine, it was drizzling down in the New Forest for the Southern XC Championships. The moisture added a glossy surface to the trails, leaving riders with little confidence in the corners and sapping their strength on the climbs. Despite the weather it would have been a terrific flowing course, had it not been for a couple of  what might politely be called ‘stream crossings’. In reality these were muddy ditches; the fastest method of navigating them was to jump off the bike and leap straight in!

 

Things started badly on my warm-up lap, I found Doddy lying in one of the ditches clutching his knee. He had slipped off a wooden bridge the taken out one of the posts on the way. The marshals were already with him so I was able to move on, which was lucky because I had a puncture. I presume from riding over one of the nails sticking out of the broken bridge.

Back at the car I met Steve who had pulled out, but when he described his recent schedule I am not surprised. The poor man needed some sleep! 

Luckily some of us did make it to the finish line, although I think we'd all agree it was tough going.

Will      2nd Junior

Marc    2nd Open

Ian      6th Grand Vet

Emma 7th Elite

Ollie    7th Junior

Ben   21st Masters      

Gorrick 100

Change of venue this year as some trail work was being carried out at Swinley, so off to Porridgepot Hill we ventured. The weather had been great all week and we were looking forward to fast dusty trails. The course at Porridgepot is usually around 7 miles for the popular Are You Tough Enough event so cutting in another 2.5 miles of racetrack must have been a worry for the Gorrick team but as usual they dished up a very good course.

Quite a few of us had a late night at Matt and Anna's wedding celebrations, so the 4 lap race which was a 10.30am start was inviting and gave us a little bit of a lie in!
We had a great turnout of 10 people in the 4 lap race and 3 in the 3 lap from both the shop team and club members.

Team riders Emma,Marc and Will had great rides coming 2nd,5th and 7th in their races.
This was most of the club riders first bash at the event and  by the end we all had plenty of respect for a tough course, some a little disappointed that it wasn't much fun but a great Jim Barrow statement that racing is fun when it stops, otherwise you're not trying hard enough! 

So on that ethos we must have all been really riding on the rivet as they say. Well done to everyone.

Gorrick 100 photo's

Emma 2nd Ladies 4 Lap

Olive 7th Ladies 4 Lap

Mark 5th Male 4 Lap

Will 7th Male 4 Lap

John D 29th Male 4 Lap

Andy G 45th Male 4 Lap

John R 49th Male 4 Lap

Andy J 55th Male 4 Lap

Kevin 60th Male 4 Lap

Peter 71st Male 4 Lap

James 7th Male 3 Lap

Ollie 13th Male 3 Lap

Southern XC Round 1

 

Matterly Basin is better known as the home of the British MotoX GP. Sunday it played host to a slightly quieter form of two wheeled racing - the first round of the Southern XC series. Set on the slopes of the South Downs close to Winchester, the course clambered over the local hills, twisting in and out of the woodland and across open grassland. It was a blustery day on the exposed hillside but the sun did its best to shine, as the clouds scooted across the sky.

Despite the recent heavy rain the forest sections weren’t too greasy and a racing line formed in the drying mud. The warmer temperatures meant it was also my first outing this year in shorts! Although this does mean I had to expose my hairy legs to the smoothly shaved racer boys.

 

 

The club seemed destined just to miss the podium with Ian, Will and Steve all coming home in 4th place! The duck was broken by James Darcy who won the Grand Vets.

Elsewhere Alex was 16th in Open, I was 20th in the Masters and Ollie 10th in the Juniors.

The podium boy!

 

Southern XC Team Result from 2012

Gorrick Spring Series Rnd 2 - Crowthorne

I think we should create a new rule: Team mates shouldn’t line up next to each other on the grid.

 

Alex and I were side by side ready for the start of the Super Masters race. The hooter sounded, muscles tensed, power was applied to pedals, chains took the strain. Shoulder to shoulder, elbows entwined we were off. To my right there was the unmistakable sound of a chain snapping, followed by a rider wobbling into the pack. Suddenly we were all squeezed, I was pushed and fell towards Alex. Obviously I never want to crash, but my worst fear would be taking out a team mate at the same time and ruining two races. Using all my Jedi powers of levitation I somehow managed to stay upright, Alex actually supporting me as I wrestled myself back into the saddle. We were sliding back through the field but we were both still in the race.
 

A technicoloured ribbon of riders streamed through the long flat singletrack section and into the infamous corkscrew. Having dealt with the challenging swoops and dips I emerged onto the fireroad. The front wheel skidded on the loose gravel and slipped out from under me. The “Force” was no longer with me and I hit the ground hard. I was quickly back up, but the bars were at about 30 degrees, so I was off again for a realignment. Pushing to catch up I repeated the same trick only 200 yards down the path at the next turn – I was panicking!

 

Despite my adventures Alex and I had a fun race long tussle finishing 17^th and 18^th in Super Masters. Mr D and Mr P had a similar ding dong battle in the Grand Vets to come home 4^th and 6^th. Like a fortnight ago, Will came powering past me like a train on his new Stumpjumper HT. Unfortunately he was just pipped to the win right on the line. Hard luck Will - next time! Oli was 27th behind Will in the Sport and James was 7th up against some quick riders in the Youth race.

Southdowns Bikes Sporting TT

Gorrick Spring Series - Round 1

Every year the first round of the Gorrick Spring Series heralds the start of the new XC season. Alex and myself were the earliest risers as the fog lifted from the Tunnel Hill course. New start times meant I probably wasn't the only person to nearly miss their race! There was still ice on the puddles in the car park as the sun broke through and we set off! 

Steve

The reward for the early start was a fun, fast course, making use of the army trenches to weave through the woods. The hills were less enjoyable, especially the painful back to back climbs towards the end of the lap.

Will

Steve starting in the Super Vets had soon caught and passed me on his way to 2nd. Will was next, streaking through to finish 3rd in the Sport race. Also in the Sport category Ollie was 16th.

James, Ian and Martin were just setting off in the Grand Vets as I dragged myself across the line. They finished 3rd, 7th and 29th respectively.

James

Alex took a tumble and I was still recovering from man flu so we propped up the Super Master results!

Some superb results and plenty of early promise for the season ahead!

  

  Ollie, Ian, Ben, Martin and Alex - great to see so many team colours out on course!

Brass Monkeys Rd3 - Tunnel Hill

After another week of torrential rain the final round of this winters series was once again blessed with a bright clear day and great riding conditions. Tunnel Hill is renown for its flowing singletrack and the Gorrick team produced another splendid course.

Ollie Fenton (in blue)

Again we had  another good turn-out in all categories with exceptional rides from Will Taylor(5th) and Ollie Fenton(7th) in the 2hr Junior race where  Ollie came 3rd overall in the series.

In only her second event Olive O'Leary with her raspberry jacket flapping in the wind completed 2 laps finishing 13th the Ladies 2hr race. Fellow Celt Peter Wilsdon came in 94th in the Male 2hrs.

Damian Redmond came 41st in the very competitive 2hr Male Vet race just missing out on the points for an overall series ranking. Where do all these extra people come from for the last event?

Also it was great to see our enduro vet Andy Goodyer back on the start line, kick starting his training for some 6hr events this year finishing 51st and Wills dad Martin 52nd.

Having his first bash at a Gorrick event was Glynn Edwards(Team Juan Lap) he did just that, he had a smile on his face at the finish, I think?





Ben Connor(left) had an impressive 16th in the 4hr Male managing 6 laps in 4hrs 35min 31 secs.

Ian Petherbridge who was looking to round off the series with a top 10 position to consolidate his 5th position in the overall standings, but had the misfortune of a mechanical that put paid to his race.

John Davies just scraped home in 36th to score some points to leave him 12th in the overall.

Just behind him in 41st was John Reay, Kevin Moore 55th and Andy Jarman 57th.

Another great series with some excellent courses and surprisingly good weather, can we be that lucky next year? Lets hope so!

Brass Monkeys Rd2 - Windmill Hill, Deepcut, Surrey

Olive's first race looking as if she's enjoying it?

Windmill Hill is in the same area as Porridgepot Hill and we know how tough that is, this was no different with short steep hills, testing singletrack and hardly anywhere to recover. As usual it had rained all week and whilst everywhere on our trip up was flooded the course at Deepcut was in pretty good condition and despite the previous week’s soggy outlook the weather was dry and sunny.

Andy J

In an effort to space out the mass of riders, a grassy start loop took competitors away briefly from the comfort of the arena, before the plunged into the final sections of singletrack that took them through the start/finish line. This seems to be working well as by the time we were dropping into the early singletrack the usual jostling for position and traffic jam was more or less over.

James H

Onto the race, it was brutal, there were only a couple of short areas to quickly feed and drink before you were straight into another climb or descent. The singletrack was great fun, unfortunately the two bomb holes were a little difficult to get out of with the surface breaking up and one was diverted after the first lap(quick thinking by the Gorrick crew) and the other had a chicken run just in case(which I took my last 3 laps).

We had a good turn-out with Olive coming 9th in Ladies 2hrs, Ollie Fenton 4th and James Hansford 9th in 2hr Juniors, Damian Redmond 25th in 2hrs vets, Ian P 7th, John D 24th, Andy J 48th and Kevin M 59th in 4hr Vets.