What can you say about Weston? Over 1,000 bikes on a 3 mile track, a mile long flat out straight and over 30 sand dunes to negotiate coupled with a massive crowd.
After doing my first ‘Weston’ last year I was again back for some more mayhem and mishap!
My mate Lester was my pit crew today (he did a fantastic job too) as we set off in the early hours to get there with plenty of time in hand.
First of all I had to pick up my trailer that I’d left up there with the Tucker family from xmoor enduro club, who’d very kindly looked after it for me for the weekend from there campsite pitch. So, no problem there, that was until I was queuing in traffic to get into the official competitors car park, when some pillock in a 4x4 decided to ram me up the a*rse while I was stationary! Nice one mate, I need a new lighting board now.
Anyway, moving on, had a good look round, watched a bit of the youths race and got ready to go and do battle. The weather was absolutely cracking, bright sunshine and quite warm being it an October day.
As usual the wait to get the bike out of the parc freme and onto the beach to the start was mad, with every rider queuing and trying to push each other out of the way (politely of course) to try and get a good position.
Onto the beach we went and then and waited for the start. Unlike last year, I actually started right up there with the lot of them! Bloody nora, what a feeling that is, hundreds and hundreds of bikes blasting down that straight, all of us with our adrenalin fuelled heads on! I reckon I was about ¾ of the way down the pack.
Half way down the straight a few riders were waving there arms frantically as a couple of riders had came off, luckily I think everybody avoided them. When I got to end, I couldn’t see a bloody thing! My goggs had been ‘sand blasted’ and I couldn’t wait to use the rip ’n’ roll to get clear vision. That speed wobble you get when you nail the thing on the flat sand is something else! I was hanging on for grim death!
Got to the first dune where mayhem had firmly planted itself all around me! With nowhere to go, I had to sit and wait my turn , we were packed in like sardines and smelling the constant exhaust fumes were worse than smelling someone elses wind!
After about 10 minutes I finally had a run up the first dune and promptly got stuck, I got back down quickly and had another go and made it over and onto the next one. Same as the first, more queues and more fumes, got a run up at it got stuck big time half way up. The back wheel was well and truly buried and with no marshals to help me (they were at the top trying to clear the carnage) I got off, dug myself out and heaved the bike round, got back on and slid to the bottom to have another go. I managed to get over that one as well 2nd time around and headed on to the 3rd dune. Yet more queues and more fumes were in front of me, I waited for a bit and then went for a gap to try and get over, guess what, stuck again, 3rd one in a row! I thought to myself, ‘what are you like you twat, you still got over 2 hours to go’! After telling myself off severly, I made it over and with no more problems on any of the remaining dunes, i completed my first lap, although I must admit I wasn’t impressed on how long it had taken me.
It was at this point that I felt really ill, there’s a difference between being knackered and feeling rough, and I felt rough, big time, I don’t know weather the fumes got to me or what, It certainly wasn’t due to the fact of heaving the bike around a few times, I’ve done that plenty of times believe me!
Infact, I felt so bad that I contemplated pulling out, something I haven’t done since I my 2nd enduro, well over a year ago. Never one to quit with a ’must finish the race attitude no matter what’, I carried on until my 1st pit stop.
My mate Lester handed me clean goggs, I washed my face down quickly, refueled, had a handful of the customary jelly babies and off I went. Just that little stop made all the difference and now I started to get going and started enjoying it.
Another couple of laps later I made a quick stop again for more fresh goggles and back out I went , and by this time I was actually starting to pass people who were getting tired, but mainly due to the fact that I was now feeling ok and I was going well.
Then the unthinkable happened, the race was stopped just after 2 hours. I was gutted as I was desperately trying to make up for lost time for the first hour of the race where I was ‘trail riding’ round because I felt so bad.
Safety reasons I believe was the cause of the stoppage, something to do with the bridge that we rode over? I know a couple of times that the organizers had directed us around it because riders had got stuck on it, someone told me that It was in a bad state and it was collapsing!
As I write this I don’t really know the main reason, but if it’s in the interest of safety, that has to come first, end of story.
Now for my gripe, 25th anniversary beach race right?
Well the powers that be certainly made it a special one. No weekend pass for us riders this year, just a day one. No ‘goody’ bag this year, just a t shirt with a cartoon on the front. No free programme either.Tight or what?
Not a particually good race for me this time. But at least i managed to raise a bit of money for the Cornwall air ambulance through some sponsorship.
Will I be back next year? ........................................Yeah course I will.
Finishing position:703/1049
Bike status: new chain + sprockets, new fork seals
Injuries: none
After doing my first ‘Weston’ last year I was again back for some more mayhem and mishap!
My mate Lester was my pit crew today (he did a fantastic job too) as we set off in the early hours to get there with plenty of time in hand.
First of all I had to pick up my trailer that I’d left up there with the Tucker family from xmoor enduro club, who’d very kindly looked after it for me for the weekend from there campsite pitch. So, no problem there, that was until I was queuing in traffic to get into the official competitors car park, when some pillock in a 4x4 decided to ram me up the a*rse while I was stationary! Nice one mate, I need a new lighting board now.
Anyway, moving on, had a good look round, watched a bit of the youths race and got ready to go and do battle. The weather was absolutely cracking, bright sunshine and quite warm being it an October day.
As usual the wait to get the bike out of the parc freme and onto the beach to the start was mad, with every rider queuing and trying to push each other out of the way (politely of course) to try and get a good position.
Onto the beach we went and then and waited for the start. Unlike last year, I actually started right up there with the lot of them! Bloody nora, what a feeling that is, hundreds and hundreds of bikes blasting down that straight, all of us with our adrenalin fuelled heads on! I reckon I was about ¾ of the way down the pack.
Half way down the straight a few riders were waving there arms frantically as a couple of riders had came off, luckily I think everybody avoided them. When I got to end, I couldn’t see a bloody thing! My goggs had been ‘sand blasted’ and I couldn’t wait to use the rip ’n’ roll to get clear vision. That speed wobble you get when you nail the thing on the flat sand is something else! I was hanging on for grim death!
Got to the first dune where mayhem had firmly planted itself all around me! With nowhere to go, I had to sit and wait my turn , we were packed in like sardines and smelling the constant exhaust fumes were worse than smelling someone elses wind!
After about 10 minutes I finally had a run up the first dune and promptly got stuck, I got back down quickly and had another go and made it over and onto the next one. Same as the first, more queues and more fumes, got a run up at it got stuck big time half way up. The back wheel was well and truly buried and with no marshals to help me (they were at the top trying to clear the carnage) I got off, dug myself out and heaved the bike round, got back on and slid to the bottom to have another go. I managed to get over that one as well 2nd time around and headed on to the 3rd dune. Yet more queues and more fumes were in front of me, I waited for a bit and then went for a gap to try and get over, guess what, stuck again, 3rd one in a row! I thought to myself, ‘what are you like you twat, you still got over 2 hours to go’! After telling myself off severly, I made it over and with no more problems on any of the remaining dunes, i completed my first lap, although I must admit I wasn’t impressed on how long it had taken me.
It was at this point that I felt really ill, there’s a difference between being knackered and feeling rough, and I felt rough, big time, I don’t know weather the fumes got to me or what, It certainly wasn’t due to the fact of heaving the bike around a few times, I’ve done that plenty of times believe me!
Infact, I felt so bad that I contemplated pulling out, something I haven’t done since I my 2nd enduro, well over a year ago. Never one to quit with a ’must finish the race attitude no matter what’, I carried on until my 1st pit stop.
My mate Lester handed me clean goggs, I washed my face down quickly, refueled, had a handful of the customary jelly babies and off I went. Just that little stop made all the difference and now I started to get going and started enjoying it.
Another couple of laps later I made a quick stop again for more fresh goggles and back out I went , and by this time I was actually starting to pass people who were getting tired, but mainly due to the fact that I was now feeling ok and I was going well.
Then the unthinkable happened, the race was stopped just after 2 hours. I was gutted as I was desperately trying to make up for lost time for the first hour of the race where I was ‘trail riding’ round because I felt so bad.
Safety reasons I believe was the cause of the stoppage, something to do with the bridge that we rode over? I know a couple of times that the organizers had directed us around it because riders had got stuck on it, someone told me that It was in a bad state and it was collapsing!
As I write this I don’t really know the main reason, but if it’s in the interest of safety, that has to come first, end of story.
Now for my gripe, 25th anniversary beach race right?
Well the powers that be certainly made it a special one. No weekend pass for us riders this year, just a day one. No ‘goody’ bag this year, just a t shirt with a cartoon on the front. No free programme either.Tight or what?
Not a particually good race for me this time. But at least i managed to raise a bit of money for the Cornwall air ambulance through some sponsorship.
Will I be back next year? ........................................Yeah course I will.
Finishing position:703/1049
Bike status: new chain + sprockets, new fork seals
Injuries: none
