It’s been a bit of a wait coming, my first race of the year. Lets just say that things have been rather hectic lately at home and until I move house, I can’t race as much as I’d like. Hopefully a few months down the line and it’ll all be sorted!
Now then, onto the race………………………………………………………………………………….
Last night I was gigging and had a ‘late’one. I went to bed at 2am then got up at 4am, 2 hours kip! Not the ideal prep for a race of this magnitude I admit, I should be slow down at my age, but hey, you only live once, so make the most of it!
I really fancied this event, it was round 1 of the newly formed GBXC organisation (Great Britain Cross Country), so bearing that in mind, riders would come from near and far to ride (especially with the TV cameras there) so i would be able to pit my wits against some top opposition at a top class venue. I entered the 2hr morning race in the o40’s class.
Arrived a Matchams with plenty of time to spare, so had a good look round the place and could tell that there was a definite ‘buzz’ going around probably due to the fact of the cameras being present and David Knight along with some top names riding in the main race later on.
Now then this surprised me, scrutineering, what scrutineering? I presented my bike at the entrance to the parc ferme/ start area and I just got my number ticked off of their rider list sheet and got waved through!
The start was on the Famous G.P track, so we all had a big wide fast straight we could blast down until we hit the first corner. 10am on the dot and the flag dropped. I made a decent enough start to the first corner probably in the first 10 so kept out of any trouble, I was happy with that and seeing as I’d had a stupid amount of sleep, the adrenaline of the race kicked in and I felt good. Along the twisty deep rutted sandy mx track we went before heading off into the first wooded section. I got to say that apart from a steep downhill, there wasn’t much in the way of anything technical at all, before we headed back onto the mx track which included some huge table tops to take (flat out if you were brave enough!) before going through some more flowing wood trails (some with whoops) and then back to lap scoring. I reckon about about 5 miles in total.
After that good start I got overtaken by quite a few in my class, ok, make that loads! Bloody nora there’s some excellent o40’s riders out there! I was a bit rusty from it being my first race for a while and it took me a bit of time to get back into things, but when you’re up against some very experienced vets, I didn’t expect any less and was happy riding around to get some more experience.
Everything was going well when about an hour into it some guy decided it would a good idea to ‘t-bone’ me on straight bit of the track. I don’t even know where he came from! Obviously he must have lost control when he went to overtake me but it’s sods law, I crashed down onto the deck and looked up to find his was carrying on along his merry way as though nothing had happened! I checked over the bike, bloody hell, another set of handgaurds gone, never mind that’s racing.
After about 1hr 20 mins I pitted for a very quick ‘splash & dash’ and was on target to get another 3 laps in. With 3 mins to go I passed lap scoring well pleased with myself thinking I was going to do another lap just before the 2 hours was up, but wait a minute, the chequered was out, what’s going on then? Apparently the way GBXC run things is that the race finishes when the leader comes through near to the allotted time of the end of the race. That’s the first time I’ve heard of that, still, I’ll know next time won’t I?
Met up with Steve Jose afterwards and watched a bit of the main race before heading back home.
Overall I really enjoyed it but was disappointed with the course, I thought it would be a lot more demanding than what it was. Great motocross track but nothing for the enduro boys to get their teeth stuck into in the woods. Makes me wonder what their other venues are going to be like?
Finishing position: 26/32
Bike status: New handgaurds, front sprocket, brake pads front & rear Injuries: none
