After the last 2 events when things haven’t exactly gone my way, I was hoping for something incident free this week!
Grogley, just 10 mins down the road from where I live, nice one. The weather had been kind to us and although a little chilly, it was a still dry calm day, perfect for a winter enduro. The event was held on forestry land and it took a good couple of miles from entering the gates at the bottom before we reached the parking right at the top of the forest overlooking half of Cornwall! In fact we were so high up I nearly had to break out the oxygen mask.
Upon signing on and getting scrutineerd there was a cracking festive atmosphere and everyone seemed to be in a jolly good spirited mood.
I’d entered the solo 3 ½ race where everyone was in together, Champ, expert, clubman 2t & 4t, and sportsman. Also on the agenda was a father and son race and a 2 man team, and the entry was full in every class.
With this being a local event it was nice to see all the friendly faces to chat too, in fact I spoke to so many people that I got a bit carried away and was a bit tight for time to make the start!
Onto the start itself and we had a ‘Le mans’ get away where we had to run to the bikes to get going. Off we went hurtling along an open fire road before dropping down onto some rutted paddy field and then up again into the woods. Root after root and then more roots and stumps confronted us at every opportunity, in fact there just seemed to be no rest bite at all as your arms were constantly being pumped up and down through the tight twist and turns of the forest. There was a section of about 100 mtrs long that was constant whoops that literally had you bouncing all the way through it like a bloody jack in the box! (quite a few spectators were at this section) Even the fire roads were bumpy and rutted and of course there was a couple of nice slippery ‘rooty’ hills thrown in for good measure as well, one of which was quite steep that caused a few traffic jams with riders getting stuck, this kept the marshals busy!
One way or another, you always going up or down or twisting and turning along the slippery forest floor, and with a trails tyre only allowed on the back, it made things interesting!
After about an hour I was going well and getting into the swing of things and everything was just going along nicely. Another hour up on the clock past, I’d had no ’offs’ so felt really good, so not much to report there then!
I decided to pit just after the 2 ½ hour mark to re-fuel and grab a quick gel bar as well. I came back out at 2hr 40mins, I was lapping at about 25 mins so if I managed to push it and take a minute or two off a lap, I’d be able to get another 3 laps in before time. It was going to be tight, but I went for it. Sods law then happened, when I got round to that hill that was causing problems there was a traffic jam, I made it up half way but just ran into bikes, so I had to go back down and wait for it to clear, oh bugger, typical! Knowing I’d lost a bit of time I pushed on only to have a couple of stupid little offs’.
I past the lap scoring with just over 20 mins to go, so I knew I really had to go like the clappers if I was to get another lap in. I really did try and almost lost it big time banging against the trees a few times, once with my shoulder, and then with my head! Another stupid little ’off’ on a root finally put paid to my chances of another lap and I finished 3 mins over time. Bugger it!
A cracking days sport and as always a testing course which Camel vale mcc are renowned for.
Finishing position: 15/39
Bike status: new front pads, chain, sprocket.
