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Greymare just a 25 minute drive from home, lovely!
A typical Overcast chilly January day greeted us all for this one, almost perfect enduro weather. With the rain we had all week I knew it was going to be a wet one, I wasn’t disappointed!
Had a quick chat with Francis Banfield soon after I arrived, he’d been out on the working party on the course the day before and promptly told me the track was, um, tricky to day the least!
The queue for scrutineering was like the lost baggage department at Heathrow terminal 5! Debbie tucker came over for a chat and I also had a chat to Jamie paget who was behind us in the now lengthy queue. After this it was down the hill to the start to get the bike parked up ready for the off.
Onto the start itself then, I didn’t make a bad one, probably top ten as we entered the woods but got passed by a few as I promptly got stuck on a root! Soon after the first mile things began to get very interesting indeed. The woods and roots were very slippery indeed and with a trials tyre only allowed on the back wheel, throttle control was at a premium. The hills were a nightmare and you can always tell that things are going to be tough when you’ve got 4 or 5 marshals standing there to help you just in case. One slope in particular was to test even the most skillful of riders, being about quarter of a mile long and as slippery as you could possibly imagine with grip being almost non existent, you just had to ’pin it’ and hope for the best, and that was only about 15 mins into the lap!
Some of the small hills In the woods although not technical, proved out to be tricky as well, as the low winter sun shone straight into your eyes and you simply couldn’t see where you were going, again you just had to twist the throttle and hope you was going in the right direction.
The only way of a rest bite came with a couple of fire roads mixed into the course, but they only lasted a few hundred yards at most, so not much rest at all really!
Due to extremely soft conditions the long slog back up to the lap scoring seemed like an eternity to get to the top and most of the way I was ‘paddling’ in order not to come off to get to the top.
A tough enduro course in the conditions, about 8 to 9 miles long
With about 1 ½ hours on the clock riders were beginning to take a rest already by the side of the course as the tough conditions began to take there toll on rider and machine. Some of the ruts in the woods were now ‘up to the saddle’ and the rooty hills were becoming a battle to get to the top.
With about 2hrs 15 mins gone in the race and I pitted with Steve Tizzard there to give us a hand. I thought I could get another 2 laps in before the clock ran out, I knew it would be tight with the long laps and the state of the track, but I went for it.
I think my last lap turned out to be my slowest due a couple of ‘offs’ and simply being ‘cream crackerd’ due to the amount of effort that I’d spent during the race. I was really pushing it on one of the fire roads when before I could say ‘oh b*llocks‘, I went down like a sack of (you know what) as my front wheel went away from me and I hit the deck pretty hard. I got up and made sure I was ok and more importantly I hadn’t broken a brake/clutch or gear lever on the bike (which is my favorite game at the moment), and carried on. That crash ultimately cost me another lap as I came in frustratingly 1 min overtime. Aaaaargh!
If there had been a rock section and some tractor tyres as obstacles added to the course, then this event would not have been far off an extreme one! It really was tough going today as the results show, over a third of the field retiring or DNF’ing for some reason or another.
Being a local event I spoke to a lot of riders after, Andrew Smith, Mark Tucker, Colin George, Francis Banfield, Adam Blake, Jed Treleaven, Arthur Johnson, Rich Tucker, Jack Twentyman, everyone of them thought it was hard today, not just me then!
A round of applause again to Camel Vale mcc, No matter what the conditions, they always put on a good well organized event.
Finishing position: 8/25 (clubman E1)
A typical Overcast chilly January day greeted us all for this one, almost perfect enduro weather. With the rain we had all week I knew it was going to be a wet one, I wasn’t disappointed!
Had a quick chat with Francis Banfield soon after I arrived, he’d been out on the working party on the course the day before and promptly told me the track was, um, tricky to day the least!
The queue for scrutineering was like the lost baggage department at Heathrow terminal 5! Debbie tucker came over for a chat and I also had a chat to Jamie paget who was behind us in the now lengthy queue. After this it was down the hill to the start to get the bike parked up ready for the off.
Onto the start itself then, I didn’t make a bad one, probably top ten as we entered the woods but got passed by a few as I promptly got stuck on a root! Soon after the first mile things began to get very interesting indeed. The woods and roots were very slippery indeed and with a trials tyre only allowed on the back wheel, throttle control was at a premium. The hills were a nightmare and you can always tell that things are going to be tough when you’ve got 4 or 5 marshals standing there to help you just in case. One slope in particular was to test even the most skillful of riders, being about quarter of a mile long and as slippery as you could possibly imagine with grip being almost non existent, you just had to ’pin it’ and hope for the best, and that was only about 15 mins into the lap!
Some of the small hills In the woods although not technical, proved out to be tricky as well, as the low winter sun shone straight into your eyes and you simply couldn’t see where you were going, again you just had to twist the throttle and hope you was going in the right direction.
The only way of a rest bite came with a couple of fire roads mixed into the course, but they only lasted a few hundred yards at most, so not much rest at all really!
Due to extremely soft conditions the long slog back up to the lap scoring seemed like an eternity to get to the top and most of the way I was ‘paddling’ in order not to come off to get to the top.
A tough enduro course in the conditions, about 8 to 9 miles long
With about 1 ½ hours on the clock riders were beginning to take a rest already by the side of the course as the tough conditions began to take there toll on rider and machine. Some of the ruts in the woods were now ‘up to the saddle’ and the rooty hills were becoming a battle to get to the top.
With about 2hrs 15 mins gone in the race and I pitted with Steve Tizzard there to give us a hand. I thought I could get another 2 laps in before the clock ran out, I knew it would be tight with the long laps and the state of the track, but I went for it.
I think my last lap turned out to be my slowest due a couple of ‘offs’ and simply being ‘cream crackerd’ due to the amount of effort that I’d spent during the race. I was really pushing it on one of the fire roads when before I could say ‘oh b*llocks‘, I went down like a sack of (you know what) as my front wheel went away from me and I hit the deck pretty hard. I got up and made sure I was ok and more importantly I hadn’t broken a brake/clutch or gear lever on the bike (which is my favorite game at the moment), and carried on. That crash ultimately cost me another lap as I came in frustratingly 1 min overtime. Aaaaargh!
If there had been a rock section and some tractor tyres as obstacles added to the course, then this event would not have been far off an extreme one! It really was tough going today as the results show, over a third of the field retiring or DNF’ing for some reason or another.
Being a local event I spoke to a lot of riders after, Andrew Smith, Mark Tucker, Colin George, Francis Banfield, Adam Blake, Jed Treleaven, Arthur Johnson, Rich Tucker, Jack Twentyman, everyone of them thought it was hard today, not just me then!
A round of applause again to Camel Vale mcc, No matter what the conditions, they always put on a good well organized event.
Finishing position: 8/25 (clubman E1)
