Well it had to happen sooner or later.............................................................................
Today i finally said goodbye to my old TM. That's the bike that started it all for me in the 1st place and it finished 36 enduro's in a row for me!
Good luck to the new buyer and i hope she gives you as much satisfaction as i got from her.
Friday 29 May 2009
Monday 25 May 2009
Storridge wood- 25th May 2009
After missing the 1st round of the Xmoor series due to that little mishap with my radiator, I was so looking forward to riding this as you can guarantee that the club always puts on a good event.
After a short drive up to Bude to meet up with Steve Jose and Adam Blake, it was off to Storridge woods. With no map between us and no directions, we needn’t have worried because Adam was better than Google itself as he seem to know the way like the back of his hand as he took us through all sorts of lanes and back roads (which had me and Steve saying to each other, ‘where the f*ck are we?) to deliver us at the course with plenty of time to spare.
After signing on and taking a look at one of the Expert routes, we then had a bit of breakfast and sat on our backsides around the van chatting to riders that passed by waiting for the time to tick by to get changed for the 12’o’clock start.
The weather although overcast, was warm, and as the start time got nearer, we knew it was gonna be a hot one.
After warming our engines on the rather tight start line, it was time for the off, and as the flag dropped I didn’t particularly make a good one, and as we all bunched up around a tight right hander, the inevitable traffic jam occurred. Thankfully it didn’t last too long, but even so by the time I got going I was well down in the field and not happy!
We entered the woods immediately and were faced with some rooted tight tracks which made overtaken difficult especially as everyone was fired up with the adrenaline that goes with the early stages of a race. Some guy on KTM came hurtling passed me over to go over the bars seconds later as he hit a tree stump, I slowed to make sure he was alright as It looked nasty, but thankfully he was, so I carried on.
As we progressed through the woods I could see in the distance most of my riders in my class it what seemed like a procession following each other, and I could see I was well down the field so I instantly tried to make up some places, but it all went ’Pete Tong’ and that decision effectively put me out of the race.
As I tried to overtake a rider in front of me, my front wheel ‘washed’ out on a root and as I went down to the floor my handlebars twisted and stuck straight into my left thigh, OUCH!
At first I’d really thought I’d broken something, it was bloody agony, but after I got up, I managed to pick the bike up and lean it against a lovely friendly tree, which I also leant against to get my breath back. After a bit of rest and now with every other bugger passing me, clubman 4st, over 40’s, sportsman, I decided to try and ride around the rest of the course and make it back to the pits where I could check my leg over.
Saying that, with such a testing course, it wasn’t going to be a piece of cake, but I took it easy and got myself back and parked up.
I had to make some sort of decision now, pull out, carry on, or go and see the medics, but after 10 mins of rest and with a bit of stretching as well as taking a good look at it, I thought to myself that’s it’s gonna take a hell of a lot for me to DNF and today ain’t the day for that! As long as I could stand on the pegs I was willing to give it a go, so I bloody well did. Good job it wasn’t my right leg as I wouldn’t have been able to kick the bike over and start it.
Onto my 2nd lap I went then, albeit a bit slower than the norm, but I was determined to enjoy the event and take it easy and just get a finish, and with no pressure on I’d thought it would be a good idea to try all the expert routes out as well as I wasn’t worried about the time anymore after losing so much of it.
You know when it’s not going to be your day when about half way round your 2nd lap something else happens, and bugger me if it didn’t. I was going along nicely when all of a sudden the bike went ‘clunk’ and stopped dead in it’s tracks. I looked down only to find that the chain had come off and had wrapped itself around the front sprocket (been there done that before), so pushed it up to another one of those friendly trees, leant the bike against it and tried to unravel the thing. After about 5 mins I managed to free it just as a marshal came along so I flagged him down for a push to get the chain back on the sprocket and hey presto, away I went again.
The course itself was a classic, plenty of roots, a couple of rocky and rooty water crossings, off camber trails, some steep expert hills to try out, fire roads, logs to go over and more important, no flat fields! To be honest there wasn’t really anywhere you could take a breather as it was pretty much constant woods where you had to concentrate on riding most of the time, although at some points the trails only had one line and if you caught someone up and they didn’t move over for you, then it was hard work getting by, even at the pace I was going! Overall a superb lap and a long one, 10 miles or thereabouts and not for whimps!
With now more than half the race gone and me only on 2 laps I went into the pits and topped her up and went back out again. The previous laps I’d been doing the expert routes ok but this lap turned out to be a little different as I came off on one and promptly got my bike ridden over by a following rider which put a large dent in the exhaust (this definitely isn’t my day is it?).
On another one of the hard routes I got stuck near the top only to find Rob Ellick (snapped chain) and Paul Ford (tyre came off his rim) standing there, both of them had retired, so I had a quick chat with them and went back down, turned around and made it up next time. That hill was great fun pinning the little gasser all the way up it!
With about 30 mins left on the clock I pitted to rest my leg a bit and had a quick chat with Francis Banfield before setting off on what I knew would be my last lap. All I wanted was to take it easy and get to the finish and with thinking that I made a small mistake on an off camber part of the track and ended up trying to get the bike up a steep bank and back out onto the course. Try as I might I was stuck, so with looking round I realized that the only way to go was down. I rode the bike through the undergrowth downwards towards the fire road that I could see at the bottom, but when I got there I was faced a sheer drop back onto the fire road. No way could I get down that without going over the bars, so I got off the bike and let her drop over the edge! I clambered down, picked the bike back up and luckily for me nothing was broken so i kicked her into life, and off I went again to re-join the course, nice one!
So in the end and after an eventful race I made back to record a finish at the checkerd flag.
The riders I spoke to afterwards all thought it was an excellent event, Jason Duggan, Steve Jay, Andy Smith, Phil Harris, to name but a few. All I told them was my hard luck story, so they all got the violins out for me!
Was hoping to catch up with Pete Boyles afterwards but he’d retired as his TM splayed oil all over the rear disc, he’s not having much luck at the moment is Pete so let’s hope that changes for him.
I’ve mentioned this lad before, Richard Tucker, 18 yrs old and today 3rd in champ class! That lads getting bloody well faster every time I see him. Mind you apparently he learnt everything off his dad Mark (is that right Rich or not?).
A good bit of banter was had by us all in the van on the way home, which included being entertained by Steve ‘the man of a thousand stories’ Jose. I’m telling you now, if ever you’re bored after a race just listen to Steve as he’ll tell you all about what happened and at what particular time it happened, on what part of the course it happened, who it happened with and why it happened! Great stuff and well worth the diesel money on it’s own.
Well I suppose with things going so well lately I was due to have a crap race, let’s hope I don’t have too many of the buggers in the future.
Finishing position: 19/30 (clubman 2st)
After a short drive up to Bude to meet up with Steve Jose and Adam Blake, it was off to Storridge woods. With no map between us and no directions, we needn’t have worried because Adam was better than Google itself as he seem to know the way like the back of his hand as he took us through all sorts of lanes and back roads (which had me and Steve saying to each other, ‘where the f*ck are we?) to deliver us at the course with plenty of time to spare.
After signing on and taking a look at one of the Expert routes, we then had a bit of breakfast and sat on our backsides around the van chatting to riders that passed by waiting for the time to tick by to get changed for the 12’o’clock start.
The weather although overcast, was warm, and as the start time got nearer, we knew it was gonna be a hot one.
After warming our engines on the rather tight start line, it was time for the off, and as the flag dropped I didn’t particularly make a good one, and as we all bunched up around a tight right hander, the inevitable traffic jam occurred. Thankfully it didn’t last too long, but even so by the time I got going I was well down in the field and not happy!
We entered the woods immediately and were faced with some rooted tight tracks which made overtaken difficult especially as everyone was fired up with the adrenaline that goes with the early stages of a race. Some guy on KTM came hurtling passed me over to go over the bars seconds later as he hit a tree stump, I slowed to make sure he was alright as It looked nasty, but thankfully he was, so I carried on.
As we progressed through the woods I could see in the distance most of my riders in my class it what seemed like a procession following each other, and I could see I was well down the field so I instantly tried to make up some places, but it all went ’Pete Tong’ and that decision effectively put me out of the race.
As I tried to overtake a rider in front of me, my front wheel ‘washed’ out on a root and as I went down to the floor my handlebars twisted and stuck straight into my left thigh, OUCH!
At first I’d really thought I’d broken something, it was bloody agony, but after I got up, I managed to pick the bike up and lean it against a lovely friendly tree, which I also leant against to get my breath back. After a bit of rest and now with every other bugger passing me, clubman 4st, over 40’s, sportsman, I decided to try and ride around the rest of the course and make it back to the pits where I could check my leg over.
Saying that, with such a testing course, it wasn’t going to be a piece of cake, but I took it easy and got myself back and parked up.
I had to make some sort of decision now, pull out, carry on, or go and see the medics, but after 10 mins of rest and with a bit of stretching as well as taking a good look at it, I thought to myself that’s it’s gonna take a hell of a lot for me to DNF and today ain’t the day for that! As long as I could stand on the pegs I was willing to give it a go, so I bloody well did. Good job it wasn’t my right leg as I wouldn’t have been able to kick the bike over and start it.
Onto my 2nd lap I went then, albeit a bit slower than the norm, but I was determined to enjoy the event and take it easy and just get a finish, and with no pressure on I’d thought it would be a good idea to try all the expert routes out as well as I wasn’t worried about the time anymore after losing so much of it.
You know when it’s not going to be your day when about half way round your 2nd lap something else happens, and bugger me if it didn’t. I was going along nicely when all of a sudden the bike went ‘clunk’ and stopped dead in it’s tracks. I looked down only to find that the chain had come off and had wrapped itself around the front sprocket (been there done that before), so pushed it up to another one of those friendly trees, leant the bike against it and tried to unravel the thing. After about 5 mins I managed to free it just as a marshal came along so I flagged him down for a push to get the chain back on the sprocket and hey presto, away I went again.
The course itself was a classic, plenty of roots, a couple of rocky and rooty water crossings, off camber trails, some steep expert hills to try out, fire roads, logs to go over and more important, no flat fields! To be honest there wasn’t really anywhere you could take a breather as it was pretty much constant woods where you had to concentrate on riding most of the time, although at some points the trails only had one line and if you caught someone up and they didn’t move over for you, then it was hard work getting by, even at the pace I was going! Overall a superb lap and a long one, 10 miles or thereabouts and not for whimps!
With now more than half the race gone and me only on 2 laps I went into the pits and topped her up and went back out again. The previous laps I’d been doing the expert routes ok but this lap turned out to be a little different as I came off on one and promptly got my bike ridden over by a following rider which put a large dent in the exhaust (this definitely isn’t my day is it?).
On another one of the hard routes I got stuck near the top only to find Rob Ellick (snapped chain) and Paul Ford (tyre came off his rim) standing there, both of them had retired, so I had a quick chat with them and went back down, turned around and made it up next time. That hill was great fun pinning the little gasser all the way up it!
With about 30 mins left on the clock I pitted to rest my leg a bit and had a quick chat with Francis Banfield before setting off on what I knew would be my last lap. All I wanted was to take it easy and get to the finish and with thinking that I made a small mistake on an off camber part of the track and ended up trying to get the bike up a steep bank and back out onto the course. Try as I might I was stuck, so with looking round I realized that the only way to go was down. I rode the bike through the undergrowth downwards towards the fire road that I could see at the bottom, but when I got there I was faced a sheer drop back onto the fire road. No way could I get down that without going over the bars, so I got off the bike and let her drop over the edge! I clambered down, picked the bike back up and luckily for me nothing was broken so i kicked her into life, and off I went again to re-join the course, nice one!
So in the end and after an eventful race I made back to record a finish at the checkerd flag.
The riders I spoke to afterwards all thought it was an excellent event, Jason Duggan, Steve Jay, Andy Smith, Phil Harris, to name but a few. All I told them was my hard luck story, so they all got the violins out for me!
Was hoping to catch up with Pete Boyles afterwards but he’d retired as his TM splayed oil all over the rear disc, he’s not having much luck at the moment is Pete so let’s hope that changes for him.
I’ve mentioned this lad before, Richard Tucker, 18 yrs old and today 3rd in champ class! That lads getting bloody well faster every time I see him. Mind you apparently he learnt everything off his dad Mark (is that right Rich or not?).
A good bit of banter was had by us all in the van on the way home, which included being entertained by Steve ‘the man of a thousand stories’ Jose. I’m telling you now, if ever you’re bored after a race just listen to Steve as he’ll tell you all about what happened and at what particular time it happened, on what part of the course it happened, who it happened with and why it happened! Great stuff and well worth the diesel money on it’s own.
Well I suppose with things going so well lately I was due to have a crap race, let’s hope I don’t have too many of the buggers in the future.
Finishing position: 19/30 (clubman 2st)
Saturday 23 May 2009
Practice- 23rd May 2009
I was going to travel up and do the South Reading event today but decided not to as i've got to much to do at home this weekend!
Not to be outdone and having withdrawel syptoms about not riding my bike, i went for a bit of practice at a local moto x track. With the cracking weather being what it is at the moment, i rode round for just over an hour straight, before packing up and heading home for a Barbecue.
I've managed to get the van fixed after last weekend, so it's all systems go for the Xmoor event on monday.
Not to be outdone and having withdrawel syptoms about not riding my bike, i went for a bit of practice at a local moto x track. With the cracking weather being what it is at the moment, i rode round for just over an hour straight, before packing up and heading home for a Barbecue.
I've managed to get the van fixed after last weekend, so it's all systems go for the Xmoor event on monday.
Monday 18 May 2009
West Harting Down- 17th May 2009
What a weekend it turned out to be! Talk about ups and downs!
So it was off up to West Sussex to enter a timecard event held by Croydon mcc, a round of the SEEC championship. Phil Harris entered it as well, so I picked him up along the way and we made our way to my sisters place near Newbury for an overnight stay so we didn’t have too far to travel in the morning for the race.
We arrived early Saturday evening and promptly went down the local pub called the Fox inn, where we set about having a decent bit of ‘nosh’ after the journey up. We got talking to a couple of locals (like you do), Rachael & Rick who had a sense of humor that was right up out street as it were, and we basically had a great time with them and laughed our nuts off until it was time to leave the place and head back to our lodgings for the night.
When we got back there I thought my sister and her husband were in bed, so we crept about quietly and decided to hit the sack. Bloody nora, sods law, I’d just got off to sleep when the front door went, it was my sister and hubby that had just arrived home and I‘d locked them out, I thought they were a kip! I finally managed to get to bed at 1am.
Morning came, and we were greeted by glorious bright sunshine, nice one! Apparently Phil didn’t hear the commotion last night and was dead to the world, so he got a good nights kip. We set off in good spirits and were looking forward to the day ahead, but as we got closer to Sussex, the sky darkened and we when we actually got to the venue, we were greeted by torrential rain. Now then, to be honest, it’s a bit shit getting your stuff ready and pushing the bike to scrutineering and signing on, but I love racing in the stuff because it makes even the simplest of tracks became tricky and slippery, so what I lack in bike skills, I make up for in fitness (that’s the plan anyway).
After getting stuck in the mud getting into the place, it took us about 15 mins to finally get the van up to the start area so we could park up. I reckon we tried at least 20 times to get up a small incline in the van before I had the bright idea to let the tyre pressures down on the front. That worked a treat and we finally made it.
On to the start then, and with the rain subsiding, me and Phil who were both on the same allotted time, set off into the woods. We were both entered in the clubman class, 2st & 4st and all sized machines, so I was looking forward to seeing how my little 125 would get on against the bigger bikes in the conditions.
I followed him for the first couple of miles which were all woodland type trails, then overtook him just before the special test where I waited for him. Not wanting to do the test 1st time around (you had choice when you wanted to do your 2 tests) I just said to him, ‘follow me and we’ll do the 1st one next lap’. From this point onwards, I didn’t see him again! More of that later.
The course was excellent, in fact, I’ll say it again, excellent. All woods and a few fire roads to have a blast on so you could open her up a bit. Not one flat field in sight, hooray!, thank god for that.
Due to the rain that had fallen the night before and in the morning, the hills were a bit slippery as was parts of the wooded trails and fitness was going to come into play as the race wore on, without a doubt. One ‘rooty’ hill in particular had about 7 or 8 marshals stood on it to help the riders up to the top, as it was extremely tricky indeed and hard going, but the little ‘gasser’ made it up there every time with lots of throttle and some slipping of the clutch. Boy oh boy, do I love 125’s!
The course had a bit of everything apart from a stinky black bog. There was rooty climbs and downhills, logs to go over, fast trails, fire road tracks, muddy sections and a decent fast special test. Overall i reckon the course was about 9-10 miles in length.
At the end of the 1st lap (they gave us 50 mins to do it) I made 10 mins, so i had a bit of a wait until I was due out on the next one, but Phil was nowhere insight, so I guess something had happened to him, but I couldn’t wait any longer as my time had elapsed and I was back out.
No problems on my 2nd lap and with 45 mins to do it in, I made time again and when I got back i put some fuel in. I did my 1st ‘special test’ this time and it went well.
Lap 3 and with 40 mins to do it in, I did my 2nd special test which went well and still made it back with a bit of time to spare albeit only a couple of mins. Still no sign of Phil!
Onto lap 4 then and this was the one that was going to sort everybody out as we only had 27 mins to complete it in. With the course getting rutted and cut up and the rain starting to fall again we were told that the event would be cut short by a lap because of the conditions. I made it back to the time check 8 mins over.
So on I went then to start my 5th and final lap, and with a relaxed 40 mins to complete it, I didn’t need to push to hard. It was at this point that I actually saw Phil as I went through the time check who explained to me that his throttle cable had snapped soon after I waited for him on the 1st lap, so in fact he’d only been riding for about 10 mins or so.
It was on this lap that I managed to have a few little ‘offs’, I wasn’t tired at all, but simply trying to maintain my pace, but with the course getting more difficult, it caught me out a few times. One little ‘off’ (like a 10 mph job) into a tree is all it takes to break something on your bike and that’s exactly what happened, oh well, looks like another new headlight surround and mudgaurd again for me!!!
Apart from that, I was pleased to finish with quite a bit of energy left, so I would have gone on for another lap no problem, shame the clerk of the course cut the event short! Apparently a lot of riders had pulled out because they found it too hard?
So it was back to the van to meet up with Phil so he could tell me about his hard luck story and we left for the 4 hour drive home.
Whilst getting out of the place the rutted muddy tracks that people had driven over in the rain needed a ’run up’ in order to get through them and make it up the small hill out of the place, we made it no problem but coming down the other side my van ’grounded’ itself at the front, and with a big ‘clunk’ sound where she’d scraped along the deck, we thought it would be best to stop and check things. It was at this point that the oil light came on the dashboard and as I looked down outside the window, all I could see was a puddle of oil!!! Oh b*llocks, my sumps been trashed (see pic). With that we got out and inspected the damage and sure enough, a whole full of engine oil had deposited itself onto the floor and there was no way we were going to make it back home.
Luckily Phil had the full monty RAC cover, so after getting a lift up the road in order to get a phone signal on the mobile, he asked them to send a low loader to put the van on so we could get home. As riders passed by us on their way home, some stopped to ask if they could help and a few of them gave us some food and drink to keep us going until help arrived. It’s pleasing to know that one someone gets in the sh*t, a lot of people that have been at the event are willing to lend a hand even though they just want get home after a hard days riding. A big thanks to everybody who stopped and a lot can be said for the camaraderie of enduro riders.
About 1 ½ hours later the RAC turned up but with a plain transit van! How the hell is that going to tow us home then? Apparently not said the technician, he’d just come to look at it and report the problem. Great, so we’ve told you we want a low loader and told you what’s up and you just send someone out to look at it we told the RAC. Not impressed!
The guy was only there 5 minutes and off he went. So now we had to wait again for a tow truck and now that everyone had left the event and gone home, we were definitely on our own in the middle of nowhere in West Sussex.
Another 1 ½ hours had past before another breakdown truck arrived and still it wasn’t a low loader!!! What’s going on now then? All we were doing was getting towed back to Chichester where we were to pick up a hired car to get us home and the van would be brought back the next day. Fair enough, but we had to pay our own way home and fill the car up with petrol and we couldn’t claim it back. Phil wasn’t happy and he’d every right not to be, he’d payed for the premium service which means the RAC will get you home for nothing and you’re expected to end up paying.
Thankfully and after about another 4 -5 phone calls it all got sorted and the RAC at last saw some sense and would send out a low loader to put the van on so we could get home. I hadn’t eating for 11 hours and so we got the recovery truck to tow us to the local burger king so we could have a right old feast! Another 1 ½ hours past by before we finally got going on a low loader to be taken down to Wincanton for yet another 30 minute wait and then to be transferred to yet another low loader who was going to take us home.
Phil (the lightweight) kipped for most of the way, I dunno, these youngsters, can’t seem to keep the pace up can they? And he had a decent nights sleep the night before! Luckily for me both the drivers were good lads, one being a football fan, and the other one a bit of a biker, so a good bit of conversation went on to pass the time away.
We got dropped off at Phil’s place and then he gave me a lift home and I walked through the door at 4am.
I’m not going to forget that weekend in a hurry then am I?
Finishing position: 9/45 (clubman)
Thursday 14 May 2009
Best wishes
This time it goes to Jack Twentyman who had a crash at Kings Hill (see blog 26th April).
After a couple of weeks and still in pain due to the accident, Jack finally went to the hospital to get checked out, and things turned out to be a lot more serious than he first thought.
The x rays had showed that he has broke a couple of vertebrae in his back and will be out of racing for sometime due to the nature of the injury. I spoke to Jack earlier in the week and in his own words he told me that he was lucky and it could have been at lot more serious as he had landed on his head after going over the bars.
As i write this he's been admitted to hospital and waiting for a CT scan and to see the specialist who will then decide on what treatment there will be.
All the best mate and hope to see you soon.
After a couple of weeks and still in pain due to the accident, Jack finally went to the hospital to get checked out, and things turned out to be a lot more serious than he first thought.
The x rays had showed that he has broke a couple of vertebrae in his back and will be out of racing for sometime due to the nature of the injury. I spoke to Jack earlier in the week and in his own words he told me that he was lucky and it could have been at lot more serious as he had landed on his head after going over the bars.
As i write this he's been admitted to hospital and waiting for a CT scan and to see the specialist who will then decide on what treatment there will be.
All the best mate and hope to see you soon.
Wednesday 13 May 2009
Pratice- 13th May 2009
Went out for a bit of practice tonight for an hour or so with Nick Tremlett and Adam Blake around a local moto x track. Me and Nick had a good little battle together but couldn't get anywhere near Blakey as he was absolutely flying.
Good thing about going along with a few lads is that you can swap bikes, and tonight i went on a YZ 125, not as crisp in power as the gasser, but i reckon it had a little bit more top end than mine.
Nice to have a ride around mid week, must do it more often!
Good thing about going along with a few lads is that you can swap bikes, and tonight i went on a YZ 125, not as crisp in power as the gasser, but i reckon it had a little bit more top end than mine.
Nice to have a ride around mid week, must do it more often!
Sunday 10 May 2009
Chevenage- 10th May 2009
A cracking beautiful sunny day greeted me as I made the drive up to Chevanage for a round of the Midwest series.
Now then, I did a previous race at this place not so long ago and wasn’t really impressed with it due to the sheer numbers of riders involved on the course, and today was much the same judging by the look of the size of the entry. But you pays your money and you takes your chance and having a ride out is better than not having one.
I didn’t start off too well when I realized I’d left my ORPA license at home, and even though I got Marie to text me my license number to me, Midwest were having none of it, so I had to pay for a day license, £5!! Even though they’ve already seen it when I entered the 1st race with them.
Another club Track n Trail take one look at your license only once to make sure you’ve got one and then you don’t have to show it again for the rest of the year. And even if you did need a day license with them, it ain’t a fiver. Ok, all clubs work differently and it was stated on the final instructions that you had to show your license, so it’s my fault I forgot the thing in the first place!
I’m starting to think about this whole Midwest series already and it’s only the 2nd race into it, they are the dearest club I’ve joined, one of the dearest races to enter, and probably the dearest if you need a ORPA day license, um……………………….
Onto the start itself and I managed to have a very quick chat with Pete Boyles who was riding a TM 250 this time out before we got going. When the flag dropped I hurtled it into the first corner, and with 40 or more bikes in my class I reckon I was in the top 10 as we meandered out way round a hilly field set out in moto x style before we entered the woods. The course this time was being run in reverse with some changes made to it, a good idea that I thought.
As with the 1st round and with so many bikes entered we soon caught up the back of the clubman 4st and with the woods being so tight, the inevitable queue of bikes began to appear in front of you which held you up a bit as there was no where to pass and with it being the 1st lap every ones pumped full of adrenaline so you ain’t going to get anyone to let you through are ya?
All the same, the woods were are a treat to ride through, nothing too technical, a few roots here and there, some nice off cambers and a couple of short steep hills thrown in for good measure, one of which was the hard route option, but I cleared it each time (apart from the last lap, more later) so no problems there.
In between each wooded section came of course fields, and more fields! Basically I was pinning the little ‘gasser’ for all it’s worth across these as there was no way I’d be able to compete with the bigger bikes on pure speed alone if I wanted to get by anyone. I knew though that as the race wore on and with people slowing up, it would be much easier to get by and out brake them on the fast open sections. I’m not a great lover of fields, it just seems to be ’who can hold the throttle open the longest’, I don’t mind a couple thrown so you can have a blast, but Chevenage seems to have more than it’s fair share of them!
About ¾ of the way round was that little water crossing which as every lap went by, got more difficult to get through as big ruts were forming on the other side of it as some machines had ‘dug’ themselves in when getting stuck. I really didn’t have any problems with it, but I passed a few riders who were finding things a little bit difficult and digging themselves in a big hole.
With the conditions today being so dry, the 6-7 mile lap was fast and it just depended on how quick you could pass riders in the woods as there wasn’t anything technical to hold anyone up, so it was sods law if you got caught up behind a gaggle of bikes or not, some laps you were lucky, some laps you weren’t!!
For the first hour I exchanged a few places with some riders in my class, but I figured I was about where I started in the beginning and wasn’t really making any ground up on anyone, so at that stage a top 10 finish was all I could hope for.
Things began to ‘thin’ out a bit on the course later on and it was joy to ride properly through the woods without the traffic problems. I pitted just after 2 hours and yet again was cutting it fine as I had to stick her on reserve in order to make it back to the pits, PHEW! Relief or what, as I made it back just before she run bone dry. Seems to me I’m cutting this re-fueling lark at bit close every time. Time for me I think to get told off and write some lines like you did at school (do kids still do that I wonder)? I must re-fuel earlier, 100 times!
Back out I went then and rode round without a hiccup until the last lap board was shown as we passed through lap scoring. It was on this lap that I got caught up in a pile up on the hard route going up a hill. I’d done it all the race without any problems and bloody well ‘sod’s’ law 2 bikes came down in front of me as we were going up it. My bike got pinned against a tree and I couldn’t move it, even after all the heaving and the pinning of the throttle, she just wouldn’t budge. Luckily for me a young lad who was a spectator came to my rescue, and we managed to get the bike out and turn it around so I could go back down and carry on again, albeit via the easy route as the hard one was now clogged up. While I had been stuck I noticed 1 or if not 2 of the riders in my class went past me, that pissed me off no end and I tried to close the gap on them for the remainder of the lap, but the checkered flag came to soon, and now I can see I lost a couple of places losing the 2-3 minutes due to that bloody pile up. Just goes to show how the racing can be so tight some times even in a 3 hour race, especially with a big entry.
Not a bad days racing, and it makes a change to drive home in some decent weather as the shine was still shining.
Finishing position: 5/42 (vets)
Now then, I did a previous race at this place not so long ago and wasn’t really impressed with it due to the sheer numbers of riders involved on the course, and today was much the same judging by the look of the size of the entry. But you pays your money and you takes your chance and having a ride out is better than not having one.
I didn’t start off too well when I realized I’d left my ORPA license at home, and even though I got Marie to text me my license number to me, Midwest were having none of it, so I had to pay for a day license, £5!! Even though they’ve already seen it when I entered the 1st race with them.
Another club Track n Trail take one look at your license only once to make sure you’ve got one and then you don’t have to show it again for the rest of the year. And even if you did need a day license with them, it ain’t a fiver. Ok, all clubs work differently and it was stated on the final instructions that you had to show your license, so it’s my fault I forgot the thing in the first place!
I’m starting to think about this whole Midwest series already and it’s only the 2nd race into it, they are the dearest club I’ve joined, one of the dearest races to enter, and probably the dearest if you need a ORPA day license, um……………………….
Onto the start itself and I managed to have a very quick chat with Pete Boyles who was riding a TM 250 this time out before we got going. When the flag dropped I hurtled it into the first corner, and with 40 or more bikes in my class I reckon I was in the top 10 as we meandered out way round a hilly field set out in moto x style before we entered the woods. The course this time was being run in reverse with some changes made to it, a good idea that I thought.
As with the 1st round and with so many bikes entered we soon caught up the back of the clubman 4st and with the woods being so tight, the inevitable queue of bikes began to appear in front of you which held you up a bit as there was no where to pass and with it being the 1st lap every ones pumped full of adrenaline so you ain’t going to get anyone to let you through are ya?
All the same, the woods were are a treat to ride through, nothing too technical, a few roots here and there, some nice off cambers and a couple of short steep hills thrown in for good measure, one of which was the hard route option, but I cleared it each time (apart from the last lap, more later) so no problems there.
In between each wooded section came of course fields, and more fields! Basically I was pinning the little ‘gasser’ for all it’s worth across these as there was no way I’d be able to compete with the bigger bikes on pure speed alone if I wanted to get by anyone. I knew though that as the race wore on and with people slowing up, it would be much easier to get by and out brake them on the fast open sections. I’m not a great lover of fields, it just seems to be ’who can hold the throttle open the longest’, I don’t mind a couple thrown so you can have a blast, but Chevenage seems to have more than it’s fair share of them!
About ¾ of the way round was that little water crossing which as every lap went by, got more difficult to get through as big ruts were forming on the other side of it as some machines had ‘dug’ themselves in when getting stuck. I really didn’t have any problems with it, but I passed a few riders who were finding things a little bit difficult and digging themselves in a big hole.
With the conditions today being so dry, the 6-7 mile lap was fast and it just depended on how quick you could pass riders in the woods as there wasn’t anything technical to hold anyone up, so it was sods law if you got caught up behind a gaggle of bikes or not, some laps you were lucky, some laps you weren’t!!
For the first hour I exchanged a few places with some riders in my class, but I figured I was about where I started in the beginning and wasn’t really making any ground up on anyone, so at that stage a top 10 finish was all I could hope for.
Things began to ‘thin’ out a bit on the course later on and it was joy to ride properly through the woods without the traffic problems. I pitted just after 2 hours and yet again was cutting it fine as I had to stick her on reserve in order to make it back to the pits, PHEW! Relief or what, as I made it back just before she run bone dry. Seems to me I’m cutting this re-fueling lark at bit close every time. Time for me I think to get told off and write some lines like you did at school (do kids still do that I wonder)? I must re-fuel earlier, 100 times!
Back out I went then and rode round without a hiccup until the last lap board was shown as we passed through lap scoring. It was on this lap that I got caught up in a pile up on the hard route going up a hill. I’d done it all the race without any problems and bloody well ‘sod’s’ law 2 bikes came down in front of me as we were going up it. My bike got pinned against a tree and I couldn’t move it, even after all the heaving and the pinning of the throttle, she just wouldn’t budge. Luckily for me a young lad who was a spectator came to my rescue, and we managed to get the bike out and turn it around so I could go back down and carry on again, albeit via the easy route as the hard one was now clogged up. While I had been stuck I noticed 1 or if not 2 of the riders in my class went past me, that pissed me off no end and I tried to close the gap on them for the remainder of the lap, but the checkered flag came to soon, and now I can see I lost a couple of places losing the 2-3 minutes due to that bloody pile up. Just goes to show how the racing can be so tight some times even in a 3 hour race, especially with a big entry.
Not a bad days racing, and it makes a change to drive home in some decent weather as the shine was still shining.
Finishing position: 5/42 (vets)
Saturday 2 May 2009
Training- 2nd May 2009
With me not being able to race this weekend due to work commitments, i put on the running shoes and went out for a run in order to keep my fitness and stamina levels up.
I covered the half marathon distance of 13 miles (brings back memories does that!) so it was a good test of endurance. Nice day with beautiful sunshine so took it easy. although i must admit to being a bit 'cream crackered' for the last few miles.
I covered the half marathon distance of 13 miles (brings back memories does that!) so it was a good test of endurance. Nice day with beautiful sunshine so took it easy. although i must admit to being a bit 'cream crackered' for the last few miles.
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