First away, I got off to a flyer! no 22, white bike
(pic by Sue Pitman)
So with the next few weeks doing a bit of traveling all over the shop it was nice to have a race just 20 or so miles down the road. I have to admit (and so do a lot of other riders I’ve spoken too) that the Nancemellion course is not high on everybody’s ‘wish list’ as an event, but this was the 3rd round of the south west champs, so of course that in itself generates quite a few riders regardless.
The weather today was a bit overcast and slightly on the chilly side (if you’re a tin ribs like me!) but dry, and with the recent sunshine we’ve been having, it wasn’t going to be a wet one.
I got parked up along with the motley crew of Phil Harris, Andy Smith, Francis Banfield, Adam Blake, Steve Jose, Jed Treleaven, so a good bit of chat and banter was had before hand.
After doing all the necessary and taking the bike on what seemed like a mile down the hill to the start, we had to bloody well walk back up again and back to our vans to get changed and sort ourselves out.
The pits were situated on the side of a hill, none too clever that, but passable, unless you overbalanced of course whilst re-fuelling!
Onto the start itself then, a surprisingly small field for the clubman E1 class, only 12 of us, and as the flag dropped I got off to a flyer and was 1st away as we turned right up a loose gravel hill and into the woods.
I lost a place or 2 almost immediately as we entered those woods and was holding 3rd when I got caught out on a steep slippery little climb and lost another couple of places, but still a long way to go so I thought I could claw a place or two back later on.
Now the thing about this course and probably why not many riders actually like it is because it’s as rough and bumpy as hell and extremely tight in places, so tight in fact that if you were a trails rider you’d feel more at home than an enduro rider. Nevertheless it’s the same for everybody so you just had to get on with it and roll your sleeves up.
The woods themselves as mentioned were very very tight in a lot of places this also included some of the slippery rooty climbs, so in fact if a rider in front of you got stuck, basically you were buggered and you had to wait until the way up became free in order to get up it.
Don’t get me wrong, some of the wooded sections were a joy to ride and certainly a test of riding skills as there were some nasty little drop offs to get down which could have easily sent you over the bars or straight into the undergrowth.
After leaving the first 4-5 miles of woods we then went onto the old bumpy moto x track and up through to the hill just the other side of the valley which was covered in wet slippery grass! Yours truly took the wrong line on the very 1st lap on one of these grass covered hills and promptly got stuck half way up, and with the back wheel spinning like a washing machine on acid, I was going nowhere so I had to go back down and try again, this time with more success! I must have wasted a couple of minutes on that bloody grass and promptly lost some more places as well some of the other classes that started behind me passing me in the process.
After going up and down the open hill side a few times and through a couple of small bogs (or round them as it were) it was then back up a steep rooty (but dry) climb which led back up to the lap scoring. I reckon the whole lap being about 6 miles or so.
My 1st lap was awful, and as well as getting stuck on that wet grass I must have come off 5 or 6 times in the woods trying to maintain my decent start that I’d made, and every time I came off the more I kept shouting expletives to myself as the more I lost places, for some reason or another I just couldn’t get going, maybe it was my thigh or due to the fact that the bug earlier in the week that wiped me out had taken it’s toll and I hadn’t fully recovered I don’t know, but I just couldn’t find any sort of rhythm which was a bit disappointing as I’ve been riding quite well lately. Very frustrating!
A few more little annoying ‘offs’on laps 2 and 3 didn’t do me any good either and I was left with half a broken clutch lever to carry on the race with, luckily I could still use it and in any case with me being down in my class I didn’t have the time to replace it any way!
I think it was on lap 5 that a couple of spectators who were standing at the bottom of the climb just before the lap scoring pointed to me to take a different line up the hill to what I’d been taking before, so I followed there advice thinking something was up with my normal route that I’d been using. Oh b*llocks, why did I listen to them was my thoughts as I promptly came to a grinding halt half way up! Thanks to Mike Roose who was standing there and helped me shunt my bike over to the side to what I’ve been using all the race and with no problem got me on my way again with a bit of a push.
After this lap I pitted for fuel and let some air out of the rear so as to get some more grip and from then on things went a lot better even though we were 2 hours into the race!
Apart from the chain coming off (what again, that’s 2 races running now) because of a thick root that stuck up in the air like a sore thumb, I didn’t have too many problems from there on in until the finish, in fact for the last hour I actually was starting to enjoy it and finally starting to ride with a bit of urgency and I actually made up a few places which was pleasing.
One of the bogs claimed a bike as when I was on my final lap, I went past it and it was bolt upright stuck firmly in the middle of the gloopy mess helplessly waiting for someone or something to tow it out!
So after finishing and getting changed and having a chat with the lads we decided to go and get the obligatory burger, only to find that the catering van had p*ssed off home! So it was all down to Macdondalds at Fraddon on the way back to satisfy our empty stomachs. Adam, Steve, Andy, Fran, Phil (another DNF for him) and me all went for the nosh up and had a bit of a laugh at the same time.
Just one thing I’d like to mention, Adam Blake got accused of ‘course cutting’ today. Now anyone that knows Adam will tell you that that is total bullshit, infact at todays race Adam even stopped and helped an injured rider by redirecting the bikes around the injured person, does that sound like someone who would cheat? and this is a rider who is currently of the verge of being upgraded to the champ class next year. Fair play to him for doing that.
And guess what? The riders who accused him for course cutting were the riders who he beat today fair and square, sour grapes or what!!!
Finishing position: 6/12 (clubman E1)
