After a phone call on Thursday night to Clerk of the course Simon Thomas, I decided to do a bit of marshaling to try out my arm and do the full 27 miles course to see how I got on. I was really looking forward to it and I couldn’t wait to get back on the bike.
I drove up to Steve Jose’s place early Sunday morning, and both of us then traveled up to somewhere in Devon (not exactly sure where!) to the venue. This was the 2nd round of the SW series, but a few riders were away at another event, that being the SCEC one up in Dorset. It was still a good turn out though, and plenty of top riders were in action.
After doing a bit of socializing (like you do) it was off to get changed into my gear and don my hi viz jacket! My plan was to start off right at the back after the sportsman and follow them to see if any of them needed any help.
Must admit to being a little bit apprehensive as I’ve not done anything that would really test out the arm in the way of a proper enduro, but I’ve gotta start somewhere, and today was the day. So after waiting for the field to pass by I kicked the little gasser into life and off I went. It wasn’t long before came across some riders in trouble at the foot of a hill on the special test section, so I parked up the bike and helped all 4 of them to get up the hill before I got back on and away I went again. Another 2 minutes later and one of them that I’d helped earlier had got stuck in one of the small boggy ditches, heave as he might, he couldn’t get the bike out, so again I stopped, got out my ratchet strap that was in my bum bag that I was wearing today, and hauled him out. This guy looked knackerd already and we was only about 2-3 miles into the course!
After he got going again I give it about 5 mins before I started up again, my intention now was to ‘give it some’ and ‘pin it’ as after all, we were still on the special test and the track was clear, so why not? I certainly need and as I went down a one of the ditches I give her too much throttle and the bike flipped into the air depositing me on my arse! The funny thing was the bike landed smack bang on the handlebars and seat at the same time and stayed in that position, and it just kept going in 2nd gear whilst being upside down. I just wish I had my camera with me, would have made a great picture!
The rest of the test was awesome, hills, roots, off cambers, mud, logs, a few fields to have a blast round, a long test it was too, excellent stuff. Had a chat with Debbie Tucker on the way round who was there on the test taking some pics, and by the look of it was bloody freezing as she stood there in the cold woods. A bit later on and out I came onto the fields where I caught sight of Mike Roose, so I went and had a chat with him too before making my way back into the woods and setting off to do the last 20 miles or so!
Things at this point were going extremely well, I was certainly getting back into the swing of things and my elbow was holding up with everything I threw at it, and the bike was going like a ‘good un’. The course was absolutely awesome and right up my street, it reminded me of the Knighton enduro in Wales that I did last year except on a smaller scale, but without the rain! A few miles later and I caught up the same guy who I’d twice helped earlier, he was ‘cream crackerd’ and he wanted to pull out there and then, but I persuaded him to give it a go and finish the lap and I’d follow him all the way back to the pits to make sure he made it. I was in no hurry, so that’s what I did, and every now and then I had to stop and help him get back on his bike as fatigue had crept in and he kept coming off (we’ve all been there haven’t we?).
With only a few miles to go the inevitable happened, I was following him when all of a sudden he stopped right in front of me, I jammed on my bikes and my front wheel slid to the side, I quickly ‘dabbed’ my left foot on the deck in order to pull my bars back to stop myself going down and aaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh! My f*cking elbow went again! I couldn’t believe it, I knew what it was straight away, the pain was instant and right in the same place as before, gutting or what? I just couldn’t believe it, I limped back to the pits and had no choice but to call it a day, well p*ssed off.
Riders were pulling out left, right and centre and many were struggling to stay on time as the course began to take it’s toll. Jed Treleaven pulled out, Francis Banfield pulled out, Steve Jay pulled out (riding a 4 banger for the 1st time, not surprised), and quite a few more as well. I went back down to the test to watch the champ riders come through, bloody nora, how can they ride that fast? Excellent to watch.
Went back to pits area after this and had a bloody good laugh with Mark and Debbie Tucker, Steve, Fran, amongst a few others as well, so not a bad end to the day as it turned out. Jose’y done well, stayed on time got 2nd, John Hinkley won E1 on his 125, and Rich got 3rd in the champ class. Poor Paul Ford had a spot of bother with his new cycling shorts for the 1st hour or so, apparently his ‘todger’ had poked through the hole in the front and was rubbing against his race trousers until he could re-adjust himself, ouch! Sounds like his misses is going to frustrated for a few weeks then? Robert Ellick lost his time card and got penalty points, quite an indifferent day for those two then.
The journey home wasn’t too bad as Steve has always got a story to tell, so at least it kept my mind off the injury. Where does that leave me now? God knows? I’ll keep you posted.
