Grebestone manor- 28th March 2010

Traveled up with Adam Blake and ‘mad’ Jack Twentyman for an ORE race just off the M5 past Exeter, so not too far to go. With the rain we’ve been having this week the usual fun and games were had getting into the field to park the motor. I got out of the van and looked for a decent line through the mud (like you do) so ‘Blakey’ could use his champ skills and plough through the gloop in his van in order to get parked up, this worked a treat and while every other bugger struggled he made look easy!!

Parked up just in front of us was Gary ‘nothing gets in my way’ Mcoy and Nick life. Gary was feeling a bit worse for wear after having a night on the beer, mind you it didn’t seem to make a difference to his appearance, in fact I thought he looked better for it!

Whilst I milling around the signing on trailer (which in fact only 3 people could stand on it at one time in case it tipped over!) I bumped into the 3 musketeers, Rich Batstone, Paul Ford and Rob Ellick. Nice to see Rich riding again and it bought back a few memories when we both used to be rivals a few years back at the same ORE events (bloody hell I’m sounding like a old man now), had a good laugh about that we did. A few other riders from down our way made the trip so I knew quite a few that were there.

After a quick walk of the very open track (like most of the ORE events because of the quad racing that goes beforehand), it was back to the van and to wait for everyone to get changed before the start. As flag time got nearer I toddled off for a good vantage point so I could see all the action, and were I was stood I could see most of the bloody course, eh……………..one field there, another field there, another field there, in fact quite a few fields! Fast racing then was assured and short laps as well, not my ideal kind of course but who cares, I’m not even racing! The track in places was a little bit ‘tacky’ due to the recent downpours but nothing too much to worry about.

So after watching all the riders flood through past me for a few laps I went off walkabout and headed back up to the pits were I bumped into Gary (Mcoy) who’d had bike trouble and had to pull out after about the hour mark. I helped ‘Blakey’ do his pit stop, helped out Gavin Hunt a bit who had to pit for while because he had brake trouble, and then went and took another look at a different part of the course. It was at this point that I saw Paul Ford cruising around the track like an old fart, so I shouted to him to get his arse in gear and hurry things up and not take it so easy!

God knows how many laps the top guys did at the end of it all, but they were short laps and keeping tabs on everybody’s position was nigh on impossible although I did know that Nick Life trounced everybody (he made it look like a stroll in the park) and ‘mad’ Jack was 2nd, and Adam 4th. Back at the van Jack was in a bad way, he wasn’t injured but had just exerted himself so much that he resembled a figure of someone that had just downed 20 Jack Daniels and then been hit by a bus, he couldn’t stand up let alone walk!!!! Jack didn’t want any help so all we could do was leave him be. Just before we left a few of us were stood round having a chat, including Christian Soanes and Gavin Hunt, where for some reason or another we all ended up showing off our battle scars from our injuries over the years! Adam of course felt left out because the soft lad hasn’t got any! Or it maybe the fact that he’s to a skillful rider to get any!

On the way home the atmosphere in the van was non existent, in fact I would probably say that there was more atmosphere on the moon as Jack was still in a bad way, puffing and panting, holding his head in his hands, opening the window for fresh air, feeling sick, me and Blakey didn’t quite know what to say and it wasn’t long before we had to stop on the hard shoulder of the M5 for Jack to throw up!!! Another 30 mins later and we had to stop again, this time on the A30 for the same thing, not good. It wasn’t until we got back to near home that Jack had pulled round a bit which was just as well because he was giving me a lift home!

Next race I’ll be out and about at is the Hustyn enduro, see you there.

Twin oaks- 14th March 2010

(pic by Sue Pitman)

So it was a short drive up to meet up with Adam Blake and Steve Jose before heading off for the Endurocross event in Devon. Now then, we were traveling along nicely along one of the A roads when an Ambulance came up behind with it’s lights flashing all over the place, obviously on an emergency call of some sort, so we pulled over and let the thing by like you do. But then as the road began to twist and turn a bit due to some of the sharp corners, we caught the bloody thing up! In fact it was going so slow, It was almost embarrassing, and it still had it’s lights blazing. The thing is the cars it caught up all pulled over to the side of the road to let it pass, so we followed the ambulance and went by them as well. Needless to say that Adam (who was driving) was now a marked man as the cars that we past weren’t impressed and one or two them decided to get their own back and overtake us! Not to be outdone Adam put his champ skills to good use and found the best line at the right opportunity and re-overtook them! It now turned out to be a game chicken to see who could get closest to the ambulance first without actually overtaking the thing. This battle of wits lasted about 10 miles with the irate drivers behind weaving from side to side right up our arse trying to get by us, but ‘Blakeys’ made of sterner stuff and held his own until the bitter end when finally the ambulance that been going like a tortoise with a broken leg, turned off and got out of the way. So then, a bit of high jinks before we even got there!

I’ve never been to one of these ‘Endurocross’ meetings before, two 1 hour races with a bit of a break in between, so I was looking forward to the racing even though I suppose you could say that it was a bit of a sprint compared to a proper enduro. A few other riders from down our neck of the woods were there, ’mad’ Jack Twentyman, John Pitman, Barry Weeks, to name but a few, I had a quick chat to everyone and then toddled off to the wooded section to watch the action.

Conditions were dry, so the racing was going to be fast. I was stood watching on fairly steep downhill section, but this proved easy to the riders as the ground was dry so not much action there then! I moved shortly afterwards to a nadgery little uphill climb for a few laps where some riders were getting stuck and having problems, nothing major, but plenty of action all the same. After a quick chat to Simon Thomas who there marshaling I moved back out into the open field to near where the lap scoring was to watch. After about 30 mins Steve Jose pulled over in front of us at the side of the track where I was standing, ’whats up then’ I said, ’can’t feel my right hand’ he replied. Steve was suffering from a chronic bit of arm pump and couldn’t hold on to the bike properly (to much of watching them porno dvd’s I reckon) so had to stop for a while until the feeling came back. He wasn’t the only one with problems, Adam went by me shouting his head off but I couldn’t understand what the hell he was saying, turned out that his brake lever had come loose and because of that he got overtaken for 3rd place right in the closing stages on the last lap, and Barry weeks chain snapped right at the bottom of a bloody hill on his last lap, so he had a nice push back to his van.

After about an hours break it was time for race 2 and another short sprint to the flag of an hours worth of riding. To be honest I was quite enjoying this, would have liked the course to be a bit more technical, but hey, I’m only watching so can’t complain. ‘Mad’ Jack Twentyman was riding like the only way he knows, ‘flat out and I don’t care about nothing’ and was leading the entire field up until the very end when he got overtaken with a lap to go and finished 2nd. Adam done well again and Steve had a better result this time around.

Now then, this has happened before, went to get the lads some chips from the catering van, and they’d flamin well run out! We packed up the gear and it was off to the nearest town to hunt for a kebab shop where we found one. Of course there was nothing wrong with Steve’s right hand now was there? Course not! He gripped that kebab like it was his last 10 pence piece and didn’t drop a morsel of it.

A good day out and quite an eventful one, enjoyed it, but would much rather be racing!

Not good news then- 11th March 2010

Not good news from the doc this week as he comfirmed that i've damaged the tendons again due to that little incident at the Brass monkeys few weeks ago. Understandably i can't have another cortisone injection yet, so the only thing to do is rest it and continue with the physio for a while. It looks like i'll be out of action for at least another 2 or 3 months again. Since i've been racing this is the longest that i've been out with an injury, but i do know from past sports that i've done, that tendon injuries are a nightmare. When i was doing a lot of running a few years back i had Achilles Tendinitis which took 5 to 6 months to heal, so i do know what these things are like, 'pain in the arse' springs to mind.

Due to the current situation i've decided to sell the bike, it's only been out twice in the last 4 months and it's just going to sit there for i don't know how long until i can ride again. At least i can look forward to getting a new one a bit later on in the year.

I'll be out and about watching all the races, so i'll see you all there!

Doctors again- 9th March 2010

It's back to the doc's again this week to get a verdict on what the next stage is going to be with this elbow of mine. Obviousley i'll be going to the same guy who gave me the cortizone injection to see what the situation is.