Weatherby fort- 13th February 2011

Rain! It was raining when I got up, it was raining when I drove up to meet Adam (Blake), it rained on the journey up there (about 2 ½ hours), and it was still raining when we got there! Needless to say that the area round by the signing on and pits was um……….a bit of a quagmire! It was hard enough walking around the place let alone having to ride in it a bit later, but I love the mud, and the harder the better as far as I’m concenered as it’s a great leveler on the old fitness side of things. A few riders I know traveled up to do this Track n Trail event, ‘mad’ Jack Twentyman, Rich Tucker, Jed Treleaven, also saw Jason Duggan who I hadn’t seen for ages. I got bloody froze just waiting in the queue for the signing on as the wind and rain was blowing across the fields at a decent rate of knots, and me and Adam both decided then and there that there was no way we were gonna to do a sighting lap, sod that! Couldn’t see the point in getting plastered with water and mud then waiting 30 minutes or so for everyone to come back in the freezing cold before the race starts.

So after very nearly getting ‘ripped off’ buying numbers from the trade van, it was off to get changed where unfortunately (sort of) me and Blakey were still getting changed as the sighting lap went off. As we watched every bugger come back plastered (told you!) with mud, I went off to have a word with Jed and get the run down on the course as he’d done the sighting lap. ’All fields, with about 5 minutes worth of woods’ he said, f*cking great I thought, wet slippery muddy undulating fields on a 125, not the sort of thing I wanted to hear, maybe all woods with 5 mins of fields yeah, that’ll be ideal!

So to the start then, erm…I didn’t get a good one and was near the back as I had a job finding traction just going into the 1st corner as the bigger bikes just powered away in front of me. From this moment I suppose you could say that it was your typical Track n trail course, loads of undulating fields with a bit of woods here and there, and if it was dry, it would basically been a 7-8 mile motocross track tailor made for the throttle jockeys. Good job then that the conditions turned it upside down and more in the way of a battle of stamina than speed. Field upon field descended on me and I struggled every time I opened the throttle to find any kind of grip whatsoever to try and keep up with the bigger bikes, especially the 4 bangers who just seemed to find grip everywhere. The track was just becoming a muddy slippery bog all the way round. as each lap went by, and with about 200 riders starting, it just kept getting churned up more and more. Ever seen that footage of the Glastonbury music festival on TV where the people were knee deep in mud a few years back? Not too dissimilar to that!

The event at Hellvana I did a few weeks back was tough because of the course, this was a different kind of tough event today because of the conditions, and I must admit that I really did struggle with the little strimmer today even going up some of the slippery grassy hills absolutely nailing the thing full throttle in 3rd or 4th slipping the clutch trying to find some bloody grip! The small bit of woods that did appear were getting really rutted and riders were starting to get stuck as the ruts were becoming deeper and deeper as the race went on.

I made my pit stop at half way and changed my gloves and goggles, and even then riders were starting to flag having a rest in the pits before going out again. On my next lap and after seeing a rider in front of me get stuck in the wooded section in front of me, I decided to choose a different line and go round him only to plant myself nearly saddle high in a deep sandy hell hole of a rut, and try as I might I couldn’t get out of the bloody thing, lucky for me 2 lads were nearby to give us a yank out so only wasted a minute there. The worse was yet to come though as a bit later on whilst going up a off camber hill, I managed to hit the deck by doing a lovely pirouette on the bike, 10 out 10 for style I think that one! Sods law then that the bike was laying the ’wrong way’ facing side wards down the hill, and boy did I struggle to pick the thing up as it seemed that I’d got half of Dorset county’s mud attached to it. By this time I was getting really tired and it took me 4 or 5 attempts just to get the bike upright and get back on it as the 125 seemed to weigh like picking up a dead cow and trying to put it back on it’s feet again. As the course worsened the track markers in some of the fields became non existent and riders were just starting to pick any line anywhere and just riding across a field cutting out huge parts of the track and basically cutting the corners to avoid ploughing through the mud, and with no one to stop them doing it things on the last lap became a bit of a farce.

So it was another finish under my belt and seeing as I struggled from the first corner in, I’m quite pleased with the result to be honest and even though todays event just showed me how much in the way of bike fitness I’m lacking, I still ploughed on (literally) and got through it whilst others took a rest or pulled out.

Bit of surprise when I got back to the van as Adam was already sat in it ready to go home! He’d been caught in the eye by a branch and couldn’t see properly so I had drive his van home. A quick stop at the local Macdonalds on the way where funnily enough I bumped into Micheal Brooks who’d just finished the race as well, then it was off back to a not so rainy Cornwall.

Fishing position: 9/20 (Vets expert)