Dowhills- 15th May 2011

After the fun and frolics of last week, I decided to give it a go at a enduro cross meeting held by the ASW club. I’ve never done one of these events before, it’s two 1 hour races with a break of about an hour in between in race. I traveled up to the venue with ‘mad’ Jack and his boy Paddy, Jack wasn’t riding because of injury, but Paddy was entered in the youths race.

An overcast and chilly day it was as I got signed on and the bike scrutineerd. Not that many riders I knew floating about, in fact the only person I saw to have a natter to was Phil Studley and that was it. With the youths race 40 mins or so in length and the first adults race not starting until another half hour after that, I had plenty of time to go walkabout and check out some of the course which seemed to be plenty of fields with some woods thrown in in between that I could see in the distance. Good thing was with Paddy racing before me he’d tell me what the course was like when he’d finished, always handy that when someone’s rode the course before you and they can tell you to look out for the dangers such as wild bears, unexploded world war II bombs and not forgetting real life scarecrows such as ’Catwaezle’.

So then, with the 1st youths over it was time to get lined up, warm up the engines and get ready for the flag to drop. The thumb wasn’t feeling too bad and I was hoping it would see out an hours racing, although it has to be said that this was probably the moment I needed a nice 2 stroke 300 to try and take it easy on my right hand so I wouldn’t have to do so much work with the throttle all the time. Oh well, at least that’s something I can look forward too when I’m about 50, few years yet then!

As the flag dropped for the 1st race I got a flyer and made it into the corner in 2nd place, but with about 3 flat fields to cross before we hit the woods, it wasn’t long before I got swallowed up by a couple of the bigger bikes as the big 4 bangers thundered past me, although I didn’t do too bad and made it into the wooded section in about 4th or 5th. The woods themselves were excellent (just not enough of them), nice flowing trails, a beauty of a steep climb which caught a lot of riders out on the first lap, a couple of gnarly descents, and a bit of tight stuff through the tress before with went back out across a couple of more fields, along a short rocky stream section, yet more fields with a couple of uphill jumps thrown in, and back to the start. Quite a short course and I’d say only about 4 miles or so.

So onto the 2nd lap then and when I got to that steep climb in the woods, there were 3 or 4 riders stuck half way up it all clambering about trying to get to the top, not one to be waiting around these days, I saw a gap and went for it, sods bloody law then when just as I was about to go past someone, he over balanced and stopped me in my tracks. A quick dismount, a bit of heaving with the bike to get around him, and I was on my way again. With around 20 mins gone on the clock my right hand wasn’t good, it really started to hurt after last weeks ‘off’ and I was seriously thinking about pulling out and stopping and I thought to myself I’d give it another couple of laps and see what happens.

Although a bit down on pace with my hand killing me, I managed to finish the first race and got a 3rd so pleased with that. With about an hour and half before we raced again, I managed to get some pain killers down me which helped a bit so I was looking forward to getting on the strimmer again and giving it another go.

So onto race no 2 then and as the flag went down I got another flyer and managed to get the holeshot into the first corner. My lead only lasted a few corners though because as we got out into the open stuff once again, a couple of those big noisey 4 banger things flew past me and as the same as the first race, I made it into the woods in about 4th or 5th. As the race went on my hand felt a lot better and I started to ride a lot better as well, and with no real drama’s I pushed hard for the hour and ended up with a 2nd place this time around.
So a good day in all and nice to do one of these enduro cross meetings which makes a bit of a change to the normal hare and hounds/enduro events. Highlight of the day for me though was stopping at Macdonalds on the way home for a cheeseburger and chips, can’t beat that can ya?

Finishing position 1st race: 3/12 (vets)
Finishing position 2nd race: 2/12 (vets)