My longest report yet!!!!!
It’s fair to say that I was really looking forward to this event, I’m feeling really fit, the bikes good and I was mentally prepared to push myself for 12 hours worth of riding!!!
Three of us were traveling up together to do this, me, Adam Blake and Steve Jose. Steve unbelievably had managed to ‘blag’ a motor home for us to use free of charge for the weekend, a 6 ½ ton truck that was kitted out with all the mod cons as well as storage for 3 bikes in the back, nice one!
So it was a short drive up to Bude to meet the lads and to get loaded up before beginning the trek up to Wales. Things didn’t go too well for me as I arrived late because of the holiday traffic I had to get through on the way, so inevitably that meant we were late leaving. After a few hours of traveling it was a quick stop on the M5 to get some diesel and fuel ourselves up with some Harry Ramsdens fish & chips before we set off again. A game of ’who am I’ (that’s a game where you have to guess the famous person by asking questions) in the lorry turned out to be a game of ’who the f*ck am I’ because the supposedly famous person that Steve Jose had picked, me and Adam had never even heard of! Not once he did that, but twice! So everybody, if your gonna play party games at your bar-b-cue and Steve’s there, just make some sort of excuse and don’t involve him otherwise it’ll all go tits up and people will start to leave!
Anyway, after about 5 hours we finally arrived at the dawn to Dusk site, a damp quarry ‘in the middle of nowhere’ and met up with the other lads that had traveled up from Cornwall. Arthur Johnson and Hannes Tanzer were both doing the 24 hr solo iron man race (nutters or what?) and brothers Rich and Steve Jay were doing the 12 hr two man team. Because I was doing the 12 hr race I had to get signed on and the bike checked today (Saturday), Adam and Steve didn’t need to as they were doing the ‘mickey mouse’ race, the 6 hr one, so they could do all theirs in the morning. So with everything done it was then off to see the start of the 24 hr marathon event. The start itself was further down in the quarry and had a small moto x style track before heading into the forest. It was a great atmosphere as the riders got underway and as darkness fell we went back into the big marquee to listen to the riders briefing and take a look at the video screen which was a full lap of the course done by a helmet cam so everybody could see what we were letting ourselves in for! I was there with Rich and Steve Jay and all we really wanted to see was the 4 or 5 ’extreme’ sections that had been put in in order to save time to see how difficult they were. I’d made my mind that I’d be having a go at all of them on my very 1st lap to see what they were like and then have a quick pit stop to tell Adam & Steve how I got on with them so they could get some idea if the sections were tough or not.
With time now getting on, it was back to the motor home for a bite to eat and some kip. It’s really weird watching the bike lights in the distance going round at night racing, a big round of applause to everybody that did that 24 hr race, must have been tricky in the forest sections. After dinner we got our heads down and all you could hear was the 4 bangers belting out their thunderous exhaust tones in the distance as I drifted off to sleep, couldn’t hear the 2t’s at all. Bloody noisy 4 bangers!
So it was up at 5am in order to have some grub and get hydrated before the 7am start. The weather at this point was overcast, grey, and looking really miserable with the threat of rain in the air. The actual start of the race was a ‘le mans’ type thing where you had to run to your bikes first, albeit only a matter of about 10 yds, I’d have preferred the distance of around 2 or 3 miles myself but you can’t have it all can you!
The vets class was the second group away and I got a flyer and went into the first corner in 3rd and that’s were I stayed around the short moto x style track before we headed out into the forest.
With the race being held in a disused quarry and looking at the footage of last years event before I came, wet or dry, it was going to rocky, and once the top soil had been worn away, all that was left was going to a granite type surface. With that in mind we all decided to use trials tyres, and what a cracking decision that would turn out to be.
The lap was about 15-16 miles and mainly consisted of fire tracks that meandered through the quarry and the forest. A couple of rocky climbs and down hills, a nice little river that we had to go through, but nothing too major and unbelievably I didn’t see one tree root! All the ruts had stones and slate under them as you rode along and basically you couldn’t travel more than about 10 yds without your bike not going over some sort of rock be it big or small. The open sections out of the forest which were in the quarry were fast and gave you a chance to ‘pin’ it or sit down on the saddle if you needed a rest bite.
The ‘extreme’ sections weren’t really ‘extreme’ at all, and I was expecting to come across something out of ’the tough one’, although there was one, where you dropped down and down and down before crossing a river that was littered with boulders before going up a rally steep rocky climb the other side, this one saved you at least 5 mins according to the organiser, so I had a go and made it ok, that trials tyre on the back was working wonders, I had such good grip with it. Another ‘extreme’ had a an easy climb but with a near vertical summit to get over at the top, I did this ok as well, so overall I did all the time savings and get through them all without any mishaps. To be honest there are more difficult sections than this at a Exmoor or Camel Vale event that I’ve come across.
I took the lead about 20 mins into the 1st lap when I cleared the ‘extreme’ bit that saved me 5 mins because the 2 riders in front of me had taken the long way round and didn’t go for it, I knew is was in 1st because they got past me soon after, no panic though, still over 11 hours to go!
So after my first lap I came in to pit to see Adam and Steve and tell them that the hard routes were ok and to go for it later on when it was their turn to start. With the rain now falling I changed my goggles, had a quick top up of fuel and went on my way again. My plan now was to stop every 2 laps to re-fuel but that was soon abandoned as the rain kept on and I had to come again the very next lap for some more goggles. Lap 3 and yet more goggles and a quick re-fuel and I was out again, I think I was still in 3rd at this stage and only 5 mins behind the leader or so I was told.
I think it was on my 5th lap and about 4 ½ hrs into the race when disaster struck. I felt the front get a little out of shape and she wasn’t handling as good because every stone or rock I went over made the bloody bike shake. I stopped and checked for the obvious, and sure enough I’d managed to get a puncture in the front wheel. With still about 7-8 miles of the lap to go I nursed her back round to the pits feeling slightly pissed off that I would be losing time, but that was just the start of it. As I put the bike on the jack stand I realized that the tyre levers weren’t there, Oh bollocks! I rode back to our motor home hoping that Adam and Steve would still be there and sure enough they were just getting changed when I arrived. ‘Steve, where the bloody hell are my tyre levers’ I said, ‘everything of yours is down in the pits’ he said, ‘you sure because they was in that blue box’ I said. Sure enough the blue box was still in the motor home so I quickly grabbed the levers, picked up a tube from Arthur Johnson’s wife and rode back to the pits to change the offending tube.
Things weren’t great, it was pissing down with rain, there was mud everywhere, the wind seemed to be blowing at 90mph and to top it all we didn’t have any shelter what so ever because we didn’t bring a gazebo with us, not the ideal conditions for maintenance on your bike then in the middle of a race. I just concentrated on trying not to lose anything in the mud like the pinch bolts and valve as I was putting the new tube in. I reckon with the tooing and froing and me having to slow up a bit to get back to the pits in the first place, I must have lost a good 25 mins. Just before I went back out I managed to take a peek at the lap scoring TV and I was still in 3rd.
It was now well over 5 hours into the race and I felt really good and I’d worked out in my head that even if I was to do the laps 10 mins slower as the race went on, I’d be on for at least 13 laps, which would put me right up there. The trouble now was that I’d gone through all my goggles (4 sets) and at least 3 pairs of gloves because of the conditions and I was now riding with nothing covering my eyes. I know we’ve all done that and we’ll probably still do it, but today I got caught out, so more of that later.
On my 6th lap and going great guns I thought it would be a good idea to hit a tree as I was overtaking a slower rider, a broken brake lever was the result but I had a couple of inches of it still left so that was enough for me to use, and I certainly wasn’t going to stop again for anymore maintenance, didn’t have time for that!
I started my 7th lap just as the riders for the 6hr race were gathered at the starting area, so with another 5 mins or so to go, I knew they’d be off and all breathing down my neck soon after. I still felt really good, was still doing the ’extreme’ sections, and was going really well and the only thing that was tired was my clutch finger, so I had to use 2 fingers now instead of one to pull the lever in as I didn’t want it to get any worse and start cramping up. What happened next put me out of the race.
As I riding at a decent pace through the forest on one of the fire tracks, the rain had made a few branches bow over, and it was bloody sods law that I got whip lashed by one when a branch smacked me right in my eyes. I knew instantly I was trouble, I couldn’t see a bloody thing and had to stop. My left eye wouldn’t even open and my right eye was only working about 50%, I thought it would get better so I carried on as best I could, but things went from bad to worse. It got really bad when I couldn’t even see which rut to ride in as everything was blurred, and I had a job crawling along in 1st gear at 5 mph, and with still about 10 miles or so still to go before the end of the lap I wondered if I was going to make it back to the pits.
With the 6hr race now started, it seemed like everyone was flying past me and i was standing still, Adam and Steve both went past me and must have thought I’d run out of energy, but far from it, I couldn’t bloody well see. That lap seemed like an eternity, and with me now in quite a bit of discomfort, and with the rain lashing into my eyes as well, the sight of the pits felt like I’d won the lottery. I went through the timing at 6hrs 56mins, that last lap must have took me an hour.
I quickly dumped the bike down and stumbled off to the medical tent, where 2 of the ambulance guys grabbed me and got me into the ambulance and started to clean my eyes. They called a paramedic in who then started to syringe my eyes with fluid whilst someone else was holding them open because I couldn’t open them myself. Some dye was also put in my left eye to see what damage there was, luckily for me I’d only scratched the lens. It made laugh when the guy said ’look, this is what has come out of your eye mate, a bit of tree’. I think the thing that hurt the most was I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish the bloody race, I was gutted, but also relieved to find out that I didn’t need to go to hospital (even though they were going to send me there).
So after spending about 30 mins or so getting treated, it was back to the van to get changed, race over, simple as that. I went back to the pits and helped the guys out a bit re-fueling and stuff and even contemplated getting back into my sodden riding gear and doing one more lap near the end just to get a finish, but my vision was just to blurred, so just too dangerous to do anything. I’ll tell you what though, after about 2 hrs of not doing anything, I was still in 7th place in the vets class so the lap scoring said, unbelievable! Not a good thing to see that really, just goes to show I must have going a fairly decent pace, and looking at that made me feel even more gutted!
All the lads from Cornwall were still going strong, Arthur Johnson was in 4th place, Hannes Tanzer was an unbelievable 2nd , both of which were doing the 24hr race, Adam was winning the 6hr experts, Steve Jose was in 3rd in the 6hr clubman, and the Jay brothers were in 7th in the 12hr 2 man team. Apart from Adam, that’s how they all ended up at the finish. Adam missed out on winning the experts and 1st overall in the 6hr race on his last lap! We think he must have got overtaken when he made his pit stop just before his last lap while he was in the pits, and he missed out on winning by just 40 seconds! Bloody nora, unlucky or what?
Everyone’s bike had gone through brake pads galore as the slate and rain mixed together just turned into grinding paste, and most of the guys finished with no pads at all and that was after putting new ones in halfway through the race.
There was drama in the Boyle’s camp as well, Dad Pete, riding with his two sons Mike and Chris in the 12hr 3 man team were missing a rider. Chris went out at about 5.30pm to do another lap and still wasn’t back at 7.30. No one knew where he was, so they had to go race control and send out the marshals to go and look for him. Still don’t know what happened there as I’ve not got the update on that as yet. Lets hope everything’s ok on that score. Pete told me that last year they did the 12hr team race and got a DNF because something happened on their very last lap, looks like it might have happened again this year, 2 years running, how unlucky is that?
After everybody getting changed and with the rain still pooring down from the dark gloomy skies (hadn‘t stopped since the morning), it was back up to the marquee through the squelchy mud in the car park, for a bite to eat and to see the presentation. I bumped into Arthur Johnson up there, and after finishing the 24hr race, Arthur told us his own words that he felt like he’d been ‘run over by a bus‘! Just finishing that is one hell of an achievement on your own and he deserves a massive round of applause for doing that.
So after a nights kip we headed home, all a bit ‘cream crackered’ but in good spirits, and as usual Mr Jose had a thousand stories to tell us about what had happened the day before.
A disappointing weekend for me then, but that’s why I write this blog, so I can look back on it and reflect on the highs and lows of it all. Back to the goggle scenario, I know we all do it, We’ve all done it on countless numbers of occasions, ride without them on when the going gets shitty because they get clogged up with mud, but I was very lucky when that branch got me, and that’s the worse I’ve been hit by one in 3 years of racing, I’ve learnt my lesson and from now on even if I have to waste a minute stopping in the pits to put a fresh pair on every bloody lap, that’s what I intend to do. I love racing motorbikes, I keep myself fit, I eat well, the bike gets prepped well before every race, I keep my kit in order, and it’s all of these factors that is the reason why I rarely suffer a DNF, ok I know I’m going the odd one or two, but that’s understandable with the amount of racing I’m doing at the moment and something’s are beyond your control, but take note everybody, because if you ain’t got vision, then you ain’t got nothing.
Finishing position: DNF
Monday, 31 August 2009
Monday, 24 August 2009
Keeping up the fitness- 24th August 2009
I was thinking about the TnT event today but decided not to as i didn't want to do anything that could jeopardise next weeks race. Not being content with not doing anything i went for a 10 mile run in order to keep my fitness levels topped up.
I might go for a little blast on the bike midweek, see what happens.
There's a few of us travelling up from Cornwall to do the Dawn to Dusk at the weekend, including 2 guys who are doing the 24hr race, nutters!!!! I'll be doing the 12hr ironman thing, must remember to pace myself and not carried away for the first 3 or 4 hours or so, easier said than done when your racing!
Really looking forward to it and it should be a great weekend.
I might go for a little blast on the bike midweek, see what happens.
There's a few of us travelling up from Cornwall to do the Dawn to Dusk at the weekend, including 2 guys who are doing the 24hr race, nutters!!!! I'll be doing the 12hr ironman thing, must remember to pace myself and not carried away for the first 3 or 4 hours or so, easier said than done when your racing!
Really looking forward to it and it should be a great weekend.
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Practice- 19th August 2009
After sundays race and me not even breaking sweat, i just had to get back out on the bike and do some riding, so it was out down the local moto x track were i met up with Adam Blake. I did an hour non stop at a fairly decent clip, had a break, then did another 30 mins before going home.
The damage from Rifton Barton from that branch that got me to the bike was a broken rad shroud, a hose, and the lighting 'blipper' switch that had got smashed off it's mounting. Still losing a bit of coolant somewhere, best i get that sorted as the Dawn to Dusk is just over a week away!
The damage from Rifton Barton from that branch that got me to the bike was a broken rad shroud, a hose, and the lighting 'blipper' switch that had got smashed off it's mounting. Still losing a bit of coolant somewhere, best i get that sorted as the Dawn to Dusk is just over a week away!
Sunday, 16 August 2009
Rifton Barton- 16th August 2009
Is that the next Laurel and Hardy?No it's me and Steve Jose having a bit of a laugh after both suffering DNF'S.
Yes i'm the skinny one on the right!
(pic by Debbie Tucker)
I was really looking forward to this one, it’s run by Exmoor enduro club who always put on good events, there was a nice turnout of riders, and most people I know were riding it as well. For those of you that have followed the blog from the early days you’ll know that this was where it all started for me 3 years ago, bloody hell do I remember that or what? Ambulance job!
So with only just under a 2hour drive I set off early and got there with plenty of time in hand so I could take a look at the ’extreme’ section of the course that the club always put in on this event. Got parked up and off I went to have a sneaky look at it which this year consisted of a pile of logs about 4 high with a nasty drop off the other side, and a row of about 20 tyres to ride over. I was in two minds weather to have a go at it as I didn’t want to have a silly ’off’ and wreck me or the bike because I had the Dawn to dusk event to think of in a couple of weeks time, so today all I wanted was to have a nice blast round and get home in one piece. The weather today was overcast but dry, but judging by the youths race earlier, conditions were tricky as most of them were arriving through the lap scoring caked in mud.
Just about everyone I saw last week I saw this week again, so needless to say whilst getting signed on I was chatting to a lot of people and even a few new faces that had recognized me, bloody nora, time consuming these ‘local’ events!!
So after running out of breath it was back to get changed and then down to the start to get ready for the off . I was hoping for another decent start but I had more chance of taken Natalie Imbruglie out for dinner then I did of getting the holeshot because I dropped the clutch too soon and stalled it! 2nd kick and away she went, but all too late and I got to the 1st corner about halfway in the pack. From there on we went through a couple of fields and entered the woods where it all went a bit ’Pete Tong’. Trying to make up places I clattered against a bush which had rather thick branches the size of a broom handle sticking out of it, I thought nothing of it, but within a couple of mins there was steam coming out from everywhere, oh bollocks, just lost my coolant, looks like I gotta leak somewhere then!
I stopped and tried to inspect the damage but couldn’t see anything, but knowing that I had all the lap to do, I took it easy and crawled round, that is until more bloody steam was coming out so I had to stop again and wait for her to cool down. I decided to stop and help a few people get up the hills and also a rider who went down in front of me on a steep downhill. He took a bad fall, but thankfully after a couple of minutes and with me directing the oncoming bikes round him, he got back on his feet and carried on. Not wanting to seize the bike I stopped again just opposite the ’extreme’ section to have a look at everyone going through it and had a chat for about 10 minutes to Mike Boyles who came over to ask what was up. Steve Jose then came round and stopped next to me and told me he couldn’t carry on because of his back, so we both had no choice but to call it a day. After deciding to have a go over the logs and the tyres, I said ’follow me’ to Steve and promptly got stuck on the smallest single log of all before we even reached the real test, embarrassing or what? Thankfully I got going again quickly and made it through the pile of logs and the tyres and back to the start where I pitted, game over for me.
After getting changed and putting the bike away me and Steve went down to the logs and tyres to help a few of those riders that were having trouble getting through that ‘extreme’ section, basically we were picking them up off the floor and putting them upright again so they could carry on! Debbie Tucker was down there snapping away like mad getting some decent shots one of which included Adam Blake doing a bit of ‘showboating’ while doing a wheelie all across the length of the tyres. Phil Harris bottled this section, that is until me and Steve stood right in front of him on his last lap as he was coming down the hill and demanded he went through it, he did and promptly came off at the first attempt to which he muttered under his breath ‘I’m knackered, why I did I listen to you Trev’! Fair play to him though, he got back up and did it 2nd time around.
Everyone who finished that I chatted too thought it was another top class tough event and relieved to get to the end. Adam had a good finish in the champ class, Rich Tucker had bike problems that put him well down, Gary McCoy finished the event on a ‘borrowed’ bike (sorry I didn’t have anything stronger for you Gary than tobacco at the end, but I just don’t smoke that kind of gear mate, only joking), Andy Smith done well in the Clubman 2st and surprisingly Phil Harris finished 2 races in a row. Well I might as well report on everyone else coz I didn’t do anything did I!
What is it this year and the Exmoor events with me? Combe Sydenham I didn’t get the chance to start the race because of a rad leak, Storridge woods I got injured and then my chain wrapped itself around the front sprocket, and now Rifton Barton!
Finishing position: DNF
Sunday, 9 August 2009
Idless woods- 9th August 2009
Hey, hey, hey, it’s another holeshot as I led the field into the woods! (pic by Sue Pitman)
So with a cracking July behind me I was hoping for more of the same or at least get a decent result. Today was important as it’s another round of the south west championships and I’m 1pt behind the leader in the series (clubman E1) with just 3 rounds left.
Nice to have a short drive with the venue being just 30 mins away and I managed to get there early which was just as well as parking was tight because of the morning race between the quads and sidecars. The weather today was overcast and humid with the threat of rain in the air.
These local events are now beginning to get like a social gathering! I parked behind Colin George and in front of Francis Banfield as we all arrived at the same time. All 3 of us took a look at the start area where we met up with Gary (nothing gets in my way) McCoy and Mark, Rich and Debbie Tucker. Debbie had a face as white as a box of Persil after being driven there by son Rich who apparently drives a van like he rides his bike, extremely fast and the best ’white knuckle’ ride in the universe. Soon after I met up with Adam Blake, Steve (show me how to get a holeshot please Trev) Jose, and had chats with Jed Treleaven, Arthur Johnson, Mike Roose, Steve Jay, Phil Harris and poor old Andy Smith who’d had van trouble on the way there and had broken down. Andy was stuck in the middle of nowhere so Phil (Harris) got his gasser out of the van and rode it back to his place to get his van so they could both carry on their merry way leaving Andy’s van there stranded to be picked up later.
So after having a good old chin wag to everyone I clapped eyes on it was off to get changed and get my arse in gear down to the start line. Still not content with having talked the ‘hind legs off a donkey’ to a few folk along the way, I also met Paul Fordy who was just starting to race again after a lay off from a badly fractured collarbone, so I had a chat with him as well!
Onto the start then and a good sized looking field had assembled in most classes so racing was going to competitive today. As the flag was raised I got to absolute flyer and made my way up the gravel fire break and into the woods in 1st place, bloody hell that’s the 4th holeshot in the last few months! I must admit I have been practicing, I’ve been trying to kick start some life into the girlfriend and it looks like it’s paying off!
Idless woods, nice track I thought, some lovely twisting wooded trails, 4 or 5 slippery climbs, a seriously steep slimy downhill section that you had to ’crawl’ down at a snails pace, a small water crossing, the inevitable roots, a few long muddy ruts, and only a couple of small fields half way round to break up the lap a bit. I reckon it being about 6-7 miles, but a fast lap due to it being ideal conditions and nothing too technical.
As I went into the woods with the rest of the field breathing down my neck it wasn’t long before I got passed (oh b*llocks I thought) as I lost a couple of places and ended up in 4th place after the 1st lap. As I started my 2nd lap, my main rival (James Hull) in the battle for the championship was right behind me and after about another half lap he took a different line and got inside me. I then followed him for another lap (showing my front wheel to him a few times but couldn’t get past) before he overtook some back markers which I couldn’t do because of the tight sections, so that put some distance between us and I lost sight of him, not happy!
Now down in 5th but still going well and with a long way to go, within about 10 mins or so of James passing me, I saw him motionless on his bike looking down at it on a part of the track in the woods, obviously he had some sort of bike trouble so I went past, needless to say I didn’t stop to ask him what’s up!
That give me a bit of a boost and I really pushed, probably too hard in some places as I had a couple of little offs around some of the more muddier corners with the front wheel sliding away from me.
Mike Roose seemed to be over the place in the woods watching proceedings and every lap I went past him he’d always shout and gesture to me to keep the little gasser ‘pinned’. I don’t know weather he was giving me encouragement or a bollocking!
Around about the 1hr 45min mark I pitted and I’m pretty sure I’d made up to 3rd at this point, things were going well. Another half lap in and my clutch started to slip, oh dear, not good, and with an hour still to go I was hoping that she’d last out until the end, but things just got worse and with half an hour left the clutch was slipping so badly that on one of the hills I had to get off, and with the help of 2 marshalls, push her up to the top in 1st gear with the minimum amount of revs being given to the engine otherwise the bike would just scream and nothing would happen!
I had to make decision, do I wait in the pits for half an hour or more for the flag to come out and lose a load of places and championship points as well? Or do I go for another lap hoping that I wouldn’t lose too many positions and that I’d already done enough to secure a decent place but risk a DNF? I decided to carry on and risk it.
I knew this was to be my last lap and I had to do everything I could in order to get a finish, so I nursed the ‘gasser’ at a snails pace in the high gears in order for the clutch to grip, gingerly around the course. Bloody frustrating it is too, going about 10mph in 3rd or 4th gear (not the ideal way to ride a 125) when everyone’s passing you and you can do nowt all about it. After getting stuck a few times I finally made it back to the pits with a couple of mins to spare, and this time I had no alternative but to wait for the flag to come out because the poor bike could hardly move along the flat let alone any hills! So in the end that’s what I did and relieved to finish.
Spoke to James Hull afterwards who’d explained that he’d punctured so he finished well down the field. Andy Smith pulled out because he was too knackerd. Adam wasn’t happy with his placing in the experts. Steve Jose was happy with his 4th in E2, and even more happier because he overtook me! (after he hit the deck once trying to get past me). Gary McCoy had a DNF? And me? I’m well pleased, 5th place, could have been 3rd but considering what happened I’m lucky to finish at all.
Finishing position: 5/25 (clubman E1)
Breaking news: Me and Steve Jose have had a chat and were going to help each other out. He’s going to show me how to get up the hills on my 125, and I’m going to show him how to get a holeshot on his 250!!!!!!!!
If you rode there today you might want to see yourself in action at the start, here’s a link that I got sent to me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1If8Xz3jf1c
So with a cracking July behind me I was hoping for more of the same or at least get a decent result. Today was important as it’s another round of the south west championships and I’m 1pt behind the leader in the series (clubman E1) with just 3 rounds left.
Nice to have a short drive with the venue being just 30 mins away and I managed to get there early which was just as well as parking was tight because of the morning race between the quads and sidecars. The weather today was overcast and humid with the threat of rain in the air.
These local events are now beginning to get like a social gathering! I parked behind Colin George and in front of Francis Banfield as we all arrived at the same time. All 3 of us took a look at the start area where we met up with Gary (nothing gets in my way) McCoy and Mark, Rich and Debbie Tucker. Debbie had a face as white as a box of Persil after being driven there by son Rich who apparently drives a van like he rides his bike, extremely fast and the best ’white knuckle’ ride in the universe. Soon after I met up with Adam Blake, Steve (show me how to get a holeshot please Trev) Jose, and had chats with Jed Treleaven, Arthur Johnson, Mike Roose, Steve Jay, Phil Harris and poor old Andy Smith who’d had van trouble on the way there and had broken down. Andy was stuck in the middle of nowhere so Phil (Harris) got his gasser out of the van and rode it back to his place to get his van so they could both carry on their merry way leaving Andy’s van there stranded to be picked up later.
So after having a good old chin wag to everyone I clapped eyes on it was off to get changed and get my arse in gear down to the start line. Still not content with having talked the ‘hind legs off a donkey’ to a few folk along the way, I also met Paul Fordy who was just starting to race again after a lay off from a badly fractured collarbone, so I had a chat with him as well!
Onto the start then and a good sized looking field had assembled in most classes so racing was going to competitive today. As the flag was raised I got to absolute flyer and made my way up the gravel fire break and into the woods in 1st place, bloody hell that’s the 4th holeshot in the last few months! I must admit I have been practicing, I’ve been trying to kick start some life into the girlfriend and it looks like it’s paying off!
Idless woods, nice track I thought, some lovely twisting wooded trails, 4 or 5 slippery climbs, a seriously steep slimy downhill section that you had to ’crawl’ down at a snails pace, a small water crossing, the inevitable roots, a few long muddy ruts, and only a couple of small fields half way round to break up the lap a bit. I reckon it being about 6-7 miles, but a fast lap due to it being ideal conditions and nothing too technical.
As I went into the woods with the rest of the field breathing down my neck it wasn’t long before I got passed (oh b*llocks I thought) as I lost a couple of places and ended up in 4th place after the 1st lap. As I started my 2nd lap, my main rival (James Hull) in the battle for the championship was right behind me and after about another half lap he took a different line and got inside me. I then followed him for another lap (showing my front wheel to him a few times but couldn’t get past) before he overtook some back markers which I couldn’t do because of the tight sections, so that put some distance between us and I lost sight of him, not happy!
Now down in 5th but still going well and with a long way to go, within about 10 mins or so of James passing me, I saw him motionless on his bike looking down at it on a part of the track in the woods, obviously he had some sort of bike trouble so I went past, needless to say I didn’t stop to ask him what’s up!
That give me a bit of a boost and I really pushed, probably too hard in some places as I had a couple of little offs around some of the more muddier corners with the front wheel sliding away from me.
Mike Roose seemed to be over the place in the woods watching proceedings and every lap I went past him he’d always shout and gesture to me to keep the little gasser ‘pinned’. I don’t know weather he was giving me encouragement or a bollocking!
Around about the 1hr 45min mark I pitted and I’m pretty sure I’d made up to 3rd at this point, things were going well. Another half lap in and my clutch started to slip, oh dear, not good, and with an hour still to go I was hoping that she’d last out until the end, but things just got worse and with half an hour left the clutch was slipping so badly that on one of the hills I had to get off, and with the help of 2 marshalls, push her up to the top in 1st gear with the minimum amount of revs being given to the engine otherwise the bike would just scream and nothing would happen!
I had to make decision, do I wait in the pits for half an hour or more for the flag to come out and lose a load of places and championship points as well? Or do I go for another lap hoping that I wouldn’t lose too many positions and that I’d already done enough to secure a decent place but risk a DNF? I decided to carry on and risk it.
I knew this was to be my last lap and I had to do everything I could in order to get a finish, so I nursed the ‘gasser’ at a snails pace in the high gears in order for the clutch to grip, gingerly around the course. Bloody frustrating it is too, going about 10mph in 3rd or 4th gear (not the ideal way to ride a 125) when everyone’s passing you and you can do nowt all about it. After getting stuck a few times I finally made it back to the pits with a couple of mins to spare, and this time I had no alternative but to wait for the flag to come out because the poor bike could hardly move along the flat let alone any hills! So in the end that’s what I did and relieved to finish.
Spoke to James Hull afterwards who’d explained that he’d punctured so he finished well down the field. Andy Smith pulled out because he was too knackerd. Adam wasn’t happy with his placing in the experts. Steve Jose was happy with his 4th in E2, and even more happier because he overtook me! (after he hit the deck once trying to get past me). Gary McCoy had a DNF? And me? I’m well pleased, 5th place, could have been 3rd but considering what happened I’m lucky to finish at all.
Finishing position: 5/25 (clubman E1)
Breaking news: Me and Steve Jose have had a chat and were going to help each other out. He’s going to show me how to get up the hills on my 125, and I’m going to show him how to get a holeshot on his 250!!!!!!!!
If you rode there today you might want to see yourself in action at the start, here’s a link that I got sent to me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1If8Xz3jf1c
Thursday, 6 August 2009
Plans this month.................................
9th Pendennis mcc
16th Exmoor enduro club
23rd ????
30th Dawn to dusk
16th Exmoor enduro club
23rd ????
30th Dawn to dusk
Sunday, 26 July 2009
Blackdog woods- 26th July 2009
(pic by Debbie Tucker)
It was off up to Wiltshire for another round of the Midwest series. So far I’ve done ok but there’s still been too many fields for my liking in their races although this was just about to change!
Left home early and with no traffic problems, got there with plenty of time, got signed on, had a chat with Jesse Say who I hadn’t seen for ages since my ORE days and went back to get changed.
The weather wasn’t too bad today, mild, overcast so perfect for racing although yet again with the rain everybody’s had this week I wondered what state the woods would be in, but after the last 2 events being tough, then I’d happily take whatever was coming up.
Onto the start then and I made a good ‘un’ as I blasted along the short straight and into the first corner in 2nd, another short straight followed before we entered the woods were I lost a place.
For the next mile or so I went 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 1st as places constantly changed between us all, but I settled in 3rd as we finally got sorted out after the initial mad rush of it all. Pretty soon it was evident what kind of race this was going to be as I caught up with the riders that started a minute before me only to find queues and carnage lying in wait! The deep muddy ruts and super slippery climbs were causing havoc even with it being so early in the race as well. A couple of horrendously deep muddy water crossings didn’t help matters and you really just had to ’pin it’ and hope you wouldn’t sink and get stuck which some people did. With the slippery wooded trails as well this was another tough event and right up my street, and with only a couple of small fields to finish the lap off, the conditions were going to be a great leveler. A small lap of 5-6 miles, but a good one and the best track so far on the Midwest calendar.
As lap after lap went by more carnage with riders getting stuck on the hills made things really difficult to pass the back markers, and with the woods getting cut up more and the ruts getting deeper and deeper you had to start ’paddling’ in order to get through them. There were 2 really tricky climbs that latter got cut out due to the chaos they were causing, but I only got stuck just the once and I was I quickly on my way due to the marshals. Just as last week and as I went to overtake a back marker, they had me off! I went down a bank and came off the bike, luckily it wasn’t to steep and I managed to pick the bike up and get back on (whilst mumbling some choice words at him as he rode off into the distance) and got going again without wasting to much time.
With the little ’gasser’ being pinned a lot through the claggy peaty soiled ruts I made the choice to pit a bit earlier than usual to top up on fuel, check the coolant level, clean the sh*t out of the rad shrouds and change my gloves, so a slightly longer stop than usual but better to be safe than sorry especially after last weeks race when I boiled her dry on my last lap. By this time I’d made my way up to 1st place so every second counted and I had one eye on the riders that were going past the pits hoping that none in my class would go by.
It was sods law that just as I was coming out of the pits I got overtaken and was now in 2nd again, but with the leader in my sights and feeling really confident I snatched the lead again as he got stuck on a root. From there on in I went like crazy and didn’t want to give up the lead, but with bikes littered about in front of you at every muddy rut that you came across, you had to pick your lines very carefully and not get stuck behind anybody, if I did, I might lose that 1st place again.
I could see that riders were getting really tired, a lot had stopped, a lot were getting stuck and a lot were going slow, but with my current stamina levels being good due to all this bloody racing I’m doing, I felt superb. I was so pleased to get another lap in with 2 mins to go and unbelievably I won with a lap in hand.
Another great result today and being in the vets class meant that I was up against all the different bikes, 250 & 300 2 strokes, and all the big 4 strokes, but my little 125 came through with flying colours and did the business for me.
That’s 3 tough events in 3 weeks, good job I ain’t racing next weekend, chance to give my body a rest!
Finishing position: 1/25 (Vets)
Sunday, 19 July 2009
Allercot farm- 19th July 2009
So, fully recovered after last weeks event of tortuous riding, it was off up to meet up with Adam (Blake) and to travel up to near Minehead for another round of the south west champs.
Every where’s had a lot of rain this week and further more it lashed it down on the way up there and after finally finding the ’arrow’ that was made up of a Mr Kipling’s box that directed us off the main road and round the country lanes into the place, we sat in the van for half an hour while until it had stopped ‘peeing’ it down!
Rich tucker came over for a quick chat before we headed off to do the usual stuff of signing on, etc, etc. Andy smith had forgotten his helmet and was panicking trying to find one, luckily he did so he was able to race. Phil Harris was complaining about his bike again and wants to get shot of it and get one of those ‘orange things’, and oh, yes I finally met the guy who ran over my bike at Storridge woods a while back which put a dent in my exhaust and punctured my petrol tank. Shall name and shame him? Of course I will, step forward Mr Gary McCoy!!!
After having a bit of laugh about it Gary said to me about the incident ‘sorry, I had nowhere to go’, try ‘New Zealand’ or 'Austrailia' Mr McCoy, I’ve heard it’s nice there this time of the year!
Jed Treleaven, Tim Williams and Arthur Johnson had all kipped out the night before in a tent at the venue and had walked the track the previous day and told us all about it, wet, muddy and slimy I think was their words, to be honest I think every bugger was expecting that due to the weather.
Onto the start then and it was straight off up the field for a few hundred yards and after a right hander and then a left, it was into the woods. No holeshot for me this time as I was in a about 5-6th place as we entered the trees but soon got up to 2nd within the 1st minute, so well placed at the moment for a decent opening lap.
The woods were covered in mud, simple as that which made things very tricky and tough on the old body as you continually had to battle with the bike to get any control. There were a couple of steep drop downs, some really slimy hills (which they later cut out), a lovely bit of a rocky downhill stream that we rode down, and of course the roots were out in abundance as well. To top it off the grassy fields that connected each bit of woodland together were mostly off camber and in places was like riding on ice as going into the corners you virtually had to ’tip toe’ it round to avoid coming off.
I knew that today would definitely be a test of fitness for everyone, but with a lot of riding under my belt (especially last weeks event) I was confident that I wouldn’t get too tired and so it proved. I reckon on the laps being about 6-7 miles long.
After the 1st lap I was leading and things were going well as no one had overtaken me in my class, when about an hour into the race and when trying to overtake a back marker and squeezed for room, I came off on the edge of a bank, slipped down it a bit and was pinned under the bike. After about a minute of struggling I wriggled free and just as I got up a rider (think it was no 45) stopped to give us a hand and to get the bike up the bank, I must have lost a good 3-4 minutes before I managed to get going again and with me not knowing how far I was leading by, I didn’t know if anyone In the clubman E1 class had got in front of me.
Apart from that little excursion off the course, things went really well for me and I was going well, I decided to pit earlier than usual for fuel because of the amount of revving the little ’gasser’ was doing to get through the mud and I didn’t want to run out of the bloody stuff again like I have done in the past! I also had a change of goggles and gloves and back out I went.
I knew I was doing well as I started to lap riders in the same class as me so I was really confident that I was still up there at the sharp end of things, and as the race went on riders really started to struggle in the tough conditions and were stopping and getting stuck all over the place. I remember passing Francis Banfield when he was taken a rest on the top of a climb and he looked completely ‘spent’, absolutely knackered!
On my last lap I managed to get stuck on a grassy climb and had to go back down and have a 2nd go at it, It was at this moment that the ‘gasser’ decided to let go of it’s coolant and boil over, steam was coming out from everywhere and for the last half lap I coaxed her home with an empty rad and luckily she held on for me.
So plastered with mud and wet through it was off back to van to get changed. Gary McCoy came over for a quick chat with me and Adam before we headed back home.
By the way, thanks to Gary for not running over my bike this time when he lapped me!
So a cracking result today and my first win in the clubman class. Well pleased with that.
Finishing position: 1/18 (clubman E1)
Every where’s had a lot of rain this week and further more it lashed it down on the way up there and after finally finding the ’arrow’ that was made up of a Mr Kipling’s box that directed us off the main road and round the country lanes into the place, we sat in the van for half an hour while until it had stopped ‘peeing’ it down!
Rich tucker came over for a quick chat before we headed off to do the usual stuff of signing on, etc, etc. Andy smith had forgotten his helmet and was panicking trying to find one, luckily he did so he was able to race. Phil Harris was complaining about his bike again and wants to get shot of it and get one of those ‘orange things’, and oh, yes I finally met the guy who ran over my bike at Storridge woods a while back which put a dent in my exhaust and punctured my petrol tank. Shall name and shame him? Of course I will, step forward Mr Gary McCoy!!!
After having a bit of laugh about it Gary said to me about the incident ‘sorry, I had nowhere to go’, try ‘New Zealand’ or 'Austrailia' Mr McCoy, I’ve heard it’s nice there this time of the year!
Jed Treleaven, Tim Williams and Arthur Johnson had all kipped out the night before in a tent at the venue and had walked the track the previous day and told us all about it, wet, muddy and slimy I think was their words, to be honest I think every bugger was expecting that due to the weather.
Onto the start then and it was straight off up the field for a few hundred yards and after a right hander and then a left, it was into the woods. No holeshot for me this time as I was in a about 5-6th place as we entered the trees but soon got up to 2nd within the 1st minute, so well placed at the moment for a decent opening lap.
The woods were covered in mud, simple as that which made things very tricky and tough on the old body as you continually had to battle with the bike to get any control. There were a couple of steep drop downs, some really slimy hills (which they later cut out), a lovely bit of a rocky downhill stream that we rode down, and of course the roots were out in abundance as well. To top it off the grassy fields that connected each bit of woodland together were mostly off camber and in places was like riding on ice as going into the corners you virtually had to ’tip toe’ it round to avoid coming off.
I knew that today would definitely be a test of fitness for everyone, but with a lot of riding under my belt (especially last weeks event) I was confident that I wouldn’t get too tired and so it proved. I reckon on the laps being about 6-7 miles long.
After the 1st lap I was leading and things were going well as no one had overtaken me in my class, when about an hour into the race and when trying to overtake a back marker and squeezed for room, I came off on the edge of a bank, slipped down it a bit and was pinned under the bike. After about a minute of struggling I wriggled free and just as I got up a rider (think it was no 45) stopped to give us a hand and to get the bike up the bank, I must have lost a good 3-4 minutes before I managed to get going again and with me not knowing how far I was leading by, I didn’t know if anyone In the clubman E1 class had got in front of me.
Apart from that little excursion off the course, things went really well for me and I was going well, I decided to pit earlier than usual for fuel because of the amount of revving the little ’gasser’ was doing to get through the mud and I didn’t want to run out of the bloody stuff again like I have done in the past! I also had a change of goggles and gloves and back out I went.
I knew I was doing well as I started to lap riders in the same class as me so I was really confident that I was still up there at the sharp end of things, and as the race went on riders really started to struggle in the tough conditions and were stopping and getting stuck all over the place. I remember passing Francis Banfield when he was taken a rest on the top of a climb and he looked completely ‘spent’, absolutely knackered!
On my last lap I managed to get stuck on a grassy climb and had to go back down and have a 2nd go at it, It was at this moment that the ‘gasser’ decided to let go of it’s coolant and boil over, steam was coming out from everywhere and for the last half lap I coaxed her home with an empty rad and luckily she held on for me.
So plastered with mud and wet through it was off back to van to get changed. Gary McCoy came over for a quick chat with me and Adam before we headed back home.
By the way, thanks to Gary for not running over my bike this time when he lapped me!
So a cracking result today and my first win in the clubman class. Well pleased with that.
Finishing position: 1/18 (clubman E1)
Friday, 10 July 2009
Knighton BEC rnd 2- 11/12th July 2009
Here's the times for the checks from the weekend and also the milage. The other pic is my bike all packed up and ready to go home for a deep clean and brush up before the next event!
Friday
The van was packed and I was ready to ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ as they say in my business, I’d ‘googled’ the journey, 4hrs and 20 mins it said, no bloody chance as I arrived nearly 6hrs later! The traffic coming up was horrendous and at one point on the A30 just after I started out, it took me 30 mins to do 4 miles due to all the holiday makers going back home! More hold ups on the M5 followed and I was starting to panic as to weather I was going to actually make the end of signing on which closed at 6pm. After crossing the severn bridge (£10.90 to get into Wales, what the f*ck is that all about then) the traffic eased and I was a lot happier. I finally arrived at Knighton with 45 mins to spare and done all the necessary.
Picking up my timecard and having a look at the time checks for tomorrow it looks as though us clubman (well saying that, half the clubman field at the BEC ride at expert level when they’re back home) are to do 2 laps of 55 miles with over 6 hrs of riding with 4 special tests thrown in, long day tomorrow then!
Most of the competitors along with me who aren’t in B&B are parked up in an industrial estate, and the camper vans, transits, motor homes, canopy’s and awnings litter the car park, it’s a great atmosphere and anybody’s willing to have a chat if you want to strike up conversation or two.
A bit later on I toddled off into town and picked up a Chinese take away, not the best I’ve had, but when you’re a bit ‘Hank Marvin’(sorry that means starving) I bloody would have eaten a plate of fried slugs if you’d given them to me, I was that hungry!
So all fed and watered I went off to kip and looking forward to tomorrow hoping that everything goes to plan.
Saturday
I woke up early about 6.30am, so I got plenty of time to get myself ready and psyche myself up for the days proceedings. After putting out a message on the Adrenaline trip forum the previous week for some help with getting my fuel out to the service areas, I met up with Dan Lawry from Kingston & DMCC who’d kindly offered me some help as his dad Pete and mate Rob were doing the re-fueling on 2 out of the 3 service stops which were way out miles into the forest. I had a quick chat, handed over my fuel and went back to get changed.
So at precisely 10.11am and with the weather overcast and a forecast of rain to come, I kicked the little ’gasser’ into life and I was off and running for the knighton enduro. There is no way I can describe 55 miles of any course, too much to remember, but you’ll get the general idea of it as we go along.
After a few hundred yards of field it was out onto the road and along some country lanes for a few miles before traveling up some green lanes and into some fields, before coming out again onto the road for another short blast and then turning into yet more fields where I arrived at the 1st special test.
Not much to say about the special test, really disappointing as all it was were 2 or 3 big fields that were slippery as hell and more suited to grass tracking than enduro bikes. Ok they might have been on a slope, but that was it! I did ok, didn’t make any mistakes and for me it took about 6 mins.
After this it was back out onto the road for a short while before the real stuff began!
Here we go then as I entered the forest, this is what I’d come for to get some decent riding time on a tough course, and boy I was not disappointed.
Immediately I was faced with a long slippery rutted section with roots and mud which meandered through the woods up and down with some tight sections to ride through as well before arriving at the 1st time check where I was met buy Pete to stick some fuel in. I was up on time by about 5 mins so took a quick breather before heading out again to check no 2. So the 1st check was quite slack and with the 40 mins they give you to do it in, it was probably because they didn’t want anybody going berserk on the road in order to keep to time.
Now the fun really begun as we were in the forest proper and we had about 50 mins to complete the next check. Roots, roots, and more roots, tree stumps, logs, broken trees, sloppy mud, more sloppy mud, ruts that were either knee deep with mud or half way up your back wheel with water, in fact some of the ruts seem to go on forever. The hills going up were either slippery with mud and stones or just one long rut! The downhills weren’t any better and on some occasions I had to put my nuts on the tank and paddle down them because they were so steep and treacherous. It was never ending, and even when you got onto a fire road which were about 2 miles long, you couldn’t rest as you were going nearly flat out to try and keep on time! Scary stuff that! I couldn’t believe the length of some of the slippery, mud covered stoney hills as you just kept going up and up and up climbing through the forest and I was pinning the little gasser all the way in order to make it to the top.
This place is vast, I’ve never seen a wood so bloody big with such a demanding course, but hey, this is the British champs so it ain’t going to be no picnic is it?
One section in particular consisted of what seemed like ten thousand logs, branches and sticks just laying there on the floor, you couldn’t even see the gaps between them, there were so many, it was like a carpet! This went on for about a mile or so, very tricky when wet!
I made it to the 2nd check with a minute to spare, so still on time but now it was on to the massive 55 min 3rd check and the longest stage of all.
It had now started to p*ss down with rain, so that could only mean one thing, things would get more difficult from now on and that’s how it turned out to be. Even when I was pinning it along the fire roads up to 70mph (110 kmh it said on the speedo) at times I just couldn’t see through my goggles as the rain was that heavy and it felt like my cheeks were being stabbed with pins as it drove into my face. The woods had became so cut up that anything and everything just seemed like ’one hell of a job’ to get through.
I arrived at the 3rd check 6 mins down. Rob was there to re-fuel me and off I went again.
A few more miles past before I arrived at the 2nd special test, and guess what? More grass fields except this time there was more of them! I stalled it twice and came off twice as well on the icy like slippery grass, so not a good test for me that one.
Onto the 4th check I went then and kept on time (still 6 mins down) and made the 5th check on time as well, so after my 1st lap I’d only lost 6 mins and I was well chuffed with that but I knew I had to do it all again and this time it would be a lot worse due to the rain that had fallen.
Onto my 2nd lap then and things became extremely difficult from here on in, at times it felt like torture as every bit of track in the woods was an effort to ride as the forest just became like an ice rink in places and the ruts had now filled with water and the roots had become exposed. I’ve never done so much ’paddling’ at such event, I should have bought my canoe! I mean I consider myself to be quite fit for my age but by after about 4 hours of relentless tiring riding, I was starting to struggle and I couldn’t wait for the next check to arrive.
I started getting cross rutted, getting stuck on a few roots and hills and having silly little offs and every time I picked the bike up it just seemed to get heavier.
I did 2 more special tests and they went ok for me without any mishaps, but when you’re dog tired it’s not that easy to go like a madman and keep concentration, those champ boys are on a different planet as they had to ride 3 laps of this course today and 6 tests.
I did the Greymare event back in January and that was tough, but if you times that by 10, that’s what you got today.
After finishing my 2nd lap and then going back on the road for about 5-6 miles or so back into Knighton and up to the last time check and with over 6 hours riding under my belt, I finally finished 21 mins down. So the last lap was really tough and I’d lost 15 mins on that one. A tad disappointing but it was hard and the event had claimed quite a few riders with DNF’s, so I was relieved in a way that I’d made it to the end. Bloody hell did I ache or what and I still got tomorrow to go yet.
Looking around the paddock everyone’s face said it all, Knackered!!! My bike was absolutely lagged, I mean lagged, strands of grass, sloppy mud, sticky peat, stones, bits of sticks, nothing that hasn’t happened before, but this was different as you just couldn’t take it home and pressure wash it, not a chance, so you had to try and clean it by hand, check things over and get it ready for the next day. That’s a shit job to do when your ‘cream crackered’, wet through with sweat and hungry!
At about 5pm and after a short rest and just as I started to clean the bike the heavens opened, b*llocks to that I thought, so I shoved it in the van hoping It wouldn’t rain in the morning and I could do it then.
A bit later on and after sorting out my right leg which nearly killed me when my thigh muscle went into a spasm which meant I couldn’t move for about 15 mins, I went and got some fish and chips, guzzled down 2 litres of energy drink and hit the sack. Roll on Sunday!
Sunday
Last night it rained for about 7-8 hours solid, God knows what state the course was going to be in today then! After chatting to a few riders down at where our time checks were posted up, rumor had it that some of the course had been cut out today due to the conditions, so things could be a bit easier today then, we’ll see? Mind you we only had to do 1 lap of 55 miles today, so in effect it would just be like doing a normal race, albeit a hard one.
I did manage to get quite a bit of crap off the bike this morning as I’d been up since 6.30am and everything seemed to be in order so no worries there.
Now then, what happened next was bloody well ‘sods law’. Just after 9am and with an hour to go before my start time I went to get some breakfast from the catering van but they were bloody well shut! Do they have different opening times in Wales or what then? With not enough time to make the trip into town I had to go without and make do with a few chocolate bars and energy gel bars, not good if you’re gonna ride half way round the county of Powys on a tough enduro course.
After getting changed into fresh riding gear, I headed for the start and waited for the clock to tick over to 10.11am so I could be on my way. I fired her up and off I went across the field and out onto the road, the country lanes and then the green lanes before arriving at the 1st special test. With the overnight rain that we’d had, the grassy fields that held the test had just become twice as worst as yesterday and I had a job to get going properly as I concentrated on just staying upright and not making any mistakes, it was like riding on glass in places, very tricky. Finished ok, no mistakes, so now it was back onto the road for a short while before turning up into a field and entering the woods.
The first part of the course was much the same as yesterday, but as I entered the woods for the 1st time I came to an abrupt halt as a thick branch had shot straight through my back wheel and had managed to spline itself through my spokes stopping me dead. Try as I might I couldn’t pull the bloody thing out and I thought I’d be there for days when suddenly out of nowhere came some spectators who helped me jack the wheel up and pull out the offending bit of wood.
I carried on and made it to my 1st check with about 5 mins to spare where I was met by Pete who put some fuel in for us.
I knew from yesterday that from here on in it was going to get hard, but how hard was the question? especially if the organizers had managed to cut out parts of the course and put in new routes, and with today’s checks being just 2 mins slower than yesterdays, a lot of riders would have a job staying clean on time.
A lot of the course that we rode today that we’d ridden yesterday was twice as worse, the ruts were muddier, the ruts filled with water had became deeper and the roots had become exposed so much that some of them just seem to be sticking up in the air like a sore thumb. But, and this is a big but, quite a bit of the track in the forest had been cut and more fire roads put in place instead which obviously made the time between checks quicker, And this made one hell of a difference today and I stayed on time throughout and never lost a minute. Don’t get me wrong, it was still tough today and I still had a few little ’offs’ and got stuck a couple of times on tree roots, but after Saturday, today just seemed like a hard 3hr race and not an extreme one and we only had to do 1 lap today which made a hell of difference too.
At the 3rd check Rob put some fuel in for me and then it was off to do another special test which again was as slippery as hell on the grass covered fields. I think in some ways I took it far too easy as I had one eye on just trying not to make any mistakes which could cost me a finish, So I wasn’t particularly fast.
Onto check 4 and I arrived still up on time, so I was pleased with that and now all I had to do was hold it together on one more special test (there were 3 today), do about another 10 miles, and I’d be home and dry. Again thinking about finishing and not having to risk anything, I did the ‘special’ ok, stayed upright and didn’t make any mistakes.
Now it was back onto the country lanes, minor roads and then the main road which led back into the town of Knighton to check no 5 and the finish area.
A great feeling as I crossed the line and well pleased that I’d done my first 2 day BEC.
A big thanks to Dan Lawry from Kingston DMCC for getting in touch, and his dad Pete and mate Rob who were there for me in the ’middle of nowhere’ deep in the forest to help me with the re-fueling.
Thanks also to Thor motorcycles who supplied me with a full spares kit and plastics.
What an event that was and a great experience and I’m really glad I made the trip.
To top it off the little ’gasser’ never missed a beat all weekend and she ran brilliantly.
Didn’t disgrace myself on the Saturday results but no so good on the Sunday seeing as less started, but overall pleased to finish.
Saturday Finishing position: 12/17 (clubman E1) 28/55 (clubman)
Sunday Finishing position: 12/14 (clubman E1) 30/39 (clubman)
The van was packed and I was ready to ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ as they say in my business, I’d ‘googled’ the journey, 4hrs and 20 mins it said, no bloody chance as I arrived nearly 6hrs later! The traffic coming up was horrendous and at one point on the A30 just after I started out, it took me 30 mins to do 4 miles due to all the holiday makers going back home! More hold ups on the M5 followed and I was starting to panic as to weather I was going to actually make the end of signing on which closed at 6pm. After crossing the severn bridge (£10.90 to get into Wales, what the f*ck is that all about then) the traffic eased and I was a lot happier. I finally arrived at Knighton with 45 mins to spare and done all the necessary.
Picking up my timecard and having a look at the time checks for tomorrow it looks as though us clubman (well saying that, half the clubman field at the BEC ride at expert level when they’re back home) are to do 2 laps of 55 miles with over 6 hrs of riding with 4 special tests thrown in, long day tomorrow then!
Most of the competitors along with me who aren’t in B&B are parked up in an industrial estate, and the camper vans, transits, motor homes, canopy’s and awnings litter the car park, it’s a great atmosphere and anybody’s willing to have a chat if you want to strike up conversation or two.
A bit later on I toddled off into town and picked up a Chinese take away, not the best I’ve had, but when you’re a bit ‘Hank Marvin’(sorry that means starving) I bloody would have eaten a plate of fried slugs if you’d given them to me, I was that hungry!
So all fed and watered I went off to kip and looking forward to tomorrow hoping that everything goes to plan.
Saturday
I woke up early about 6.30am, so I got plenty of time to get myself ready and psyche myself up for the days proceedings. After putting out a message on the Adrenaline trip forum the previous week for some help with getting my fuel out to the service areas, I met up with Dan Lawry from Kingston & DMCC who’d kindly offered me some help as his dad Pete and mate Rob were doing the re-fueling on 2 out of the 3 service stops which were way out miles into the forest. I had a quick chat, handed over my fuel and went back to get changed.
So at precisely 10.11am and with the weather overcast and a forecast of rain to come, I kicked the little ’gasser’ into life and I was off and running for the knighton enduro. There is no way I can describe 55 miles of any course, too much to remember, but you’ll get the general idea of it as we go along.
After a few hundred yards of field it was out onto the road and along some country lanes for a few miles before traveling up some green lanes and into some fields, before coming out again onto the road for another short blast and then turning into yet more fields where I arrived at the 1st special test.
Not much to say about the special test, really disappointing as all it was were 2 or 3 big fields that were slippery as hell and more suited to grass tracking than enduro bikes. Ok they might have been on a slope, but that was it! I did ok, didn’t make any mistakes and for me it took about 6 mins.
After this it was back out onto the road for a short while before the real stuff began!
Here we go then as I entered the forest, this is what I’d come for to get some decent riding time on a tough course, and boy I was not disappointed.
Immediately I was faced with a long slippery rutted section with roots and mud which meandered through the woods up and down with some tight sections to ride through as well before arriving at the 1st time check where I was met buy Pete to stick some fuel in. I was up on time by about 5 mins so took a quick breather before heading out again to check no 2. So the 1st check was quite slack and with the 40 mins they give you to do it in, it was probably because they didn’t want anybody going berserk on the road in order to keep to time.
Now the fun really begun as we were in the forest proper and we had about 50 mins to complete the next check. Roots, roots, and more roots, tree stumps, logs, broken trees, sloppy mud, more sloppy mud, ruts that were either knee deep with mud or half way up your back wheel with water, in fact some of the ruts seem to go on forever. The hills going up were either slippery with mud and stones or just one long rut! The downhills weren’t any better and on some occasions I had to put my nuts on the tank and paddle down them because they were so steep and treacherous. It was never ending, and even when you got onto a fire road which were about 2 miles long, you couldn’t rest as you were going nearly flat out to try and keep on time! Scary stuff that! I couldn’t believe the length of some of the slippery, mud covered stoney hills as you just kept going up and up and up climbing through the forest and I was pinning the little gasser all the way in order to make it to the top.
This place is vast, I’ve never seen a wood so bloody big with such a demanding course, but hey, this is the British champs so it ain’t going to be no picnic is it?
One section in particular consisted of what seemed like ten thousand logs, branches and sticks just laying there on the floor, you couldn’t even see the gaps between them, there were so many, it was like a carpet! This went on for about a mile or so, very tricky when wet!
I made it to the 2nd check with a minute to spare, so still on time but now it was on to the massive 55 min 3rd check and the longest stage of all.
It had now started to p*ss down with rain, so that could only mean one thing, things would get more difficult from now on and that’s how it turned out to be. Even when I was pinning it along the fire roads up to 70mph (110 kmh it said on the speedo) at times I just couldn’t see through my goggles as the rain was that heavy and it felt like my cheeks were being stabbed with pins as it drove into my face. The woods had became so cut up that anything and everything just seemed like ’one hell of a job’ to get through.
I arrived at the 3rd check 6 mins down. Rob was there to re-fuel me and off I went again.
A few more miles past before I arrived at the 2nd special test, and guess what? More grass fields except this time there was more of them! I stalled it twice and came off twice as well on the icy like slippery grass, so not a good test for me that one.
Onto the 4th check I went then and kept on time (still 6 mins down) and made the 5th check on time as well, so after my 1st lap I’d only lost 6 mins and I was well chuffed with that but I knew I had to do it all again and this time it would be a lot worse due to the rain that had fallen.
Onto my 2nd lap then and things became extremely difficult from here on in, at times it felt like torture as every bit of track in the woods was an effort to ride as the forest just became like an ice rink in places and the ruts had now filled with water and the roots had become exposed. I’ve never done so much ’paddling’ at such event, I should have bought my canoe! I mean I consider myself to be quite fit for my age but by after about 4 hours of relentless tiring riding, I was starting to struggle and I couldn’t wait for the next check to arrive.
I started getting cross rutted, getting stuck on a few roots and hills and having silly little offs and every time I picked the bike up it just seemed to get heavier.
I did 2 more special tests and they went ok for me without any mishaps, but when you’re dog tired it’s not that easy to go like a madman and keep concentration, those champ boys are on a different planet as they had to ride 3 laps of this course today and 6 tests.
I did the Greymare event back in January and that was tough, but if you times that by 10, that’s what you got today.
After finishing my 2nd lap and then going back on the road for about 5-6 miles or so back into Knighton and up to the last time check and with over 6 hours riding under my belt, I finally finished 21 mins down. So the last lap was really tough and I’d lost 15 mins on that one. A tad disappointing but it was hard and the event had claimed quite a few riders with DNF’s, so I was relieved in a way that I’d made it to the end. Bloody hell did I ache or what and I still got tomorrow to go yet.
Looking around the paddock everyone’s face said it all, Knackered!!! My bike was absolutely lagged, I mean lagged, strands of grass, sloppy mud, sticky peat, stones, bits of sticks, nothing that hasn’t happened before, but this was different as you just couldn’t take it home and pressure wash it, not a chance, so you had to try and clean it by hand, check things over and get it ready for the next day. That’s a shit job to do when your ‘cream crackered’, wet through with sweat and hungry!
At about 5pm and after a short rest and just as I started to clean the bike the heavens opened, b*llocks to that I thought, so I shoved it in the van hoping It wouldn’t rain in the morning and I could do it then.
A bit later on and after sorting out my right leg which nearly killed me when my thigh muscle went into a spasm which meant I couldn’t move for about 15 mins, I went and got some fish and chips, guzzled down 2 litres of energy drink and hit the sack. Roll on Sunday!
Sunday
Last night it rained for about 7-8 hours solid, God knows what state the course was going to be in today then! After chatting to a few riders down at where our time checks were posted up, rumor had it that some of the course had been cut out today due to the conditions, so things could be a bit easier today then, we’ll see? Mind you we only had to do 1 lap of 55 miles today, so in effect it would just be like doing a normal race, albeit a hard one.
I did manage to get quite a bit of crap off the bike this morning as I’d been up since 6.30am and everything seemed to be in order so no worries there.
Now then, what happened next was bloody well ‘sods law’. Just after 9am and with an hour to go before my start time I went to get some breakfast from the catering van but they were bloody well shut! Do they have different opening times in Wales or what then? With not enough time to make the trip into town I had to go without and make do with a few chocolate bars and energy gel bars, not good if you’re gonna ride half way round the county of Powys on a tough enduro course.
After getting changed into fresh riding gear, I headed for the start and waited for the clock to tick over to 10.11am so I could be on my way. I fired her up and off I went across the field and out onto the road, the country lanes and then the green lanes before arriving at the 1st special test. With the overnight rain that we’d had, the grassy fields that held the test had just become twice as worst as yesterday and I had a job to get going properly as I concentrated on just staying upright and not making any mistakes, it was like riding on glass in places, very tricky. Finished ok, no mistakes, so now it was back onto the road for a short while before turning up into a field and entering the woods.
The first part of the course was much the same as yesterday, but as I entered the woods for the 1st time I came to an abrupt halt as a thick branch had shot straight through my back wheel and had managed to spline itself through my spokes stopping me dead. Try as I might I couldn’t pull the bloody thing out and I thought I’d be there for days when suddenly out of nowhere came some spectators who helped me jack the wheel up and pull out the offending bit of wood.
I carried on and made it to my 1st check with about 5 mins to spare where I was met by Pete who put some fuel in for us.
I knew from yesterday that from here on in it was going to get hard, but how hard was the question? especially if the organizers had managed to cut out parts of the course and put in new routes, and with today’s checks being just 2 mins slower than yesterdays, a lot of riders would have a job staying clean on time.
A lot of the course that we rode today that we’d ridden yesterday was twice as worse, the ruts were muddier, the ruts filled with water had became deeper and the roots had become exposed so much that some of them just seem to be sticking up in the air like a sore thumb. But, and this is a big but, quite a bit of the track in the forest had been cut and more fire roads put in place instead which obviously made the time between checks quicker, And this made one hell of a difference today and I stayed on time throughout and never lost a minute. Don’t get me wrong, it was still tough today and I still had a few little ’offs’ and got stuck a couple of times on tree roots, but after Saturday, today just seemed like a hard 3hr race and not an extreme one and we only had to do 1 lap today which made a hell of difference too.
At the 3rd check Rob put some fuel in for me and then it was off to do another special test which again was as slippery as hell on the grass covered fields. I think in some ways I took it far too easy as I had one eye on just trying not to make any mistakes which could cost me a finish, So I wasn’t particularly fast.
Onto check 4 and I arrived still up on time, so I was pleased with that and now all I had to do was hold it together on one more special test (there were 3 today), do about another 10 miles, and I’d be home and dry. Again thinking about finishing and not having to risk anything, I did the ‘special’ ok, stayed upright and didn’t make any mistakes.
Now it was back onto the country lanes, minor roads and then the main road which led back into the town of Knighton to check no 5 and the finish area.
A great feeling as I crossed the line and well pleased that I’d done my first 2 day BEC.
A big thanks to Dan Lawry from Kingston DMCC for getting in touch, and his dad Pete and mate Rob who were there for me in the ’middle of nowhere’ deep in the forest to help me with the re-fueling.
Thanks also to Thor motorcycles who supplied me with a full spares kit and plastics.
What an event that was and a great experience and I’m really glad I made the trip.
To top it off the little ’gasser’ never missed a beat all weekend and she ran brilliantly.
Didn’t disgrace myself on the Saturday results but no so good on the Sunday seeing as less started, but overall pleased to finish.
Saturday Finishing position: 12/17 (clubman E1) 28/55 (clubman)
Sunday Finishing position: 12/14 (clubman E1) 30/39 (clubman)
Saturday, 4 July 2009
Best wishes
Go out to Mark Tucker (secretary Exmoor enduro club) who unfortunately suffered a clean break of his left arm at last weeks AMCA enduro event at Hereford. Mark had to stay in hospital for a couple of days and had to have an operation (a 5hr one at that!) which involved having metal plates and screws being put in to repair it.
This believe it or not happened at slow speed as he was overtaking a back marker and just clipped a tree on the way past and a branch that was sticking out punctured his arm snapping the bone.
Having spoken to mark he tells me that the specialist has told him that due to the nature of the injury that he won't be able to ride for rest of the year due to the possible repercussions.
Hopefully we'll be able to see him at future events as his son Richard rides so i expect 'dad' will be there supporting him.
All the best Mark and good luck.
This believe it or not happened at slow speed as he was overtaking a back marker and just clipped a tree on the way past and a branch that was sticking out punctured his arm snapping the bone.
Having spoken to mark he tells me that the specialist has told him that due to the nature of the injury that he won't be able to ride for rest of the year due to the possible repercussions.
Hopefully we'll be able to see him at future events as his son Richard rides so i expect 'dad' will be there supporting him.
All the best Mark and good luck.
Thursday, 2 July 2009
Practice- 1st July 2009
It was off up to the track tonight to meet up with Nick, steve and Adam for a bit of a blast in the glorious sunshine. Bloody hell was it hot or what? I was sweating buckets and that was just getting changed into my gear!!
I had a go on Steve Jose's brand new KTM exc 250, but i just can't get away from the fact that i love 125's and i know where i am with them, so it didn't do it for me even though it was a brand spanking new machine out of the crate! Maybe one day i might go for a bigger bike, but i think thats a while away yet.
It was nice to have a few of us down there tonight so really enjoyed it.
Plans for july:
11th Knighton enduro (BEC rnd 2)
12th Knighton enduro (BEC rnd 2)
19th Exmoor mcc
26th Midwest
I had a go on Steve Jose's brand new KTM exc 250, but i just can't get away from the fact that i love 125's and i know where i am with them, so it didn't do it for me even though it was a brand spanking new machine out of the crate! Maybe one day i might go for a bigger bike, but i think thats a while away yet.
It was nice to have a few of us down there tonight so really enjoyed it.
Plans for july:
11th Knighton enduro (BEC rnd 2)
12th Knighton enduro (BEC rnd 2)
19th Exmoor mcc
26th Midwest
Sunday, 28 June 2009
Shillingstone forest- 28th June 2009
(pic by Whizzy)
It was an early start as I met up with Adam Blake & Nick Tremlett (who’d come along to watch for the day) for the drive up to near Blandford for SCEC event. With not much rain for the last couple of weeks I was guessing that we’d be having another dry event, and the weather again today was hot and humid, no sunshine to speak of, but still warm.
The conversation in the van on the way up was mostly from Nick and it soon turned out that he’s got his own catchphrase, this being ’What I need is’, that was repeated on countless occasions time and time again due to the subject he was talking about, this being members of the opposite sex which certainly kept me and Adam amused!!
So we arrived at Shillingstone and immediately clapped eyes on Andy Smith and Phil Harris (both of whom had made the trip up from our neck of the woods) and managed to get parked in front of um. This was no mean feat as the parking was bumper to bumper along the narrow forest roads. War was about to break out as the battle of the cc’s reared it’s head, me and Adam on the little 125’s, Andy and Phil both on 300’s, it was gonna be interesting to see how we all got on today.
Upon signing on I finally managed to catch up with Steve Jose who I’d hadn’t seen for a while. I’ve been talking to Steve in the week who’d been round the course helping SCEC to get it ready, so I had a bit of an insight as to what to expect and Steve told me that it suit me a lot more than lasts weeks TnT event as this course was nearly all woods, got to say Steve, you were spot on mate!
So it was off down to start to line up and get ready for the off and today I was in the clubman E1 class and got lined up next to ‘Boycey’ from the adrenaline trip forum.
As the flag dropped and In the words of Victor Meldrew himself ‘I don’t believe it’, I got the holeshot again! that’s 2 weeks running! As I got away from everybody like a bolt of lightning as we went into the woods after the short straight. Now then, this was so different from lasts weeks race as I kept a tight line through the wooded trails and ended up in front of everybody as I got back to the transponders after the 1st lap still in 1st place.
Now for the course itself and what an awesome venue this is and right up my street. Loads of flowing wooded trails, roots, off cambers, 2 massive hills to climb, some steep winding downhills, a couple of fire roads, some rutted grassy straights and a really tight section which meandered up and down that basically just been cut through the brambles which was littered with broken trees and branches and stumps making it really slippery even in the dry. Given you had the choice with some logs to jump over as well along the way, it was a decent track and about 8 or so miles in length.
So onto lap 2 and I was still in front when I came to one of those big logs which I confidently tried to go over instead of taking the easy route and going round it. Oh bollocks I thought as I promptly got stuck on it and with some of the E1 class right up behind me, they took the easy route and went round me as I had to get off the bike and push it in order to get over the damn thing, so I lost a few places in the process and ended up 5th or 6th before I got going again.
That’s the thing I’m starting to notice now, if you’re running near the front there’s not much room for errors coz as soon as you make a mistake and lose even a minute, someone will overtake you and you’ll lose a place or two, still it’s nice to be at the front rather than the back!
Coming back to the lap scoring and where the transponders were, SCEC amazingly had a big TV screen in full view so as you swiped your wristband through the electronic scoring box, your name, class and position would come up instantly on the screen.
After laps 3 and 4 I was holding 5th and I knew riders would pit before me so I’d be able to make up a place or two if I kept pushing as I don’t usually pit until later, and sure enough on the lap I went in to get some fuel, I’d made my way up to 3rd. Now the chase was on for the 2 guys in front of me!
I had a couple of ‘offs’ one straight after the other on the tight slippery bramble section which cost me a bit of time, nothing drastic, but annoying all the same and when that happens it tends to knock you off your rhythm a bit just when everything is going along nicely. With about 30 mins left I passed another rider in my class and had made it up to 2nd, now I really had ’red mist’ in my eyes as I knew I didn’t have much time to try and get the win, probably only a lap, but try as I might and having another ‘off’ due to colliding with a back marker whist overtaking, I didn’t quite manage it.
Caught up with Steve Jose at the end for chat and I’m glad he rode and got his TM out of
retirement for the day, he should do it more often!
Adam had a cracking result 3rd in experts (on his little katoosh) and 6th overall, so we all got back to the van happy including Nick who enjoyed watching, but come on Nick it’s time to get that bike out mate and start up again yourself and get amongst it! You know you want to.
Apart from Nick’s smelly feet and his soon to be famous catchphrase ’what I need is’, a decent laugh was had by us all on the 3hr drive home. In fact Nick, ’what you need is’, some bloody ‘Odor eaters’ to tame your feet!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Odor-Eaters-Insoles-Ultra-Comfort-Pr/dp/B001DZVEQ0
Finishing position: 2/20 (clubman E1)
The conversation in the van on the way up was mostly from Nick and it soon turned out that he’s got his own catchphrase, this being ’What I need is’, that was repeated on countless occasions time and time again due to the subject he was talking about, this being members of the opposite sex which certainly kept me and Adam amused!!
So we arrived at Shillingstone and immediately clapped eyes on Andy Smith and Phil Harris (both of whom had made the trip up from our neck of the woods) and managed to get parked in front of um. This was no mean feat as the parking was bumper to bumper along the narrow forest roads. War was about to break out as the battle of the cc’s reared it’s head, me and Adam on the little 125’s, Andy and Phil both on 300’s, it was gonna be interesting to see how we all got on today.
Upon signing on I finally managed to catch up with Steve Jose who I’d hadn’t seen for a while. I’ve been talking to Steve in the week who’d been round the course helping SCEC to get it ready, so I had a bit of an insight as to what to expect and Steve told me that it suit me a lot more than lasts weeks TnT event as this course was nearly all woods, got to say Steve, you were spot on mate!
So it was off down to start to line up and get ready for the off and today I was in the clubman E1 class and got lined up next to ‘Boycey’ from the adrenaline trip forum.
As the flag dropped and In the words of Victor Meldrew himself ‘I don’t believe it’, I got the holeshot again! that’s 2 weeks running! As I got away from everybody like a bolt of lightning as we went into the woods after the short straight. Now then, this was so different from lasts weeks race as I kept a tight line through the wooded trails and ended up in front of everybody as I got back to the transponders after the 1st lap still in 1st place.
Now for the course itself and what an awesome venue this is and right up my street. Loads of flowing wooded trails, roots, off cambers, 2 massive hills to climb, some steep winding downhills, a couple of fire roads, some rutted grassy straights and a really tight section which meandered up and down that basically just been cut through the brambles which was littered with broken trees and branches and stumps making it really slippery even in the dry. Given you had the choice with some logs to jump over as well along the way, it was a decent track and about 8 or so miles in length.
So onto lap 2 and I was still in front when I came to one of those big logs which I confidently tried to go over instead of taking the easy route and going round it. Oh bollocks I thought as I promptly got stuck on it and with some of the E1 class right up behind me, they took the easy route and went round me as I had to get off the bike and push it in order to get over the damn thing, so I lost a few places in the process and ended up 5th or 6th before I got going again.
That’s the thing I’m starting to notice now, if you’re running near the front there’s not much room for errors coz as soon as you make a mistake and lose even a minute, someone will overtake you and you’ll lose a place or two, still it’s nice to be at the front rather than the back!
Coming back to the lap scoring and where the transponders were, SCEC amazingly had a big TV screen in full view so as you swiped your wristband through the electronic scoring box, your name, class and position would come up instantly on the screen.
After laps 3 and 4 I was holding 5th and I knew riders would pit before me so I’d be able to make up a place or two if I kept pushing as I don’t usually pit until later, and sure enough on the lap I went in to get some fuel, I’d made my way up to 3rd. Now the chase was on for the 2 guys in front of me!
I had a couple of ‘offs’ one straight after the other on the tight slippery bramble section which cost me a bit of time, nothing drastic, but annoying all the same and when that happens it tends to knock you off your rhythm a bit just when everything is going along nicely. With about 30 mins left I passed another rider in my class and had made it up to 2nd, now I really had ’red mist’ in my eyes as I knew I didn’t have much time to try and get the win, probably only a lap, but try as I might and having another ‘off’ due to colliding with a back marker whist overtaking, I didn’t quite manage it.
Caught up with Steve Jose at the end for chat and I’m glad he rode and got his TM out of
retirement for the day, he should do it more often!
Adam had a cracking result 3rd in experts (on his little katoosh) and 6th overall, so we all got back to the van happy including Nick who enjoyed watching, but come on Nick it’s time to get that bike out mate and start up again yourself and get amongst it! You know you want to.
Apart from Nick’s smelly feet and his soon to be famous catchphrase ’what I need is’, a decent laugh was had by us all on the 3hr drive home. In fact Nick, ’what you need is’, some bloody ‘Odor eaters’ to tame your feet!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Odor-Eaters-Insoles-Ultra-Comfort-Pr/dp/B001DZVEQ0
Finishing position: 2/20 (clubman E1)
Sunday, 21 June 2009
Two valleys- 21st June 2009
So it was off up to near Dorchester for a Track n Trail event at Two valleys.
(pic by image consortium)
Now then, unfortunately for me I developed ‘caravanitis’ along the way on the A35 as I got stuck behind a load of the things!! As soon as I overtook one, I’d catch another one up 5 mins later, where did they all come from then? Perhaps they were just out this morning knowing that I was on the road and they wanted to see me fume as steam was blowing out of my ears and my temperature had risen to that of a furnace after constantly getting held up, not to mention some very rude words that were being used especially when following them along a straight dry road with good visibility at what seemed like a snails pace unable to overtake because more caravans were coming the other way!
Personally I think anyone over the age of 90 who wears black slip on shoes from Makro, wears a small knotted tie, a knitted jumper from Marks & Spencer, listens to Max Bygraves, tows a big white box on wheels, and is not a fan of ’Little Britain’ or ’Mock the week’ should be banned from driving, That’ll get rid of a few won’t it? Probably 99% of them!
Rant over, lets move on.
Nice weather again as I arrived rather late (you know why), in fact I only had about 15 mins before the sighting lap started, so there was no chance at all of doing that.
I expected to bump into a few people whilst I was there, but with time limited I was in a bit of a rush so didn’t really see anyone apart from a quick chat with Mark and Rich Tucker whilst I went to sign on.
Onto the start then and today was going to be a nice little test for me as I’d entered the Clubman 2st, which has no limitations on bike capacity, so I was against the bigger machines.
When the flag dropped I made an absolute flyer and got the holeshot!!!!! Bloody nora I thought to myself as I lead the clubman through the first couple of moto x style corners and out into the hillside.
I was crying out for the woods so I might be able to get away a bit as everyone might have got held up behind me, but there was no such luck as the course just kept on being a motocross track which meandered up and down the hillsides. After a couple of mins the bigger bikes began to blast past me and I lost several places, in fact more than several as I was nailing the little ‘gasser’ for all it’s worth and hanging onto the bars for dear life trying to keep up!
The track was bone hard, bumpy, and extremely fast with only a small wooded section that only took about 2 mins to ride through right at the end of the lap. There was a couple of hard routes dotted about, but these were very easy to ride through because it was so dry. If you could imagine a motocross track going up and down a couple of hillsides for 6-7 miles with a couple of fast straights on it, and a little bit of woods at the end, then that was it. Bit disappointing really as TnT usually have more woods in there events.
So with nothing technical and fast going, the battle for places would be extremely tight as I found out on my 3rd lap. Just before the end of the lap on that wooded section I give it too much ’welly’ and the back spun out on me, I did a doughnut and ended up on my ass facing the wrong way and even before I could get going again (maybe 30 secs) 4 riders in my class flew past me, that’s how tight it was going to be today, especially with the laps being only 13-14 mins long.
Mind you, you didn’t get held up too much as it was fairly open going and even when things got a bit tight, it wasn’t long before you were out into the open again, but trying to overtake a 250 or 450 on fast open going when you’re on a 125 ain’t easy, especially if they’re pinning it, even the back markers. It’s all down to braking and my front disc must have been glowing red like a F1 car with the amount of pressure I was putting on it!
Had a nasty moment about half way through when the front end twisted on me on a bumpy section and the bars turned round and dug right into my chest, but I managed to hold on and not ‘high side’ off the bike, thank god for the chest plate on my body armour.
I pitted at about 2hrs and was hoping for a quick stop, but sods law reared it’s head as some rider had abandoned his bike and parked it right in front of my re-fueling can. I couldn’t lean over to get it so I quickly asked someone to hand it to me so I didn’t need to get off the bike. Thanks for your help mate whoever you was, saved me a bit of time that.
I kept on pushing until the finish and the last couple of laps were really hard work as the bumpy track had taken it’s toll and I had a job to hold on to the bars, but I didn’t have anymore ‘offs’ and didn’t really waste much time anywhere so I was pleased with that.
Overall not too bad a result against the bigger bikes on a fast motocross style course and most of the riders being a lot younger than me!
Finishing position: 10/29 (clubman 2st)
Now then, unfortunately for me I developed ‘caravanitis’ along the way on the A35 as I got stuck behind a load of the things!! As soon as I overtook one, I’d catch another one up 5 mins later, where did they all come from then? Perhaps they were just out this morning knowing that I was on the road and they wanted to see me fume as steam was blowing out of my ears and my temperature had risen to that of a furnace after constantly getting held up, not to mention some very rude words that were being used especially when following them along a straight dry road with good visibility at what seemed like a snails pace unable to overtake because more caravans were coming the other way!
Personally I think anyone over the age of 90 who wears black slip on shoes from Makro, wears a small knotted tie, a knitted jumper from Marks & Spencer, listens to Max Bygraves, tows a big white box on wheels, and is not a fan of ’Little Britain’ or ’Mock the week’ should be banned from driving, That’ll get rid of a few won’t it? Probably 99% of them!
Rant over, lets move on.
Nice weather again as I arrived rather late (you know why), in fact I only had about 15 mins before the sighting lap started, so there was no chance at all of doing that.
I expected to bump into a few people whilst I was there, but with time limited I was in a bit of a rush so didn’t really see anyone apart from a quick chat with Mark and Rich Tucker whilst I went to sign on.
Onto the start then and today was going to be a nice little test for me as I’d entered the Clubman 2st, which has no limitations on bike capacity, so I was against the bigger machines.
When the flag dropped I made an absolute flyer and got the holeshot!!!!! Bloody nora I thought to myself as I lead the clubman through the first couple of moto x style corners and out into the hillside.
I was crying out for the woods so I might be able to get away a bit as everyone might have got held up behind me, but there was no such luck as the course just kept on being a motocross track which meandered up and down the hillsides. After a couple of mins the bigger bikes began to blast past me and I lost several places, in fact more than several as I was nailing the little ‘gasser’ for all it’s worth and hanging onto the bars for dear life trying to keep up!
The track was bone hard, bumpy, and extremely fast with only a small wooded section that only took about 2 mins to ride through right at the end of the lap. There was a couple of hard routes dotted about, but these were very easy to ride through because it was so dry. If you could imagine a motocross track going up and down a couple of hillsides for 6-7 miles with a couple of fast straights on it, and a little bit of woods at the end, then that was it. Bit disappointing really as TnT usually have more woods in there events.
So with nothing technical and fast going, the battle for places would be extremely tight as I found out on my 3rd lap. Just before the end of the lap on that wooded section I give it too much ’welly’ and the back spun out on me, I did a doughnut and ended up on my ass facing the wrong way and even before I could get going again (maybe 30 secs) 4 riders in my class flew past me, that’s how tight it was going to be today, especially with the laps being only 13-14 mins long.
Mind you, you didn’t get held up too much as it was fairly open going and even when things got a bit tight, it wasn’t long before you were out into the open again, but trying to overtake a 250 or 450 on fast open going when you’re on a 125 ain’t easy, especially if they’re pinning it, even the back markers. It’s all down to braking and my front disc must have been glowing red like a F1 car with the amount of pressure I was putting on it!
Had a nasty moment about half way through when the front end twisted on me on a bumpy section and the bars turned round and dug right into my chest, but I managed to hold on and not ‘high side’ off the bike, thank god for the chest plate on my body armour.
I pitted at about 2hrs and was hoping for a quick stop, but sods law reared it’s head as some rider had abandoned his bike and parked it right in front of my re-fueling can. I couldn’t lean over to get it so I quickly asked someone to hand it to me so I didn’t need to get off the bike. Thanks for your help mate whoever you was, saved me a bit of time that.
I kept on pushing until the finish and the last couple of laps were really hard work as the bumpy track had taken it’s toll and I had a job to hold on to the bars, but I didn’t have anymore ‘offs’ and didn’t really waste much time anywhere so I was pleased with that.
Overall not too bad a result against the bigger bikes on a fast motocross style course and most of the riders being a lot younger than me!
Finishing position: 10/29 (clubman 2st)
Friday, 19 June 2009
Looking ahead
If anyones interested in going along to the BEC rnd 2 in Wales on July 11th/12th drop us a line coz i'm riding it and will be travelling up there in the van.
If you want to come along and see the top riders in action and maybe give us a hand as well or your riding and want to share costs, then let us know.
myenduros@aol.com
If you want to come along and see the top riders in action and maybe give us a hand as well or your riding and want to share costs, then let us know.
myenduros@aol.com
Monday, 15 June 2009
Norridge woods- 14th June 2009
Bloody hell, the suns out again and another sunny day greeted me as I made the drive up to Wiltshire for the next round of the Midwest series.
I was feeling a lot better this week as my right thigh is almost back to normal and I’ve managed to eat properly as well after that horrible bug, so I was looking forward to it.
The first 2 races of the series have not really been shall we say to my liking due to the fact that there’s been a lot of fields involved, so I was eager to see what this round was gonna be like.
Good news on the parking front anyway as there was plenty of room and it always makes a nice change to park up in field that’s dry!! Got signed on and the bike checked and went and put the fuel in the pits which was a cattle shed! Good idea that, especially if it were to rain.
So, with plenty of water drank beforehand (nearly 3 ltrs of the stuff) to get myself well hydrated, it was off to line up for the start. Things were going to be as tight as ‘the new laws on an MP’s expenditure list’ because just about 30 meters away after the start line, we all had to get through a farmers gate and go down a narrow lane, so a good start was important.
As the flag dropped I made a good one and was about 4th or 5th as we went down that lane and turned a right handed corner across a stoney road, then another right hander along another fast straight stoney track before we entered the woods.
I was still in the top 5 for the first couple of minutes when all of a sudden the bike started to cut out and then die on me. I knew what I’d done straight away, I FORGOT TO TURN MY PETROL ON!!!!!! What a plonker!!! Surely I’m not alone on this one am I? some of you must have that done before?
I ground to a halt and promptly turned the tap back on and started to kick furiously at the little gasser, but by this time and with it being so early after the start, the entire field of vets passed me. I continued to kick but she wouldn’t start, sods law that, and as I was kicking away I could hear the next group of riders coming towards me, and sure enough the whole field of the sportsman 2t passed me as well. What the f*ck is going on I thought as I knew it wouldn’t be long before the sportsman 4t were gonna be coming round the corner!
I quickly pushed the bike and leant it up against a tree, got on and kicked and kicked, but my thoughts had became true as the 4t’s went passed me as well before the gasser finally sparked into life.
So there I was, I’d made a good start and bloody well threw it all away and probably any chance of getting a decent result towards the championship. I was absolutely livid with myself, but me being me there was only one thing to do, and with still about 2hr 55mins left on the clock, I was going to push as hard as I can until the finish even though I’d have pass a bloody load of riders in order to get a decent finish.
I soon caught up with the sportsman 4t’s but with the wooded tails being so narrow, chances had to be taken in order to overtake, but I was on a mission and I gave it everything, I fact I gave it too much and came a cropper whilst getting ‘cross rutted’ trying to make up places, and guess what? I picked the bike up and she started 1st time!!!!!
With such a dry track and fast going it wasn’t until my 2nd lap that I passed a few of the sportsman 2t’s so I knew I was making progress but all I was interested in was trying to pass the vets in my class and I just couldn’t see any of them, they were well and truly gone.
Now then the course itself, this is going to be one of the shortest descriptions of any track I’ve raced! No hills, no bogs, no cambers, hardly any roots, no rocks, no water crossings, in fact it was just about 6-7 miles of wooded trails with a few ditches to cross and a couple of stoney straights thrown in along the side of a farmers field so you can have a blast, that’s it!
So nothing technical and extremely fast and dry.
After about an hour I’d managed to pass a few riders in my class, but seeing as there was a big entry in every group and with the course tight in a lot of places, it was hard at times to make any headway, and I still had to take a lot of risks in order to pass riders, but with last weeks race being difficult and slippery, today seemed a lot easier, and I was absolutely flying and felt really good.
With the weather being hot as well I knew riders would be flagging towards the end so I just kept pushing as hard as I could.
With about 2hrs up on the clock I made a lightning pit stop and went back out definitely ’on it’ and going as well as I’ve ever done. I still wasn’t sure how I was doing as I hadn’t overtaken that many that were in my class, but I just kept pushing and pushing hoping that the next person I caught up in front of me was in the number 300’s!! (that’s the vet’s class numbers)
At the end I just missed out on another lap by just over a minute, so effectively what happened earlier on had cost me, but unbelivabley I’d made my way up to 3rd in my class and only 12 secs behind 2nd place. I might have even snatched the win if I’d have turned the petrol on in the first place!
Given what happened today and the amount of riders I had to pass due to the nature of the course in order to get anywhere, I reckon that’s the best race I’ve done so far, and what’s even more pleasing is the fact that I stayed so strong until the end because after looking at the lap times I’ve noticed that my fastest lap was my penultimate lap.
Nice to catch up with Pete Boyles at the end of it all, so I had a decent chat with him and then headed for home on my ‘tod’ in the glorious weather, just as well as it was a 3hr drive home.
Finishing position: 3/27 (vets)
I was feeling a lot better this week as my right thigh is almost back to normal and I’ve managed to eat properly as well after that horrible bug, so I was looking forward to it.
The first 2 races of the series have not really been shall we say to my liking due to the fact that there’s been a lot of fields involved, so I was eager to see what this round was gonna be like.
Good news on the parking front anyway as there was plenty of room and it always makes a nice change to park up in field that’s dry!! Got signed on and the bike checked and went and put the fuel in the pits which was a cattle shed! Good idea that, especially if it were to rain.
So, with plenty of water drank beforehand (nearly 3 ltrs of the stuff) to get myself well hydrated, it was off to line up for the start. Things were going to be as tight as ‘the new laws on an MP’s expenditure list’ because just about 30 meters away after the start line, we all had to get through a farmers gate and go down a narrow lane, so a good start was important.
As the flag dropped I made a good one and was about 4th or 5th as we went down that lane and turned a right handed corner across a stoney road, then another right hander along another fast straight stoney track before we entered the woods.
I was still in the top 5 for the first couple of minutes when all of a sudden the bike started to cut out and then die on me. I knew what I’d done straight away, I FORGOT TO TURN MY PETROL ON!!!!!! What a plonker!!! Surely I’m not alone on this one am I? some of you must have that done before?
I ground to a halt and promptly turned the tap back on and started to kick furiously at the little gasser, but by this time and with it being so early after the start, the entire field of vets passed me. I continued to kick but she wouldn’t start, sods law that, and as I was kicking away I could hear the next group of riders coming towards me, and sure enough the whole field of the sportsman 2t passed me as well. What the f*ck is going on I thought as I knew it wouldn’t be long before the sportsman 4t were gonna be coming round the corner!
I quickly pushed the bike and leant it up against a tree, got on and kicked and kicked, but my thoughts had became true as the 4t’s went passed me as well before the gasser finally sparked into life.
So there I was, I’d made a good start and bloody well threw it all away and probably any chance of getting a decent result towards the championship. I was absolutely livid with myself, but me being me there was only one thing to do, and with still about 2hr 55mins left on the clock, I was going to push as hard as I can until the finish even though I’d have pass a bloody load of riders in order to get a decent finish.
I soon caught up with the sportsman 4t’s but with the wooded tails being so narrow, chances had to be taken in order to overtake, but I was on a mission and I gave it everything, I fact I gave it too much and came a cropper whilst getting ‘cross rutted’ trying to make up places, and guess what? I picked the bike up and she started 1st time!!!!!
With such a dry track and fast going it wasn’t until my 2nd lap that I passed a few of the sportsman 2t’s so I knew I was making progress but all I was interested in was trying to pass the vets in my class and I just couldn’t see any of them, they were well and truly gone.
Now then the course itself, this is going to be one of the shortest descriptions of any track I’ve raced! No hills, no bogs, no cambers, hardly any roots, no rocks, no water crossings, in fact it was just about 6-7 miles of wooded trails with a few ditches to cross and a couple of stoney straights thrown in along the side of a farmers field so you can have a blast, that’s it!
So nothing technical and extremely fast and dry.
After about an hour I’d managed to pass a few riders in my class, but seeing as there was a big entry in every group and with the course tight in a lot of places, it was hard at times to make any headway, and I still had to take a lot of risks in order to pass riders, but with last weeks race being difficult and slippery, today seemed a lot easier, and I was absolutely flying and felt really good.
With the weather being hot as well I knew riders would be flagging towards the end so I just kept pushing as hard as I could.
With about 2hrs up on the clock I made a lightning pit stop and went back out definitely ’on it’ and going as well as I’ve ever done. I still wasn’t sure how I was doing as I hadn’t overtaken that many that were in my class, but I just kept pushing and pushing hoping that the next person I caught up in front of me was in the number 300’s!! (that’s the vet’s class numbers)
At the end I just missed out on another lap by just over a minute, so effectively what happened earlier on had cost me, but unbelivabley I’d made my way up to 3rd in my class and only 12 secs behind 2nd place. I might have even snatched the win if I’d have turned the petrol on in the first place!
Given what happened today and the amount of riders I had to pass due to the nature of the course in order to get anywhere, I reckon that’s the best race I’ve done so far, and what’s even more pleasing is the fact that I stayed so strong until the end because after looking at the lap times I’ve noticed that my fastest lap was my penultimate lap.
Nice to catch up with Pete Boyles at the end of it all, so I had a decent chat with him and then headed for home on my ‘tod’ in the glorious weather, just as well as it was a 3hr drive home.
Finishing position: 3/27 (vets)
Monday, 8 June 2009
Nancemellion- 7th June 2009
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)
Thursday, 4 June 2009
A quick blast- 3rd June 2009
Decided to have a quick blast round the local moto x track tonight seeing as the weather is absoulutely cracking at the moment. I met Adam Blake and Nick Tremlett up there and all of us were on 125's, And believe or not the only other 2 riders there were on 125's as well!!! so it was happy days to hear the little smokers zinging around the track (like wasps in a can my dad used to say).
I didn't do too much and took it easy as i was quite literally 'flat out on my back' earlier in the week due to a horrendous bug that swept through the 'Muso' household late on Sunday night, but me being as keen as mustard i was eager to see if i could get some decent speed up and give myself a boost before sundays race and also test out my thigh thats been giving me trouble since that 'off' at Storridge wood the other week.
Me and Nick had a great race against each other for about 15 mins just before it was time to pack up because the track became a bit on the dangerous side due to the dust everywhere that was flying about and making it difficult to see, and as usual, we couldn't touch 'Blakey' as he was bloody well on a different planet showing us all how it should be done!
My thigh still isn't that good and i got woken up at 3.30am this morning and having to go and take more painkillers because it's still giving me trouble, still Sunday's race is a few more days away yet and another 200 anti inflammatory tablets between now and then should do the trick shouldn't it?
A busy month ahead so let's hope this leg doesn't cause me too many problems in the next few weeks.
June
7th Camborne & Reduth mcc
14th Midwest mcc
21st Track n trail
28th SCEC
I didn't do too much and took it easy as i was quite literally 'flat out on my back' earlier in the week due to a horrendous bug that swept through the 'Muso' household late on Sunday night, but me being as keen as mustard i was eager to see if i could get some decent speed up and give myself a boost before sundays race and also test out my thigh thats been giving me trouble since that 'off' at Storridge wood the other week.
Me and Nick had a great race against each other for about 15 mins just before it was time to pack up because the track became a bit on the dangerous side due to the dust everywhere that was flying about and making it difficult to see, and as usual, we couldn't touch 'Blakey' as he was bloody well on a different planet showing us all how it should be done!
My thigh still isn't that good and i got woken up at 3.30am this morning and having to go and take more painkillers because it's still giving me trouble, still Sunday's race is a few more days away yet and another 200 anti inflammatory tablets between now and then should do the trick shouldn't it?
A busy month ahead so let's hope this leg doesn't cause me too many problems in the next few weeks.
June
7th Camborne & Reduth mcc
14th Midwest mcc
21st Track n trail
28th SCEC
Monday, 1 June 2009
It's all change- 31st May 2009
Yes that is my bike!
I felt like a change so i've kitted her out in spanking new white plastics all the way round!
I really don't know if i'm gonna stick any graphics on it yet, depends if i get bored with it or not looking like it's just come out of a box of PERSIL!
The gasser had a new piston in it this week, so it was on with the reg plate and i explored a bit of cornish countryside in the gorgeous weather to help run her in.
Friday, 29 May 2009
Going, Going, Gone!- 27th May 2009
Well it had to happen sooner or later.............................................................................
Today i finally said goodbye to my old TM. That's the bike that started it all for me in the 1st place and it finished 36 enduro's in a row for me!
Good luck to the new buyer and i hope she gives you as much satisfaction as i got from her.
Today i finally said goodbye to my old TM. That's the bike that started it all for me in the 1st place and it finished 36 enduro's in a row for me!
Good luck to the new buyer and i hope she gives you as much satisfaction as i got from her.
Monday, 25 May 2009
Storridge wood- 25th May 2009
After missing the 1st round of the Xmoor series due to that little mishap with my radiator, I was so looking forward to riding this as you can guarantee that the club always puts on a good event.
After a short drive up to Bude to meet up with Steve Jose and Adam Blake, it was off to Storridge woods. With no map between us and no directions, we needn’t have worried because Adam was better than Google itself as he seem to know the way like the back of his hand as he took us through all sorts of lanes and back roads (which had me and Steve saying to each other, ‘where the f*ck are we?) to deliver us at the course with plenty of time to spare.
After signing on and taking a look at one of the Expert routes, we then had a bit of breakfast and sat on our backsides around the van chatting to riders that passed by waiting for the time to tick by to get changed for the 12’o’clock start.
The weather although overcast, was warm, and as the start time got nearer, we knew it was gonna be a hot one.
After warming our engines on the rather tight start line, it was time for the off, and as the flag dropped I didn’t particularly make a good one, and as we all bunched up around a tight right hander, the inevitable traffic jam occurred. Thankfully it didn’t last too long, but even so by the time I got going I was well down in the field and not happy!
We entered the woods immediately and were faced with some rooted tight tracks which made overtaken difficult especially as everyone was fired up with the adrenaline that goes with the early stages of a race. Some guy on KTM came hurtling passed me over to go over the bars seconds later as he hit a tree stump, I slowed to make sure he was alright as It looked nasty, but thankfully he was, so I carried on.
As we progressed through the woods I could see in the distance most of my riders in my class it what seemed like a procession following each other, and I could see I was well down the field so I instantly tried to make up some places, but it all went ’Pete Tong’ and that decision effectively put me out of the race.
As I tried to overtake a rider in front of me, my front wheel ‘washed’ out on a root and as I went down to the floor my handlebars twisted and stuck straight into my left thigh, OUCH!
At first I’d really thought I’d broken something, it was bloody agony, but after I got up, I managed to pick the bike up and lean it against a lovely friendly tree, which I also leant against to get my breath back. After a bit of rest and now with every other bugger passing me, clubman 4st, over 40’s, sportsman, I decided to try and ride around the rest of the course and make it back to the pits where I could check my leg over.
Saying that, with such a testing course, it wasn’t going to be a piece of cake, but I took it easy and got myself back and parked up.
I had to make some sort of decision now, pull out, carry on, or go and see the medics, but after 10 mins of rest and with a bit of stretching as well as taking a good look at it, I thought to myself that’s it’s gonna take a hell of a lot for me to DNF and today ain’t the day for that! As long as I could stand on the pegs I was willing to give it a go, so I bloody well did. Good job it wasn’t my right leg as I wouldn’t have been able to kick the bike over and start it.
Onto my 2nd lap I went then, albeit a bit slower than the norm, but I was determined to enjoy the event and take it easy and just get a finish, and with no pressure on I’d thought it would be a good idea to try all the expert routes out as well as I wasn’t worried about the time anymore after losing so much of it.
You know when it’s not going to be your day when about half way round your 2nd lap something else happens, and bugger me if it didn’t. I was going along nicely when all of a sudden the bike went ‘clunk’ and stopped dead in it’s tracks. I looked down only to find that the chain had come off and had wrapped itself around the front sprocket (been there done that before), so pushed it up to another one of those friendly trees, leant the bike against it and tried to unravel the thing. After about 5 mins I managed to free it just as a marshal came along so I flagged him down for a push to get the chain back on the sprocket and hey presto, away I went again.
The course itself was a classic, plenty of roots, a couple of rocky and rooty water crossings, off camber trails, some steep expert hills to try out, fire roads, logs to go over and more important, no flat fields! To be honest there wasn’t really anywhere you could take a breather as it was pretty much constant woods where you had to concentrate on riding most of the time, although at some points the trails only had one line and if you caught someone up and they didn’t move over for you, then it was hard work getting by, even at the pace I was going! Overall a superb lap and a long one, 10 miles or thereabouts and not for whimps!
With now more than half the race gone and me only on 2 laps I went into the pits and topped her up and went back out again. The previous laps I’d been doing the expert routes ok but this lap turned out to be a little different as I came off on one and promptly got my bike ridden over by a following rider which put a large dent in the exhaust (this definitely isn’t my day is it?).
On another one of the hard routes I got stuck near the top only to find Rob Ellick (snapped chain) and Paul Ford (tyre came off his rim) standing there, both of them had retired, so I had a quick chat with them and went back down, turned around and made it up next time. That hill was great fun pinning the little gasser all the way up it!
With about 30 mins left on the clock I pitted to rest my leg a bit and had a quick chat with Francis Banfield before setting off on what I knew would be my last lap. All I wanted was to take it easy and get to the finish and with thinking that I made a small mistake on an off camber part of the track and ended up trying to get the bike up a steep bank and back out onto the course. Try as I might I was stuck, so with looking round I realized that the only way to go was down. I rode the bike through the undergrowth downwards towards the fire road that I could see at the bottom, but when I got there I was faced a sheer drop back onto the fire road. No way could I get down that without going over the bars, so I got off the bike and let her drop over the edge! I clambered down, picked the bike back up and luckily for me nothing was broken so i kicked her into life, and off I went again to re-join the course, nice one!
So in the end and after an eventful race I made back to record a finish at the checkerd flag.
The riders I spoke to afterwards all thought it was an excellent event, Jason Duggan, Steve Jay, Andy Smith, Phil Harris, to name but a few. All I told them was my hard luck story, so they all got the violins out for me!
Was hoping to catch up with Pete Boyles afterwards but he’d retired as his TM splayed oil all over the rear disc, he’s not having much luck at the moment is Pete so let’s hope that changes for him.
I’ve mentioned this lad before, Richard Tucker, 18 yrs old and today 3rd in champ class! That lads getting bloody well faster every time I see him. Mind you apparently he learnt everything off his dad Mark (is that right Rich or not?).
A good bit of banter was had by us all in the van on the way home, which included being entertained by Steve ‘the man of a thousand stories’ Jose. I’m telling you now, if ever you’re bored after a race just listen to Steve as he’ll tell you all about what happened and at what particular time it happened, on what part of the course it happened, who it happened with and why it happened! Great stuff and well worth the diesel money on it’s own.
Well I suppose with things going so well lately I was due to have a crap race, let’s hope I don’t have too many of the buggers in the future.
Finishing position: 19/30 (clubman 2st)
After a short drive up to Bude to meet up with Steve Jose and Adam Blake, it was off to Storridge woods. With no map between us and no directions, we needn’t have worried because Adam was better than Google itself as he seem to know the way like the back of his hand as he took us through all sorts of lanes and back roads (which had me and Steve saying to each other, ‘where the f*ck are we?) to deliver us at the course with plenty of time to spare.
After signing on and taking a look at one of the Expert routes, we then had a bit of breakfast and sat on our backsides around the van chatting to riders that passed by waiting for the time to tick by to get changed for the 12’o’clock start.
The weather although overcast, was warm, and as the start time got nearer, we knew it was gonna be a hot one.
After warming our engines on the rather tight start line, it was time for the off, and as the flag dropped I didn’t particularly make a good one, and as we all bunched up around a tight right hander, the inevitable traffic jam occurred. Thankfully it didn’t last too long, but even so by the time I got going I was well down in the field and not happy!
We entered the woods immediately and were faced with some rooted tight tracks which made overtaken difficult especially as everyone was fired up with the adrenaline that goes with the early stages of a race. Some guy on KTM came hurtling passed me over to go over the bars seconds later as he hit a tree stump, I slowed to make sure he was alright as It looked nasty, but thankfully he was, so I carried on.
As we progressed through the woods I could see in the distance most of my riders in my class it what seemed like a procession following each other, and I could see I was well down the field so I instantly tried to make up some places, but it all went ’Pete Tong’ and that decision effectively put me out of the race.
As I tried to overtake a rider in front of me, my front wheel ‘washed’ out on a root and as I went down to the floor my handlebars twisted and stuck straight into my left thigh, OUCH!
At first I’d really thought I’d broken something, it was bloody agony, but after I got up, I managed to pick the bike up and lean it against a lovely friendly tree, which I also leant against to get my breath back. After a bit of rest and now with every other bugger passing me, clubman 4st, over 40’s, sportsman, I decided to try and ride around the rest of the course and make it back to the pits where I could check my leg over.
Saying that, with such a testing course, it wasn’t going to be a piece of cake, but I took it easy and got myself back and parked up.
I had to make some sort of decision now, pull out, carry on, or go and see the medics, but after 10 mins of rest and with a bit of stretching as well as taking a good look at it, I thought to myself that’s it’s gonna take a hell of a lot for me to DNF and today ain’t the day for that! As long as I could stand on the pegs I was willing to give it a go, so I bloody well did. Good job it wasn’t my right leg as I wouldn’t have been able to kick the bike over and start it.
Onto my 2nd lap I went then, albeit a bit slower than the norm, but I was determined to enjoy the event and take it easy and just get a finish, and with no pressure on I’d thought it would be a good idea to try all the expert routes out as well as I wasn’t worried about the time anymore after losing so much of it.
You know when it’s not going to be your day when about half way round your 2nd lap something else happens, and bugger me if it didn’t. I was going along nicely when all of a sudden the bike went ‘clunk’ and stopped dead in it’s tracks. I looked down only to find that the chain had come off and had wrapped itself around the front sprocket (been there done that before), so pushed it up to another one of those friendly trees, leant the bike against it and tried to unravel the thing. After about 5 mins I managed to free it just as a marshal came along so I flagged him down for a push to get the chain back on the sprocket and hey presto, away I went again.
The course itself was a classic, plenty of roots, a couple of rocky and rooty water crossings, off camber trails, some steep expert hills to try out, fire roads, logs to go over and more important, no flat fields! To be honest there wasn’t really anywhere you could take a breather as it was pretty much constant woods where you had to concentrate on riding most of the time, although at some points the trails only had one line and if you caught someone up and they didn’t move over for you, then it was hard work getting by, even at the pace I was going! Overall a superb lap and a long one, 10 miles or thereabouts and not for whimps!
With now more than half the race gone and me only on 2 laps I went into the pits and topped her up and went back out again. The previous laps I’d been doing the expert routes ok but this lap turned out to be a little different as I came off on one and promptly got my bike ridden over by a following rider which put a large dent in the exhaust (this definitely isn’t my day is it?).
On another one of the hard routes I got stuck near the top only to find Rob Ellick (snapped chain) and Paul Ford (tyre came off his rim) standing there, both of them had retired, so I had a quick chat with them and went back down, turned around and made it up next time. That hill was great fun pinning the little gasser all the way up it!
With about 30 mins left on the clock I pitted to rest my leg a bit and had a quick chat with Francis Banfield before setting off on what I knew would be my last lap. All I wanted was to take it easy and get to the finish and with thinking that I made a small mistake on an off camber part of the track and ended up trying to get the bike up a steep bank and back out onto the course. Try as I might I was stuck, so with looking round I realized that the only way to go was down. I rode the bike through the undergrowth downwards towards the fire road that I could see at the bottom, but when I got there I was faced a sheer drop back onto the fire road. No way could I get down that without going over the bars, so I got off the bike and let her drop over the edge! I clambered down, picked the bike back up and luckily for me nothing was broken so i kicked her into life, and off I went again to re-join the course, nice one!
So in the end and after an eventful race I made back to record a finish at the checkerd flag.
The riders I spoke to afterwards all thought it was an excellent event, Jason Duggan, Steve Jay, Andy Smith, Phil Harris, to name but a few. All I told them was my hard luck story, so they all got the violins out for me!
Was hoping to catch up with Pete Boyles afterwards but he’d retired as his TM splayed oil all over the rear disc, he’s not having much luck at the moment is Pete so let’s hope that changes for him.
I’ve mentioned this lad before, Richard Tucker, 18 yrs old and today 3rd in champ class! That lads getting bloody well faster every time I see him. Mind you apparently he learnt everything off his dad Mark (is that right Rich or not?).
A good bit of banter was had by us all in the van on the way home, which included being entertained by Steve ‘the man of a thousand stories’ Jose. I’m telling you now, if ever you’re bored after a race just listen to Steve as he’ll tell you all about what happened and at what particular time it happened, on what part of the course it happened, who it happened with and why it happened! Great stuff and well worth the diesel money on it’s own.
Well I suppose with things going so well lately I was due to have a crap race, let’s hope I don’t have too many of the buggers in the future.
Finishing position: 19/30 (clubman 2st)
Saturday, 23 May 2009
Practice- 23rd May 2009
I was going to travel up and do the South Reading event today but decided not to as i've got to much to do at home this weekend!
Not to be outdone and having withdrawel syptoms about not riding my bike, i went for a bit of practice at a local moto x track. With the cracking weather being what it is at the moment, i rode round for just over an hour straight, before packing up and heading home for a Barbecue.
I've managed to get the van fixed after last weekend, so it's all systems go for the Xmoor event on monday.
Not to be outdone and having withdrawel syptoms about not riding my bike, i went for a bit of practice at a local moto x track. With the cracking weather being what it is at the moment, i rode round for just over an hour straight, before packing up and heading home for a Barbecue.
I've managed to get the van fixed after last weekend, so it's all systems go for the Xmoor event on monday.
Monday, 18 May 2009
West Harting Down- 17th May 2009
What a weekend it turned out to be! Talk about ups and downs!
So it was off up to West Sussex to enter a timecard event held by Croydon mcc, a round of the SEEC championship. Phil Harris entered it as well, so I picked him up along the way and we made our way to my sisters place near Newbury for an overnight stay so we didn’t have too far to travel in the morning for the race.
We arrived early Saturday evening and promptly went down the local pub called the Fox inn, where we set about having a decent bit of ‘nosh’ after the journey up. We got talking to a couple of locals (like you do), Rachael & Rick who had a sense of humor that was right up out street as it were, and we basically had a great time with them and laughed our nuts off until it was time to leave the place and head back to our lodgings for the night.
When we got back there I thought my sister and her husband were in bed, so we crept about quietly and decided to hit the sack. Bloody nora, sods law, I’d just got off to sleep when the front door went, it was my sister and hubby that had just arrived home and I‘d locked them out, I thought they were a kip! I finally managed to get to bed at 1am.
Morning came, and we were greeted by glorious bright sunshine, nice one! Apparently Phil didn’t hear the commotion last night and was dead to the world, so he got a good nights kip. We set off in good spirits and were looking forward to the day ahead, but as we got closer to Sussex, the sky darkened and we when we actually got to the venue, we were greeted by torrential rain. Now then, to be honest, it’s a bit shit getting your stuff ready and pushing the bike to scrutineering and signing on, but I love racing in the stuff because it makes even the simplest of tracks became tricky and slippery, so what I lack in bike skills, I make up for in fitness (that’s the plan anyway).
After getting stuck in the mud getting into the place, it took us about 15 mins to finally get the van up to the start area so we could park up. I reckon we tried at least 20 times to get up a small incline in the van before I had the bright idea to let the tyre pressures down on the front. That worked a treat and we finally made it.
On to the start then, and with the rain subsiding, me and Phil who were both on the same allotted time, set off into the woods. We were both entered in the clubman class, 2st & 4st and all sized machines, so I was looking forward to seeing how my little 125 would get on against the bigger bikes in the conditions.
I followed him for the first couple of miles which were all woodland type trails, then overtook him just before the special test where I waited for him. Not wanting to do the test 1st time around (you had choice when you wanted to do your 2 tests) I just said to him, ‘follow me and we’ll do the 1st one next lap’. From this point onwards, I didn’t see him again! More of that later.
The course was excellent, in fact, I’ll say it again, excellent. All woods and a few fire roads to have a blast on so you could open her up a bit. Not one flat field in sight, hooray!, thank god for that.
Due to the rain that had fallen the night before and in the morning, the hills were a bit slippery as was parts of the wooded trails and fitness was going to come into play as the race wore on, without a doubt. One ‘rooty’ hill in particular had about 7 or 8 marshals stood on it to help the riders up to the top, as it was extremely tricky indeed and hard going, but the little ‘gasser’ made it up there every time with lots of throttle and some slipping of the clutch. Boy oh boy, do I love 125’s!
The course had a bit of everything apart from a stinky black bog. There was rooty climbs and downhills, logs to go over, fast trails, fire road tracks, muddy sections and a decent fast special test. Overall i reckon the course was about 9-10 miles in length.
At the end of the 1st lap (they gave us 50 mins to do it) I made 10 mins, so i had a bit of a wait until I was due out on the next one, but Phil was nowhere insight, so I guess something had happened to him, but I couldn’t wait any longer as my time had elapsed and I was back out.
No problems on my 2nd lap and with 45 mins to do it in, I made time again and when I got back i put some fuel in. I did my 1st ‘special test’ this time and it went well.
Lap 3 and with 40 mins to do it in, I did my 2nd special test which went well and still made it back with a bit of time to spare albeit only a couple of mins. Still no sign of Phil!
Onto lap 4 then and this was the one that was going to sort everybody out as we only had 27 mins to complete it in. With the course getting rutted and cut up and the rain starting to fall again we were told that the event would be cut short by a lap because of the conditions. I made it back to the time check 8 mins over.
So on I went then to start my 5th and final lap, and with a relaxed 40 mins to complete it, I didn’t need to push to hard. It was at this point that I actually saw Phil as I went through the time check who explained to me that his throttle cable had snapped soon after I waited for him on the 1st lap, so in fact he’d only been riding for about 10 mins or so.
It was on this lap that I managed to have a few little ‘offs’, I wasn’t tired at all, but simply trying to maintain my pace, but with the course getting more difficult, it caught me out a few times. One little ‘off’ (like a 10 mph job) into a tree is all it takes to break something on your bike and that’s exactly what happened, oh well, looks like another new headlight surround and mudgaurd again for me!!!
Apart from that, I was pleased to finish with quite a bit of energy left, so I would have gone on for another lap no problem, shame the clerk of the course cut the event short! Apparently a lot of riders had pulled out because they found it too hard?
So it was back to the van to meet up with Phil so he could tell me about his hard luck story and we left for the 4 hour drive home.
Whilst getting out of the place the rutted muddy tracks that people had driven over in the rain needed a ’run up’ in order to get through them and make it up the small hill out of the place, we made it no problem but coming down the other side my van ’grounded’ itself at the front, and with a big ‘clunk’ sound where she’d scraped along the deck, we thought it would be best to stop and check things. It was at this point that the oil light came on the dashboard and as I looked down outside the window, all I could see was a puddle of oil!!! Oh b*llocks, my sumps been trashed (see pic). With that we got out and inspected the damage and sure enough, a whole full of engine oil had deposited itself onto the floor and there was no way we were going to make it back home.
Luckily Phil had the full monty RAC cover, so after getting a lift up the road in order to get a phone signal on the mobile, he asked them to send a low loader to put the van on so we could get home. As riders passed by us on their way home, some stopped to ask if they could help and a few of them gave us some food and drink to keep us going until help arrived. It’s pleasing to know that one someone gets in the sh*t, a lot of people that have been at the event are willing to lend a hand even though they just want get home after a hard days riding. A big thanks to everybody who stopped and a lot can be said for the camaraderie of enduro riders.
About 1 ½ hours later the RAC turned up but with a plain transit van! How the hell is that going to tow us home then? Apparently not said the technician, he’d just come to look at it and report the problem. Great, so we’ve told you we want a low loader and told you what’s up and you just send someone out to look at it we told the RAC. Not impressed!
The guy was only there 5 minutes and off he went. So now we had to wait again for a tow truck and now that everyone had left the event and gone home, we were definitely on our own in the middle of nowhere in West Sussex.
Another 1 ½ hours had past before another breakdown truck arrived and still it wasn’t a low loader!!! What’s going on now then? All we were doing was getting towed back to Chichester where we were to pick up a hired car to get us home and the van would be brought back the next day. Fair enough, but we had to pay our own way home and fill the car up with petrol and we couldn’t claim it back. Phil wasn’t happy and he’d every right not to be, he’d payed for the premium service which means the RAC will get you home for nothing and you’re expected to end up paying.
Thankfully and after about another 4 -5 phone calls it all got sorted and the RAC at last saw some sense and would send out a low loader to put the van on so we could get home. I hadn’t eating for 11 hours and so we got the recovery truck to tow us to the local burger king so we could have a right old feast! Another 1 ½ hours past by before we finally got going on a low loader to be taken down to Wincanton for yet another 30 minute wait and then to be transferred to yet another low loader who was going to take us home.
Phil (the lightweight) kipped for most of the way, I dunno, these youngsters, can’t seem to keep the pace up can they? And he had a decent nights sleep the night before! Luckily for me both the drivers were good lads, one being a football fan, and the other one a bit of a biker, so a good bit of conversation went on to pass the time away.
We got dropped off at Phil’s place and then he gave me a lift home and I walked through the door at 4am.
I’m not going to forget that weekend in a hurry then am I?
Finishing position: 9/45 (clubman)
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