Pilch gets stabbed and lives and the youngsters clean up again Rich and James.
Grahams account:
I must admit, I had no plans on riding this round. I hate getting to Milton Keynes, I dislike the course when I get there and it always rains. Some things never change.
Short warm up this week - should have done more but at least I got the layers right. A bit of start line advice from Jack resulted in a storming start and fewer hold ups in the woods than usual. No Stu or Nigel this week so I was relying on Tom to keep me motivated. Disappointed to see him standing at the side of the course half way through so with nobody to chase and nobody chasing me, there was little motivation to get a shift on. Caught by James who eventually won the youths and Smiffy on his way to a first FNSS vets win. Well done to both. Jack caught me on the last lap but got away when I dropped my chain on the lumps and bumps at the back of the course.
Cruised round to finish 17th after 16th last week. Not too bad. Once again, loads of Plumz about which is good to see. Need to get a few more in the Senior ranks.
Smiffys Account:“See you next week for the mud at The Bowl”, said Richard Banks who’d arranged the previous week’s race at Avalanche. He wasn’t wrong, but it has been a lot worse; at least this time the course was just about ride-able for the duration of the race.
I’d elected to use Panaracer 1.8 Fire XC’s for this race, as I mentioned elsewhere I was relying on their narrow carcass and reasonably aggressive knob pattern for some mud grip – and so it proved. On my pre-laps (I did two) they gave up amazing grip in the off-camber sections and more than held their own on the grass and tarmac. At the start-line John McAndrew (OTH Ben Heyward) remarked that the top three vets from last week (Ashby, Roach and Sharp) were all missing this week and the race should be mine. He didn’t read his own script though, and he and Jack sprinted off into the lead leaving me trailing in third wondering what was going on.
I needn’t have worried; I pegged them both on the curved tarmac section on the far side of the bowl and set about getting away. This worked, and by the same place on the following lap I could see Jack still coming towards me, zig-zagging in and out of the tree sections. Towards the end of this lap the rain had set in properly again. This I didn’t mind at all, I was hoping it would get worse (am I actually saying this) rather than better so as to make it more difficult for anyone to catch me. It was nearly my own undoing though, as I turned through the gate to head back into the car-park area I lost both front and back tyres in quick succession. The tarmac here was more like wet glass, I saved it but I felt the tyre treads deforming fighting for grip – it was quite a moment. This came not two minutes after a lurid two wheel slide on a wet grass turn just earlier in the lap, careful Smith!
The slides asked for a modified riding style, regardless of soft tyres and suspension the front just would not stick like before so I was obliged to get the bike almost stopped, square off the corner and throw my weight back to get rear-end traction. This worked well, even thought the rear tread was complaining and squirming around. The next time through the gate, a marshal was stationed telling everyone to slow down – “you’re a lap late mate”, I thought. I only hope that anyone who did slide off there didn’t do themselves any damage.
The course really got quite slick on laps 4 and 5. It felt prudent to take a dab in some of the off-camber sections, but I was still holding good speed. I got badly baulked by Ken Bolton (KCC) going into the uphill single-track just before the greasy short drop. He would not move over, no matter how much I screamed ‘race-leader’ at him, then laughed as I eventually passed him, hmmmm!
Hollie raced in the morning and was a little nervous, we had pre rode the course the day before so she knew it was going to be tough, she started well and after the fisrt opening loop came through in 6th place already clearly being pushed to the limits by the extreme nature if the course, at the end of her first lap she was still in 6th place and decided to up her pace a bit and soon moved into 5th place which looked as if it would be her finishing posistion but a mistake and a crash by one of the girls in front elevated Hollie into 4th place at the finish. Hollie was extremely relieved to finish her race this was the most demading course and terrain she had ever rode and as a result of her position she is now ranked #1 youth in the country pretty good for her first year in the top flight.