he went into a full on moan about the changes..

They all did, but it didn’t help that, because the weather was so nice, I said that riding round here makes you realise what has happened to Swinley, so sort of inviting them to moan!

One of the guys I was talking to (I have forgotten his name but he was with another friendly chap named Rocky near the canal – blasted memory/meningitus as a kid 🙁 ) was very active with Bob/THT and the Trail Action Group, who campaign to keep cycling on military lands.

All of them nice guys though, and somewhat correct about Swinley. He reckoned the Swinley average accident rate has gone from 2 a week to 5, although I was expecting that to be higher.

yer he did mention the apparent increase in accidents..

didn’t help my mate saying (as a new MTBer) that he loved the stuff at Swinley.. (actually I think it is good fun though dead busy).

Anyhow he seemed nice enough and we said we woudl reattach any tape we saw that had come down.

I really enjoyed the racing and the event. Nice low key feel to it – just sign on, burger van, energy drinks and gel truck – but really high standard of racing.

It was the first time I’ve done any racing in the south east so wasn’t really sure what to expect. The course was fairly flat as expected but a lot more fun and quite technical in places. I found it surprisingly tough – no big descents on which to rest! Must have been 70% singletrack but still managed to have loads of passing places – very well done to the organisers.

Very impressed by the likes of Gee, Ant White and the singular guy, nailing consistently mega quick laps.

I also dropped my chain on the first lap and then went wrong on my 2nd lap, but after that settled down well and did the 7 laps in 7’15” to finish 29th. Happy enough with this mid pack finish.

cheers
Jonny – Loco Racing

the singular guy

Al Fairbarn? Even more impressive on a rigid SS. Bloody good rider.

That race was mental!

I woulda done better if I’d not crashed in the typical You’ve Been Framed over-the-bars stylee.

Not sure 30+mph downhill trails should be millimetres from a fence 😯
(That’s not where I crashed though.)

Still, attempted a wheelie over the finish line

That race was mental!

I woulda done better if I’d not crashed in the typical You’ve Been Framed over-the-bars stylee.

Not sure 30+mph downhill trails should be millimetres from a fence
(That’s not where I crashed though.)

Still, attempted a wheelie over the finish line

You wouldn’t have been riding a Lynskey would you?

The descent was proper scary. My Garmin said 30.6mph at the point my right bar was about 6″ or less from the fence 😯 As I got tired my lines got ragged so I wimped out

You wouldn’t have been riding a Lynskey would you?

No, not me. Would love one though

I think the bigger problem with Fenceline is the uphill bits – there’s not really anywhere for people to go, so it causes loads of bunching. Was interesting when we rode it the other way round in AYTE last year, I thought that was quite good!

ermm fenceline………. pretty good advert for not using 750mm bars! Had to ride with bike slightly leaning over!

re: bunching – yup, I just about rode the first couple of laps but resorted to a short push after that – opportunity to stretch me old back as much as anything