Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Southern Champs Porridge Pot Hill :)
  • gee
    Free Member

    After 2 very disappointing races in Cornwall and Scotland I did quite a lot of reflection in the lead up to the Southern Champs; I hadn’t had a flat in a race for years and so was probably due one and at least I still managed to finish both events. Plus, we do a sport where problems like this are inevitable and so you just have to accept it, hard as it is. More than this though, I thought about how lucky I am to do a sport where there is such a real and strong sense of camaraderie. At both events I got thrown tubes, gas, tyre levers and the like by fellow riders and in Scotland Ickle Paul even ran (got to love his optimism) and fetched me yet another spare tube from his van. At both of these events, and this weekend’s Southern Champs, John Newport was handing me (and plenty of other riders) up bottles. This is such a thankless task but makes such a massive difference – John raced in the morning and, as usual, didn’t just go home and enjoy a beer in the sunshine but stood in the woods all afternoon seeing nothing much other than pine trees, pine cones and a few midges. The amount of miles John has done in vans, dragging himself around the UK and abroad just to stand in a field and hand up bottles and sage advice is remarkable. Without this type of support it would be impossible to get the results I have done. I could list another dozen or so people who’ve really helped me out over the years… Obviously my wife, Nicky, Paul Hore, Frank Jaworski, Mike Jones, my parents…. All of my best events would have been considerably more tough without them. So, a big thanks a lot to them all and to all the other pit bitches on the mtb circuit. We love you.

    I’ve always thought mountain bikers are a really friendly bunch which is one of the reasons I enjoy racing so much. Nothing is ever too serious…usually. Even after Ade and Isaac had sadly had to pull out due to a crash and a puncture, putting our little group of Jonno Pybus, Jody Crawforth and me in the lead, we still managed to find enough breath in between ripping each others legs off up the climbs for a bit of banter… Laughing at Jody crashing on a very innocuous corner… then laughing at John when he crashed in exactly the same place on the next lap… Always agreeing to take the slightly slower but more fun line over the big pile of logs… Seeing Jody inadvertently tailwhip off a root and smash his rear wheel against a tree in mid air… When I was having a drink on two different climbs and stopped paying attention, rode into a root and a hole and fell off… twice… I could go on.

    The race ended with a sprint between Jody and me up the final hill for the win – we’d managed to drop Jonno on the last lap. This was a loose climb that got steeper and steeper at the top. Jody went early from the bottom and I tried to stay with him, hoping he’d burnt his matches. Unfortunately, it turned out Jody burns those extra-long cooks matches and he just didn’t slow down. By the time we got to the top of the climb the noise from the spectators (yes! Really!) was very loud and again made me think how amazing mtb racing is. Everyone shouting for each other no matter team/club/category. What a great sport we do.

    Isaac had done a fantastic job with the course, the trails were really flowy and so fast. It was a fantastic loop that strung together all the best bits of trail in Porridge Pot, including a very shonky double that I didn’t even consider attempting… It was such a shame that Isaac had to pull out having stormed to a one minute lead after one lap.

    Next weekend is where it starts to get a bit crazy… I’ve entered a double weekend of the Erlestoke 6hr solo then the Dorset Gravel 100 on the Sunday. It seemed like such a good idea at the time.

    richP
    Full Member

    Yeah I thought it was a great course: fast, flowing and fun!

    Maybe could have done with a bigger starting straight. Not being gridded meant a lot of the first lap was a little processional… had fun though and managed to drag myself up to 6th in the masters by the end.

    Also wasn’t sure about the shonky jump, turned into a steep broken up sandy descent pretty quickly.

    There was lots of lovely drifty singletrack though. 🙂

    njee20
    Free Member

    Yep, really enjoyed that, so much fun. Felt sorry for Isaac and that jump – months of bigging it up on Facebook and it was so dry it just got squashed! Berm at the end of drop in surgery was great though!

    Top result GB, could tell something was going on from Jody bellowing at me as you guys caught me!

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
    Latest Singletrack Videos
    notmyrealname
    Free Member

    That was great fun today, probably the best course I’ve raced. The only problem with it was there wasn’t enough of a starting straight to stop the inevitable gridlock at the first section of singletrack. Thankfully I’ve now squeezed into a top 20 place in the series so should be gridded for the next race.

    Perfect weather for it too 😀

    theotherjonv
    Full Member

    My girls had great fun in the kids races. I was relegated to support and bottles, and running from one end of the kids course to the other to shout encouragement. Six laps between them made it one of the hardest days racing ever, I’m not used to running and my calves are knackered now!

    Didn’t see the elite men’s, but the elite ladies charging up that last hill, one that usually has my heart rate bouncing off the limiter just to avoid getting off and pushing; wow!

Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

The topic ‘Southern Champs Porridge Pot Hill :)’ is closed to new replies.