Great course imo, just a pitty it had to rain so much in the early hours of Sunday morning. I live about an hours drive away and when I was woken at about 6 in the morning by thunder I knew it was going to be a wet one.
Managed to try the course out late on Sat afternoon an it was fine with just a few patches of mud near the lakes. The rain made the course very sketchy and I saw a lot of riders emerging from the undergrowth after an sudden uncontroled off. The downhill section was great fun with big berms.
But for every down there is an up and you just know there is going to be a long climb when you descend so far and fast.
I cant remember when last I pushed my bike so much (especialy on the last lap). I guess mud tyres would have helped.
Anyway, it was a very natural looking course and on the Saturday we saw about 5 deer on the course. Did any other STWers go and dow did you get on?

I rode a lap in Expert, felt rubbish and went home, feeling good when I ride, but when I race I keep getting headaches and start feeling really hot/sweating loads/losing concentration. Irritating as my legs felt good.

It’s a shame it was wet, would’ve been a lot of fun in the dry. Trouble with that sort of ground. The first descent was indeed excellent.

Jeez Nick, sorry to hear that. Hope you can shake whatever it is that is causing the ‘symptoms’ you are experiencing. Does sound a bit worrying, have you considered seeing a GP or some professional about it? ( When I feel like that it is usualy a hangover that is to blame 😳 )

Thats got to be worth checking out at the GP if its an ongoing thing.
I also got woke up sunday morning by possibly the loudest rain i ever heard, the course is also a bit far for me to travel to as i’m near soton so decided i didnt want to travel 2hrs and pay entry to find the course waterlogged and push round. I saw the preview vid on youtube and looked great though, would like to be at the next one, if anyones coming from soton area for the next one, i might be up for a car share.

I raced in the Experts. I thought it was an excellent course, a real test.
I was quite surprised at how well it held up despite the rain. It was drying out a lot by the final lap of my race, with only one really gloopy bit (plus that horrible run up from the ponds, but I think that would be wet and unrideable whatever the weather did – by me at least).
I’m looking forward to going back for the final round in September.

Nick – that’s happened to me in the past too. Not pleasant. Are you drinking loads of coffee or redbull beforehand? I find that cafeine can be as much a hindrance as a help sometimes. What do you do before a race that you don’t do when you go riding? Might be worth just setting off really steady at the next one, not getting involved in the mad first lap dash, and just riding yourself into it. If nothing else, it would do your confidence some good to finish (hopefully!) feeling strong. It’s not like there’s so many of us on the track during the final race that you’re going to be held up on the singletrack if you take it steady at first. Just a thought…

dobo, you ride ss don’t you? Do you race with ss as well?

sputnik, yes i ride SS & geared and did race gorrick, southernxc and a few other events SS last year but this year i’ve done all my events geared. edit: (think i did some 1×9 too)
racing SS on the wrong course can be very anoying, for instance blasting away uphill overtaking people then to find the otherside your overtaken by slower people as you spinning out then stuck behind them in singletrack.
But the real reason for riding geared this year is some races its just painfull!
Why you ask?

I had a faint memory of you posting on here doing ss @ a gorrick race, but with the server hack in dec one cant see the pre-december08 posts anymore.

Blimey Nick, that does not sound good. Maybe you pushed a bit hard on Saturday? LOL, actually I don’t think you broke a sweat.

It did dry out well during the day didn’t it. I ride Fun and it was just getting right for the last lap – so much I went and did the descent again! It will be a great course once the new trails have bedded in and there is plenty more space on the estate – and the owner is MTB friendly (for races anyway!)

I’ve put some photos up at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/SouthernXC/SouthernXC2009Round3Pippingford?feat=directlink

Aaw, genuine concern, thanks guys!

It’s happened the last couple of races, so not a huge issue yet. Good thoughts Andy, but I don’t drink coffee or Red Bull, and wasn’t using any source of caffeine. I usually use caffeinated Zym tablets, but just used normal ones yesterday, to be honest it went wrong before I’d started drinking anyway. Drunk plenty beforehand too.

I think it’s partly mental, think I’m a bit disillusioned with racing at the moment! Yesterday’s the first one I’ve not finished in ages, just gonna have a break for a bit I guess, see what happens. I liked the course, but just wasn’t having any fun, and then what’s the point!?

And the video is now ready…

http://www.youtube.com/SouthernXC