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It's great your 2 boys were racing - we need more like them!
GB
I think the comment from one of the riders "That's a classic bike" made Son2's afternoon (on his Marin Mount Vision). That and not doing the Chicken run on either lap (unlike his father).
They both enjoyed it and will be racing in the Gorrick series later this year. (And I didn't see any age limits for the fun race, but was later told it was 14 😳 )
Thanks for the event and the photos. His mother will be delighted.
@teamhurtmore pretty much all of it!
I suppose the Bomb Hole would be black and a couple of drops that I did not put in this year, Fire road Blue and Singletrack Red is what I would go for, saying that some of the Black at Dalby, Hamsterley and the like is more Red!
7th July next year and I will add a couple of newer bits and drops for Black, LoL
Put all 3 bombholes in a row... That would be a laugh. Down, hard left, down, hard left, down...
Also the concrete hill!
GB
every year he promises a singlespeeders only diversion up concrete hill and fails to deliver on it.
But it's quicker to run up concrete hill with the bike than ride it in granny gear anyway....
N.B.- I'm not convinced I could actually run up it! 😉
Right then CONCRETE HILL it is then for them FARMERS next year! 😈
After all the nice weather since sunday, i thought i'd go back to te course for a blast around in the dry - but then the heavens opened and it was mentally slippy - great fun!!
I know the Concrete hill, but which is Farmers?
FARMERS AND TRACTORS= SINGLESPEEDERS= ANDY WILL NEVER RIDE ONE, AS JAY HAS!!!!
I think it's a Troll's exclusive saying - that's to say I haven't heard it elsewhere - but Farmers are singlespeeders, presumably due to a love of agricultural machinery rather than modern technology.
Really - OK - it all makes sense now. Stupid me 😳
A link to some photos from the event last weekend,
Just went for a quick explore of Tunnel Hill and Porrdige Pot. Two and bit hours on a Sat morning and only saw tow other bikes. Wow, Found fun ST all around TH, but came across two walkers with beautiful Newfoundlands who less than impressed with a couple of riders flying around blind bends towards them - so apologised on the riders behalf. Seems pretty stupid as obvious area where you are going to come across walkers?!?
Found Porrdige Pot despite wrong turn alongside railway! Stumbled on what looked like bits of the race course, so left those to recover and went exploring. Found "your" way down Pants (!!!) and did that twice, once from the sign and a second time linking into the nice little trail from the water tower. Tricky to get the right gear for that as I tend to ride in a big gear to stop chain slip! Nice trails although had only wipeout of the day on easy rh bend nar th bottom of PWD when dabbed the break into thc corner and front wheel skid into the rhoddies! No mistake second time! Lots of nice stuff in both areas to explore and extraordinarily quiet.
Seems like the whole area is rel good in the wet especially compared to the honeypots in the Surrey Hills. So no excuses for next years race. Can see why the Trolls and the army like that area.
Seems pretty stupid as obvious area where you are going to come across walkers?!?
There's always a chance of coming across walkers anywhere, no excuse for irresponsible riding, but it happens, just need to apologise and move on!
PWD was in the race, so you did ride parts of it.
It is great fun up there, I'd not call any of it black though, Dalby has far more scary sections than up there! Red in places at the very most!
Yes, njee I agree but these guys obviously didn't apologise!
Given that PWD was on the race, the damage was very slight! I came across more obvious signs of the race much lower down and then at the top. Followed it a bit, the wrong way round, but then felt conscious of the trails needing a rest.
I would agree with it not being black but suggest that this is good for a race with lots of standards in it. The bends on PWD for example are all on a gentle gradient allowing for a wide standard. But must have got quite busy on those narrow bits!! Having said that there were enough slippy roots and muddy holes to catch the unwary and challenge you if your were really flying (or hitting the brakes at the wrong moment like me!).
There must have been a couple of brutal climbs, I am guessing up to the water tower from the barracks side but didn't see any evidence of it today!
Judging by today, I need to work on hitting the narrow rooty bits faster and leaving the brakes alone before trying next years race 😉
Where is concrete hill? Also is there a route map? I know it's taboo for gpx files, but I was unable to race that day despite entering and would like to give the circuit a go?
If you have a look on Strava you will be able to find a plot of the course.
Concrete hill is near the watertower at the SE corner of Porridge Pot. Not the most fun hill to go up and no reason to ride down it either.
Only two proper climbs on the course. One went up 'Watership Down' and brings you out near the sports ground, the other was shortly after this and was a long fire road drag 'Heckler's Hill' up to where Gorrick normally have the race start. Several other shorter climbs too.
Up the Fence Line too, which was utterly brutal!
I didn't race but did a lap Thursday evening. For only 2 hills, I seemed to spend a heck of a lot of time going upwards!!
It seemed hillier than I expected I must say!
Well I suppose there were lots of short climbs, but I didn't really think of them as hills. The fence line was fairly hard going, I resigned myself to push up the first climb on that section every lap, the second one wasn't too bad.
Did make it on each of my meagre 3 laps, but any longer and I'd not have been liking the single ring!
I was very glad I had a 28t inner ring. That was getting a lot of use towards the end of the race - I don't think I have ever used it that much before!