Grundig World Cup 1993 @ Newnham Park:
Not only was I there, but I 'raced'. At 2.50 mins in to that video, behind Thomas Frishnekt are three of my mates looking particularly uninterested (not the fellow with mirror glasses).
Meanwhile I was warming up in the start arena. Due to an entry processing error I sort of got entered in the race despite being a few years under the minimum age but decided to have a go cos it seemed like a good idea at the time. Did a few laps of my local farner's field in the weeks leading up to the race so figured I was a primed athlete. The fact I'd never done a bike race wasn't an issue to me.
Anyway, so got dropped at the river crossing which was barely out of the start arena. Then there was the long haul up the hill then I think it was the pipeline (or after the bombholes?). Trundled down the pipeline to great encouragement from the crowd, then conveniently DNF'd so I could watch the rest of the race.
You see Tomac with his Tioga disc drive doing the pipeline at around 5 minutes. Tinker Juarez was on his Klein, Dave Baker, Barry Clark. All the top guys. So many cool bikes.
Wow, brought back some great memories. I hadn't long got my first mtb around then.
Happy days. 🙂
About a week before the 1993 race they had a local race on most of the track. It was my second ever race in juniors and I won despite briefly losing my bike in the second river crossing as the China clay pits had made it milky white and couldn't tell how deep it was. Needless to say it was the highlight of my belief racing career!
I went to the main race too and watched a lot of people crash into one specific tree on the pipeline at warp speed. Broken bones a plenty I seem to remember.
Meanwhile I was warming up in the start arena. Due to an entry processing error I sort of got entered in the race despite being a few years under the minimum age but decided to have a go cos it seemed like a good idea at the time. Did a few laps of my local farner's field in the weeks leading up to the race so figured I was a primed athlete. The fact I'd never done a bike race wasn't an issue to me.
God I hope this is true, what a great story.
Fantastic - I need to watch this later. I was there and may well be in the video somewhere on the pipeline.
Those were the days.