I appear to have 2 flat tyres, seems tubeless did its thing during the race. Reminds me, I saw some poor chap whose car had a flat front drinving in before the race. Thought he’s punctured already and not even started yet!

@crosshair, no I just stretched while swearing and it went quickly enough.

Fast guys all very nice when passing, although do wish I hadn’t been passed quite so much 😉

Plenty out today, as above great course, it was a brutal four hours on a singlespeed, but very enjoyable and pleased with my 17th in the vets. It’s always impressive to see the top lads screaming past, leaves you wondering how they do it.

Kevin Sheldrake photos here..

Sorry I didn’t have my GPX on – forgot it.

I ride that trail quite a lot and it’s usually 20-25mph or so looking back at other rides.

GB

Gee- I’d say it was erring on the 25mph plus side lol! Anyway, great ride mate- impressive stuff!
Akira- Ah ok, it was an Irish lad I spoke to who had cramp up one of those steep hills.

On the gel wrappers. Come on guys, you should know better. Don’t litter FFS!

It’s even more ridiculous seeing as the organisers had put rubbish bins at the end of the two best feed-straights so there really was no excuse.

I dropped a full one. Don’t you think the majority of these have fallen out of pockets?

I dropped a full one. Don’t you think the majority of these have fallen out of pockets?

No. Not least because the vast majority of litter is empty packets, and an empty packet doesn’t really weigh enough to bounce out of a pocket! I must say I have once gone to put an empty one in my jersey pocket and dropped it accidentally. Up the short leg for me!

Fairly sure as I was passing someone he took a gel and just threw the wrapper on the ground. I think it’s about feeling pro. I think it makes you look like a fin du cloche.

That said, I dropped my number board on the course, which is even worse than a gel I guess 😳

No excuse for intentional littering.
Whats the non race access at Tunnel Hill like? Want to take a mate around tjat cracking course on friday.

Absolutely no excuse for this. Really makes me annoyed when I see it happen and when I do I always confront the rider, as usually I’m lapping them.

So who’s at the final round?

Course conditions are perfect at the moment and forecast is good…

GB

I’ll be there as pack fodder again 🙂

I’ll be there, 2hr vets. I will be racing* hard at the back

*racing = getting out of the way of all the fast peeps at the front.

I am hoping not to be last, managed to avoid it by one place last time 🙂

Having missed last race due to manflu I’ve signed for rd 3. Low behold 1 hour after registering I’ve put my back out. Still aiming to race though.

We’re Commissairing London League cx on Sunday so won’t be there. Have fun all….

My first day without fever for 4 days, chest awful but I hope to be there.

Phew – nearly forgot to enter, thanks for the reminder! Hopefully I’ll not end up ill and staying in bed for this round. No thawing out the trails please.

That was fantastic! The trails really flower together nicely and after a very sketchy lap 1 on the slippery surface it dried out very quickly. It felt hillier than it probably was, mainly as the climbs were pretty continually up/down/up/down with very little in the way of rest. I really liked the combination of trails and they were almost entirely firm after a lap or two. I decided to just put the hammer down from the start again and see how it went; I was certainly feeling the main couple of climbs by the end. Good to win 3 from 3 this year, not sure I’ve managed that before.

The amount of preparatory work that goes into these events is immense, having blown the entire lap a week or so ago, Pants was out last evening blowing the course again to get rid of the puddles. It really makes a difference on a day like today.

Next event for me is Battle on the Beach in March, so I’ve got a few weeks of hard training before then…

GB

Good job Gee, like you say the course was great – good job by all involved.

Well done Gee- great going. The course was great fun but like you say, the constant gradual climbs took it out of you. I got my best result of the season (Top 45% up from 49% in rd 1)- little things and all that 😉 !
I made the cut-off for lap 6 with about 30 seconds to spare!!

Also- many organisers could learn from Gorrick- the results were online by the time I had washed my bike!!!
A fantastic three courses and a great series.

Can’t see the results?

Timelaps website mate.

Results

Cheers – now the wait for the series.

I found it very hard today – a week in bed and bronchitis but wanted to try and hold my position in the series.

My first (and last I suppose) Brass Monkey of the year. It’s always a bit of a trek to get down to the Gorrick events – about 2.5 hours from Ipswich, so we have to leave at 6 to make the 9:30 start comfortably 😮

It went pretty well though, despite crashing 3 times. The first on a corner right near the start where I tangled with one of the Merida boys and landed in a f*cking great puddle. Managed to get back up near the front though and caught the leading junior just as he pulled out (Ollie Stean). Managed to stay with Kim Little for the most part of three laps, although he kept getting a gap on the climbs (the 29lb lump of steel I was riding is my excuse), which I had to drag back on the flat bits. He got the better of me by the end, especially after my third crash where my bike got stuck underneath a chain link fence, and it took the combined strength of me and the backmarker I’d collided with to get the b*astard thing out!
Still, managed to get a whole lap over the rest of the juniors, and would have finished 3rd in the 2hr male cat had I been a year older.

Echoing Gee on the congratulations to the Gorrick crew – brilliant course that stood up really well to the onslaught of many tyres.

Can’t disagree with the comments on the course – the Gorrick crew really know what they were doing and I thought this one flowed really nicely. Which makes it even more annoying that I only managed 1 lap 🙁

I was really enjoying the course and feeling pretty good … then managed a freak crash in the last singletrack section before the end of the lap and some how managed to snap the front skewer which led to ripping the wheel out and bending my fork. Possibly my most expensive race lap ever 🙁

Hey ho, presumably that means there is some really good luck just around the corner!

Bit of challenging race in more ways than one.

Only just made the start line due to a long queue at the toilets. Once I got going I settled into a good pace and was really enjoying the course. Then 4 miles in my chain broke. Some trailside maintenance and 10 minutes later I was on my way again.

1 mile later and my temporary repair popped again. I briefly contemplated the meaning of life before a sulky walk back to the car.

Having travelled from Milton Keynes for the race I decided it was too far to have come for a 5 mile ride. So a more permanent fix was carried out back at tyhe car and I set off to at least complete a lap. I’m glad I did as the 6.5 miles was well worth the effort despite finishing with a flat rear. Great work by the Brass Monkeys team.

To round it off I then got a flat tyre on the car driving home.

Didn’t make this one as I’ve got the lurgy. Must agree with the praise for gorrick though. I’ve been doing their races for over 20 years now, including brass monkeys, xc races, gorrick 100 and Torq in your sleep. Throughout this time they’ve constantly put on excellent events that can be enjoyed from novice to elite, which is why they continue to get good numbers despite xc racing being so untrendy supposedly. We’re lucky to have them.

Yep course was great, I was sliding all over the place on the first lap but it dried out well. I took it very easy on the turns & descents the whole race though as I saw a lot of crashes. I really like how the organisers adjust the course mid race if certain sections are getting too sketchy – like that rutted descent.

I wasn’t feeling great so didn’t give it any beans from the gate, quite demoralising watching everyone pile past you – but for once I got the pacing right and completed 5 laps with no cramps. Was through the gate comfortably before the cut off, but just didn’t fancy a 6th so called it a day and went home to finish some DIY off for bonus points with the wife.

I’ve done one or two races before but not a whole series – will be interested to see where I came overall when the points are tallied up.

yeah I have to agree I thought it was a great course. And the Gorrick crew made it rideable for the whole event. I found it fairly hard work and started to cramp up around the 3 hr point. Not sure if was due to the continual up and down nature of the course or from trying to keep up with George at the start…

Found myself in the middle of nowhere for most of the second half as I lost sight of Scott and couldn’t see anyone behind, so was hoping to cruise home and finish my 6th lap on the 4hr mark. However halfway through the 6th lap I could see 4th place catching me in the distance so had to pick up the pace to make a small gap. I crossed the line with a minute or so to go and was hopping that my pursuer would come in too late to do another lap… unfortunately he crossed the line about 20 seconds before the 4hrs were up and went for another lap…
So a 7th lap it was to be. Fortunately I seemed to have ridden off the cramp and feeling better, managed to maintain a reasonable pace for the last lap to hold on to the last podium position.

was pleased to make the podium at all 3 rounds this year and secured 2nd overall in the series. Woohoo!