Well that was another fantastic winter race – warm, dry-ish, missed out the really bad bits. Loads of course prep too. The lap really flowed together nicely. Had a really fun race with 2 others at the front, was insanely close an came down to several final lap attacks to get the win.

GB

Looked a lovely day for it….I spent most of the ‘family’ day thinking how nice the day was for it.

Gorricks have really lucked out this year, majority of races have been dry on the day despite the terrible weather

Gutted to have missed it. Plan to be at Jans

another great race, it felt like there was less course traffic than round 1. fun course, not sure how Al keeps getting podiums! he got a puncture and still got a second in the 4hour, happy with 6th

http://chris-noble-mtb.blogspot.com

Aye, great fun. Nice day, good course. What’s not to like?!

Was only pit-bitching for once (although rode the course yesterday), looked like it held up ok but destroyed everyone’s legs!

Well done the race team and all who took part 🙂

Hark you lot and your podium and top 10 places, I got 52/88 in Vets. In my defence I was SS and know nothing about racing. I missed the lap 3 cut off by 3 mins which was a shame.

Basically the key skill is to go balls-out at the start to avoid getting jammed up once in the trees, isn’t it? (Wish I could do that!)

Hmm… The key skills is to go balls out for pretty much the entire race. At least, it is round there where the course is so flat as there aren’t any long climbs to launch an attack on, which means as soon as one of us went off the other 2 of us would follow suit and attack back. I don’t really remember much of the last couple of miles as I was properly in the pain cave and doing an awful lot of shouting.

I find flat courses a lot tougher than hilly ones for this reason. If you manage to ride fast but only at the start you’ll just hold up everyone else in the trees. Just do more racing and you’ll get the hang of it.

Yeah the riding over there is tough I find, never off the pedals for more than a moment.

Your duel sounds fun.

I really enjoyed that (even though Chris just beat me 😛 ).
Thought the course was fantastic and amazingly dry. The very few muddy bits served as a good reminder as what a great job they’d done with the rest of it.

The lack of any long climbs did make it fairly relentless, my legs were really suffering on my last lap.

If you manage to ride fast but only at the start you’ll just hold up everyone else in the trees.

And therefore a very good tactic for those of us not quick enough to go balls out the whole way round!

As above – great day out. Very glad to escape before the rain hit. Great course though pretty relentless. Leading pack in the 2h race came past at a very scary pace – chapeau for keeping that up for 2 hours.

Was pleased to finish 11th in 4h vets, but rather gutted to find out 10th was only 15s ahead – should have been a little keener to overtake on the last lap!

Feeling it now though, must sort out some gears and suspension before january.

must sort out some gears and suspension before january.

You’ll probably hate it – was it you on the SS rigid Swift?

So was I, I saw at least another (a THT), and a third which was SS but had cracked and put on sus forks.

I don’t think I’d have been any quicker on gears yesterday but I did loose a few places on that downhill road section on the first lap.

You’ll probably hate it – was it you on the SS rigid Swift?

No, though its blue and 29er so its often mistaken for a swift. The very swift (ahem) singular was on the way to 2nd place I think. Mine was the one rocking silly Jones bars.

Doubt gears would be much faster, but my knee and achilles might be less sore than they were on this morning’s commute!

Only managed one lap as had a daft slip on a root about half way around that completely destroyed my rear brake 🙁

Finished the lap but wasn’t particularly enjoying the experience with only a front brake so left it there – shame, as I was going well up until that point. So if you saw a girl on a sparkly blue 5 swearing profusely about roots and Formula brakes it was me 🙄

Basically the key skill is to go balls-out at the start to avoid getting jammed up once in the trees, isn’t it?

Yep, and once you realise that it makes for a far better ‘race’. The route is usually less busy and because you don’t loose a load of time, less likely to be lapped (mid-pack Vets for me).

It’s even worth a practice from the start to through the first ‘block’ section – I realise that the fast boys pretty much all do a practise lap… :roll:, but don’t want to wear myself out.

Finished the lap but wasn’t particularly enjoying the experience with only a front brake so left it there –

You need to practice more with just the front, as this is the one that actually slows you down.

I don’t really remember much of the last couple of miles as I was properly in the pain cave and doing an awful lot of shouting.

Come on – everybody knows that elites feel no pain, you guys are just machines 😉

Turns out getting smashed the night before isn’t good prep for an MTB race. Managed one and half laps before pulling out with an amazing hangover.

Course was brilliant though, and the weather was perfect too. I’ll definitely be going back, although will have an early night sans booze next time

Finished the lap but wasn’t particularly enjoying the experience with only a front brake so left it there –

You need to practice more with just the front, as this is the one that actually slows you down.

I’m well aware of what my individual brakes do thanks 😉 I just don’t enjoy riding my bike when something is knackered, especially racing, so better to quit whilst i’m ahead (rather than in a snotty heap!) 🙂

so better to quit whilst i’m ahead (rather than in a snotty heap!)

All my races end in snotty heaps. Even 2/3 of the way back, if you don’t end in a snotty heap you haven’t tried hard enough 🙂

missnotax
As someone who trains and races with a very fast and proficient female rider, I’d like to point out that not all men presume you are rendered incapable by your gender. Must drive you nuts sometimes?

Someone did give me a very sarcastic “thank you” when I passed (safely), I asked what the problem was and got told “you made my gears muddy”.

I’d like to point out that not all men presume you are rendered incapable by your gender.

Absolutely. For a time on L1 I was switching places, pretty evenly matched (I thought), with a female rider dressed in orange. I was quite chuffed as she looked professional and even complemented me on getting up a climb on my SS. Then she started trying and I was comprehensively dropped.