Gorrick Torq In Your Sleep

Not talking about him, we’re talking about the chap who won the ‘normal’ solo race, not the vets race.

Matt did 16 laps in 12:00, Steve did 15 laps in 12:11. Looks like Steve may have had a double lap counted though, he’s got a very slow lap in there.

Still reckon it’s erroneous. I hope that Matt was the actual winner though, otherwise that’s a bit harsh!

Steve is evil fast on a single speed, he won mayhem solo cat ,rigid and ss by 2 laps over the next solo and that was with breaking his bike. He’s also a serious contender for the ss cat in the WEMBO this year. Cant see him pulling a cheat somehow..its not his style

I think it was last years Torq in Your Sleep he was the fastest solo in any cat. He was absolutely flying!

What drugs could produce results like that?

(Just kidding…)

As it is a matter of some conjecture here, we can confirm that an issue has been raised, and we have spoken to riders who were actually at the event and were able to help us with our enquiries – comments by those who weren’t and have merely been surmising what may have happened are not helpful. Our decision will be posted on the TORQ in your Sleep facebook tomorrow.

Noted. Standing down!

There’s certainly something up with my result. Given 1 lap at over 9 hours. Now this would be very slow but the odder thing is I wasn’t actually there. …

Haha! That happened to me once, got a decent result without actually turning up!

There’s an update on the Gorrick Facebook page from the guy who won.

Ladies and gentlemen – the issue with the result is mine – It looks like l’ve made an error during the event on some of my laps, which looking at the timings l can only put down to incorrect pitting and rejoining the course at the wrong point. In light of this, l wish to withdraw my result from the event. I have been made aware of discussions, and its only right that l submit this request – Please accept my apologies, it was never my intention to skew results, l was perhaps the most surprised of everyone when l heard my name read out at the final results.

I will continue to work with the organisers in whatever means possible, the past 24hours has been frustrating for all concerned. I congratulate all riders and the event staff on another superb event, and wish you all the very best for the future.

I was rather hoping that the army had developed some sort of super-soldier and that he’d escaped from a top secret research facility. Using bionics, drugs (or a combination of both) he could out-perform normal mortals. Or maybe the scientists used mind manipulation a bit like Jason Bourne (did anybody notice if he had a roll of microfilm underneath his skin)???? 😯

Fair play for the chaps response, and it must be absolutely gutting for him, after competing for a full 12 hours to then withdraw.

Yeah, fair play to him for putting his hand up

I was in a pair and was struggling to remember if i had done 4 or 6 laps – even with a break every 50 minutes

I’d be completely delirious if I had done the full 12 hour solo and if someone had told me that i had won I’d be both delirious & estatic

All very well handled by Gorrick & the chap

Looking at last year’s results he finished second. Looks like he made the same errors that year too. The rules are pretty straight forward, I can’t imagine how he got it wrong two years in a row.

Pleased it’s resolved, but it’s not exactly a hard concept to leave and reenter at the same point.

Just looked at last year’s results as carbon says . All I can say is hmmmm.

Pleased it’s resolved

Is it really though? There’s last years results and we have yet to hear from Gorrick………….

Numpty question:

How can you leave / re-enter the course at the wrong point? Is this not a fairly fundemental part of the race? I only ask through idle curiosity because I’ve never raced myself and I’m trying to visualise this. I’m guessing that strava records might help if available.

You can’t really do it accidentally IMO… Not on that course. Not 10 times over two different races. Mates with Nibali I reckon 😉

Maybe a seperate ‘Solo’s only’ marquee next year , alongside the camping imediatly after the start / finish area?
Just somewhere to store food , clothes and a water bowser.
Tea urn would be a nice touch , and a hot shower , massage lady and maybe some cheerleaders ?

My missus is going to make a sign up for the next time. A free cup of tea to any solo rider, 🙂

Crikey. Exclusion and a 3 year ban.

Sounds fair enough to me. Having personally put in hundreds of hours of training for 12 hour races I think it is disgraceful that anyone would even consider cheating. Well done to Gorrick for taking it seriously. I hope the Army Cycling Union have a similar response.

How did he cheat?
Genuine question, I retired on 1st lap with broken bike (was hoping to complete 4 laps) so I do not feel robbed of a podium

I’ve seen cheating at 12 and 24 hour events myself but given they’ve been by riders who clearly aren’t podium troublers I’ve never felt compelled to act other than tutting and shouting ‘seen you!’ at them. If they finish 38th instead of 44th – so what, they’ve only cheated themselves in the end.

To cheat in such a way to become a contender – ffs, even at the top end we’re all doing this for fun aren’t we? And to do it in such an amateur way really beggars belief.

Very poor, quite saddened by it actually.

From his quoted comment above he was leaving and joining the course in different places. So maybe leaving the course at the team transition area after the finish line, and then rejoining 40mins later at his pit area before the finish line?

Agreed. He obviously did it last year, got away with it, so did it again. Hugely poor form. Well done to Gorrick for their actions, a real shame he felt the need to do it.

But if you were doing that to sit out part of the race to stay fresh, surely you’d make the effort to make the laps you didn’t do about the same length (time) as the ones you did? The timing discrepancies make it look more like riding the full 12 hours but cutting the course every other lap or so? Hence full laps were not competitive, short laps were obviously spotted.

What a great event! The course was excellent, 90% singletrack?, despite the lack of climbing. Really a single speed friendly course. Only th(ng I felt was not very technical.
Everyone was very friendly when overtaking or being overtaken. I had zero problems on this matter. No rain fortunately.
As I didn’t know my position after 7pm or so, I was pushing like an animal towards the end to catch a guy on ss from Banjo cycles who had similar pace. I finished destroyed.
My fitness was excellent but the lack of ss riding lately made it even more phisycally demanding.

Yak, I think you were next to me, right? I was aso next to Banjo cycles. Nice to meet you!

Steve Day is unbeatable on ss at the moment. Very well done. I’ll keep coming to gorrick races.

This event could become much bigger.

And well done Gorrick for banning the cheater for 5 years.

Looking at last year TORQ results I can see more than one person doing very quick laps towards the end. Odd

Well, the warning is there for all to see for the future.

Anyway, as Sarpullido, we should focus on the excellence of the event and thanks the organisers for doing such a stunning job, and the majority of riders for the general good manners and excellent racing. As above, halfway through I questioned why I was doing this, but now I do want to do it again next year, in pairs or solo. 8)

Yes, good to meet you too sarpullido! Well done on a great ride. See you at the brass monkeys – I’ll be riding those.

Where is the ban decision posted ? Couldn’t see it on Gorrick twitter/FB/www.

torq 12:12 FB page.

Got it, thanks.

Lets hope some other race organisers (Southern XC series etc) ban him as well.

We’ve only got his word that the discrepancies occurred at the pits, he may well have just been taking handy shortcuts at other places on the course (Kryton57 has pointed out where you could save 10 mins per lap).

It’s a pity as it was a great event 😀

If he’s serving this is likely to go further. I would imagine at the very least he will charged and in front of his CO for issues of integrity and bringing the army into disrepute. Various sanctions such as fine of up to one months pay, demotion and regimental jail are available.

The army have just marked out an XC course at Minley, similar to this years 12:12 but with a few changes. Presumably for a race tomorrow afternoon, but it might be of interest to some of the locals looking for an interesting evening ride.