Some photos yesterday of the hour and two hour events:

Enjoy,

Rich

Thats great sparkingchains, thank you very very much..

Blowing out of every orifice…

edit getting the hang of how to link from flicker!

Any chance I can get image 1309 1309(1) off you please and my pal 1289??

Yeah, no worries mate, I can email you the higher res versions.

Rich

That would be great, I owe you a pint…. whoever you are!! 🙂

ps my e-mail is in profile..

excellent Ill have a nose through lunchtime to see if im in any…

love that place for racing, could do it every weekend…

Yeah it looked a good track when I walking around it. Hopefully I'll be on a bike racing it next time (had a bit of a crash last week).

I want to know how a loop can feel like 90% uphill? 🙂

There was as much downhill, just one 'big' up hill too 😉

It didnt feel like it…. however its unusual to be spinning the big ring out on doubletrack though, I guess thats where the altitude went in a hurry, still a lovely course. No complaints here…. 🙂

oh well looks like you missed me…. Ill console myself in thinking I was going just too fast for your camera!!

How do you get to one uphill, did you miss the one right at the start and the one over the back somehow..??!

bigdawg how did you get on? 1 or 2 hour??

2 hours – last person to do 7 laps – i actually thought I had another one to do after that so was taking it easy on lap 7!!! 22nd overall and 6th in vets… Should do quite well in the series overall now – keep checking to see if the results have been updated…

how bout you…

great effort, looks like you was going way better than Codham then…

I did the hour, 4 laps was 11th and 3rd vet, I think I have won the overall though as the 2 vets who beat me hadnt done the other rounds, so well pleased with that, been having a few geat tussles with the bloke who I believe is 2nd overall, but its clear all the competition is in the 2 hour event.

for the first hour and 40ish minutes I was flying it was only on the last two laps I was 'struggling' on the two short hills, well I say struggling I was still overtaking people so obviously not struggling as much as others…

I love this place though, used to ride here every weekend when I lived on Canvey and always did well here in the races back in the 90's.

The track used to be run the other way round which was a much faster course.

Tinsey wasnt you I was chatting to before the race was it – guy in a red top didnt have time to preride the course…??!

Nope bigdawg, not me, though I didnt have time to pre ride either, had issues with a daughter that didnt want to ride all morning so came in a dress and wellies, then decided she did want too, so I had to borrow some trainers for her, luckily dad had bought the bike, shame he didnt realise there was no kit for her….

We had a brilliant family day with my 2 in the uder 12's my nephew got 4th in the 40 mins, and we had 3 generations of Tinsy's there, kids, mums, granny and grandad, (grandad is threatening to ride next year what group for 82 year olds?)

It was all going so well then my lad rolled the 4 cross thing just before we went home so he had a fat lip and some scuffage… 😥

Where do you get the results from? Been checking the mud sweat and gears website, but to no avail.

1st time raced this series. Was a good event, really enjoyed it.

Should be up in the next couple of days, last time it took them a day or two.

gpsbrm if you want to drop me an e-mail I got the results if you want them, think maybe the pre entered riders had them e-mailed…

sparkingchains, was you the dark haired photographer bloke talking to Dave from Herongate Cycles same time as I was before the event? I was the weird looking bloke with a pointy nose.

I spent most of the beginning of the race talking to the guys at Danbury cycles, I did talk to a few others though around the site, but as far as I know nobody called Dave. I do have dark hair though! I raced at Codham Park but my frame got cracked last week so I was taking pics yesterday instead.

Collin at Danbury cycles was also telling me that the organisers are trying to get a winter series which sounds good!

the results are very preliminary (ie not really that accurate as some ofthe 2hr riders are listed under 1hr!!) so id wait for hte website results.

Chains – they didnt happen to mention any possible venues for a winter series did they??

Ah, that would explain the first 3 one hour blokes on 6 laps (I wondered what that was all about, but thought maybe they had just carried on riding!!!), that would make me 1st Vet in the hour 🙂

dont understand why they were stopped at under the 2 hours – I went through at around 1:58 and went out for another lap… One of those guys is going to be a bit peed off if he could have got another lap in (and poss beaten me…!)

bigdawg – Colin at Danbury cycles just mentioned that they were trying to get it sorted out. He's hoping to get Danbury used again. Hope so cos it's only 5 mins from me!

yup it was as they finished under 2 that confused me…

all the tracks were good in there own way, maybe we can start getting the course at Hadleigh organized… 🙂

hadleigh could be used any day of the week to race on and there are umpteen possibilities for good courses – what theyre going to use for the mtb course is going to be a massive embarrasment, at the present time all they are using is the sally army field and castle hill. they were supposed to be running a test race this year as next year they'll have to run a nps series race there s in 2011 they have to hold an international race there. If they dont they pretty much forfeit the right to holds the race there and the olympic bods can go elsewhere… Im not sure the council realised this before they paid for, sorry applied to have, the race there.

Danbury would be good, god forbid they decide to use the muddy one in winter – if that is listed im buying a pair of wellies and running round it itll be quicker… 😀

I was just saying on another forum they used to have a winter series in essex, gloucester park was used, the big park in brentwood was used and they were going to use the motox track at lakeside, but that was cancelled… Could alwway go back to langdon hills, itll be a bit more slippy on the roots but other than that itll be dry…

Or another view is it could be an ace track at Hadleigh, baring in mine the umpteen possibilities you have mentioned, I would'nt mind trying to help out, thats one of the great benefits the MSG series has now given us, ie we now not a few lone MTB'rs, now as a group we have a valid and more powerful point of veiw to put across?

tinsy how local are you – Im in shoebury – normally go riding over the downs early saturday.

Also the other thing about the olympic thing is the course is being designed by a downhill and 4x course designer – this will be his 1st attempt at xc!!!

Leigh, I wouldnt mind a bit more info on who, where, what, and when of the organization bigdawg, drop me an e-mail, I did go to one of the legacy meetings but am out of touch with whats happening now, I wouldnt mind the chance to speak up and at least try to get it good as we both know it could be, and also improve on the legacy thing in an MTB specific sense.

edit do you ride with the group that meet at the cafe in the Broadway at 7-7.30am?

Ill dig out the emails I had and send them over to you (prob tomorow morning now Im beginning to feel very sleepy!)

No Im not part of that group just me and a friend go over there around 7ish (we leave shoebury around 6.15) and normally do a couple of laps – tried to do the hill opposite leigh station last week (up the side ofthe steps) was about 10 metres from the top before old age set in!!)

Nutter…. I looked at them and thought it would be fun to ride down them, not up!, damn near detached a retina doing it, even on the full sus!!

we used to do it at the end of every ride – ''back in the day''! But I was 12 years younger then…

Ah the "Eastern winter series" now that brings back memories of being "frozen" into my pedals at a race at Langdon hills, My first ever race at Weald Park where I massively understimated the pace and racing at Canada heights moto x course in Kent.

Oh yeah and the uncertainty of riding with a flex stem !

That was a hard race. Hope I stay with myh 9th Senior place, I worked hard for that! Mike (racing in the TROG kit.)

go to the MS&Gs news blog and more accurate results are up – Ive gone backwards!! Also a 1000 and so pics – all sideways! Some good pics of me but I dont think they do digital versions..

Canada heights motox course that brings back nasty memories – getting to the top of the climb and starting to slide back down in slimey mud that was one of only three Ive ever just got off my bike and stopped (and I think that was in preriding it!!)