Well that was another amazing weekend at Gatcombe with the Pivot Boompods team and friends.
The weather was dry over the weekend but the heavy rain in the preceding week or so had left the course resembling plasticine in places. Mostly it was fine and fast, but some parts were tough going. There were 3 newly cut singletrack sections which were all brilliant, especially the new swoopy trail which joined onto the old red bull timed section. Superb fun. We also got to ride all of the Kenda Koffin descent as per the first year at Gatcombe. The last two years we’ve just done the bottom half so it was great to bomb down all of it again.
We started inauspiciously, following a decent first lap where I came through in the lead our second rider out had just made a break and then snapped his chain. Usually he carries a spare chain link but it had fallen off. Nightmare! He lost 15 minutes until a friendly rider gave him one. We spent the next 5 hours playing catch up and moved into the lead at about 6pm. Overnight we paired up and rode 3 single laps on/off in each pair. We pulled out a lead which was then closed down when our second pair went out between midnight and 4am. With the gap down to 4 minutes at one point, Big Al and I set about building a lead and within 2 laps we were back out to 15 minutes ahead. Some stunning laps from 24hr virgins Rich and Stu and of course stalwart Big Al late on stretched this to 22 minutes and all I had to do was roll round and take the win. Despite the best efforts of some very, very tired backmarkers to force me into a tree and later into the lake I made it and we won. Superb! Princess Anne was on hand to give out the trophies and even the ice cream van was nice.
An amazing event with superb infrastructure – I’ve never seen so many portaloos and showers!
GB
