Gorrick rd 5 – Frith Hill 7th April 2013

Wow – how much difference 2 weeks can make…… from ice packed gloop and freezing conditions to dry fast and….wait for it…. Sunny…. trails. I even had a bit of skin showing on my legs for the first time in months – all 5 inches from the bottom of my ¾ bib tights to my socks! After a somewhat lack lustre ride at the nationals I had put some hours of training in with my shoulder just about standing up to a good mountain bike ride. Still I have lost about 10% of my speed through the singletrack as not quite pushing the envelope as much to give a decent safety margin in preventing falls/crashes. So we rolled into the hard standing car park at Frith Hill for the last round of the spring series with the sun shining down at us and we emerged confused from our cars blinking up at the strange object in the sky. Much of the pre-race discuission wasn’t about tire choice but more what to wear – thin/ thick winter gloves, shorts or not blah blah! Jon P and I did a pre-ride of the course which revealed the trademark twisty-bumpy gorrick format. Some new sections had been cut with the subsequent loamy feel but with a dry course this wasn’t a problem. Not really many hills other than a few sharp climbs but this meant a full on ‘no-rests’ race as consequently not many downhills to play on. It probably suited a full sus with all the bumps. Having missed 2 races due to a) dislocated shoulder and b) the nationals it meant not being in the gridding but I pulled in behind lewis king on the second row. At the horn we were off and I got boxed in and was losing placings into the first turn. A gap opened up and I laid down a sprint getting past Jon P and charging into third place as we entered the singletrack. This was the plan, knowing I would drop back a bit after the first few sections to avoid getting bunched up in the forest trails. Lewis King (Nat Champ) and Steve Calland pulled away to the end of the first lap with a chasing bunch of about 6 riders (Jon P and myself amongst them) coming through with only 20 seconds separating us. By lap 2 Dean Morgan and myself were having a bit of tussle for 6th place – swapping back n forth but a small error in the singletrack cost those vital few seconds which he gapped me and he began to pull away ½ way through the third lap. At this point I was riding on my own and just ground out the last lap at a comfortable pace (relatively!) knowing that Jon P and Co were closing in behind. In the SuperVets Race it was a 7th place for me with Jon P 8th and Stefano Detomaso having a great race and coming in with an excellent 11th in a strong field. In the GrandVets race Rob J was on fighting form and looking to put to right some previous results. As he started the last lap he was leading with Tim Stowe just behind and a small chasing pack further off the pace. In the end Tim clinched the win by just 13 secs. But was a great turn around from the nationals gaining almost 2 min on tim and beating Steve Jones. There was a great turn out from all of the WDMBC /Beyond MTB race team. Agata Tamulewicz had a mechanical and broken chain in the expert female and DNF’s after 2 laps. Other issues occurred as Sean Downey In the Expert male also had a DNF. Clive Evans also had a rough time of it DNf’ing after 1 lap in the grandVet Neil Ellison returning to racing after several weeks of colds/flu’s put in a good performance with a 12th in supermasters. Paolo Ditale was 37th in the vets race. I think team Ellison may have some photos up in the near future. Next weekend is the first round of the southern’s but the rain returns mid week  Good work all and hope to see next weekend! Matt Craner

Welsh Series Round 1 2013 Margam Park

Race report: Margam Park - Welsh Rd 1 Matt Craner (Vet) 3rd Rob Jackson (Grand Vet) 5th Aaaaah the joy of welsh racing.... Or should I say bog running! So Rob and I decided to make the intrepid run up to Margam this weekend. I had returned from Italy and a busy conference having not ridden all week. Looking out on a grim Sunday morning in the dark to heavy rain made staying in the bed and sacking the race very enticing. However, the ever effusive Rob bounced through my door at 6am for the drive to Wales. Much of the chat on the drive up was on tyre selection (short chat as mud was going to be central to the day!!) and general racing malarkey! Pulling into the car park with horizontal rain and 6 degrees C things were looking grim. The joy of a 10 min walk to registration was not a great start. With race plates fixed to the bike we headed off for a warm up lap to bring us back round for race start. 10 min into the lap and Pssssssst....... I had a side wall split in my mud tyre. Plan b was to scoot quickly back to the van, change wheel to my dry semi-slick renegade tyre. Climbing the mud fest was not going to be an option. I managed to get back with 5 min before race start. The start had a fast fire-road section including a lengthy climb. We the switched back and had a grassy steep muddy climb. My rear wheel spun out due to shocking tire option in which renegade is usually such a great tyre but 6 inches of gloopy welsh mud was a bit of a challenge for it. I apologized to all behind as this meant everyone else had to jump off. Looking round this was Rob! Ooops. The next section pretty much involved a running piece through off-camber roots and deep mud, wet roots and rocks ie pretty much everything that makes single track unrideable!!! After this a steep rocky fast straight line decent to keep on you on your toes. Short kicker climb and then more running up a grassy boggy climb. Then you had a ski style descent of sliding your back end round whilst keeping your front end going in the right direction! After this guess what? Yup more running through a forested mud fest of 6inches of porridge .... Meh. The last section was about 600-800 yards of flat switch backing deep water grassy gloop for which I had very little, if any, traction. I had 5 laps of barely rideable cold wet racing and Rob 4 laps. Despite the conditions there were quite a few riders out there with about a 25 strong field in vets and 12 or so in the grand vets. In my race I was in 5th position after lap one with 3rd to 6th placed riders all pretty close. The running sections were frustrating and meant I tended to lose ground which I regained on what was rideable down hill. The flat grassy section was a killer for me and I always seemed to lose time compared to others but I hit the short steep fire road sections hard and gradually wore the nearby competition down. At lap 3 I dropped Nick Butler and moved to 4th. Soon after one of the leading riders had punctured so I moved to third. I couldn't quite catch the Certini second placed guy who had his running shoes on! But third overall was a good result in truly shocking conditions! Rob had a unique start with the marshals not being terribly clear about when to go but they rapidly moved up from the field and was right on my tail up the climb. Rob never happy with messing about running and breaking his rhythm found it hard going but kept digging in. On the first lap Rob got stuck behind a group that crashed on the steep rutted rocky section and lost touch with the leaders. He kept grinding away not losing or gaining ground and came in 5th place. Two welsh races in the early spring in my history. Both hard mud run fests!! Me thinks there is a trend here!!