100 is a pretty big number
it’s 14 more than 86, and that’s pretty big too
as numbers go, 100 is like 67 giving it 150% or French for “the whole lot”.
Back in April we said ” wouldn’t it’d be great if we could get to 100 members by year 2″. We didn’t really know how, but we thought we’d try.
Well we currently have 97 members, I wonder who’ll be BCC0100?
If you cast your mind back to the start of the summer you may remember seeing a website post about Fantasy Downhill Racing. Now I haven’t been very good at keeping everyone updated on this but now that it is the end of the season (it finished ages ago!) I thought I should add up the scores and dish out the prizes.
Here are some words from Marjory to give you an idea of the years ups and downs from the point of view of a fantasy racer!
A year ago, the world of downhill was just a shadowy extremist activity out in the fringe of my consciousness. But when I heard about the Fantasy Downhill as a fund raiser back in March or April, I decided to enter a Scottish team and set about some research to find some riders. I started a thread on an mtb website: “Who can help me fulfil my fantasy?” Unfortunately, this seemed to have raised different expectations. However, thanks to the more sensible replies, I now had Cunningham, Cathro, Barnes and Lamb, and a LOT of money left over in my budget. So I went for an attractive French man to make up my team. Although national pride has its place it’s nice to have some winners, so after Pietermaritzburg I entered a second team featuring Justin Leov and Tracy Mosely.
I found Freecaster TV. I also discovered Rob Warner. I usually had to make do with re-plays but even so, watching your own riders brings added suspense and frustration and also, just occasionally, jubilation. As for Warner’s commentary – well, at first I thought he was just annoying and shouty. But after a while, grudgingly, I have to admit that the man began to grow on me. Who else could come up with classics such as “he’s gone down harder than the US economy”, “Steve Peat, he’s done for downhill what Osama Bin Laden did for terrorism”, “Fabien Barrell is so calculating he makes Socrates look like he has learning difficulties”, “he’s sweating like an MP with a second home”, “he should down a pint of concrete and harden the f**k up!” “he’s gone down harder than a s**t in a swimming pool”, “so many semi’s he’s sponsored by Viagra”.
So what did I get from the whole Fantasy DH experience? I watched world-class cyclists hurtle down the worlds’ toughest, most dangerous and exciting courses. Faces and names became a little more familiar. I became hooked on catching the next episode of The Atherton Project online, which was a great way to glimpse what life is like behind the scenes for some of the most famous names on the downhill world-cup circuit. There was a great variety in the courses from the dry and dusty opening South African tracks and World Championships in Canberra, to the more typical European courses such as rainy La Bresse and Maribor. Mud, rocks, roots – the skills on display really were awesome. Of course, one of the main highlights were watching our own Steve Peat become the winningest downhill racer ever and who could forget him winning his first World Championship after 17 years of shattered dreams.
The best indication of how much I was enjoying the whole new world of DH was that when my husband and I had an opportunity to spend a weekend away without the kids, I managed to persuade him that, forget Paris or Barcelona, the ideal mini-break destination would be Fort William. Oh, and yes, there happened to be a World Cup downhill event taking place there that weekend. But what an event! Minaar wearing his rhubarb and custard retro-suit. Wandering around the tented workshops waiting to catch a glimpse of team members. Sharing a chair-lift with women’s No.10 Emilie Sieghentaller up to the top of the course. Meandering down the Ben with the full speed and guts of the riders only inches away. Screaming till hoarse at the finish line. Justin Leov sitting on the hot seat for a teasingly long time. Absolutely brilliant!
Next year? I reckon only a fool would doubt Rachel Atherton’s hunger and determination to reclaim her top spot after a year on the sidelines. I reckon the smart money (i.e. Simon’s Fantasy-winning TLV Factory Racing) will be on Brendan Fairclough and Aaron Gwin to scoop up points. But nobody would expect world cup winner Sam Hill to hand over his title without a fight. Can Peaty let it all hang out in 2010 after this year’s massive achievement? I’ll let my team enjoy a well earned break, but then the Spider Patrol will be back next year with a vengeance. Oh yeah, in the words of Rob Warner, it’ll be “LOOOOOK AT THE T-I-M-E!!!”
All that is left is a few words to congratulate the winners and dish out the winnings. The biggest winner was the BCC which raised £24. But in terms of the glory of victory………………………
Here’s the final score board
3rd Place goes to Cuz’s Spangly spanker with team riders Emmeline Ragot, Andrew Neethling, Marc Beaumont, Joseph Smith and Duncan Riffle. The team manager will take home a cheque for £1.60.
2nd Place goes to Fantasy Fantastico with team riders Mickael Pascal, Sick Mick Hannah, Aaron Gwin, Josh Bryceland, Danny (Junior world cup champion) Hart, David Vasquez Lopez, Scarlett Hagen and Wesley Augustyn. Team Manager Andrew Denham will receive a cheque for £4.80
BUT…….
1st place in both the World Cup overall and The World Championships goes to TLV Factory Racing with riders Tracy Moseley, Brendan Fairclough, Aaron Gwin, Steve Smith, Sam Dale, Danny Hart and Gareth Brewin giving Team Manager Simon Truelove full bragging rights for the next 12 months and a total winnings of £9.60 (all of which will be donated back to the club).
Thanks for reading and here’s looking forward to the 2010 race season.
Think you can beat TLV factory racing? – Get your money ready for the 2010 Fantasy Downhill Race season.
So far we have filled 18 seats. That leaves only 14 seats left. So it’s not too late if you want to come along and join in the fun. Just e mail me your food choices and get a cheque to me asap or give me cash at the Tuesday night ride or at the dig day on Sunday (exact money only, I might not have any change). If you need more details check here https://www.blackcanoncollective.co.uk/2009/11/17/christmas-social-tuesday-15th-december-2009/
There are only a few trail builders in the world who don’t use play-doh to model the 3D doodles that fly around in their heads, and we all know that they use marzipan.
In light of the fact that we’d all just eat the marzipan, we stuck with the multi coloured joy doh and started 3D printing straight from our noodles.
That’s right, play-doh makes you giddy.
Having got some ideas down, we’ll be focusing on designing lines 1 and 3; something that Chris Smith can tell you all about….
The above (grainy) photo shows the first bench cutting on the new singletrack that was constructed last Sunday (along with a LOT of raking) by Me, Chris, Dave and Marjory (as well as Curtis as it began to get dark!).
Last night we had a short meeting in the horse and groom
The Night Riders were there on mass, steaming, dripping, chatting and drinking
We talked about Ride Leader Training; all the ins and outs
Neil ate some cheese cake
Mark told of his love of blood
Marjory pitched her new hybrid sport of pump-track-curling
and I tried to make Insurance sound…well…less uninteresting.
We’ve got some preliminary dates and are hoping that by the end of Feb next year we’ll have at least 6 fully qualified Ride Leaders and outdoor activity qualified first aiders!
That said we may be able to train some more, so if you’d like to be trained (either First Aid or Leader), but aren’t part of the BCC please get in contact anyway; if we get 12 people together, for both, the costs are significantly less for all.
andrew.denham@blackcanoncollective.co.uk
Cheers!
This months TickerTape was a right messy affair!
Almost everybody was wet through before the riding even started thanks to an hour of raking and taping the course. None the less everybody got stuck in and had a cracking time; fighting mini battles with each other and the elements. The timing board had a malfunction (it got wet) pretty much straight away, so we had to resort to new type of result recording that relied on both honesty and the ability to remember stuff (memory). Many would have taken advantage of this relaxed arrangement, but remembering that times count for nothing if you haven’t got beans most just concentrated on giving it some.
As already announced ; Will Hardy, Ben Batt and Simon Truelove won the Transition Bikes prizes for giving it the most and so are the proud new owners of these lovely goodies!
*Neil got the fastest time of the day , so expect to see a rush on sepia lenses amongst the TickerTape regulars!
Chairman ARC Denham:
“Can you announce the Tickertape Got Beans winners are Will Hardy for his incredible commitment to carrying on despite 18 crashes. Ben Batt for committing to every corner as if his life depended on the amount of roost he created. And Simon Truelove for riding fast despite a lack of chain, then beating rival Jim on Jim’s bike after some balls out runs. Stems to Will and Ben, T to Simon.”
I have heard it said that the reason downhill is such a great sport is because it’s social and friendly – you’re only racing against the clock. This cannot be said of today’s Tickertape:
Firstly we were all battling against the rain, sloppy mud, and mechanicals. Bird was against Jim, Neil against Denham, Denham against a tree, Dave against himself, our shoes against traction, Sam (Wells) refusing to compete against anyone.
Sam and James were competing – to be muddier or crash better than the other while Will & Ben Batt were against full runs, preferring not to not finish each run rather than go any less than 168%.
Highlights of the day included very vocal support (or abuse), shouts of “PEDAL” to those with no chain, Ben’s MC Hammer trousers, everybody going on everyone else’s bikes, Will “sending” the biggest of the Spork drops and finally the Cobble Wobble King surprising himself by enjoying the wet – and snatching the fastest time of the day right at the death.
Many of you will be aware that the trails at Still Woods have been closed down, this is terrible news for the local riding community but not unsurprising given it’s scale and illegitimate nature.
The good news is that the locals have teamed up to save the trails, working hard towards a lease agreement (or similar) with the land owners.
Now this is pretty much exactly what us Longleat locals went through a couple of years ago, so we’ve offered to help in what ever way we can. We’ve sent over club documents, important contact info, and any and all guidance docs we could lay our hands on, hopefully this will all help them get to where they need to be quickly.
If you want to keep up to date with what’s going on or would like to help please check out their website below:
They’ve worked hard and fast to get themselves organised as quickly as possible, launching their website and producing a great document outlining their intentions (see here: http://www.bristoltrailsgroup.com/downloads/StillProposalfinal.pdf ). It’s clear to see that these guys respect the place and deserve to be taken seriously by the land owner and authorities. As has been proven many times before – when user groups and land managers work together everybody benefits. Lets hope that the land owner realises what a dedicated and passionate group of mountain bikers they are , and gives them the chance they deserve.