It’s a bit like proper cyclo-cross, only there’s no mud.
This Summer Series Cyclo-cross is all very informal and MTBs are VERY welcome. Round 7 of the Summer Series takes place at Odd Down in Bath – on the evening of Wednesday 26th June. My old friend Andy Stewart has organised the race and has been working on a cracking new course. It uses bits of the brand-new tarmac cycling circuit and the best bits of the old ‘Tumps’ course including the start ramp and first set of jumps and berm on the newly refurbished BMX track. But don’t worry, ownership of BMX skillz are not a pre-requisite – you can roll everything.
**All Events Are ‘Go-Cross’ – No Need For Racing Licence**
All details here: http://www.ukcyclocross.com/forum/topics/western-league-summer-cx-2013
This is one of the best MTB events around – and it’s by far the most local. And it will soon be upon us! Please sort out if you’re doing it solo, or as a pair, or whatever . It’d be great to have another big showing from the BCC.
For all those ‘weather’ watchers, entry IS available on the day.
The Law of Diminishing Returns. It’s a theory. It states that the more you have of something, the less you enjoy it. If you have one Mars Bar, you enjoy it. If you have 20 Mars Bars, you don’t enjoy the twentieth.
Which is why it’s so important to ride bikes when conditions are so good.
Tuesday 7th May came at the end of an unseasonably dry spell. A good three weeks or so had passed with very little in the way of precipitation so Longleat’s trails were at their absolute finest – dry and dusty. You HAVE to ride when trails are like that – we get so few good days round here that it’s just plain wrong not to ride bikes round the forest. Which is why I was a little surprised to find only nine riders gather in the church carpark on such a glorious evening. Only a couple of years ago we had upwards of 30 in attendance on similar evenings.
The night’s group consisted of some of the regular old-guard, a few relatively-new faces and a couple of guests. You can usually count on a few riders dropping out on a ride, but Paul “Satnav” Gunstone surprised us all by not even making it out of the carpark. It emerged he’d rather find his missing Garmin than ride, so, assuming he had absent-mindedly left it on the roof of his car before he set off, he drove back home retracing his steps and keeping an eagle eye out. Turns out later it was in the boot of his car all along. This man is in charge of millions of YOUR pounds, people.
So we were down to eight.
Before the ride I’d dusted off my ageing 5inch-full-susser. It doesn’t come out to play very often (in fact its previous outing was a weekend away to the Lake District in October last year…) and consequently I had to re-calibrate my skillz on the ride out from Frome. For a while I thought I’d made a mistake: the lolloping, flexing, bouncing thing beneath me felt very alien. But by the time were in Shepherd’s Wood and enjoying the singletrack, I was (apparently) getting my shred on.
At Rushpool Farm we paused briefly while Geraint returned from a little (but sadly fruitless) Trail Foraging Expedition in Dertford Wood. At this point Chris “Cave Man” Snell decided the arm injury he’d picked up at the weekend was too troubling and opted to return to the cars.
So we were down to seven.
The double-track descent down to the road from there – Breach Lane – is a fast and stoney one and hugely enjoyable on a bouncy bike. Watery-eyed, our seven-of-nine arrived grinning at the bottom. Even our special guest for the night – Tim Flooks – managed a “Yee-haa!” on the way down, and an “Again! Again! Again!” at its end. Greg, aboard his carbon hard-tail singlespeed, negotiated the concrete 3foot drop-off with style and aplomb. By the time we’d ridden the road to the bottom of the Allotment, Tim decided he’d tested his forks enough for the evening and elected to turn for home.
So we were down to six.
A convoluted but again dry and dusty route led us from there to the beginning of Oodles. At this point Steve discovered he was missing a cleat-bolt and his cleat was coming loose. Bizarrely, Robin had a spare about his person. Who carries spare cleat-bolts??! Anyway. Steve’s night was saved and we carried on, after taking the opportunity to take-on some Haribo. Clearly high on sugar, it was decided we should make motorbike noises while riding the next section (Oodles). So we did. Greg had brought no lights so by the time we’d finished Doodles he was eyeing the gloaming with unease, and wisely elected to return to the cars before it got too dark.
So we were down to five.
Some superb trails in excellent condition greeted us at Cannimore and we made full use of as many as we could for as long as we could. Etch-A-Sketch was bone-dry and it’s shoulder-dropping, track-standing twistiness proved hugely enjoyable. Even Steve, who had required some cajoling and peer-pressure to participate in this section, emerged happy at the other end.
Geraint punctured en-route to the top of the Allotment, and, in the shadow of a fibreglass gorilla, we soon had a replacement tube fitted and we were on our way again. As ever, the Allotment in the dark is a fabulous place to be on a mountainbike, and the five of us whooped our way down the recently-swept MCC, climbed through East17, and drifted through The Meadow’s covering of dry leaves before arriving back at the road. We retraced our steps past Rushpool Farm and crossed the ford back to the (other) road. Here we split. Robin and I headed for Frome via Friggle Street and Wallbridge.
So they were down to three.
As Robin and I left, Steve required some more cajoling to go to the pub, so it’s quite possible only two riders made it back for a beer. Well done to Geraint and Richard if you managed to fly the BCC flag back at the Horse & Groom.
About 23.5 miles for me, and probably Geraint. A bit less for Robin. About 17 miles for Richard and Steve, less for Greg, less for Tim and and less for Chris. And ‘nought’ for Paul.
That was a great ride in great conditions. I hope the other seven enjoyed it as much as I did.
But only two or three riders in the carpark after nine set out? That’s quite a diminished return.
After the success of the Frome pumptrack, we have decided we want some pumptrack action in Warminster, The Local Council have agreed in principle to having a pumptrack in the town and now we are starting a consultation exercise to prove that the local community wants one, this forum should be a good place to start getting support, I have started by doing a poll on here,http://www.facebook.com/WarminsterWobble, please answer and share!
Also, we are having a fundraising quiz night for the Warminster Wobble at the Organ Inn on Sunday April 21st. We have blagged a load of cool prizes and will have a cycling themed round, It would be cool if we could have a BCC team in attendance, remember any money left after the Wobble will go to a local charity!
Cheers
Make sure you Vote via facebook to let the council show there is great support from in and around the local area!
At the first Three Minute Laps we found that people were prepared to ride almost any bike round the three minute singletrack course.
At the second Three Minute Laps (on a 50% different course) we found that everyone is motivated by different things.
Greg was motivated by wearing a wife beater, Gunny by grimacing at the start line, Ben (Gunny Junior) a relentless pursuit of a faster time.
Charlie focused for his runs by finding suitable music to sabotage other people’s runs, while others found their Zen state while listening to S Club 7 (although others threatened to leave).
Most found their energy returned when their main rival beat them, or found their hope of eeking out a personal best was ruined by sliding out on the final corner, and scrambling across the line on foot.
In contrast this was Fin, whose calm and efficiency in setting the days third fastest time was surely down to early morning yoga and meditation.
But in an incredible insight to the mind of a “top athlete”, our winner – Jack, pipping Curtis by less than a second – was never more animated or passionate than when describing an Australian bird with a name cooler than a Kookaburra.
TML was advertised as being suitable for any bike, but we didn’t expect everyone to take it so seriously, seeing everything from fully rigid 29ers to full downhill bikes (Jamie!).
The largely singletrack course was designed with technical options and with the hope that tactics and line choice would help determine the winner – we didn’t expect Pete to start the discussions at 11am and for Esther to find an alternative route (down the hill!) on her first timed lap.
When Nathan came up with the name “Three Minute Laps” we didn’t expect the time period to be so accurate, with Curtis’ winning time of 2 minutes and 35 seconds (due to spinning classes, according to Bob) bringing him home ahead of Jack by a second, with Nathan a further 14 seconds back in third.
Our fingers were crossed for ten participants, but 20 turned up, each of whom became involved in battles against riders of a similar pace, with a highlight being Tom beating Greg (to the crown of fastest TF Tuned employee), due to the commitment and sportsmanship shown, not to mention the use of Tom’s “Heckler Can” (essentially a can of rocks, used as a rattle).
After the individual event was the team relay event, where the secret was ensuring you got round without crashes or big errors, and that the changeovers were good – the best shown by Louie, who seemed to pull away from the changeover area like he was on concrete, not the mud pit the rest of us wheel spun our way out of.
A team of Sharon, Greg, Nathan, Marjory, Al and (late arrival) Ben L took the win by 45 seconds.
Thanks to everybody who chipped in to share the load of making it a great event; with people helping set up, put away, time the riders, work out the teams, solve anagrams, cheer the riders, jeer the riders and abuse the riders (with some of the most middle class “banter” I have ever witnessed from Al).
The next is provisionally scheduled for the start of January, so keep an eye out for the date, as well as the dig days to improve the course.
This Saturday (the 10th November) is the first Three Minute Laps, a fun event where we hope club members from all mountain bike disciplines will take part, by riding and competing on the wet weather friendly 80% singletrack course).
The event will start with everybody setting an individual lap time. The lap times will help determine the teams for the team event, where there will be head-to-head racing.
12:00: Course will open for practice
13:00: Seeding runs
14:00: (Approx): Team event (Team size depends on numbers)
16:00: Clear up, go home
(During this time the upper sections of Spoons and BBMS will be closed)
